1st ECP Booklet

“Must-Attend”- Event in just four months

Key data and Report about the 1st European Chemistry Partnering

Here you can find facts regarding  the 1st European Chemistry Partnering which was held on 16 February 2017 in Frankfurt, as well as a Report.

Facts about the 1st European Chemistry Partnering in overview

  • One Day
  • 140 Participants
  • 15 Nations from 3 Continents
  • Over 90 Industry companies: Large, Mid-sized, Start-ups
  • 22 Pitches from young companies
  • 204 Pre-arranged Partnering meetings
1st ECP Pitching Companies Country
1st ECP Participants Category
1st ECP Pitching Companies Country

The value of participation at the European Chemistry Partnering

The participants were very enthusiastic. In written feedback after the 1st European Chemistry Partnering more than 80 percent said: “We will come again”, “We will recommend participation to others” and “We will bring a colleague next time”.

 

The benefits

  • Direct contact with decision-makers from the industry’s market leaders.
  • Direct contact with many young and small Start-up companies and medium-sized companies in Chemistry.
  • A compact day: Clear conference structure. Adherence to time schedule.
  • Many business contacts in one day (Quantity) at a high level (Quality).
  • Partnering system: Fixed appointments can be arranged 4 months before the event.
  • Central Conference Venue in the City of Frankfurt am Main.
  • Strong focus on Networking: Welcome Reception, Get Together, Breaks and: New in 2018: Common breakfast the day after the 2nd ECP, 24 February 2018.

Chemistry makes the world go around

You would like to read more, why the 1st European chemistry Partnering was so successful? Then read the article of Joachim Pietzsch.

A meeting format that fulfills an unmet need

Participants praised First European Chemistry Partnering as targeted and intense

A conference report by Joachim Pietzsch, www.wissenswort.com

What a difference a day makes on which you meet the right people! Investors and possible partners who are keen to listen to your ideas and able to help you translate them into products. Or, vice versa, founders of Start-ups whose innovative approaches could enrich your company’s pipeline and who offer promising investment opportunities for your venture capital, respectively. Not to forget established medium-sized companies, which strive for growth through Partnering. February 16th, 2017, was such a day. In the premises of Frankfurt’s chamber of commerce, it saw the first European Chemistry Partnering Conference, organized by BCNP Consultants and primarily sponsored by Hessen Trade & Invest, in which 135 delegates from 15 countries took part.  “A great conference”, commented Marcel van Berkel, Chief Commercial Officer of the unique young Italian enterprise GF Biochemicals. “It was much more targeted to chemistry than other meetings of that sort.” Michael-Jean Nettersheim from BASF Venture Capital complimented the conference on “how intensely one could exchange”, and Stefan Buchholz, Managing Director of Evonik Creavis, said: “This is a rare format in the field of chemistry – I really got a complete overview here!”

The number both of company pitches and partnering meetings was indeed impressive. In the plenary room, 22 small and medium-sized innovative companies (SMEs) presented their technologies and business models in pitches of twelve minutes each, while in the adjacent lounge more than 200 partnering meetings took place in 20-minute-slots on twelve tables. Additionally, a Speakers’ Corner offered an opportunity to enter detailed discussions with each presenter immediately after his talk. Catering and further networking occasions were provided in a third room. The traffic between the three rooms sometimes resembled that of a beehive. It mirrored an excitement, which was perceived rather as a stimulus than as a disturbance by the conference attendees.  “You have to come in pairs, if you want to tap this meeting’s full potential”, said Thomas Renner from Wacker Chemie. An advice that many participating companies seemed to have already anticipated, so that one of their delegates could listen to a pitch, while the other was engaged in a partnering meeting.

 

The importance of endurance and networking

What a difference a date makes that brings you together with an investor who believes in you, was vividly highlighted in the conference’s key-note lecture. It was given by Sean Simpson, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of LanzaTech.  “Networking is crucial”, was one of his major insights. Twelve years ago, together with his friend Richard Forster, he had conceived the idea of utilizing microbes to convert carbon-rich waste gases from steel mills into biofuels and chemicals, a process that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions of fuel production substantially. They opened an R&D facility in Auckland/New Zealand. Their first approach didn’t work, however. “But it taught us, how to fail fast, learn more and move on”, Simpson said. In the next attempt, they identified a suitable microbial strain and demonstrated the feasibility of letting it produce ethanol from carbon monoxide in their lab. Yet they wouldn’t have succeeded in scaling-up their process, if their friend Ross Clark had not opened them a door to venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, the former co-founder of Sun Microsystems. “He was not interested in our business plan”, Simpson recalled. “He knew more about how to make money than we did. He rather wanted to understand our technology – and immediately realized its potential”. So, they raised twelve million US-Dollars from Khosla and additionally received a threefold advice: “Patent aggressively! Get steel in the ground! Hire the best team!”. That’s what they did: Today, LanzaTech owns 85 patents (another 250 are pending), runs pilot and commercial plants in China, USA and New Zealand, employs more than 140 associates, and has gained a reputation as a global pioneer of renewable fuel technology.

 

Across the universe of chemistry

The key-note on LanzaTech’s development fitted well into the conference program, as many of the presenting SMEs focus their business on green chemistry, environmental-friendly technologies or syntheses originating from renewable feedstock. They engage in enhancing the efficiency of catalysts for olefin metathesis; produce flavor and fragrance ingredients from natural precursors; use levulinic acid as a bio-based building block for solvents and plasticizers, and offer oils and oleo-chemicals made from renewable resources, to name but a few of the introduced business models.  Nevertheless, the scope of all pitches went far beyond that. It included advanced polymer-drug carriers and software prediction of thermodynamic properties; the empowerment of enzymes to more efficiently manufacture antibody drug carriers; nano-materials for the enhancement of the performance of electronic components; functional coatings to modify surfaces; the search for novel bioactive compounds in cyanobacteria; real-time diagnostics of liquids; quantum mechanics-based simulation of chemical reactions, and many other innovative approaches, thus reaffirming the immense dimensions of chemical space and underlining the words, with which BCNP’s managing director Holger Bengs had opened the conference: “Chemistry makes the world go round”. This world will continuously move faster, as the value chains of the chemical industry are rearranging, triggered by the need for a sustainable development and by emerging and converging new materials, processes and technologies. Proactively shaping this accelerating change, requires the establishment of both robust and flexible new value nets and calls for even more creative partnerships in the future – a fact that was reflected in the high interest in the first European Chemistry Partnering, with representatives from 29 chemical companies, ten investors and 37 SMEs participating.

 

“We invest in people and their passion”

“I am glad that this event really took place, because there was no sufficient activity in the German chemical Start-up scene before”, investor Josko Bobanovic from Sofinnova Partners concluded. “The Partnering sessions were a real highlight”, said Paolo Bavaj, Henkel’s Corporate Director New Business Development. He emphasized how important it is for him to get acquainted with start-ups personally. “I am looking for passion, enthusiasm and the clear will to win – we do not only invest in technology but also in people”. This opinion was indirectly endorsed by Bobanovic. “I sometimes observe a lack of ambition and of a long-term vision of how to change the world”, he stated. “Start-ups”, he added, “have to invest more time in understanding how a big company works and thinks”. Big companies, on the other hand, should be more knowledgeable about the requirements of SMEs. Both needs were abundantly met during the Partnering Conference. “I am very pleased to meet so many industry representatives here with an open ear for innovation”, Hans-Christian Fritsch from the start-up ilmsens summarized his impressions. “Normally it can be difficult to get in contact with a competent and interested person within a big company.”

