Zacua Ventures, an early-stage investor focused on next-generation construction technology, has closed its first fund at $56m with backing from a host of corporate limited partners.
Zacua had initially sought $50m for its maiden fund, but overshot that target by more than a tenth. The fund benefits from 19 corporate investors, including construction materials company Cemex (the CVC of which Zacua co-founder Juan Nieto is an alumnus), construction management software provider Procore, and vehicle manufacturer Volvo.
The full list of corporate investors is undisclosed, but they all have ties to the construction sector.
Along with the fund close, Zacua announced it led a $9m seed round for modular data centre manufacturer Flexnode. Since it was founded in 2022, the firm has put together a portfolio of over a dozen companies in the construction sector, targeting a three-pronged strategy – productivity, sustainability and urbanisation – that Juan Nieto described last year on the CVC Unplugged podcast.
Other investments include construction materials marketplace Construex, net-zero concrete producer Concrete4Change, and construction data intelligence platform Mercator.ai.
“A major portion of our efforts will focus on technologies that address decarbonization priorities, but we will also be focused heavily on backing companies that solve pressing issues like supply chain disruption, the affordable housing crisis, and improving the safety and efficiency of the built environment,” said Mauricio Tessi Weiss, co-founder of Zacua Ventures and a fellow Cemex Ventures alumnus.
