Immaterial raises $18.2m to scale in US and Europe
The new capital will accelerate the company’s commercialisation plans through pilot projects that demonstrate the impact of its technology platform with partners and customers in Europe and the US, while building on the momentum from the successful pilot project already concluded in Europe.
The round was led by SLB with participation from other existing backers including AP Ventures, Moeve and long-term supporter and Chairman of Immaterial, Jogchum Brinksma, as well as new investor Finindus (ArcelorMittal-Flemish Government).
Immaterial CEO Mohammed Khan said the industrial solutions platform delivered an economic transformation to customers in hard to abate sectors. He was thrilled to welcome Finindus as a new investor with deep knowledge of the global steel sector and looks forward to its support as the company rolls out its Generation 2 decarbonisation system pilots with partners and customers.
Immaterial innovates further on the recent Nobel Prize winning chemistry recognition for metal organic frameworks (MOFs). The company has a proprietary technology platform to apply monolithic metal-organic frameworks (m MOFs) with engineering design solutions for multiple industrial sectors.
It is aiming to reduce the financial cost of industrial decarbonisation by bringing to market bespoke advanced materials which are optimised to a specific use case, manufactured at scale through proprietary methods and combined with novel process engineering innovation.
Khan says these systems have the potential to reduce the footprint, capex and opex of industrial decarbonisation process systems across multiple applications, making the solutions economic within the existing incentive mechanisms.
The Immaterial proprietary technology platform can be applied to existing metal–organic framework compositions to deliver an augmented volumetric effluent effect as a result of the monolithic form. Demonstrated pilot use cases include among others point source-carbon capture, intermittent hydrogen storage, water harvesting and HVAC energy reduction solutions.
Immaterial says it is the only company in the world that can produce MOFs in monolith form: macroscopic, ultra-dense crystals of MOFs that are thermally and chemically stable and preserve their ultra-high storage performance.
The company has developed its own proprietary materials with ‘Wet-AI’ combining digital discovery and design of new materials with green chemistry synthesis and optimisation of materials for industrial readiness.
It has expanded its machine learning capability to ensure engineered solutions are optimised to highly attractive economic solution delivery, unlocking significant value for customers. Immaterial is commissioning its multi-tonne manufacturing facility in Cambridge to supply and enable roll out of its pilots to collaborating customer sites.
Professor David Fairen-Jimenez, Chief Scientific Officer and Founder of Immaterial, says: “It is a special moment for me to realise the next phase of Immaterial’s journey, from pure academic ideas to products that solve timely challenges such as climate change; the confidence of our new investors in the technology is a testament to the potential of monolithic materials and I am thrilled to be making an impact with a Cambridge, UK, developed technology.”