BioMason, a five-year-old company that uses microorganisms and chemical processes to make cement bricks for construction has raised $3.4 million in a private debt offering.
BioMason said it raised the money from four investors, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday. It is seeking to raise another $3.5 million, according to the filing.
- VIDEO: Watch a National Science Foundation video about the company and its technology at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BqoM4am8kw
An estimated 1.23 trillion bricks are manufactured every year, resulting in approximately 800 million tons of carbon emissions due to the fossil fuels required in the firing process.
But BioMason, which is based in the Research Triangle Park, believes it can reduce carbon dioxide emissions. It uses bacteria to “grow” a durable cement in ambient temperatures between loose grains of aggregate. That process produces building materials without emitting greenhouse gases and without the depletion of non-renewable resources.
The company won the 2013 Dutch Postcode Lottery Green Challenge, one of the world’s largest and longest-running start-up competitions focused on sustainable businesses
The company was founded by Ginger Krieg Dosier, who is its chief executive officer.
Prior to starting the company, Dosier was an assistant professor of architecture at the American University of Sharjah College of Architecture, Art and Design, in the United Arab Emirates. Prior to that, Dosier was a visiting assistant professor at the North Carolina State University College of Design.
The company claimed a Rule 506 (b) exemption for the filing. Companies relying on the Rule 506 exemption do not have to register their offering of securities with the SEC, but they must file what’s known as a Form D electronically with the SEC after they first sell their securities.
Note: This story is from the North Carolina Business News Wire, a service of UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Media and Journalism
