Kemira’s Post

Kemira's partner CuspAI has been building #AI “foundation models” that can make predictions about #chemistry, much the way that large language models make predictions about language... it's “search engine for the material world” is helping Kemira find new materials that could filter #PFAS (so called forever chemicals) out of water. Read more in Fortune 👇

Exciting milestone in AI-driven chemistry: CuspAI just raised $100M to accelerate materials discovery and design. Their work is cutting R&D cycles from years to months—unlocking faster, more sustainable solutions. A great example is their partnership with Kemira to tackle PFAS removal from water, showing how startups and industry leaders can drive real-world impact together. AI isn’t just transforming tech—it’s reshaping the future of materials and sustainability. https://lnkd.in/dtGsA8W3 #AI, #Innovation, #Sustainability, #MaterialsScience, #PFAS

While everyone's talking about AI chatbots, a Cambridge startup just raised $100M to solve something far more fundamental. CuspAI closed their Series A with NEA and Temasek leading the round. But here's what caught my attention: They're not building another language model. They built an AI that functions as a "search engine for materials." Think about that for a second. Every breakthrough in audio equipment, gaming hardware, and music production depends on materials innovation. Better speakers need advanced acoustic materials. Next-gen gaming consoles require more efficient semiconductors. High-fidelity audio systems demand superior magnetic materials. Traditionally, discovering new materials takes decades. CuspAI's platform does it 10x faster. They're already working with: → Hyundai on sustainable energy materials → Meta on carbon capture solutions → Kemira on PFAS removal technology The investor lineup tells the whole story: OpenAI co-founder Durk Kingma backed them. Google VP Research Zoubin Ghahramani invested. Samsung Ventures and Hyundai Motor Group joined the round. These aren't random bets. They're strategic investments in the infrastructure that powers everything we build. While we focus on software innovation, the real breakthroughs might come from reimagining the physical materials that make our technology possible. The question isn't whether AI will transform materials discovery. It's whether your industry is ready for what comes next. What materials breakthrough would revolutionize your field? Source: https://buff.ly/bPi1xKo #AI

TransHumanity, a company spun out of Loughborough University, has secured £400,000 in pre-seed investment. The funding round was led by SFC Capital, with further backing from Plug and Play, a venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. The company is developing agentic artificial intelligence systems, designed to support people in achieving specific goals through interaction in plain English. These systems include AI “agents” that can collect data, provide recommendations, and complete tasks, allowing users to work through problems more efficiently.

British startup CuspAI has raised $100M+ to revolutionise materials discovery with AI. CuspAI uses artificial intelligence to accelerate breakthroughs in materials science, unlocking new possibilities for industries from energy to healthcare. CuspAI CEO and Co-founder Chad Edwards said: “Next-generation AI compute, clean air and water and sustainable energy – these multi-billion-dollar global challenges share a common barrier: materials. CuspAI’s mission is to change that.. This funding allows us to scale our platform and deliver transformative materials to market faster.” Read more https://lnkd.in/emVFT55f Max Welling #Materials #Innovation

If there is one thing you read on the internet today, make it this (link below). Jerry Neumann's foresight on venture and venture-backed companies have consistently yielded a 50%+ IRR for 15+ years. He says the AI Revolution looks more like Shipping Containerization than the Microprocessor boom: value will be competed away and captured downstream by customers and savvy incumbents. In this essay he shows why “being early and getting out” may be the only venture‑scale wins; and where the durable opportunities actually lie—in knowledge‑service businesses that use AI to cut prices and open new markets.

