Singapore, March 2026. Adaptavate, the UK-based materials innovation company pioneering low-carbon and carbon-negative alternatives to conventional wallboard and plaster, has marked its entry into the Asian construction market through a strategic collaboration with The GEAR by Kajima – the innovation and technology services arm of Kajima, one of Asia’s largest and most influential contractors – providing a gateway to deploy its technologies and products across the region.
The collaboration, delivered through The GEAR Startup CoLab Programme, provides Adaptavate with a powerful platform to introduce and scale its technologies and pioneering products across the region. With Asia accounting for around half of global construction activity and experiencing rapid growth in demand for low-carbon, circular, healthy materials, Adaptavate sees the region as a key driver of its international expansion.
As part of this collaboration, Adaptavate unveiled its first demonstration in Asia at The GEAR building in Singapore, an exclusive showcase highlighting how its circular, carbon-negative materials can integrate seamlessly into regional construction systems without requiring changes to existing workflows or installation methods.
The showcase featured Adaptavate’s Breathaboard™, Breathaplasta™ and Carbonboard™, giving stakeholders across the value chain a firsthand look at how these products perform in regional construction environments and climate conditions.
Adaptavate was selected last year for The GEAR Startup CoLab Programme, following strong alignment with Kajima’s strategic focus on sustainable construction, materials innovation, and reducing embodied carbon in the built environment. This first installation establishes a platform to:
Generate real-world performance evidence
Build market confidence in biobased, carbon-negative construction materials
Pave the way for early commercial adoption across the APAC region as the world’s fastest growing construction market
In fact, Adaptavate has confirmed an upcoming high-profile project in Asia, in partnership with a multi-national, and is actively exploring local production and supply-chain partnerships to deploy its technologies at scale. Establishing regional manufacturing capacity will enable Asian markets to benefit fully from Adaptavate’s pioneering circular and carbon-negative materials.
Tom Robinson, CEO & Founder of Adaptavate, said: “Decarbonising construction at global scale requires materials that are high-performance, low-carbon or carbon-negative, and genuinely drop-in. This installation shows how Adaptavate’s products can integrate into Asian construction systems today—without disruption—while delivering healthier, lower-carbon buildings. We are excited to deepen our collaboration with Kajima and the other partners and actors in the market and build further partnerships across the region to bring our technologies and products to market.”
Beth Henderson, Lead, Innovation and Commercialisation, The GEAR by Kajima, said: “Our mission is to bridge the gap between technology development and real-world commercial use. Adaptavate’s approach to carbon-negative and circular construction materials addresses a critical need in the sector, and this first wall in The GEAR demonstrates the very real opportunity for solutions like these across Asia.”
The private showcase was followed by The GEAR’s industry event, “Breaking Ground on Sustainable Materials,” where Adaptavate presented alongside selected innovators, Kajima’s R&D team, investors, government representatives, and industry leaders.
The first wall in Asia installed with Adaptavate materials
ABOUT ADAPTAVATE
Adaptavate is answering the urgent call to decarbonise construction, by developing the carbon-negative technologies and products needed, and the industrial ecosystem to deploy them fast, anywhere in the world. To deliver this, the business is focusing on commercialising its patented, scalable Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) processes. These processes enable the production of low-carbon and carbon-negative construction products including Adaptavate’s flagship, Breathaboard. By licensing its technology, the business facilitates the manufacture of these market-alternative products by anyone, anywhere, resulting in significant carbon removal on a global scale. It is this ‘planet before profit’ model that keeps Adaptavate true to its purpose of building an ecologically regenerative and economically profitable future for all.
ABOUT THE GEAR BY KAJIMA
The GEAR by Kajima Pte Ltd (“The GEAR”), established in 2024, is a Singapore-based subsidiary of Kajima Corporation, one of Japan’s largest and oldest construction, engineering, and real estate groups headquartered in Tokyo.
The GEAR bridges the gap between technology development and real-world commercial use as the strategic lynchpin between Japan, Singapore, and the group’s global business units. It translates emerging technologies into scalable solutions by connecting internal capabilities with external partners. This work spans both startups and internal Kajima technologies, across Kajima sites and externally commissioned public and private projects. Through this model, technologies are validated under live operating conditions, reducing execution risk and supporting informed decisions on deeper use and adoption.
For more information, please visit www.thegear.sg/
ABOUT THE GEAR STARTUP COLAB PROGRAMME
The GEAR Startup CoLab Programme is designed to foster collaboration between global startups and Kajima’s regional business units, focusing on sustainability in construction and building operations, productivity and safety on construction sites, next-generation facilities and infrastructure management, and smart buildings for occupant wellbeing.
Selected startups have access to The GEAR’s world-class facilities, input from industry experts, and non-dilutive grant funding to fast-track the commercialisation of new technologies.