On 15 October 2026, the Innovation Network for Advanced Materials (INAM) welcomed the international deep-tech community to Berlin for the final event of the Advanced Materials Competition (AdMaCom) 2026.
The event brought together founders developing technologies for batteries, semiconductors, photonics, healthcare and sustainable manufacturing, alongside representatives from industry, research, venture capital and government.
But the occasion was about more than startup pitches and awards. It also offered an opportunity to examine how Europe can strengthen its technological capabilities - and how Berlin's rapidly evolving deep-tech ecosystem can contribute. After an intense programme, preceded by a rigorous selection process, eleven startups gathered to present their refined pitches. The jury, consisting of experts from industry, research, marketing and economic development and chose the winner after careful deliberation.
Three Outstanding Startups Take Home the AdMaCom Awards
The highlight of the evening was the recognition of three outstanding startups whose innovations demonstrate the breadth and commercial potential of advanced materials.
Overall Winner: qCella (Switzerland), https://qcella.com
qCella is developing innovative copper-cellulose hybrid fibres that can be turned into ultra-thin, flexible heating mats. By heating people and surfaces directly rather than the surrounding air, its technology offers a more energy-efficient approach to thermal comfort, with particularly promising applications in electric mobility. Reducing energy consumption for cabin heating could help preserve driving range during cold weather.
Mentors' Choice Award: Smart Resilin (Israel), https://www.smartresilin.com/
Smart Resilin is pioneering a new generation of sustainable elastic materials based on recombinant Resilin, a naturally occurring protein known for its exceptional elasticity. Its technology aims to enable high-performance materials for a broad range of industrial applications, demonstrating how biotechnology can contribute to the next generation of advanced materials.
Crowd Favourite: Movolta (Germany), https://movolta.de/
Movolta is developing solar retrofit systems for refrigerated trailers, helping transport operators reduce diesel consumption, operating costs and CO₂ emissions. Its approach demonstrates how innovative technology can deliver tangible efficiency improvements in established industrial sectors.
Congratulations to all three winners — and to every startup that participated in AdMaCom 2026!
Twelve Startups, Multiple Industries, One Common Challenge
The AdMaCom 2026 cohort demonstrated just how widely advanced materials technologies influence industrial innovation. In energy storage, Atomiver is developing graphene derivatives for high-performance supercapacitors, while Sine Nanotech is advancing silicon anodes for lithium-ion batteries.
Apoello and Polymerize are applying artificial intelligence to accelerate materials discovery and development. Bioprex Medical is developing antimicrobial coatings for medical implants, while Fairbrics is exploring the conversion of captured CO₂ into industrial chemicals.
Other finalists are addressing specialised industrial challenges: Korymbos Photonics is developing semiconductor metrology tools; OLEC Technology is advancing smart optical materials; and Symmetry Wood is developing high-performance alternatives to conventional hardwoods using food waste.
Together with the three award winners, these companies demonstrate the remarkable diversity of advanced materials innovation. Despite their different technologies and markets, they share a common challenge: translating scientific innovation into commercially viable, scalable businesses.
Materials Innovation is Becoming a Strategic Priority
The event opened with a keynote by Dr. Linus Froböse, CTO of Skeleton Technologies, on the role of advanced materials as a fundamental building block for innovation. How does a scientific discovery become an industrial technology with global applications?
In his keynote, Froböse offered a compelling answer through the company's journey - beginning with just one microgram of a novel carbon material and progressing to industrial-scale production of high-performance energy storage systems.
Under the title From Microgram to Mammoth, Froböse shared five lessons from bringing Skeleton's proprietary Curved Graphene technology to market.
One of the most striking was the importance of combining breakthrough materials with proven manufacturing processes. Rather than attempting to reinvent both the product and its production technology simultaneously, Skeleton initially built its business around established activated-carbon supercapacitors before introducing its proprietary Curved Graphene into an existing product and manufacturing platform.
