Exomatter offers unique R&D material platform
Corinna Herrmann
The Munich-based start-up ExoMatter is revolutionizing materials research. In this interview, Barbara Bachus, Co-Founder & COO at ExoMatter, explains her unique R&D platform for materials researchers, why she already sees herself as a European leader in the materials informatics market and where her journey is headed.
How would you explain your solution in three sentences to a professional colleague in a chemical company?
"The ExoMatter Materials R&D Platform generates a personalized shortlist of the most suitable materials for all applications. Drawing on materials data from numerous scientific sources and utilizing AI, ExoMatter enriches the data, providing customers with a multidimensional analysis across a wide range of physical, chemical and engineering criteria as well as sustainability attributes and anticipated cost. This facilitates the focus of further research and development on the most promising materials candidates and is extremely ressource-friendly."
What problem motivated you to start the company?
"My Co-Founder Dr. Josua Vieten researched new materials to store solar energy during his Chemistry PhD studies. He was convinced there had to be a more eXicient method for finding new materials than the traditional trial and error and costly laboratory work. He came across one of the world’s larger repositories for scientific materials data at a US research institute. Like many data sources provided by such institutes, this repository was a fantastic resource, but the data was not easy to navigate. After collaborating onsite with the institute’s team for three months, they encouraged him to create a commercial oXering, utilizing their and other similar data sources, noting the high demand for such a product, which they could not meet.
Motivated by this, Josua created ExoMatter, a materials data platform that enables customers to find materials specifically for their use case."
How do you convince a chemical company to set up a pilot project with you?
"Below are some of ExoMatters key differentiators. We do not believe there is a similarly rich oXering among any other startups or mature competitors.
Multi-dimensional Analysis: We help customers optimize and identify materials not just with regards to chemical, physical and engineering properties, but also taking into account cost and sustainability factors.
This multi-dimensional approach makes it possible to look at materials from every angle from the onset of the project, rather than wasting time in an iterative approach.
Largest Scientific Materials Dataset: As of today, we believe we oXer the world’s largest data set of scientific materials on an easy-to-navigate platform: currently more than 1.5 million materials, with plans to drive this number up to over 100 million by the end of 2024.
Rich Data: We provide not only the largest but also the richest materials dataset on a platform. We've meticulously built proprietary datasets encompassing a wide array of materials data sets with crucial properties. Our algorithms fill data gaps, enriching materials with properties where possible (chemical, physical, engineering and sustainability and cost qualifiers). Our platform is designed to accommodate both inorganic or organic materials seamlessly.
Proprietary Ranking and Scoring Functions: Our proprietary algorithms for ranking and scoring materials are agnostic, meaning they can be applied universally across various types of materials data. This flexibility ensures that our insights remain relevant and effective in any context.
Customer Data Integration: In addition to our own data sets, we also offer to work exclusively on customer data or a combination of the ExoMatter materials data in comparison with the customer’s in-house data. We believe these options to be unique."
2024 ExoMatter Screenshot
Who are your current customer (groups) and who do you want your potential customers to be?
"Our primary target persona is the Head of Materials R&D at larger chemical manufacturing or other manufacturing enterprises. They have consistently shown significant interest in our offerings. Our interactions have confirmed their need for a platform like ours. They are keen on streamlining their materials research and development and are equally eager to access new data sources or enrich their own materials data – often in disparate sets across the organization.
Our initial focus is on DACH, but from 2025 we will expand across EMEA, also widening our reach to research institutions and academia. By 2027 we anticipate entering the US or some Asian markets."
Where do you see yourself in 3 years and how can 5-HT support you?
"Due to the enormous demand, we observe - also reflected in the anticipated fivefold growth in the materials informatics market - we have developed aggressive growth plans.
Already a European frontrunner in our category, we envision us becoming a dominant player across further territories, as outlined earlier.
5-HT and its community have supported us on our journey, providing not only significant visibility, but also valuable introductions to potential customers, partners or investors. We are very grateful for 5-HTs help and keen to explore any further opportunities within the wide range of activities that 5-HT offers."
ExoMatter team
Related posts
You may be interested in these articles:
5-HT Chemistry & Health Newsletter
Want the latest tech and industry news, events, relevant info from the ecosystem and more?
Subscribe to 5-HT Newsletter now Subscribe to 5-HT Newsletter now
Become part of the 5-HT Chemistry & Health
Exchange ideas with innovative startups and future-oriented companies in our ecosystem. We look forward to meeting you!