Six-year-old CalStar Products, a Caledonia, Wis., company that makes low-energy, low-CO2 masonry products, has brought aboard Joel Rood as its CEO. Prior to joining CalStar, Rood was GM for CertainTeed Canada. CalStar is funded by the venture firms Nth Power, Westly Group, Foundation Capital, and EnerTech Capital. PRESS RELEASE: Joel Rood, a 15-year veteran of the building [...]

CalStar Products, Inc., a Newark, Calif.-based green building materials business, closed a $15 Million equity investment led by Nth Power. The round included new investors The Westly Group and Clearpoint Capital as well as continuing investors Foundation Capital and EnerTech Capital.

Last week, I posted an item on peHUB about how VC-backed CalStar Products is finding a plethora of Ph.D.s in Silicon Valley to draw from for its R&D.

The Newark, Calif.-based startup is developing a chemical process to make a “green brick” that it says creates 0.2 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions during the manufacturing process, compared to a traditional clay brick fired in a kiln, which produces about 1.3 pounds of CO2. CEO Mike Kane, who joined the company earlier this year from Atlanta, says that he’s never worked with so many Ph.D.s before.

In this week’s PE Week, subscribers can read my story of how the company is in the midst of raising a $15 million Series C round of venture funding, which will include participation from returning investors Foundation Capital and EnerTech Capital.

Kane says he hope to wrap up fund-raising before the end of the year, which will be just in time for the company to open its first manufacturing plant in Wisconsin to service the brick-heavy geography of the Midwest.

Silicon Valley has been the center of a lot of tech innovation. And at first glance, it seems an unlikely place to redo the common brick. But earlier this week I spent time at the Newark, Calif.-based R&D facility of CalStar Products, a VC-backed startup that uses a chemical process to make a “green brick” [...]