Cement has been fundamental to modern construction, but producing it comes with a heavy emissions footprint. Bengaluru-based Ecopath is trying to remove cement from the equation altogether by turning an industrial by-product from steel manufacturing into construction material.
Founded in 2024 by Sourabh Kumar and Abhishek Chhazed, Ecopath has developed EcoConcrete, a cement-free material based on ground granulated blast-furnace slag, or GGBS, combined with proprietary binders. The material can be used for products including pavers, kerbstones, blocks and ready-mix concrete.
One of the more unusual parts of the process is curing. Conventional concrete typically requires water after placement to develop strength. Ecopath says its formulation can use ambient curing instead, removing the need for conventional water-based curing while also allowing production to work with existing batching infrastructure rather than requiring an entirely new factory setup.
The startup has moved beyond laboratory development into commercial deployment. Cofounder Sourabh Kumar told YourStory that Ecopath has generated nearly ₹12 crore in cumulativerevenue, operates across Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai and Hyderabad, and plans to expand into at least 20 Indian cities. The company is also exploring demand from the Middle East and Africa.
Ecopath says it has filed six patent applications, with another five in development. Its larger challenge, however, is not simply proving that cement can be removed from the mix. Construction buyers still expect alternatives to match conventional materials on strength, cost, consistency and availability before they can be deployed widely.
Ecopath’s opportunity is therefore unusually tangible: take a waste stream from one heavy industry and turn it into an input for another. If the economics and performance continue to hold at larger scale, steel-industry waste could become part of the road, pavement or building that would otherwise have required cement.
Filed by
Startup Unplugged