The company subsequently progressed from a small production facility in Estonia to automated manufacturing in Dresden and, ultimately, its Superfactory near Leipzig. According to Froböse's presentation, automation and industrial scale have enabled Skeleton to reduce supercapacitor cell manufacturing costs by 72% compared with 2022.
Another lesson concerned the importance of securing demanding customers early. An initial order from the European Space Agency helped demonstrate the reliability of Skeleton's technology and supported its early financing.
Froböse also highlighted the importance of identifying emerging industrial applications - even those that may not initially appear obvious.
Today, the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence is creating substantial demand for electrical infrastructure capable of handling increasingly volatile and power-intensive computing workloads. Skeleton sees a major opportunity for its supercapacitor technology in stabilising power supply, reducing peak loads and improving the efficiency of AI data centres.
The commercial significance of this opportunity was underlined by the announcement, just one day before Demo Day, of an expanded strategic partnership between Siemens and Skeleton Technologies. The agreement combines Skeleton's high-power energy storage technology with Siemens' electrical infrastructure portfolio for data centres.
For the AdMaCom founders, the keynote offered an important perspective: developing a superior material is only the beginning. Industrial success also requires manufacturing expertise, customer validation, strategic partnerships and the ability to identify markets where a technology can deliver measurable economic value.
Europe's Materials Challenge is Also a Skills Challenge
The subsequent panel, Risk Management in Core Industries – A Look at Materials Supply Chains, brought together Dr. Severin Fischer, State Secretary at Berlin's Senate Department for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises; Dr. Linus Froböse, Sekelton Technologies; Jan Eggert of EIT RawMaterials; and Marcin Ratajczak, inuru.
Introducing the panel, Jan Eggert, Head of Business Development at EIT RawMaterials, broadened the discussion beyond critical raw materials and industrial dependencies. His central message was that Europe's ability to strengthen its industrial competitiveness depends not only on securing materials and developing new technologies, but also on building the workforce capable of putting them to use.
According to figures presented by EIT RawMaterials, Europe's raw materials sector alone will need approximately 1.2 million skilled professionals by 2030. At the same time, 81% of organisations surveyed reported moderate to extreme difficulties recruiting qualified staff.
The challenge is particularly acute in advanced materials. EIT RawMaterials' skills assessment identified 116 distinct skills gaps, with artificial intelligence and machine learning emerging as the leading priority for the next five years. Other important areas include circular economy technologies, advanced metallurgy and regulatory compliance.
Eggert also highlighted an important structural weakness: Europe's skills shortages become particularly pronounced further downstream in the materials value chain, including processing, recovery and industrial application.
Addressing these gaps requires stronger collaboration across what EIT RawMaterials calls the knowledge triangle: education, research and industry.
Universities and research organisations need to work more closely with companies to align training with emerging technological requirements. Equally, lifelong learning, professional development and industry-led innovation challenges can help existing workforces adapt to new technologies.
EIT RawMaterials is pursuing this approach through initiatives connecting startups, universities and industrial partners, alongside programmes supporting skills development, investment and innovation across Europe's raw materials value chains.
Implications Well Beyond the Raw Materials Sector
If Europe wants to become more resilient in batteries, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing and other strategically important industries, it must invest in the people and capabilities required to commercialise and manufacture the underlying technologies.
Access to raw materials is an important part of the answer. But technological sovereignty also depends on processing capacity, industrial expertise, talent, research infrastructure and the ability to commercialise alternative materials and technologies.
Rather than focusing exclusively on securing existing supply chains, Europe must also strengthen its ability to develop new materials, substitute critical inputs, improve recycling and establish competitive industrial capabilities.
The Reality of Building a Deep-Tech Company
A second discussion addressed the entrepreneurial challenges behind industrial innovation.
In Building a Deep Tech Company in Adverse Times, Julian Riedlbauer, Partner at Drake Star, and Silko Barth, entrepreneur and former founder of BlueSky Minerals, explored the realities of financing and scaling deep-tech businesses.
