Why We Invested: Quantistry
Accelerating the discovery of Sustainable Materials with Chemical Simulations – From Quantum to AI
Ananda Impact Ventures has led a €3M funding round in Quantistry, a Berlin-based startup building the world’s most intuitive cloud-native chemical simulation platform for the design and discovery of new sustainable materials.
Researching and developing new materials, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors such as automotive, is expensive and time-consuming. Experimentation tends to be conducted in physical labs, while current chemical simulation software is difficult to use. Results are slow in coming, innovation is stifled, and more sustainable materials remain undeveloped.
Quantistry represents a major leap forward in chemical simulations, making them more accessible and easier to use. By leveraging the power of AI and quantum computing, Quantistry can accelerate the development of more sustainable materials and the manufacture of products such as next-gen EV batteries, solar cells and carbon-neutral alloys.
This funding will accelerate Quantistry’s growth as a global industry leader in chemical simulations.
The rising demand for sustainable materials
The production of raw materials for industry contributes an outsized proportion of global GHG emissions, with 19% associated with their extraction and creation, and another 3% associated with their waste and removal. To meet stringent net zero targets, we have to enable industries to optimise existing materials or create sustainable new alternatives.
Yet R&D scientists are being hindered in their efforts to develop new materials by inefficient working practices and poorly designed software simulation tools. Most experimentation is still lab-based, and simulation tools are highly specialised and difficult to use. This makes experiments expensive and time-consuming and discourages further industry investment.
Industry executives acknowledge that the continued extraction and production of toxic and polluting chemical-based materials is not tenable. If net zero targets are to be met, new methods for the creation of more sustainable materials must be developed quickly.
Crucially, R&D teams must be empowered to do this via a radical shake-up of traditional models of experimentation. Only then will these teams be able to innovate effectively.
A new way to R&D: from Quantum to AI
Quantistry’s next generation chemical simulation tool is a solution to this challenge. Its unique approach to applying AI and quantum computing to molecular and materials modelling has been shown to increase the speed of development of new materials by 10x — what once took months can now be achieved in a few weeks.
Quantistry’s cloud-based, no-code solution is also easy to use and interpret, eliminating the requirement for specialised knowledge to run chemical simulations. Quantistry is a tool accessible to any R&D scientist.
By substantially reducing the costs and carbon footprint of chemical simulation, and making it widely available, Quantistry accelerates innovation in materials development, and makes a new way of R&D possible.
Quantistry and Ananda: a partnership for a more sustainable world
Quantistry is currently working with clients in areas including battery materials, carbon capture and storage, semiconductors, alloys, optics and drug discovery. Ananda has partnered with Quantistry as it increases its computation power, and further expands its use cases and impact.
The momentum of supercomputing, coupled with supply chain pressure resulting from geopolitical tensions and regulatory demands, means that Quantistry’s timing couldn’t be better. Its positioning in Germany also enables it to tap into large European industries and support them with upcoming legislative changes around net zero emissions.
Guided by the leadership of Marcel Quennet, Arturo Robertazzi and Stefan Kupferberg, Quantistry is in good hands.
- Marcel uniquely combines quantum chemistry, cloud computing expertise and entrepreneurship.
- Arturo brings a triple combo of writing skills, quantum and computational chemistry expertise, and a background in marketing and sales. (Check out his blog From Atoms To Words, where he covers complex science in an exciting and easy-to-understand manner.)
- Stefan has an extensive finance background and is an alumnus of Wharton Business School. He initially got involved with Quantistry as a mentor, but got so consumed by the thrill of working with the team that he joined them in 2021.
Just as Quantistry makes highly technical testing more accessible to a broader R&D audience, its management team are experts at translating scientific context in an actionable way, committed to making chemical simulations common practice via quantum computing, and ushering in the next generation of sustainable materials.
Alina Bassi, Investment Manager at Ananda Impact Ventures, comments:
“We believe that Quantistry has a key role to play in the future of quantum chemistry and chemical simulation. Ananda brings our knowledge and networks from the chemical industry, plus our experience in scaling software solutions, to support Quantistry as it becomes an ever more impactful organisation.
Together, we will be catalysts and industry change makers, dedicated to raising awareness of Quantistry’s unique platform and the role it can play in changing our future for the better.”
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