Dunia Innovations, a Berlin-based deeptech startup specialising in AI-driven material discovery, has secured $11.5 million in funding co-led by French VC Elaia (which recently invested in Qantev and dottxt) and Swiss VC redalpine (which recently backed Basecamp Research and Legalfly). Other backers included the EIC, Pace Ventures, Kindred Capital, Deep Science Ventures, Anglo American, and industry expert angels.
The German startup is using AI-driven technology and its automated lab to speed up the discovery of advanced materials. The company aims to reduce the time it typically takes to develop new materials, which can often be decades. This is part of a broader focus on helping the clean energy transition. By 2050, the global market for electrochemical technologies, which play a key role in energy storage and conversion, is projected to reach $1.5 trillion. Dunia’s approach is intended to accelerate innovation in this field, contributing to the advancement of clean energy solutions.
Traditional chemical research relies on slow and inefficient “design, make, test, analyse” (DMTA) cycles. Dunia rethinks this process using advanced chemical-robotic workflows and proprietary quantum chemistry-derived material representations. These representations together with their in-house proprietary datasets give Dunia’s machine learning (ML) systems a competitive edge over other black-box ML approaches, allowing for faster material discovery.
“You can’t solve this problem with software alone but by combining machine learning with chemical robotics, we can iterate faster and generate high-quality data, drastically cutting down the time needed to discover new materials.“ said Dr. Alexander Hammer, Co-Founder of Dunia.
Self-driving labs for accelerated materials discovery
Dunia Innovations was founded in 2022 by a team of scientists and engineers from the University of Cambridge and the University of Glasgow, including Alexander Hammer, Ahmed Ismail, and Marcus Ng. The company has received recognition from prestigious programs such as the Henry Royce Institute, which focuses on advanced materials research and innovation.
Further, Dunia Innovations combines AI algorithms with an automated self-driving lab to speed up the discovery of advanced materials. The company focuses on developing next-generation electrocatalysts for power-to-X applications, including green hydrogen and ammonia production and converting CO2 into more complex chemical products. These catalysts are designed to lower energy consumption and enable cost-effective production of carbon-neutral fuels and chemicals, helping reduce emissions and create new markets.
The company is supported by prominent backers, including Dr. Udo Jung (founder of BCG’s chemicals and petrochemicals divisions), Dr. Chris Gibson (CEO of Recursion), Professor Lee Cronin (CEO of Chemify), and Dr. Carlos Haertel (former CTO of Climeworks), who now serves as Chairman of Dunia’s board.
Michael Sidler, Founding Partner at redalpine, said: “With humanity’s fast-growing need for power and the reliance on petrochemicals, the discovery of novel ways to create sustainable fuels and chemicals has become crucial. We need radical disruption to the existing R&D processes to create novel catalysing agents for the efficient synthesis of such fuels. Dunia’s AI-driven lab approach is the foundation of the discovery of these world-changing catalysts.”
Céline Passedouet, Investment Director at Elaia said: “We were first drawn to the Dunia adventure by the vision and ambition of the founders and were convinced by their ability to execute quickly while retaining a strategic perspective. New materials discovery requires deep scientific backgrounds for which the Dunia team is well-positioned with many years of experience and published research.”
Chris Gibson, Founder and CEO at Recursion, said: “Dunia is taking the same bold approach to clean energy materials that we’ve taken at Recursion in biotech—applying AI and automation to transform a traditionally slow-moving industry. AI automation has already transformed biotech, and Dunia is perfectly positioned to bring this level of disruption to the chemical industry. “
Dr. Udo Jung, Senior Advisor & Senior Partner Emeritus at BCG, said: “Dunia truly has the potential to move the world. By focusing on ‘essential essentials’—electrochemical materials—they’ve found the leverage point to allow companies to integrate sustainable solutions while increasing margins. It’s a rare combination of innovation and financial sense.”
“We’ve always known that digitisation could revolutionise materials science, but the technology was never quite ready—until now. Dunia is stepping in at the perfect time to capitalise on recent advances in scientific AI and chemical robotics as these tools have finally matured. They’re poised to drive the breakthroughs we’ve been waiting for in clean energy and materials discovery.” said Professor Lee Cronin, Regius Chair of Chemistry and Founder of Chemify.
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