Ludwigshafen, Germany and Piscataway, New Jersey  – February 1, 2012  – BASF Venture Capital GmbH is investing $5 million in Solidia Technologies, Inc. as part of a $27 million financing round. The current round of financing also included Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, BP Ventures and Bright Capital.

Solidia Technologies enables sustainable production of a new generation of building and construction materials. Concrete and building materials made with this novel technology have excellent physical properties, lower life-cycle cost and  smaller environmental footprint than concrete. The technology uses CO2 as a reactant, consuming and sequestering this greenhouse gas during production.

“The  materials  produced by this process will  have disruptive potential in the building and construction  industry.  They have better mechanical properties than traditional  concrete and show no shrinkage, high  compressive  strength and low permeability,” said Dr. Pulakesh Mukherjee, Principal at BASF Venture Capital. The sustainable production process used by Solidia Technologies enables production of fully cured concrete pieces within just a few hours.

“The global building and construction market offers a significant opportunity for this innovative technology. Our process  has been developed in the  pilot scale to date and  BASF can add a lot of value with its knowledge of chemistry and process engineering. We are optimistic that joining forces will enable us to target and rapidly deploy scalable applications,” said  Thomas Schuler,  Chief Executive Officer  of Solidia Technologies.

Products manufactured with Solidia’s process are stronger and more durable than traditional building materials. As a result, cement manufacturers can produce lowenvironmental impact products with existing equipment for the concrete industry. This new class of materials can then be used both indoor and outdoor for a variety of products, ranging from pavers to structural precast concrete.