The future of chemistry is taking shape in the lab: exære wins the From Lab to Market Challenge 2026
ReduCO₂, based in Munich, received a special award for converting CO₂ and hydrogen into battery graphite
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German laboratories and research institutions are developing technologies that have the potential to make the chemical industry more sustainable, resilient, and competitive. Behind these innovations are researchers who are taking the leap from academia to entrepreneurship. At the Grand Award Event of the fifth From Lab to Market Challenge (FLTMC), chemstars—the innovation hub for Germany’s chemical industry—named exære from Hamburg as the winner of this year’s competition. The founders impressed the jury with their technology for recovering rare earth elements and critical raw materials from waste and recycling streams. In addition, ReduCO₂ from Munich received the CHEManager Special Prize for its approach to converting industrial CO₂ and hydrogen into high-purity graphite for batteries.
Twelve selected research teams—chosen from a total of 49 applicants from across Germany—presented their technologies at Baykomm in Leverkusen to address key challenges facing the industry —ranging from AI-driven acceleration of research and development processes, new technologies for sustainable energy and raw material systems, to innovative materials and processes for decarbonizing industrial value chains. The twelve finalists had prevailed in regional preliminary rounds organized by the award partners chemstars, greenCHEM, koala, QuinCat, chemSPACE, and Forum Rathenau, and are among the most promising science-based startup projects of the current cohort in Germany.
The winners were selected by a panel of experts and the on-site participants through an anonymous vote. In addition, votes were cast by more than 1,000 readers of media partner CHEManager, who had participated in a public online vote beforehand. The CHEManager Special Prize was also awarded this year. The winning team will be presented at the CHEManager Innovation Pitch this fall.
Germany Needs More Bold Chemistry Entrepreneurs
“The ideas and technologies we’ve seen today demonstrate the potential that lies within Germany’s laboratories and research institutions. With the From Lab to Market Challenge, we aim to highlight precisely these individuals and support them on their journey toward commercialization. Every successful spin-off is a win—for research, for our industry, and for Germany as a hub of innovation. We need more bold scientists who dare to take the leap from the lab to entrepreneurial implementation. After all, the solutions to many of our greatest challenges already exist—we must give them the chance to become companies,” says Martin Bellof, Lead Strategy & Ventures at chemstars.
The significance of such spin-offs extends far beyond individual technologies. The chemical industry is under enormous pressure to change: geopolitical conflicts, volatile energy and raw materials markets, the industry’s transition away from fossil fuels, and increasing international competition are all heightening the pressure on companies to innovate. At the same time, development cycles are getting shorter and technological challenges are becoming more complex. Solutions to these challenges emerge at the intersection of research, startups, and established industry.
Open innovation is becoming a strategic competitive advantage
This year’s event at Baykomm in Leverkusen also served as a clear demonstration of this trend. In his keynote address, Marcus Paul Gruen, Head of Crop Protection Innovation and Vice President at Bayer AG, spoke about how collaboration between established industrial companies and startups is changing. Rather than developing innovation exclusively within their own companies, he said, the focus is increasingly on advancing technologies together with partners and establishing new forms of collaboration. “We don’t have to develop every technology ourselves. What matters is having access to technologies that set us apart from the competition. We don’t have to own them, and that’s precisely where there’s great potential for startups,” said Gruen.
“The chemical industry can no longer solve the challenges of our time within closed innovation systems. Whether it’s geopolitical uncertainties, dependence on fossil fuels, or the development of new materials and production processes—all of this requires new partnerships and greater openness to external innovation. Initiatives like the From Lab to Market Challenge are therefore far more than just a startup competition. They are a strategic building block for the competitiveness, resilience, and technological sovereignty of our industrial hub,” says Stefan Weber, Lead Ecosystems & Communication at chemstars.
Moving into the Next Scaling Phase with Momentum
For the winning team, exære—led by founders Yelda Nur Demirdöğen and Jan Dethloff—the award marks an important milestone on the path from research to industrial application.
“For us, this award is a huge validation. Now, above all, it’s time to step on the gas in the lab and accelerate our path toward the pilot phase. We’re developing biomaterials that can be used to recover critical metals, and we now want to advance this technology further. We’ve been engaging with chemstars for a very long time—even before the program began. Above all, the feedback from industry and access to the network have been incredibly valuable to us,” says co-founder Yelda Nur Demirdöğen.
The twelve finalists of the From Lab to Market Challenge 2026 have impressively demonstrated that the technologies for a more sustainable, resilient, and competitive chemical industry are already emerging in German laboratories today. However, for these innovations to have an impact, more than just excellent research is needed: it takes courageous founders, strong networks, and partnerships between science, startups, and industry. This is exactly where chemstars comes in.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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