Tom Whitehouse, chairman of consultancy LEIF, and James Caruso, general manager and venture partner at chemicals producer JNC and venture capital firm Draper Nexus, co-hosted a panel today on advanced materials.
Patrick Sheehan, managing partner at VC fund Environmental Technologies Fund, launched the discussion by commenting that silicon is often cited as an advanced material but that in fact the industry has much more to offer.
Kirill Mudryy, investment manager at VC firm Enso Ventures, meanwhile used the example of silicon to point out that some advanced materials can be an easy sell, as once the science is understood there is a very clear and well-defined roadmap.
Kemal Anbarci, managing executive at energy producer Chevron’s investment unit, Chevron Technology Ventures, spoke about his interest in advanced materials that enable Chevron to reduce the cost of offshore and subsea structures such as pipelines.
Ralph Taylor-Smith, managing director of investments and advanced manufacturing at industrial product conglomerate GE’s GE Digital division, underlined the importance of having a specific process or application.
The necessity for a specific product rather than a platform technology was unanimously agreed on by the panel, who pointed out that it is very difficult today to find interest in a platform.
Patrick Sheehan ultimately summed up the feeling in the room about platform technologies when he said that startups need to understand that the final 5% of advanced materials development take up 99% of all the effort.