Deep tech startup to roll out “ground-breaking” AI tech via six-figure funding

London based deep tech company Materials Nexus has raised £2m to roll out its “ground-breaking” AI and quantum mechanics technology which fast-tracks the discovery and development of sustainable, cheaper, higher performing materials.

The round was led by Ada Ventures, with further investment from High-Tech Gründerfonds, The University of Cambridge, National Security specialists MD One Ventures, as well as new institutional investor Michael Eisenberg at Genuine Capital Ventures, and angel investors Jasmin Thomas, Andrew MacKay and Hugh Smith.

The “ambitious” startup is determined to enhance a wide range of net-zero technologies such as renewable energy generation, energy storage and electric transportation by redesigning the advanced materials that underpin them, providing higher efficiency, performance and sustainability and lower costs.

Currently, the development of sustainable materials is based on an incremental experimental approach, which is said to be “slow, costly and can have diminishing returns”.

Materials Nexus is led by founder and CEO Jonathan Bean, a theoretical physicist from the University of Cambridge who, during his time as research associate, identified the need for a modelling platform to accelerate the uptake of new materials to address the climate crisis.

Over the last two years, Bean and his team, which includes computational physicist Robert Forrest, chemist Dr Jon Pillow and commercial lead Nic Stirk, have been working on an AI solution that greatly reduces the need to conduct physical experiments to discover new materials.

They have achieved this by building their own proprietary datasets and machine learning algorithms which are capable of predicting the properties of new material compositions, similar to how AI innovation has been used to disrupt R&D in drug discovery.

Accelerated discovery means the costs associated with research and development are lower and new products can be pushed to market more quickly and economically.

Bean commented: “As a society, we rely heavily on advanced materials to build the technologies which are vital for a net-zero world. These include magnetic materials used for clean energy solutions like wind turbines and electric vehicles, and precious metals for producing green hydrogen.

“Our mission is simple; to discover more sustainable materials which governments and companies can use to build green technologies, in a way that’s commercially viable.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily