Betolar's CEO Riku Kytömäki reflects the year 2022

Betolar's first year on the stock market is behind us. Our mission has been to launch business operations and promote product development in order to advance our mission to reduce CO2  emissions in the construction sector. I have only been the CEO of Betolar for the last two months of the year, and I am really impressed with Betolar's employees’ expertise.

Betolar's strategy is to promote the green transition of the construction, process and energy industries in particular through science and technology. Growth is sought by focusing on starting international business operations to generate net sales, building a business ecosystem that utilises data and ensuring access to industrial side streams.

Together with our customers, we are building solutions to some of the biggest challenges the construction industry has ever faced, such as reducing CO2 emissions, upcycling industrial side streams and saving virgin raw materials.

Last year, our goal was to launch pilot projects to test the functionality of our solutions on an industrial scale. The number of pilot customers, which is one measure of growth, increased last year by a total of 25 customers (2021: 12 pilot customers). With our pilot customers, we have carried out more than 200 different production and technical factory tests, the feedback from which we have used in the development of our processes and products.

"Betolar's net sales increased to just under EUR 290,000 from the previous year's EUR 10,000. It is still modest but, for a growth company, it is a clear commercial start."

Last year, we took our first commercial steps in Finland and elsewhere in Europe and Asia. Some of the agreements have led to the production of concrete products that generate net sales. Betolar's net sales increased to just under EUR 290,000 from the previous year's EUR 10,000. It is still modest but, for a growth company, it is a clear commercial start.

The company's operating loss doubled to EUR 11.5 million, which was due to the planned significant investment in product development and building the organization. It is not necessary to update our long-term financial goals, but we make strategic choices to ensure business growth. The key recruitments made last year to the company's management and elsewhere in the organisation strengthen our capabilities in digitalisation, supply chain management, commercial operations and research and development. Our research and development activities have focused on material research as well as on building an artificial intelligence platform. The Finnish Climate Fund has funded the development of the platform in order to promote its climate goals.

As a company, Betolar is still taking shape in many ways. The approximately EUR 35 million raised in the IPO has enabled us to further develop solutions for new product groups and to launch our sales networks around the world. In sales operations, we will first be focusing on the markets where our Geoprime concept has the best commercial conditions.

As a result of the ongoing green transition in the construction sector, the demand for low-carbon construction materials is growing strongly. Green financial markets favour projects with tangible and sufficiently effective climate and sustainability impacts. Operators responsible for controlling and licensing construction and urban development set their own goals, requirements and guidance models in order to promote the use of green solutions in new and renovation construction and infrastructure. These favour Betolar's cement-free, low-carbon solutions.