Rock Fiber filing shows $3.49M sold in debt-and-warrant offering

Rock Fiber, the Houston materials manufacturer co-founded by Alex Biland and Anthony DiBenedetto, reported $3,494,028 sold toward a $3.5 million securities offering in a Form D filed September 22nd. Just $5,972 remained under the stated offering amount. The filing puts a number on Rock Fiber's financing as Biland works to move its rock-to-fiber process from a Houston laboratory toward pilot manufacturing.

Biland has spent more than 25 years working on continuous fiber made from igneous rock, according to Rock Fiber. He leads its laboratory and pilot-facility planning. DiBenedetto, Rock Fiber's other named co-founder, previously founded energy-conservation business Conogen and now leads Hallock Capital; Rock Fiber says he works on partnerships with investors and prospective customers. Their immediate test is industrial: whether an induction-based process can make consistent fiber at a cost and volume that buyers of construction materials can use.

The September filing describes a financing that began earlier, rather than $3.49 million raised on filing day. Rock Fiber listed May 25th, 2025, as the date of its first sale and said the offering was intended to last more than a year. It classified the securities as debt and options or warrants, with 23 investors. The filing does not identify those investors or specify the debt terms, warrant economics or a valuation. It reports $0 in sales commissions and finders' fees.

Biland's manufacturing bet

Rock Fiber says its process uses electric induction to melt basalt and other igneous rock, then forms the molten material into continuous fiber for structural composites. On its process page, Rock Fiber says the method can produce a uniform melt from different rock feedstocks. Feedstock selection matters here: Rock Fiber describes testing rock chemistry, melting temperatures and viscosity before fiber production. Its claims of consistent quality, competitive cost and near-zero emissions remain claims about the process, not measurements established by the SEC filing.

Biland's technical work predates Rock Fiber, which was incorporated in 2022. A U.S. Patent and Trademark Office record lists Oleksandr Biland as the inventor of a vertical melting furnace for igneous-rock fiber manufacturing and Rock Fiber as its assignee. That is a concrete piece of the manufacturing effort. A patent, however, does not establish commercial production costs or throughput. Rock Fiber says Biland is still planning its pilot facility.

Rock Fiber has assembled executives with experience closer to its intended markets than to a typical laboratory startup. CEO Bryan Green commanded the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center from March 2015 to July 2018, according to the Army center's commander history. Rock Fiber lists Rob Klawonn, a former carbon-fiber executive, as president and chief operating officer, and former Weatherford executive Andy Becnel as chief financial officer. Allan A.J. Tulp signed the Form D as corporate secretary; Rock Fiber also lists him as a director. The filing does not say how proceeds will be allocated among research, equipment or plant construction.

A route into concrete before the pilot

Rock Fiber's clearest described application is MiniBars, basalt-fiber composite macrofibers intended to reduce or replace steel reinforcement in some concrete uses. Rock Fiber says they are available in the Americas through ReforceTech Americas, the joint venture it announced with ReforceTech in February 2025. The arrangement gives Rock Fiber a named product and a route to construction customers while Biland develops its own fiber-manufacturing process. The announcements do not establish how much MiniBars material Rock Fiber itself manufactures.

One prospective route into that market is Roman Stone's September 2025 partnership announcement. The precast-concrete producer said it had tested MiniBars and planned to introduce the product to its U.S. market. Rock Fiber CEO Green described the appeal as strength and design flexibility combined with easier handling than steel-wire macrofibers. Roman Stone's statement supports the existence of a commercial partnership and reported testing; it does not quantify subsequent orders or Rock Fiber's fiber output.

Rock Fiber enters an established mineral-fiber business. Kamenny Vek says it makes continuous andesite-basalt fiber at two plants and sells it in forms including roving, chopped strand and reinforcing mesh. Rock Fiber's case therefore rests on making Biland's process work at scale and translating its construction partnerships into repeatable demand, rather than introducing basalt fiber as a new material.

There is an earlier financing marker, but it describes a different type of security. An August 2024 Form D reported $1.2 million sold toward a $5 million equity offering. The newer filing is a new notice for debt and warrants, with a first sale dated May 2025. The two reported amounts should not be collapsed into a single round or presented as Rock Fiber's verified lifetime funding. The September filing establishes where this offering stood when Rock Fiber disclosed it; the pilot plant remains the milestone that will test what the financing can accomplish.