We met up with CEO Olivia Nestius and CFO Ted Karlsson for a talk about graphene.
Where is Graphmatech in terms of market position and development at the moment?
”We work with clients in several industries to optimize product features by including graphene in different materials – now we are in a phase of commercialization” says Olivia Nestius, CEO of Graphmatech.
Graphmatech is in a good position, with a number off-take agreements and projects with R&D departments at large industrial companies such as ABB and Polytubes. Graphmatech has been around for eight years and was founded as a spin-off from Uppsala University and ABB Corporate Research Center by the materials scientist Mamoun Taher. Graphmatech focus on infusing graphene in other materials such as polymers and metals and use machine learning to accelerate innovation. Graphene, the discovery awarded the Nobel Prize in 2004, has since proved to have premium qualities such as conductivity, strength and light weight, but has proved to be quite hard to industrialize. Graphmatech was early to operate in this field and patented several applications.
”We are not the only one working with graphene, but we are way ahead. We see a rapidly growing interest in our applications, and are now one of the largest purchasers of graphene in Europe, and considered an expert in using it.” says Olivia Nestius, CEO of the company.
The global market is huge. Graphmatech is addressing the polymer industry for example. One application is for conductive polymers, another is polymers for packaging where improved properties reduce material usage. Graphene can change the characters of the plastics. In electronics packaging, it may be possible to go from multilayer packaging solutions to single layer packaging.
What are the plans ahead?
”We are right in between a research based scale-up company – and a fully commercial situation. At the moment, due to client demand, we are expanding in Uppsala” says Olivia Nestius.
Graphmatech is now expanding the production capacity to 200 tonnes per year scaling up the production to 3 500 tonnes in 4 to 5 years. Moving forward, they can build production facilities around the world, factory units that can produce where the customers are based.
To make sure that there is a potential application, Graphmatech usually invests a lot of time with the client, and therefore makes sure that they have a a joint ambition that creates value for both parties over the years to come. That is why the contracts are a combination of development and commercial agreements.
How has your cap table developed and how is the green financing market doing?
”The investment environment is tricky at the moment, especially when you move from Seed to Series A, no doubt about that. But we have been around for a long time and are working in a field which attracts high investor interest.” says Ted Karlsson.
Graphmatech has off-take agreements, capex for factory building, and investors that have been great partners, with five VCs on the cap table, ABB, Molindo, InnoEnergy, Walerud Ventures and Almi Greentech Invest, apart from the founder still being the largest shareholder and CTO in the company.
What types of investors are you looking for now, and what do you expect from Sweden Sustaintech Venture Day?
”What we do is quite granular – we help our clients from the ground up in their production. We look for investors who understand the importance of unit-level economics in manufacturing, as the time frame for development and adoption of new materials is usually quite long” says Ted Karlsson.
Graphmatech is looking for VC:s and CVC:s that share their belief in deep tech and our materials, who understand development cycles of advanced materials and see the value of innovators taking advanced materials to the next level both in terms of performance and speed. Joining the Accelerator of Cleantech Scandinavia and Swedish Energy Agency has been a good networking opportunity where they have started discussions with several new investors.
Olivia and Ted like to work together on something that makes an impact. They keep on coming back to the word granular – the small particles that make larger effects.
Some quick, fun questions for Olivia Nestius:
Age: 35
Role: CEO
Education: KTH Royal Institute of Technology and SSE Stockholm School of Economics
Vision: Contributing to a brighter future
Book to read: Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
Sustainable Leisure Tip: Road cycling in Halland and Skåne
Some quick, fun questions for Ted Karlsson:
Age: 53
Role: CFO
Education: School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg
Vision: A better world for the grand children
Book to read: The Lord of the Rings
Sustainable Leisure Tip: Outdoor mountain activities
