Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem do you solve?
Exomatter: Finding new materials, for example for batteries in electric cars or efficient solar cells on roofs, is very complex. Typically, many candidates are tested in the laboratory until a good result is achieved months or years later. We want to change that. To do this, we use data from computer simulations to find better and more sustainable materials more quickly.
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Exomatter: Yes, but there are huge barriers to entry for current solutions. Simulating materials requires quantum chemical calculations, and the vast majority of companies in our target group don't have the right specialists for this, because it wouldn't be worthwhile to develop these competencies themselves. We make the entire process as simple as possible. Our customers only have to tell us what their material requirements are, and our platform then provides the appropriate data.
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Exomatter: The three of us are a very complementary team with both scientific and business backgrounds. Josua and Friedemann know each other from their doctoral studies at the German Aerospace Center, and Barbara actively sought them out and found them. Two of us have already worked in B2B software startups, and one has a strong sustainability background and is heavily involved with the IPCC.
From Berkeley via Helmholtz-Enterprise to the UnternehmerTUM
The initial ideas and the technology go back to Josua, who was tasked with finding materials for the use of solar energy for his doctorate. He thought that this should be easier than spending years laboriously testing all material candidates in the laboratory. So he teamed up with experts in California at the National Lab in Berkeley and worked there for three months. The result was the very first prototype of a materials data platform, which he used to find new materials for his doctoral thesis in a very short time. They are still the most promising candidates for application today. In 2020, Josua took up the idea again and developed our first product in 2021, later also with the support of the Helmholtz Enterprise spin-off program at DLR. In 2022, we founded our company and are currently financing ourselves through customer orders and grants and have integrated it into programs of the UnternehmerTUM We were first on Xpreneurs, and since the beginning of the year we've been on Techfounders.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Exomatter: A major challenge was translating this idea from science into a product that would deliver real added value to customers in companies. In other words, the transition from academia to business. We've now mastered this quite well by conducting numerous discussions and learning a lot from pilot projects.
Another important aspect is team building. As mentioned, we are a very complementary team, bringing together diverse personalities. This makes us stronger and more diverse, but it did lead to conflicts, especially in the early days, all of which we were able to resolve constructively.
Exomatter aims to enable end-to-end management of the R&D process
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, where in five years?
Exomatter: In a year, we will have implemented several frequently requested features on our platform. The most important aspect is that customers will be able to access data on our platform largely without our support. This is a huge advantage for customers, as they no longer have to commission us for each individual project. Instead, they pay an annual fee and can work on multiple topics in parallel or consecutively during that time. And if things get complicated, we'll be there in the background. The types of data available there will also be more diverse, especially on sustainability and material availability.
We want to grow as a company at our locations in Munich and Cologne and become an exciting technology company in the region. In five years, if all goes well, we will be in our market segment of Materials Informatics as a well-known player in Europe and North America. Our platform enables end-to-end management of the R&D process, integration with other enterprise software platforms, and a broad community of users, including academics. We also have some exciting ideas regarding the further use of AI algorithms that we cannot reveal at this point.
“What could be improved is the openness of companies.”
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Exomatter: Super interesting. There's a network of founders, investors, and mentors here that doesn't exist anywhere else in Germany in the B2B sector. The support from UnternehmerTUM and their Xpreneurs incubator, in which we participated, was particularly helpful. None of the three of us have ever founded a company before, so it's extremely important to build a network and learn from others. Coworking spaces like Werk1 and Munich Urban Colab were also very helpful in finding a physical home and being able to connect with each other in person, despite the high proportion of remote work.
What could be improved further would be the openness of companies in the region to new digital approaches. There's a desire to move things forward in many places, but they often get lost in corporate structures and established processes that are difficult to break through.
Additionally, it's difficult to find IT employees who are also locally based and looking for a new job. We could hire remotely from anywhere in the world right away, but the mix of personal collaboration and proximity with flexible remote work is very important to us. If you know of someone, please feel free to contact us.
Munich Startup: Hidden champion or shooting star?
Exomatter: Currently, we're still more of a hidden champion, as we're still a small team and haven't yet received any external capital. However, we're currently in talks for our first round of financing, which at least gives us great potential to become a rising star. It's a very exciting time right now, and it's a lot of fun, and we can't wait to see where this journey takes us.
