Supplier of tools for nanoparticle synthesis and deposition VSParticle (VSP) has completed a EUR 6.5 million A2 expansion round, led by NordicNinja amd previous investor Plural.

VSP technology allows materials to be broken down to the size of nanoparticles and produced at the push of a button, enabling university researchers and commercial R&D teams to experiment and develop new materials that will form the basis of next-generation products.

It can take up to 10 years to discover new materials in the lab and another five years to move them into mass production, but using VSP’s technology, teams can reduce the total time to discover new materials to just one year.

In particular, VSP’s technology enables the mass production of catalyst-coated porous transport layers (PTLs), which are key components in electrolyzers and are crucial for the production of green hydrogen.

Green hydrogen is essential to reducing dependence on fossil fuels and creating a more sustainable future for industries such as shipping, transport, heating and aviation. However, the process currently relies on the use of scarce resources such as platinum and iridium.

VSParticle has delivered its flagship product, the VSP-P1 Nanoprinter, to teams in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America, including Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi.San Francisco-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Materials Discovery Research Institute (MDRI) in the Chicago area and the Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research last year, which are using it to accelerate materials development for innovative industrial solutions.

Customers are using VSP printers to develop new material combinations for PTLs, achieving expected 10x savings on rare metals such as iridium and bringing new products to market faster and more cost-effectively.

By 2027, the first components developed using VSP technology are expected to be on the market, creating the final product that supports the production of green hydrogen.

Aaike van Vugt, co-founder and CEO of VSParticle, said:

“Our technology enables university researchers and commercial R&D teams around the world to develop new materials that will transform green hydrogen production and reduce emissions in carbon-intensive industries.”

Rainer Sternfeld, Partner at NordicNinja, said:

“VSParticle’s technology is transforming materials innovation and, combined with AI, will form the basis for world-changing discoveries and syntheses over the next decades.

We are excited to support the impressive VSP team in this expansion round, particularly with their expansion plans in Japan to capitalize on the push to scale green hydrogen development. We can’t wait to see what they achieve next.”

Sten Tamkivi, Partner at Plural, said:

“The discovery of new materials has always been of enormous importance in science, but over the past 12 months the world has realised that we need to accelerate innovation to find solutions to global challenges, including the decarbonisation of society.

VSParticle is the only company driving discoveries at the critical early stages, enabling teams to scale experimentation and development of next-generation materials.”

The new investment will further develop VSP’s technology so that its next-generation printers can achieve up to 100 times higher performance. It will also support the company’s expansion into Japan and its expansion in the US and Europe.