Towards Sustainable Business with Material Science and Cutting-edge Technology: The 10 Science Start-Ups winners

FibreCoat produces and sells innovative thermoplastic coated glass fibres, which can be processed into composites for lightweight components. Because of their lightweight construction potential, fibre reinforced plastics are increasingly replacing steel or aluminium in industries such as aviation and automotive. Composites never got a substantial share in mass markets due to their high costs. Re-meltable thermoplastic composite materials can realize competitive cycle times, full filament wetting is a key drawback caused by the high viscosity of the polymer, leading to reduced performance. By integrating the complex FRP production chain into a single step, FibreCoat produces a material that has improved mechanical properties at a reduced price, compared to its market peers. Due to high production speeds and a guaranteed high quality, this material represents a disruptive technological leap for the composite market, which will sustainably transform the usage and spread of composites.

As a spin-off of Technical University of Darmstadt NanoWired GmbH was founded in 2017. Based on over 30 patent submissions, NanoWired has developed four new assembly and connection technologies: NanoWiring, KlettWelding, KlettSintering, KlettGlueing. The core of these technologies is the joining of electrical components with velcro fasteners which are made of nano metallic turf. These globally new processes are used in sensor technology, semiconductors, e-mobility, consumer goods and other areas. In over 50 international companies such as BOSCH, SIEMENS, CONTINENTAL, AUDI, VW, OSRAM, WIKA, NEXPERIA, LITTELFUSE, HONDA, KOA, MURATA, HUAWEI we substitute soldering, bonding, welding, glueing and screwing.

With the increase of population and expansion of middle-class income, the world is facing a “protein crisis”, where the demand of protein will exceed its supply in the near future. Regional Fish Institute aims to solve this problem by improving the productivity and value of aquatic products by applying our “high-speed breeding” to aquaculture. While traditional breeding method usually takes about 30 years to establish one breed, our technology can do this in only 2-3 years. With our distinctive core technology on hand, we hope to contribute to upgrading the aquaculture industry by providing new breeds of fish seeds that meet the needs of consumers and aquafarmers.

Conventionally, silicone products are produced through liquid injection moulding, a process that is expensive, lengthy and wasteful, and is limited to mass production of identical parts. Spectroplast’s disruptive innovation provides the world’s first Silicone Additive Manufacturing (SAM) technology at industrial scale. SAM fulfils a longstanding market need for personalised silicone products and enables for the first time the production of mass customized end-use silicone products that perform identically to injection moulded parts for various markets ranging from general sealing solutions to life-saving medical implants, such as patient-specific heart valve replacements.

Approximately 20% of people worldwide will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime. Despite tremendous progress in developing precision therapies, 75% of cancer treatment eventually fail, and 9.6 million lives are lost to cancer every year. Why do we still fail to treat cancer? It is because tumors are heterogeneous. Different tumor clones and patient specific immune responses lead to differential therapeutic impacts. Proteona is turning a laboratory tool breakthrough, single cell multi-omics, into a weapon against cancer. We profile tumors at the single cell level, simultaneously collecting gene and protein information. We then use Proteona’s AI tools to compare each tumor profile to a proprietary database, matching those molecular signatures to real life drug response data in order to predict which drugs will kill off all of tumor cells. Proteona’s mission is to tailor treatment truly to the unique tumor makeup of each patient for multiple myeloma and other cancers.

ILYA PHARMA is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation biologics to treat skin and mucosa wounds to validate clinical proof-of-concept. The innovative drug candidates are based on internationally cutting-edge science in immune-physiology and technical microbiology. Ilya has received numerous awards and recognition in the field of advanced therapies, and has so far raised €10 M in private funding and €7 M in grant funding. The company has expanded its team over the last 24 months and is today semi-virtual engaging approximately 40 experts/16 FTEs in the core group and 30 subcontractors and a large group of advisors chaperoning the developments.

Thomas Edison once said “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.“ We, HelioHeat, a high-tech startup from Offenburg, Germany, are right on tackling that immense source of power from the sun! We deliver key components for power plants and enable the supply of guaranteed and flexible renewable energy, such as electricity, industrial high-temperature process heat for e.g. steel production or low-temperature process heat for e.g. pasta production.