{"id":178271,"date":"2026-07-09T07:23:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T05:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=178271"},"modified":"2026-07-02T12:25:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T10:25:31","slug":"the-future-of-chemistry-is-taking-shape-in-the-lab-exaere-wins-the-from-lab-to-market-challenge-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/the-future-of-chemistry-is-taking-shape-in-the-lab-exaere-wins-the-from-lab-to-market-challenge-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"The future of chemistry is taking shape in the lab: ex\u00e6re wins the From Lab to Market Challenge 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

German laboratories and research institutions are developing technologies that have the potential to make the chemical industry<\/a> more sustainable, resilient, and competitive. Behind these innovations are researchers who are taking the leap from academia to entrepreneurship. At the Grand Award Event of the fifth From Lab to Market Challenge (FLTMC), chemstars\u2014the innovation hub for Germany\u2019s chemical industry\u2014named ex\u00e6re from Hamburg as the winner of this year\u2019s competition. The founders impressed the jury with their technology for recovering rare earth elements and critical raw materials from waste and recycling streams. In addition, ReduCO\u2082 from Munich received the CHEManager Special Prize for its approach to converting industrial CO\u2082 and hydrogen into high-purity graphite<\/a> for batteries.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"The
The three winning teams and the organizers of this year’s From Lab to Market Challenge, along with the lucky winner, Yelda Nur Demird\u00f6\u011fen (front, 4th from the left). \u00a9 Manor Lux<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Twelve selected research teams\u2014chosen from a total of 49 applicants from across Germany\u2014presented their technologies at Baykomm in Leverkusen to address key challenges facing the industry \u2014ranging from AI-driven acceleration of research and development processes, new technologies for sustainable energy and raw material systems, to innovative materials and processes for decarbonizing industrial value chains. The twelve finalists had prevailed in regional preliminary rounds organized by the award partners chemstars, greenCHEM, koala, QuinCat, chemSPACE, and Forum Rathenau, and are among the most promising science-based startup projects of the current cohort in Germany. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winners were selected by a panel of experts and the on-site participants through an anonymous vote. In addition, votes were cast by more than 1,000 readers of media partner CHEManager, who had participated in a public online vote beforehand. The CHEManager Special Prize was also awarded this year. The winning team will be presented at the CHEManager Innovation Pitch this fall.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Germany Needs More Bold Chemistry Entrepreneurs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ideas and technologies we\u2019ve seen today demonstrate the potential that lies within Germany\u2019s laboratories and research institutions. With the From Lab to Market Challenge, we aim to highlight precisely these individuals and support them on their journey toward commercialization. Every successful spin-off is a win\u2014for research, for our industry, and for Germany as a hub of innovation. We need more bold scientists who dare to take the leap from the lab to entrepreneurial implementation. After all, the solutions to many of our greatest challenges already exist\u2014we must give them the chance to become companies,\u201d says Martin Bellof, Lead Strategy & Ventures at chemstars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The significance of such spin-offs extends far beyond individual technologies. The chemical industry is under enormous pressure to change: geopolitical conflicts, volatile energy and raw materials markets, the industry\u2019s transition away from fossil fuels, and increasing international competition are all heightening the pressure on companies to innovate. At the same time, development cycles are getting shorter and technological challenges are becoming more complex. Solutions to these challenges emerge at the intersection of research, startups, and established industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open innovation is becoming a strategic competitive advantage<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s event at Baykomm in Leverkusen also served as a clear demonstration of this trend. In his keynote address, Marcus Paul Gruen, Head of Crop Protection Innovation and Vice President at Bayer AG, spoke about how collaboration between established industrial companies and startups is changing. Rather than developing innovation exclusively within their own companies, he said, the focus is increasingly on advancing technologies together with partners and establishing new forms of collaboration. \u201cWe don\u2019t have to develop every technology ourselves. What matters is having access to technologies that set us apart from the competition. We don\u2019t have to own them, and that\u2019s precisely where there\u2019s great potential for startups,\u201d said Gruen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe chemical industry can no longer solve the challenges of our time within closed innovation systems. Whether it\u2019s geopolitical uncertainties, dependence on fossil fuels, or the development of new materials and production processes\u2014all of this requires new partnerships and greater openness to external innovation. Initiatives like the From Lab to Market Challenge are therefore far more than just a startup competition. They are a strategic building block for the competitiveness, resilience, and technological sovereignty of our industrial hub,\u201d says Stefan Weber, Lead Ecosystems & Communication at chemstars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving into the Next Scaling Phase with Momentum<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For the winning team, ex\u00e6re\u2014led by founders Yelda Nur Demird\u00f6\u011fen and Jan Dethloff\u2014the award marks an important milestone on the path from research to industrial application. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor us, this award is a huge validation. Now, above all, it\u2019s time to step on the gas in the lab and accelerate our path toward the pilot phase. We\u2019re developing biomaterials that can be used to recover critical metals, and we now want to advance this technology further. We\u2019ve been engaging with chemstars for a very long time\u2014even before the program began. Above all, the feedback from industry and access to the network have been incredibly valuable to us,\u201d says co-founder Yelda Nur Demird\u00f6\u011fen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The twelve finalists of the From Lab to Market Challenge 2026 have impressively demonstrated that the technologies for a more sustainable, resilient, and competitive chemical industry are already emerging in German laboratories today. However, for these innovations to have an impact, more than just excellent research is needed: it takes courageous founders, strong networks, and partnerships between science, startups, and industry. This is exactly where chemstars comes in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

German laboratories and research institutions are developing technologies that have the potential to make the chemical industry more sustainable, resilient, and competitive. Behind these innovations are researchers who are taking the leap from academia to entrepreneurship. At the Grand Award Event of the fifth From Lab to Market Challenge (FLTMC), chemstars\u2014the innovation hub for Germany\u2019s chemical industry\u2014named […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":178286,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"ReduCO\u2082, based in Munich, received a special award for converting CO\u2082 and hydrogen into battery graphite","footnotes":""},"categories":[17143],"tags":[24550,14796,10744,12330,10416,23962,10630,10743],"supplier":[16852,28110,21161,28111,28112,24342,28104,28105,26492,28109,28106],"class_list":["post-178271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recycling","tag-arteficialintelligence","tag-batteries","tag-carboncapture","tag-ccu","tag-circulareconomy","tag-graphite","tag-hydrogen","tag-useco2","supplier-chemanager-international-newspaper","supplier-chemspace","supplier-chemstars-nrw","supplier-crop-protection-innovations-bayer","supplier-exaere","supplier-https-forum-rathenau-de","supplier-from-lab-to-market-challenge-fltmc-chemstars","supplier-greenchem","supplier-koala-green-chemistry-startup-network-and-incubator","supplier-quincat-rwth-aachen","supplier-reduco-schmalz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178271"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178311,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178271\/revisions\/178311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178271"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=178271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}