The rise of #DeepTech in recent years has captured the attention of investors, policymakers and innovators alike. But what’s beyond the hype? At its core, deep tech is grounded in cutting-edge scientific discovery and technological complexity, with far-reaching consequences for industry, society and the global economy. Benjamin Cabanes (Mines Paris - PSL) writes on LSE Business Review that the rise of #BigTech calls for a rethinking of technology transfer mechanisms. https://lnkd.in/dVv5F8ax

Big news in the AI for science space: CuspAI has raised $100M in new venture funding to accelerate development of its AI models for chemistry. The company, which counts several AI luminaries among its scientific advisors, is building platforms that could transform how new molecules and materials are discovered. Exciting to see continued momentum at the intersection of AI and chemistry—an area with enormous potential for impact in drug discovery, energy, and materials science. 👏👏

Cambridge-based AI for materials science company CuspAI has confirmed a $100 million+ Series A round – led by global heavyweights New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Temasek, with participation from NVIDIA’s nVentures, Samsung Ventures and new backer Hyundai Motor Group. Other firms participating include Basis Set Ventures, FJ Labs, Giant Ventures, LocalGlobe, Northzone, Prosus Ventures, Tiferes Ventures and Touring Capital. Angel investors include Durk Kingma (OpenAI Co-Founder), Zoubin Ghahramani (Google DeepMind VP Research), Arash Ferdowsi (Founder of Dropbox), Thomas Wolf (Founder of Hugging Face) and Victor Riparbelli (Founder CEO of Synthesia). CuspAI is building an AI ‘search engine’ for new materials – enabling customers to specify the exact properties they need, and to generate candidate materials up to 10x faster than traditional discovery methods. It can be revealed now that Hyundai Motor Group is among the company’s customers and partners to work on sustainable energy applications; Kemira the Helsinki NASDAQ-listed company will work on PFAS "forever chemicals" removal from water while Meta will focus on carbon capture including the world's largest direct air capture database ODAC25. CuspAI teases that more partnerships are being lined up – including in the semiconductor sector. Two new advisers have also been announced: Martin van den Brink, the former President and CTO of ASML, and Lord (John) Browne, the former BP CEO, Chair of the Francis Crick Institute and co-Chair of the UK Government’s Council for Science and Technology. The advisory board currently includes Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun. The company was founded in 2024, emerging from stealth with $30m Seed funding. Cusp AI’s co-founders are Dr Chad Edwards, a chemist turned DeepTech entrepreneur who previously scaled quantum computing unicorn Quantinuum, and Professor Max Welling, a globally recognised AI pioneer and former Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft Research, and VP of Technology at Qualcomm. Chad Edwards said: “Next-generation AI compute, clean air and water and sustainable energy – these multi-billion-dollar global challenges share a common barrier: materials. CuspAI’s mission is to change that. In just a year, we’ve gone from concept to partnerships with world leaders in automotive, semiconductors, energy, and climate. “This funding allows us to scale our platform and deliver transformative materials to market faster. We’re grateful for the support of our investors, and the strategic backing from our customers as we accelerate into our next phase of our growth.” Full article – https://lnkd.in/e5Fy8ZWQ

AI Money Machine: Q3 VC Just Went Nuclear Global VC hit $97B in Q3, up 38% YoY, and ~46% of that went to AI. Anthropic alone soaked up 29% with a $13B round, while xAI banked $5.3B and Mistral pulled $2B. The U.S. captured $60B, OpenAI’s secondary pinned a $500B private valuation, and the rest of the market is learning to live in the gravity well of a few mega-players. Meanwhile, hardware was the No. 2 sector at $16.2B, with health/biotech at $15.8B. Translation: the AI stack and the picks-and-shovels under it is where capital believes the next decade gets built. Is this a renaissance or a reckoning in slow motion? Public markets are nodding along fresh highs fueled by AI dealmaking while VCs whisper about bubble risk and FOMO creep. If one-third of capital keeps clustering into a handful of names, founders outside the blast radius will need sharper narratives, real unit economics, and distribution that bites. If you’re selling into this wave, lead with outcomes tied to AI-enabled productivity and infra ROI. If you’re building, decide fast—are you a model, a tool, or the must-have workflow that rides on both? And if you’re hiring, calibrate comp and timelines to a market where capital is abundant for a few and selective for everyone else. Where do you see opportunity as the AI money machine spins up? Is this sustainable momentum—or the part of the chart we screenshot right before the audit? #AI #VentureCapital #Startups