Maeconomy raises €1.5 million to accelerate circular construction

Maeconomy, a startup based in Heerlen that transforms construction materials into verifiable and tradable circular assets, has raised €1.5 million. With this investment, the company aims to accelerate the development of a marketplace for circular materials in the built environment. The funding round is led by LUMO Labs and LIOF.

The European construction and demolition sector is responsible for more than one-third of all waste in the European Union. At the same time, many materials retain significant residual value after demolition or renovation. However, this value is currently hardly visible, tradable, or reliably documented. Maeconomy addresses this challenge with a platform that digitizes building and material data and translates it into concrete commercial insights. In doing so, it lays the foundation for a truly circular construction sector.

“Maeconomy is creating a new model for circular construction materials,” says founder and CEO Vince Meens. “We are building the financial infrastructure needed to enable a market for these materials. Our platform introduces a new principle: materials in buildings can be standardized, verified, and traded, even before they are harvested. With this funding, we can accelerate the scaling of this vision across Europe.”

Measurable reduction

By making materials visible, verifiable, and tradable, Maeconomy enables real estate owners, municipalities, and investors to realize both economic and ecological value. In addition, the platform provides a foundation for measurable CO₂ reduction and supports compliance with emerging EU sustainability frameworks, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the EU Taxonomy.

“Maeconomy addresses the structural inefficiencies in construction and demolition workflows, where valuable materials such as steel, concrete, wood, and copper are often left unused or treated as waste,” says Dagmar van Ravenswaay Claasen, Senior Partner at LUMO Labs. “By building the missing financial layer, the platform makes it possible to standardize, verify, and trade materials even before demolition. With technologies such as AI-driven material analysis, digital material passports, and asset-backed financing, Maeconomy is redefining how we extract value from buildings.”

Ralf Hendriks, Investment Manager at LIOF, adds: “Maeconomy makes the circular value of buildings visible and usable by digitally capturing materials and preparing them for reuse. In doing so, waste is transformed into a valuable resource, with demonstrable CO₂ reduction.”