Case studies
Westwood Aerogel partners with Enduring Planet to scale low-carbon building insulation
Westwood Aerogel is commercializing a scalable manufacturing route that addresses the biggest barrier to wider aerogel adoption: producibility. By targeting at least a 50% cut in production cost for top-grade aerogel, the company is making this material far more affordable. This unlocks an ultra-thin, ultra-efficient insulation option for building retrofits. As more properties upgrade their envelopes, heating and cooling demand will fall and building-sector greenhouse gas emissions will decrease.
When installed as a 1″ (R-8) retrofit in older, poorly insulated buildings, each panel cuts roughly 24 tCO₂/year, amounting to about 950 tCO₂ over 40 years, and saves roughly 2 million kWh across its service life. The panels also boost fire resilience and reduce interior noise, improving safety and occupant comfort in retrofit projects.
Moving from lab chemistry to field-ready retrofit panels requires flexible capital that moves quickly and fits deep-tech timelines. To validate performance under its CalSEED Prototype award and build the tooling and test rigs needed for scale, Westwood needed non-dilutive, founder-friendly financing that let engineers focus on experiments and prototype buildouts rather than capital logistics. That’s where we at Enduring Planet stepped in.
Westwood Aerogel partnered with Enduring Planet to:
- Secure fast, non-dilutive financing with no collateral or personal guarantees
- Fund the validation experiments and prototype work required by the CalSEED Prototype award
- Build operational capacity to transition from lab panels to production-ready retrofit units
Enduring Planet’s mission-aligned capital gave Westwood the runway to complete milestone-driven R&D without diluting the cap table or posting collateral. Our financing uses a repayment approach tied to contract cash flows instead of a traditional principal-and-interest loan. With prototype validation underway, Westwood is preparing a seed round to scale production and broaden deployment of high-performance aerogel for retrofit markets, and Enduring Planet's funding gets them there faster.
"Grant money is great, but doesn't give you the freedom to operate quickly. Enduring Planet provides the liquid capital needed to get your project off the ground."
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