 

Companies that participated in the 1st European Chemistry Partnering

The value of participation at the European Chemistry Partnering

The participants were very enthusiastic. In written feedback after the 1st European Chemistry Partnering more than 80 percent said: “We will come again”, “We will recommend participation to others” and “We will bring a colleague next time

The benefits

  • Direct contact with decision-makers from the industry’s market leaders.
  • Direct contact with many young and small Start-up companies and medium-sized companies in Chemistry.
  • A compact day: Clear conference structure. Adherence to time schedule.
  • Many business contacts in one day (Quantity) at a high level (Quality).
  • Partnering system: Fixed appointments can be arranged 4 months before the event.
  • Central Conference Venue in the City of Frankfurt am Main.
  • Strong focus on Networking: Welcome Reception, Get Together, Breaks and: New in 2018: Common breakfast the day after the 2nd ECP, 24 February 2018.

Pitch Schedule

Please find below the current pitch schedule:
Time Nation Company Segment
11:00 Germany Ilmsens GmbH Real-Time Liquid Control
11:12 Poland Apeiron Syntheses S.A. Olefin Metathesis, Catalysts
11:24 Germany SUMTEQ GmbH Polymer Nanofoams, High-performance Insulation
11:36 Switzerland INOFEA AG Empowering Enzymes
11:48 Canada Ardra Bio Inc. Synthetic Biology
12:00 Italy GF Biochemicals S.p.A. Levulinic Acid and Derivatives
12:12 Germany COSMOlogic GmbH & Co. KG Solvation
12:24 Belgium Syngulon SA Efficient Microbial Selection
12:36 Spain NEOL Biosolutions S.A. Sustainable Oleochemicals
12:48 Break
14:24 Germany Creative Quantum GmbH Molecular Level R&D, Reactions and Materials
14:36 Germany Polymaterials AG Polymeric materials
14:48 Germany celares GmbH Polymer-Drug Carrier
15:00 Switzerland SuSoS AG Functional Coatings
15:12 Germany Cyano Biotech GmbH Novel bioactive compounds
15:24 Netherlands Photanol BV Biochemicals, CO2 Utilisation
15:36 Switzerland CyanoGuard AG Rapid Toxin Detection
15:48 Germany NanoWired GmbH i.Gr. Disruptive AVT
16:00 Germany Nano-Join GmbH Sinter pastes
16:12 Germany CASCAT GmbH Chemo-Enzymatic Cascades
16:24 United Kingdom Interface Polymers Ltd Polyolefin interface modifiers
16:36 Germany HAPILA GmbH APIs and Crystallization
16:48 Germany Sulfotools GmbH Peptides, Peptide Synthesis
17:00 Closing Session: Discussion and Get together

To learn more about European Chemistry innovators please visit: www.chemistry-compass.eu

The focus of the 1st European Chemistry Partnering is on the company Pitches and on Partnering. This main part is framed by impulses from prominent contemporaries. A company exhibition invites delegates to browse and engage in informal discussions. The final gathering is a chance to reflect on the events of the day and win new friends.

Participants 1st ECP

Confirmed Industry and Investors:

