Holcim grows their portfolio of digital and decarbonisation technologies by investing in UK-based technology company, Cloud Cycle, to optimise concrete quality and mix control in transit and for delivery.
Holcim has invested in Cloud Cycle, a UK-based technology company transforming ready-mix concrete operations into a real-time, data driven system that can be scaled for quality management across the concrete value chain. Founded in 2019, Cloud Cycle combines in-truck sensors, edge computing and machine learning to continuously optimise concrete quality and mix control in transit and for delivery.
Cloud Cycle enables Holcim to extend quality monitoring from the plant to the delivery site. This end-to-end quality control reduces the amount of returned concrete and helps to further improve Holcim’s mixes with circular and low-carbon concrete solutions including ECOCycle.
The technology has already been deployed on more than 150 Holcim concrete mixer trucks in the United Kingdom, Italy and Switzerland. The investment will accelerate the roll-out of the solution across the company's global fleet and complement Holcim’s AI-powered solutions such as Q-Predict, a real-time cement property prediction tool.
"Every truck that leaves our plants generates data that can optimise our concrete’s quality, our own operations, and our customers’ experience," Ram Muthu, Head of Operational Excellence at Holcim, commented. "With Cloud Cycle we can capture this data at scale and in real time, extending quality monitoring beyond the plant and to the point of delivery. Complementing Holcim’s AI-powered tools such as Q-Predict, this creates multiple quality checkpoints across the value chain, helping us improve deliveries and advance our decarbonisation roadmap."
This investment is a valuable addition to Holcim's growing portfolio of digital and decarbonisation technologies, part of its open innovation ecosystem. Holcim has made 21 investments to date through Holcim MAQER Ventures, its corporate venture capital unit, and is constantly working to scale groundbreaking technologies for the built environment.
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