Making high performance materials affordable
As everything we produce today is made of materials, it makes it one of the major foundations of our economy. Thus, constant progress in the field of materials sciences has the potential to sustainably improve our environment, our society, and our lives.
This is why the start-up FibreCoat, originating from RWTH Aachen University in Germany, a partner of the EIT RawMaterials community, strives for innovation to achieve sustainable, accessible, and affordable materials for our planet and beyond. Their flexible coating module allows us to rent existing fibre production capacities. This enables to work with a low CapEx while being able to produce on-demand anywhere in the world.
Delivering innovation, quality, and cost benefits
With Alucoat, Fibrecoat has provided their first market-ready product and is scaling up production in 2021 from 1 to 6 tons/month.
Our product AluCoat saves up to 90% in CO2 emissions during production when compared to alternative materials, such as solid metal fibres and aluminium foils and sheets, while also being fully recyclable.
Dr Robert Brüll, CEO of FibreCoat
The team strives to keep its products affordable, opening up the world of high-performance materials to the mass market. For example, making EM shielding affordable by reducing the cost 10-20 times compared to competitors. This ultimately lowers the boundaries and costs for manufacturers, resulting in more affordable products for everyone. Their products show proven disruptive technical and economic performance. Their new technology for single-filament coating provides the smallest fibre reinforced composite in the world.
Series A round to increase capacity, increase sales and marketing activities
Fibrecoat has recently closed the series A financing round with an investment of USD 3 million, acknowledging the fact that they are on the right path to becoming a staple in the composite world.
The interest level was so high that this offering was oversubscribed by 200%. Our partnership with FibreCoat will bring innovative solutions to our customers and aligns well with our mission of making the world a better home.
Minas Apelian, Vice President, Internal and External Venturing at Saint-Gobain
The Series A funding was a result of FibreCoat’s outstanding technology and performance at this year’s Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC), where the company was represented as the TiE Global automatic European entry after successfully winning TiE Global’s feeder competition in Europe. The capital raised is being used to expand the FibreCoat team to increase sales and marketing activities as the company looks to increase capacity and to allow FibreCoat to build new partnerships in the construction, electronics, and automotive industry.
Strategic support of FibreCoat’s growth
EIT RawMaterials has supported the development of FibreCoat with funding through the Booster Call for Start-ups and SMEs and its network. The start-up has taken benefit from discussions with potential partners for FibreCoat from the EIT RawMaterials pan-European Innovation Community. Besides the network, connecting the team with relevant raw material companies and individual coaching was of great value for their future growth.
We are very pleased to accompany FibreCoat in the industrialisation of its unique metal fibre coating technology and support the start-up growth strategy in various industry sectors.
Nicolas Menou, Business Development Manager at EIT RawMaterials Innovation Hub West