  • BASF SE (D)
  • BASF Venture Capital GmbH (D)
  • Bayer AG, Crop Science Division (D)
  • Beiersdorf AG (D)
  • BioMedPartners AG (CH)
  • Brenntag GmbH (D)
  • Celanese GmbH (D)
  • Chemische Fabrik Budenheim KG (D)
  • Clariant International Ltd. (CH)
  • Covestro Deutschland AG (D)
  • Creathor Venture Management GmbH (D)
  • DSM N.V. (NL)
  • Dynamit Nobel GmbH E&S – Novasep (D)
  • Elementar Analysensysteme GmbH (D)
  • Evonik Creavis GmbH (D)
  • Evonik Venture Capital GmbH (D)
  • Freudenberg Technology Innovation SE & Co. KG (D)
  • Henkel AG & Co. KGaA (D)
  • Heraeus Holding GmbH (D)
  • High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH (D)
  • Interface Polymers Ltd (UK)
  • Kuraray Europe GmbH (D)
  • Lubrizol Advanced Materials Spain S.L. (E)
  • medifundo GmbH & Co. KG (D)
  • Merck KGaA (D)
  • Merck Ventures (NL)
  • Merz Pharmaceuticals GmbH (D)
  • Mitsubishi International GmbH (JP)
  • Mitsui & Co. Deutschland GmbH (DE)
  • Mitsui Chemicals Europe (D)
  • Penta Chemikalien GmbH & Co. KG (D)
  • Proof of Concepts Partners GmbH (D)
  • Roche Diagnostics GmbH (D)
  • Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH (D)
  • Sibelco Corporate Venturing (BE)
  • Sofinnova Partners (F)
  • Stahl Chemicals GmbH (D)
  • TCI Deutschland GmbH (D)
  • TOLSA Group (E)
  • Tribotecc GmbH (A)
  • Wacker Chemie AG (D)

Confirmed SME companies:

  • Apeiron Synthesis S.A. (PL)
  • Ardra Inc. (CAN)
  • ASCA GmbH (D)
  • BioEcho Life Sciences GmbH (D)
  • BIOeCON International NV (NL)
  • CASCAT GmbH (D)
  • celares GmbH (D)
  • ChemCon GmbH (D)
  • CLEA Technologies V (NL)
  • c-LEcta GmbH (D)
  • Clustermarket Ltd. (D)
  • COSMOlogic GmbH & Co. KG (D)
  • Creative Quantum GmbH (D)
  • Crystallise! AG (CH)
  • Cyano Biotech (D)
  • CyanoGuard AG (CH)
  • DiscoverX Ltd. (UK)
  • GF Biochemicals Italy S.p.A. (I)
  • HAPILA GmbH (D)
  • Ilmsens GmbH (D)
  • INOFEA AG (CH)
  • LanzaTech Inc. (USA)
  • LXP Group GmbH (D)
  • My Chemical Monitoring BV (NL)
  • Nano-Join GmbH (D)
  • Nanowired GmbH i. Gr. (D)
  • NEOL Biosolutions S.A. (E)
  • Photanol BV (NL)
  • Phytowelt GmbH (D)
  • Polymaterials AG (D)
  • Scymaris Ltd (UK)
  • solid-chem GmbH (D)
  • Sulfotools GmbH (D)
  • SUMTEQ GmbH (D)
  • SuSoS AG (CH)
  • Syngulon SA (BE)
  • Taros Chemicals GmbH & Co. KG (D)

Confirmed Consultancies and Clusters:

  • BCNP Consultants GmbH (D)
  • Chemiepark Bitterfeld-Wolfen (D)
  • CLIB2021 (D)
  • Corden BioChem GmbH (D)
  • DECHEMA Gesellschaft für Chemische Technik und Biotechnologie e.V. (D)
  • Dentons Europe LLP (D)
  • Drooms GmbH (D)
  • Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (D)
  • Getec heat & power AG (D)
  • Hessen Trade and Invest GmbH (D)
  • HM Long RSVP Group AG (D)
  • IHK Hessen Innovativ (D)
  • Infraserv GmbH & Co. Höchst KG (D)
  • Infraserv GmbH & Co. Knapsack KG (D)
  • JM Chemsult (CH)
  • Knowledge Transfer Network (UK)
  • Kroatische Wirtschaftsförderung (D)
  • LE+BE GmbH (D)
  • Mediatum Deutschland GmbH (D)
  • PKCie Management Consultants (D)
  • Provadis Hochschule (D)
  • Stolmár & Partner (D)
  • Wallinger Ricker Schlotter Tostmann (D)

Confirmed Press Representatives:

  • Nachrichten aus der Chemie (D)
  • WILEY-VCH (D)
  • Wissenswort (D)

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