Advanced materials companies frequently face long development cycles, high capital requirements and complex industrial validation processes. Scientific progress alone does not guarantee commercial success.
The conversation examined the importance of understanding customer requirements, establishing industrial partnerships, demonstrating measurable progress and aligning financing strategies with realistic development timelines.
These considerations are particularly relevant in a funding environment where major investment rounds attract attention, but access to capital remains challenging for many early-stage industrial technology companies.
Berlin is Building the Foundations for Industrial Deep Tech
The event also reflected a significant evolution in Berlin's innovation ecosystem. In June 2026, the Berlin Senate launched the Deep Tech Berlin Agenda (DTBA), setting out a strategic framework for tech-focused innovation policy in Berlin, aiming to strengthen the city's role as one of Europe’s leading locations for deep tech innovation. This, in combination with a novel framework for IP transfer in academic spinouts (“The Berlin Model”), presented to the public just a few weeks later, further strengthens the focus on and enablement of science-based commercial activities in the capital. Additionally, in January 2025, TU Berlin and the IHK Berlin signed a cooperation agreement to strengthen the links between academia and established industry in Berlin. Initiatives like this are essential to further improve technology transfer and to leverage collaboration between different stakeholders.
The Deep Tech Berlin Agenda explicitly identifies Advanced Materials & Manufacturing as one of five strategic technology fields, alongside Artificial Intelligence; biotechnology; Microelectronics, Photonics & Quantum Technologies and Software Technologies. Its objectives include accelerating research commercialisation, supporting the creation and growth of technology-intensive businesses and improving access to financing, talent and specialised infrastructure.
For Berlin, the opportunity is considerable. Severin Fischer of the Senate Administration of Economy, Energy and Public Enterprises stressed that the city already benefits from internationally recognised universities, research institutes, technology centres and an established startup ecosystem. Looking ahead, the aim is to connect these actors more effectively with industrial partners, investors and commercial markets.
AdMaCom contributes to this development by bringing international technology startups into Berlin's ecosystem and connecting them with research expertise, industrial partners, mentors and investors.
An Industrial Perspective on Berlin's Opportunity
Marcin Ratajczak, Chairman of the INAM Board, emphasised the importance of building an ecosystem that connects technological innovation with industrial requirements.
"Berlin doesn’t need to build an industry – it needs to connect the one it has with its growing startup ecosystem and extend both across Germany and Europe. The next winners will be decided at the interface: telecoms built the internet; whoever owned the interface won it. AI will be no different, and its interfaces to the physical world – hardware, advanced materials – are what Berlin’s deep-tech startups build. Turning this into industry takes more than funding. Grants fund prototypes; customers build industries. The state must be the first customer, paying for validation, then build clusters where companies scale together.At AdMaCom we bring these stakeholders to one table – so startups leave with a direction, not just a business card."
His perspective reflects a central message of the event: successful innovation ecosystems need more than excellent research and promising startups. They need strong relationships with industry, access to capital and the capabilities required for commercial scale-up.
A Community Committed to Industrial Innovation
AdMaCom 2026 was made possible through the support of a broad network of partners, mentors, investors and industry representatives. The technologies presented in Berlin demonstrate the extraordinary breadth of advanced materials innovation. Their future success will depend not only on scientific progress but also on the strength of the ecosystems supporting their development.
Berlin has an opportunity to become one of Europe's most important centres for industrial deep tech. AdMaCom 2026 showed the people, technologies and partnerships that can help make that ambition a reality.
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Have a look at some impressions from the day in our gallery:
AdMaCom 2026 was made possible through the support of a broad network of partners, mentors, investors and industry representatives. Our thanks also go to the speakers, panellists, jury members, mentors and corporate partners who contributed their expertise throughout the programme.
INAM would like to thank Berlin Partner and Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) for their continued support, CIC Berlin for hosting the event, and Venture Café Berlin for contributing to the networking experience.
