Strong by Form will be showcasing its ultra-light engineered wood at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

Even before the building accepted its first occupant, it had accumulated a severe carbon debt. Worldwide, the materials and construction needed to construct buildings contribute 11% of global carbon emissions, according to the World Green Building Council.

Some places have begun to experiment with multi-story wooden buildings, and although they have recently reached new heights, wooden buildings will not replace skyscrapers any time soon. But one Chilean startup believes there is still room for wood to find a place.

“We are focusing more on hybrid buildings,” Andris Mitnick, co-founder and CEO of Strong by Form, told TechCrunch. His company has developed a new engineered wood product that can replace concrete and steel in structural floors, allowing architects to design lighter, less carbon-intensive buildings. The company is a finalist in the Startup Battlefield Top 20, and is presenting at TechCrunch Disrupt, taking place this week in San Francisco.

The secret lies in how those floorboards are made. “We think we can shape wood in a way that no one has done before,” he said.

Strong by Form designed a structural floor piece that can span longer distances than existing engineered wood, making it an alternative to steel or concrete. At the same time, the product is the lightest of the three.

Outside, the builders will see something familiar. “When the contractor gets it, they see the CLT [cross-laminated timber] “All the connections, the building system, all the on-site operations are just like you are using CLT, so there is no need to learn new things,” Mitnick said.

But inside, instead of solid wood, as in the CLT, the structure is filled with cavities. The sawdust was compressed into a corrugated board that was optimized to withstand heavy loads.

Wavy board is similar to oriented strand board, or OSB, and is common on all job sites. But Strong by Form has developed software and manufacturing technology to adjust the size and alignment of wood chips that are held together by a glue-like binder. “It’s kind of a next-generation OSB, if you want to think of it that way,” Mitnick said.

Using the natural form and strengths of wood, Strong by Form has built structural timber floors that currently span 10 meters (about 33 feet). Most CLT floors can only span half this distance.

All this technology isn’t free, but Mitnick said the higher costs of its engineered wood products can be offset by their lighter weight.

“The idea is to create something so light that it allows you to get an overall improvement of the structure,” he said. Lighter floors mean less steel and concrete in the frame, reducing the overall cost of the building. “With these additional savings, we are able to achieve price parity with concrete.”

Strong by Form tests its 10-meter panel to ensure it meets the fire and load ratings required by structural engineers.

It will then raise a Series A round targeting $10 million to build a pilot plant to produce the first pieces intended for commercial deployment.

Meanwhile, Strong by Form has also developed a three-millimeter-thick panel intended for finishing rather than structural tasks. The startup is working with train manufacturers to subtly use its wavy panel inside trains, where they can soften the aesthetics of the walls and ceilings of train cars while reducing their mass.

“This allowed us to fund all R&D activities [research and development] “We need to do floors, which is what we really want to scale, because that’s where the impact is,” Mitnick said.

If you want to learn more about Strong by Form from the company itself — while also checking out dozens of others, listening to their demos, and hearing from guest speakers at four different stages — join us at Disrupt, this week in San Francisco. Learn more here.