In the swiftly advancing chemical industry, a new wave of specialty companies is emerging as key innovators, focusing on cutting-edge trends like electronic chemicals, and chemical recycling. These forward-thinking companies use technologies to boost sustainability, enhance operational efficiency, and drive material innovation. By developing electronic chemicals for diverse applications, and pushing the boundaries of chemical recycling, these top chemical companies steer the industry towards a more environmentally conscious and technologically sophisticated future.
Our feature dives deep into these transformative movements in the chemical sector, offering insight into:
- Emerging Trends Shaping the Chemicals Sector
- Profiles of 10 Pioneering New Chemical Companies
- How to Spot Innovative Chemical Companies Easily
Key Takeaways
Drawing insights from the Big Data & AI-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform that provides data on over 4.7+ million emerging companies globally, we explore the evolving landscape of the mining industry. This sector is marked by key trends and a substantial workforce, shaping its future. Here are some key insights at a glance:
- Latest Chemical Trends: Some of the major chemical trends include green chemistry, electronic chemicals, artificial intelligence, decentralized chemical supply chain, and chemical recycling.
- Chemical Industry Statistics: Spanning over 361K organizations and employing 5.8M people, the chemicals industry is undergoing a 2.05% decrease in annual growth. Yet, it has seen the addition of more than 17K new chemical companies in the last five years.
- 10 New Chemical Companies to Watch:
- Lakril – Catalytic Dehydration
- BryoSphere – Moss-based Specialty Chemicals
- SYPOX – Electrically-heated Reactors
- inSpek – Waveguide-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy
- Biosimo – Bio-based Acetic Acid
- ViridiCO2 – High-value Chemical Intermediates
- MicroBite – Multi-stager Continuous Reactors
- Terra Block – High-purity Recycled TPA and EG
- SixRing – Higher Value Biofuels
- Mevaldi – Ring-opening Polymerization
Emerging Chemical Trends Advancing the Industry
Green Chemistry
Green chemistry minimizes the use and generation of hazardous substances. This approach focuses on the development of products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use of toxic materials, energy consumption, and waste production. Green chemistry offers a more sustainable and economically viable chemical sector by prioritizing safety, efficiency, and environmental protection.
Electronic Chemicals
Electronic chemicals play a critical role in manufacturing of semiconductors and various electronic components. The rapid advancement of electronics technology drives the growing demand for high-purity and performance-specific chemicals. Innovations in this area focuses on developing materials that enhance the performance and reliability of electronic devices.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI in the chemicals industry streamlines operations and spurs innovation. Predictive maintenance uses AI to foresee equipment failures, reducing downtime. In material discovery, AI accelerates the identification of new compounds, slashing research time and costs. These applications enhance efficiency, sustainability, and product development, revolutionizing the industry.
Chemical Recycling
Chemical recycling represents a significant shift in waste management and resource recovery. Unlike traditional recycling methods, chemical recycling breaks down polymers into their monomers, which can then be reused to produce new polymers. This process reduces waste and reliance on virgin resources while enabling the circular economy as it turns waste into valuable materials.
Decentralized Chemical Supply Chain
Blockchain introduces transparency and security to the chemical supply chain. It enables secure and immutable recording of transactions while facilitating trust among stakeholders ensuring compliance with regulations, and streamlining operations. This decentralized approach to data management paves the way for more efficient, reliable, and transparent supply chains in the chemical industry.
Must read: Top Chemicals Industry Trends & Innovations (2024)
Discover 10 out of 17K+ New Chemical Companies
The industry witnesses a surge of innovation, as emerging chemical companies leverage cutting-edge biotechnology and sustainable processes to advance material production. The 10 new chemical companies we feature in this section enable bio-based chemicals, advanced recycling technologies, and carbon capture utilization, reflecting a shift towards greener, more sustainable chemical manufacturing. Their work spans a diverse range of applications, from enhancing consumer products to improving industrial processes and driving sustainability.
Note on Signal Strength
One of the unique metrics we feature for each company is Signal Strength, a proprietary data point generated by our Discovery Platform. Signal Strength gauges the extent to which a company’s influence has permeated the global ecosystem of startups, scaleups, and emerging companies. This proprietary metric serves as a valuable guidepost for understanding a company’s standing in the broader market landscape.
1. Lakril
- Founding Year: 2021
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: USA
- Signal Strength: Very Strong
- What they do: Lakril uses a catalyst that produces sustainable, bio-based acrylic acid and derivatives, offering eco-friendly alternatives for the paints, coatings, adhesives, and superabsorbents industries. It decarbonizes the industry, reducing CO₂ and enabling carbon sequestration. The company leverages lactic acid, a cost-effective, bio-based feedstock, to produce acrylics, enabling the replacement of petroleum with bio-based sugars, reducing costs, and facilitating the shift to low-carbon chemicals.
2. BryoSphere
- Founding Year: 2022
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: Canada
- Signal Strength: Strong
- What they do: BryoSphere utilizes moss and biotechnological methods to produce rare, plant-derived specialty chemicals for industries such as personal care, supplements, therapeutics, and food & beverage. Its process involves integrating specific DNA into lab-grown moss to produce and extract significant amounts of desired chemicals efficiently and sustainably.
