Grounded & auditable
Every action is justified and logged. Assurance-grade by default.
Company
We're encoding the craft of the kiln.
Clinkum is building the autonomous operations layer for the world's cement and concrete producers, so every tonne is burned, ground, and poured on spec, at lower energy and lower carbon.
$30B
Total addressable market
7–8%
Of global CO₂ is cement
1,450°C
Where the craft lives
1
Mission: autonomous cement
The foundation of the built world deserves better than intuition.
Cement is the single most energy- and carbon-intensive material humanity makes, and one of the hardest to control. The reactions that give it strength happen in a knife-edge window inside a rotary kiln at 1,450 °C, governed by the intuition of a scarce, retiring generation of operators.
Clinkum exists to encode that craft. We build AI agents that perceive the process, simulate it in a calibrated digital twin, and control it, closing the loop from the quarry face to the finished pour. Not dashboards that watch, but a system that acts.
We believe autonomy in heavy industry has to be grounded, bounded, and auditable to be trusted. Every action our agents take is justified by a simulation and logged for review. That is how autonomy earns its place next to a kiln.
Our pillars.
Perform the work
We act on the process, not just assist. A worker, not a widget.
Priced on value
We measure and price on the metrics we move.
Built for cement
Vertical, not generic. We model clinker chemistry, not abstractions.
Why cement
The hardest process is the best place for autonomy.
Cement is craft-bound, chemistry- and thermodynamics-critical, safety- and emissions-sensitive, and energy-cost-heavy, exactly the profile where autonomy creates the most value and where generic tools fail.
- Gigatonne scale, century-long stakes.
- Under carbon pricing, CBAM, and an operator crisis.
- Ready for a system of action, not another dashboard.
Energy intensityhighest
Carbon share7–8%
Craft dependencehigh
Autonomy fitideal
Leadership.
Marcus Whitfield
Chief Executive Officer
Raised around the kilns of the Midwest. Two decades leading heavy-process operations and industrial software; now points the whole company at autonomous cement.
Sarah Kowalski
Chief Technology Officer
Former controls and applied-AI research lead for heavy industry. Built the perception and closed-loop control stack that became the Clinkum platform.
James Calloway
Chief Product Officer
Product leader behind plant-floor analytics and process-optimization suites. Owns the roadmap from burning zone to batch plant.
Emily Thornton
Chief Financial Officer
Finance executive from the industrial energy sector. Keeps Clinkum priced on outcomes, capitalized for the long kiln cycle, and accountable to the metrics it moves.
David Ashford
Chief Operating Officer
Career plant operator turned operator of operators. Runs pilots, deployments, and the 24/7 line that watches every autonomous loop in production.
Rebecca Hale
Chief Science Officer
Chemist and process modeler. Leads the clinker mineralogy, thermodynamics, and twin-calibration science behind every agent recommendation.
Where we're headed.
Now
Kiln & quality autonomy
Autonomous burning-zone control and clinker-quality sensing on live lines.
Next
Whole-plant coordination
Raw-mix, grinding, concrete, energy, and robotics under one twin.
Then
Fleet autonomy
Multi-site groups on one control plane with shared models.
Vision
The operations layer
Every tonne of cement and concrete burned, ground, and poured on Clinkum.
For serious producers.
IntegratedIntegrated plants
The full pyroprocess, run autonomously.
GrindingGrinding stations
Finish grinding to spec at minimum power.
ConcreteReady-mix & precast
Strength predicted, binder trimmed.
GroupsMaterials groups
Fleets under one control plane.
“The retiring kiln operator is the most important person in the plant and the hardest to replace. We're making sure their craft doesn't leave with them.”
Clinkum · Founding thesis
Our commitments.
- Autonomy that is grounded, bounded, and auditable
- Deep vertical models of cement chemistry and thermodynamics
- Overlay existing control systems, never rip-and-replace
- Prove value in shadow mode before closing the loop
- Keep customer process data on customer infrastructure
- Price and measure on outcomes we move
About Clinkum
A product company. Clinkum is original AI-native software for cement and concrete autonomy, deployed and supported as a platform.
No. We overlay your existing DCS and APC and integrate through open protocols, adding an autonomy layer above what you have.
A calibrated digital twin and coordinated agents that act across the whole line, with every action explainable, not fixed rules on a single loop.
Build the autonomous plant with us.
Whether you run one kiln or a fleet, we'd like to prove what autonomy can do on your line.