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Zacua Ventures
Zacua Ventures operates as a global early-stage venture firm focused on the built environment, founded by a team of former Cemex Ventures operators...
Zacua Ventures
Zacua Ventures operates as a global early-stage venture firm focused on the built environment, founded by a team of former Cemex Ventures operators including Vivin Hegde, Mauricio Tessi Weiss, and Juan Nieto. The firm's investors and scouts draw from deep construction-industry and corporate-venture backgrounds, reflecting a deliberate emphasis on operator-investors who have worked on jobsites and inside large construction corporates. Zacua targets startups at the intersection of construction, real estate, and infrastructure technology. Zacua invests across pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages, with a thematic focus on productivity, sustainability, and urbanization. The portfolio spans construction contract intelligence (Document Crunch), industrial prefabrication for building retrofits (Ecoworks), construction materials procurement digitization (Field Materials), construction lending inspection automation (Sitewire), and robotics for high-precision fastening (Raise Robotics). Geographic reach includes North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. The firm runs a Scout Program that extends sourcing into additional markets such as MENA and Japan. The firm lists 14 professionals based primarily in San Francisco and Madrid. In addition to its direct investment team, Zacua relies on a network of Scout Partners in Australia, MENA, and Japan, reflecting a distributed sourcing model rather than a centralized partnership. Zacua publishes proprietary industry research, including an AI for Construction report, a Construction Robotics report, and a ConTech Investor Survey, signaling an effort to shape sector narratives alongside capital deployment. Zacua's structural differentiator lies in its origin story: three of its core partners previously built and scaled ConTech-focused venture arms inside Cemex, one of the world's largest building-materials companies. That corporate-venture DNA gives Zacua an unusual ability to bridge startup innovation with the procurement pipelines and pilot-ready jobsites of large construction corporates, functioning less like a traditional financial VC and more like an early-stage extension of the industry's own innovation mandates.
General information
Firm type
Private Equity
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
San Francisco
Corporate office
San Francisco, CA, United States
Additional offices
Madrid, Spain
Principals
Vivin Hegde
Partner
Mauricio Tessi Weiss
Partner
Juan Nieto
Partner
Margarita de la Peña
Investor
Pedro García
Investor
Caecilia Kemper
Investor
Anas Bataw
Scout Partner
Philip Sondhu
Scout Partner
Jun S Hibbard
Scout Partner
Varad Mohod
Investor
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Zacua Ventures?
Investment decisions are led by the firm's three partners: Vivin Hegde, Mauricio Tessi Weiss, and Juan Nieto. All three previously built and ran ConTech-focused venture investment programs at Cemex, the global building-materials company, before launching Zacua. The partnership combines direct construction operating experience with corporate venture capital disciplines applied across multiple geographies.
How does Zacua Ventures source its deal flow?
Zacua sources through a combination of direct partner networks developed during their Cemex Ventures tenure and a formal Scout Program with partners stationed in Australia, MENA, and Japan. The firm also runs a proprietary knowledge-sharing initiative that publishes industry reports on AI in construction, construction robotics, and ConTech investor sentiment, which serves as an inbound magnet for early-stage founders in the built-environment space.
What is Zacua's connection to Cemex and Cemex Ventures?
Zacua was founded by three former Cemex Ventures investment professionals who collectively led Cemex's corporate venture activities across multiple regions before spinning out. The firm is independent from Cemex, but the founding team's corporate venture background shapes Zacua's approach to helping portfolio companies engage with large construction corporates for pilots, procurement, and scaling.
Does Zacua Ventures invest globally or focus on specific regions?
The firm pursues a deliberately global mandate, with portfolio companies in North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. Team presence spans San Francisco and Madrid, with additional Scout Partners extending sourcing into Australia, the Middle East/North Africa, and Japan. The firm's Latin America practice is led by Margarita de la Peña, with deals in markets such as Brazil and Chile.
What investment stages does Zacua Ventures target?
Zacua invests from pre-seed through Series A. The firm articulates three stages — Ideate, Build, Scale — reflecting a willingness to back founders from company formation through early commercial growth. Portfolio companies such as Document Crunch, Ecoworks, and Field Materials span these stages across different geographies and built-environment verticals.
Which sectors does Zacua Ventures focus on, and are there areas it avoids?
The firm concentrates on three themes: productivity (digitizing construction processes), sustainability (decarbonizing building materials and retrofits), and urbanization (data infrastructure for cities and real estate). Investments span ConTech, InfraTech, and Real Estate Tech. The firm does not publicly list excluded sectors, but its portfolio composition suggests a deliberate avoidance of generalist enterprise SaaS, consumer internet, biotech, and fintech that lack a direct physical-built-world application.
Are there philanthropic or non-investment structures affiliated with Zacua?
The firm has not publicly disclosed a separate philanthropic foundation or donor-advised structure. Zacua emphasizes industry knowledge-sharing through its proprietary reports, surveys, and newsletter rather than through a distinct grant-making entity. Dr. Anas Bataw participates in UN and WEF task groups on construction innovation and sustainability, but these are personal affiliations rather than Zacua institutional structures.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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