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Eurekite receives investment and industrialization support
A new flexible ceramic fiber material, invented by Eurekite, offers a wide range of applications, from batteries and electronics to oil and gas filtration. Eurekite is a spin-off from the University of Twente in the field of advanced materials. The company has successfully developed a lab-scale production process and executed several projects with international customers. Eurekite is now ready to scale up production, invest in global market development and expand its patent portfolio. To this end, it raised € 4.2 million in a follow-on investment round and asked technology developer and manufacturer Demcon for industrialization of production.
Eurekite’s invention, Flexiramics®, is based on the world-renowned expertise of the University of Twente (UT) in the field of materials science and nanomaterials. It is a flexible mat of pure ceramic fibers that is as light and flexible as tissue paper, while retaining the key physicochemical properties of traditional ceramics. These properties of ceramics are heat resistance, electrical insulation and corrosion resistance. However, traditional ceramics are very inflexible, which limits their applications. As a flexible ceramic, Flexiramics offers unique application possibilities in a variety of technical domains, including separation membranes in Li-ion batteries, flexible, heat-resistant printed circuit boards and filtration membranes for the oil & gas industry.
Production and business development scale-up
Since 2015, Eurekite has focused on the further development of the new ceramic material. The aim was to realise a production process on a laboratory scale and to carry out projects with international customers to tailor product properties to their specific needs. This allows Eurekite to produce small quantities of high-quality material and the next step is to produce the larger quantities required for qualification projects with customers.
This next step for Eurekite requires a production line for market development (a pilot production line), COO Bas Kerkwijk explains. “Our core competencies are in materials science and chemistry, not in mechanical engineering, so we went looking for an engineering partner. We chose Demcon because of their track record in industrializing production and their experience in designing and building high-end machines and pilot lines.”
Eurekite’s pilot line is scheduled for late 2022. In the meantime, the company will use temporary equipment to produce material to fuel market development. Additional funding is required to scale up production and commercial operations, and to further develop intellectual property.
Regional investors consortium
Between 2015 and 2020, Cottonwood Technology Fund – a Dutch-American venture capital fund – provided seed and follow-on investments worth €2.75 million to Eurekite. The new follow-on investment round of €4.2 million includes a substantial loan from RVO (Netherlands Enterprise Agency), the equipment lease facility from the Twente High Tech Fund and a capital injection from a consortium of regional investors, including Lumana Invest, Oost NL from the Twente Innovation Fund and Demcon.
“We are excited to close this financing round, which will allow us to deliver our breakthrough Flexiramics technology to customers who can integrate it into their devices and processes, for solutions that benefit society,” said Gerard Cadafalch Gazquez, CEO of Eurekite. “Our market perspective has improved dramatically since we started six years ago. We have gone through a steep learning curve and successfully completed all the steps on our product development roadmap to take our invention to the next level. Customers are very impressed and we have experienced that our knowledge position is even stronger than we expected. There is plenty of room in the market for our innovative material.”
“Born and raised in Twente, where I have worked for most of my career, I am proud that we have built a solid business case in this region, resulting in this financing from a strong consortium of regional partners,” adds Bas Kerkwijk. “The Eurekite team will continue to work hard to grow into a successful materials science company in a high-tech ecosystem dominated by IT and medtech companies. Once scaled up, we will have first-class manufacturing capabilities to produce high-quality products in high volumes.”
“We are pleased to have been able to act as lead investor in this round, together with a group of regional investors and Demcon,” says director Wim Smit of Lumana Invest, which specifically invests in high-tech/medtech companies with groundbreaking technology. “This round enables Eurekite to expand its production capacity and conquer the world with its new, groundbreaking material. As a spin-off of the MESA+ institute of the UT, Eurekite has been able to give unique patented properties to ceramic material. Eurekite can rightly be called a new Twente pearl.”
Technology partner
“We see great potential for Eurekite’s material and Demcon has the expertise in advanced manufacturing, thin-film technology and material handling that is needed to bring their production to industrial scale,” explains Jemy Pauwels, director investment at Demcon. “They show a very convincing track record for Flexiramics. It is an absolute novelty that can grow into a new industrial base material with a wide range of applications. And we are only at the beginning – even some of our own researchers and engineers are looking at new applications in their projects. Furthermore, Eurekite, driven by a highly competent, intrinsically motivated management team, has already managed to involve leading international companies in paid projects in the start-up phase.”
Operating as a technology partner from its location in Enschede, Demcon is close to the new production facility of Eurekite. “That strengthens our collaboration even further. In addition, it is great to be part of an East Netherlands investment consortium that wants to make this material innovation a success.”
About Eurekite
Eurekite was founded in 2015 as a spin-off from the UT in the field of advanced materials and is located in Enschede. The company focuses all activities on its core invention, Flexiramics®, a flexible ceramic with a unique range of applications in many technical domains. Over the past years, the concept has proven itself and subsequently a prototype for a platform technology and production process has been successfully developed on laboratory scale. Leveraging its expertise in flexible ceramics and Flexiramics in particular, Eurekite currently focuses on application specific engineering, product supply and technology development.
Gerard Cadafalch, CEO, gerard.cadafalch@eurekite.com
Bas Kerkwijk, COO, bas.kerkwijk@eurekite.com
About Demcon
Demcon (750 employees) develops, produces and supplies technology and innovative products. The Demcon group has locations in Best, Delft, Enschede, Groningen, Münster (D), Singapore and Tokyo (Japan). The company was founded from the founders' passion for combining creativity and technical skills aimed at solving complex issues. These issues are technological and social in nature and often have a direct or indirect impact on people and their living environment. Whether it concerns medical solutions, systems that monitor our safety or sustainable innovations for themes such as water and energy, Demcon contributes - for current and future generations. In addition to developing technical solutions, Demcon focuses on stimulating entrepreneurship and investing in talent and education.
Marleen Markvoort, corporate communications specialist, marleen.markvoort@demcon.com
About Lumana Invest
Lumana Invest, founded by entrepreneurs, is an investment company focused on fast-growing, innovative companies that deliver better solutions at lower costs. Lumana prefers to invest in start-ups in new markets and new, groundbreaking technologies. The investment philosophy is based on involved shareholding: supporting management in strategic issues and exploring and, if possible, pushing boundaries together with management. Lumana's portfolio includes companies in the field of biomedical technology, software, advanced materials and high-tech production technology.
Wim Smit, managing director, wim.smit@forgeron.eu
