Alqem Raises €8 Million to Scale its AI-Driven Materials Discovery Engine, Built on the Largest Known Materials Database

Alqem, a German-Portuguese deep-tech start-up revolutionizing the discovery of high-impact materials through advanced AI and intelligent synthesis, led by Hanh Nguyen, Tiago Cerqueira, and Milan Allan, has raised €8 million in pre-seed funding co-led by UVC Partners and Union Square Ventures. 

Founded by the team behind Alexandria, one of the world's leading open materials databases, alqem is building an AI-powered materials discovery platform on two proprietary assets: a vast database of predicted materials and high-quality materials property datasets. The company also integrates in-house synthesis capabilities to rapidly validate AI-generated discoveries.

Undiscovered Materials for the Next Technological Era.

Every major technological era has been shaped by a breakthrough in materials. Yet only a small fraction of possible crystalline compounds has ever been discovered, leaving hundreds of millions of potential materials unexplored.

As demand grows for advanced materials in electric vehicles, robotics, renewable energy, and defense, supply chain concentration has also become a strategic challenge, increasing the need for faster, more resilient materials discovery.

According to CEO Dr. Hanh Nguyen, alqem is applying AI to systematically explore hundreds of millions of potential materials, accelerating the discovery of compounds that could improve energy technologies, strengthen critical supply chains, and reduce dependence on concentrated sources of strategic materials.

The last major breakthrough in permanent magnets came more than four decades ago. alqem aims to accelerate materials discovery by using AI to reduce the path from scientific prediction to industrial application from decades to months.

Its platform has already identified promising rare-earth-free magnet candidates and continuously improves by combining large-scale computational screening with experimental validation. Beyond discovery, alqem is also helping build a European-led materials supply chain through its research and engineering operations in Munich and Coimbra.

According to CEO Dr. Hanh Nguyen, alqem is initially focused on discovering rare-earth-free magnets to address a critical global materials challenge, while building a platform that can be applied across a broad range of advanced materials.

From Alexandria to alqem.

alqem's discovery platform is built on three core technologies: al-mine, a proprietary database of predicted crystalline materials; al-oracle, a high-quality materials property dataset; and in-house synthesis and characterization capabilities that rapidly validate AI-generated discoveries.

These foundations build on the team's work behind Alexandria, a leading open materials database, combining advances in computational materials science with experimental validation.

Collaborations and Support.

alqem collaborates with leading European research institutions, including the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, LMU Munich, TU Munich, Técnico Lisbon, the University of Porto, and the University of Coimbra. Its scientific advisors include Prof. Claudia Felser, Prof. Miguel Marques, and former McKinsey Senior Partner Michael Viertler.

Investors and research partners highlighted alqem's combination of world-class materials science, proprietary AI-driven datasets, and experimental validation, positioning the company to accelerate the discovery of next-generation materials and strengthen Europe's advanced materials ecosystem.