3. SYPOX
- Founding Year: 2021
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: Germany
- Signal Strength: Very sSrong
- What they do: SYPOX utilizes electrically heated reactors for key chemical processes, including hydrogen, ammonia cracking, reverse water-gas-shift, and ethylene production. Its approach with two products including Biogas to Hydrogen and Natural Gas to Hydrogen, eliminate the need for fossil fuel-powered furnaces. Thus, SYPOX offers a sustainable alternative with its reactors and containerized hydrogen production systems.
4. inSpek
- Founding Year: 2021
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: France
- Signal Strength: Very Strong
- What they do: inSpek’s sensors employ waveguide-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (WERS), or “Raman-on-a-chip.” It combines Raman spectroscopy’s specificity and compatibility with aqueous media with photonic integration’s efficiency. This innovation offers precise, real-time monitoring of chemical reactions, enabling industries to analyze the composition, monitor reactions, and correct deviations instantly. InSpek’s technology thus offers operational efficiency, cost savings, and quality assurance for the chemical industry.
5. Biosimo
- Founding Year: 2022
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: Switzerland
- Signal Strength: Very Strong
- What they do: Biosimo derives plant-based ethanol from non-food biomass. It introduces bio-based acetic acid through a proprietary heterogeneous catalyst process that transforms bioethanol into acetic acid, culminating in high-quality, sustainable glacial acetic acid. Biosimo’s approach supports industries including food and flavor additives, pharmaceuticals, pigments, adhesives, and polymers.
6. ViridiCO2
- Founding Year: 2020
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: UK
- Signal Strength: Very Strong
- What they do: ViridiCO2’s approach to carbon capture utilization (CCU) by converting CO2 into high-value chemical intermediates reduces reliance on fossil fuels and cuts emissions. Its proprietary technology repurposes CO2 into products for the paints, coatings, adhesives, and superabsorbents industries, offering a sustainable alternative to traditional petrochemicals.
7. MicroBite
- Founding Year: 2021
- Employee Range: 51-100
- Location: India
- Signal Strength: Medium Strong
- What they do: Micro-Bite‘s GammaBox technology streamlines the fermentation process for bioethanol production without altering the operational chemistry. This technology features multi-stager continuous reactors and microreactors. It focuses on bioethanol fermented from crops like rice or sugarcane and biodiesel derived from oils or fats through transesterification, contributing to cleaner vehicle emissions and a sustainable energy future.
8. Terra Block
- Founding Year: 2021
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: South Korea
- Signal Strength: Strong
- What they do: Terrablock transforms disposable coffee cups, low-grade plastics, polyester, and PET into high-purity recycled terephthalic acid (TPA) and ethylene glycol (EG) through chemical recycling technology, specifically depolymerization. The company supports a closed-loop system by processing various waste types, including post-industrial and consumer recycled materials, thereby contributing to sustainability efforts in the chemical industry.
9. SixRing
- Founding Year: 2020
- Employee Range: 50-100
- Location: Canada
- Signal Strength: Strong
- What they do: SixRing with its patented technology transforms biomass into high-purity cellulose, liquid bio-crude LHDO, and sustainable biochemicals without the need for high-temperature or pressure systems. This innovative approach retains the biomass’s inherent chemicals for extraction and reduces energy consumption and emissions. It leverages non-food lignocellulosic biomass to address global challenges in climate change and energy security, promoting a transition to renewable resources with minimal environmental impact.
10. Mevaldi
- Founding Year: 2020
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: Netherlands
- Signal Strength: Very Strong
- What they do: Mevaldi develops bio-based chemicals from sustainable sources like fermented sugars and second-generation biomass, including wood scrap and beetroot pulp. Its products include nuvone (3-methyl delta-valerolactone) for biopolymers through ring-opening polymerization. The company produces bio-based building blocks for polymers and recyclable polyurethanes, offering a cost-effective alternative to petroleum-derived products. Also, it leverages advanced fermentation processes to convert sugars into mevalonolactone (MVL) and subsequent chemical processes for various bio-monomers.
Steps to Find New Chemical Companies Quickly
Utilizing a SaaS platform like the Discovery Platform for identifying new chemical companies provides significant benefits compared to traditional scouting methods:
- Streamlined Efficiency: The Discovery Platform offers advanced tools that streamline the scouting process. It replaces your hours of conventional desk research, saving time and resources in identifying chemical industry innovations.
- Access to Real-time Insights: Gain a competitive edge with up-to-date information on the latest trends in the chemical industry. The platform keeps you informed with near real-time updates on emerging chemical companies and news, enabling you to make swift and informed decisions.
- Tailored Exploration: Customize your search to focus on specific niches within the chemical sector, such as green chemistry, electronic chemicals, or AI-based solutions for chemical discovery. The platform’s diverse filtering options allow you to target your scouting efforts precisely, ensuring that you find the most relevant and groundbreaking companies in the field.
Ready to Explore All Chemical Companies?
We’ve explored the dynamic landscape of the chemical industry, examining the latest trends and spotlighting exceptional companies driving innovation. To dive deeper, download our free Chemical Trends Report or schedule a demo of the Discovery Platform for a customized exploration of these groundbreaking developments.
