• German AI startup ExoMatter secured EUR 1.7M of Pre-Seed investment from Czech ZAKA VC and a company of other notable international investors
• The startup’s AI facilitates the discovery and exploration of new materials, improving the Economic and ecological efficiency of both the R&D process and the new materials
• ExoMatter will use the new funding for expanding its growth team and further product development

This October, the famous Czech fund ZAKA VC (invested in Lime Therapeutics, among others) participated in the Pre-Seed round of ExoMatter – the Munich-based startup developing its AI-powered platform that enables research and development of new materials. The round amounts EUR 1.7M, and other participating investors are 212 NexT, Bayern Kapital, Bloomhaus Ventures, Vanagon Ventures, and four business angels from encourageventures.

ExoMatter was started in 2022 by Dr Josua Vieten (CEO) and Barbara Bachus (COO), merging their scientific knowledge with entrepreneurial skills. Dr Vieten, a chemist and materials scientist with experience as an R&D coordinator at Munich’s unicorn Celonis, developed the concept for ExoMatter during his PhD and research work at Berkeley Lab. He then teamed up with Ms Bachus, who brought expertise in sales, entrepreneurship, and management. Ms Bachus holds a Bachelor’s in Technology & Management, with a Chemistry minor, from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and a Master’s in Entrepreneurship. Together, they set out to leverage their combined expertise in science and business and turn ExoMatter into a reality.

Why New Materials Are an Issue

‘All products are made from a variety of materials. However, finding and optimizing materials is very difficult and is based on chance, as there are 10 to the power of 60 materials. That’s more than all the stars in the universe. A concrete example: If you bought a fridge two years ago, the best energy level was AA+. The same energy level for the new fridges is now D. Of course, this has something to do with regulations and categorization, but also with the fact that companies have to find better and better materials to improve the standard within two years. We have therefore developed a platform that accelerates the material development process by 90%,’ Ms Bachus explains.

‘ExoMatter addresses one of the greatest challenges of our time: the search for new, more sustainable materials. The solution is a gamechanger for materials R&D. There are more possible materials than stars in the universe. Yet we have traditionally only been able to explore a tiny fraction of it. Exomatter makes the full possibility space available and enables companies to find better, cheaper and much more sustainable materials,’ Vanagon Ventures’ co-founder and general partner Susanne Fromm tells ITKeyMedia.

Bridging Economic Efficiency and Sustainability

To achieve this, ExoMatter uses advanced AI (for now, well-known and generally available models) and quantum chemical modeling to find completely new materials, reportedly accelerating the material discovery process by up to 90%. This makes materials R&D faster, cheaper, and significantly more environmentally friendly. Thus, ExoMatter helps companies to optimize the materials for both performance and cost but also for sustainability, helping significantly reduce for instance their carbon footprint, land use, water consumption, and toxicity levels.

‘First of all, we save 80% of all chemicals and energy that would have to be used for the usual trial and error approach, without our platform. Secondly, we optimize materials’ potential CO2 footprint,’ Ms Bachus clarifies.

Ms Fromm firmly believes in both economic and ecological potential of ExoMatter’s solution. She reminds that the life cycle impacts of materials today account for more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions, while the scarcity of critical resources such as rare earth elements and minerals poses major obstacles to the energy transition.

‘With its AI-powered platform, the company facilitates finding materials for specific applications in record time while minimizing the ecological footprint. This technology not only enhances companies’ innovation capabilities but also prepares them for upcoming regulatory requirements, such as the EU Ecodesign Directive,’ the investor continues.

Potential and Plans

ZAKA VC’s partner and head of investment committee Andrej Petrus points out that recent developments in AI is opening up opportunities for progress in the materials science sector, presenting a great example of how innovation on the software level can help to achieve innovation on the material level.

Bayern Kapital’s head of early stage Thomas Huttner agrees that ExoMatter’s market potential for material solutions is huge and extends to numerous industries such as aerospace, automotive, electronics, energy and construction.

‘ExoMatter’s platform is solving challenges of finding new types of materials for the industrial, chemical, and manufacturing industries. These industries are in ever increasing pressure for finding efficiency on the cost level and environmental impact level. We are proud to be backing the Exomatter team and expanding our deep tech portfolio,’ Mr Petrus states, impressed with Ms Bachus and Dr Vieten proving the value of their platform as early as the Pre-Seed stage (including by securing such household names for customers as Airbus or Infineon).

Mr Huttner adds that ExoMatter’s AI-driven approach enables the company to operate a data-driven and therefore scalable system for a wide range of target markets. He points out that the use of machine learning and advanced analytics presents a strong competitive advantage as it makes ExoMatter’s platform smarter and more effective than traditional approaches.

With such a promising solution that convinced such experienced investors and secured such sizable funding, ExoMatter will now hire more talent for its growth team to enable expansion across different verticals in Europe. The startup also plans to develop the technology further and explore opportunities with more categories of materials.

Using AI modeling in the R&D of new materials is undeniably important for both economic and ecological efficiency. Rapidly simulating and predicting material properties, AI agents – such as those offered by ExoMatter – reduce the need for costly and time-consuming physical experiments. This accelerates the development process, lowering overall R&D costs and enabling researchers to explore a wider range of material combinations. This leads to more sustainable/eco-friendly materials that might not be discovered through traditional methods, supporting both cost-efficiency and sustainability goals.