At a vacation resort in Wales, Proptech CurveBlock has set up its first “energy positive” modular display lodge.
It predicts that a two-bedroom house constructed using contemporary techniques and powered by renewable energy might produce an excess of up to 10,000 kWh of electricity annually. 500 potential customers, according to the startup, have lined up to watch the energy-producing lodge in action.
Customers will be able to see for themselves the unique holiday house concept thanks to the newly delivered first-of-its-kind lodge at the Darwin Escapes vacation park in North Wales. It just took a day to instal the lodge because it was built using volumetric modular technology.
Along with vacation homes, CurveBlock is promoting the concept of social housing.
According to Gary Woodhead, co-founder of CurveBlock, “what’s spurred attention with regards to things like social housing is that you can effectively have a modular, energy-positive core and skin it in traditional walls.” It doesn’t just do one thing. With regular residential housing, a market for social housing can be effectively formed. Innovate UK and we have just started working together on a social housing pilot project.
There is another string to CurveBlock’s bow. The blockchain-based property investing app is about to enter beta testing and will enable investors to contribute as little as £10 to development projects after passing the FSA’s mandatory financial and personal checks.
We’re at an intriguing point in our roadmap right now, Woodhead continued. “Over 40 Angel investors have joined our active EIS seed round, and we are also considering leveraging the same innovation to enter the social housing market. To reduce sector risk, we must make sure the shared economy component of CurveBlock’s fintech is always diversified across markets.
The company just joined the IBM and Village Capital-run Hyper Protect Accelerator.
“Of the 230 startups that advanced to the interview round, 15 were selected as the Next Big Thing, and we were one of them. They do intend to incorporate IBM services onto our platform, yes. Knowing that some of the industry’s biggest names are warming up to what was simply an idea four years ago makes it all the more intriguing.