FibreCoat Case Study: Leveraging CEO-CVC Partnerships to Scale Advanced Materials | The Scenarionist

A chat with Robert Brüll, CEO @ FIbreCoat, and Adarsh Sowcar, Venture Investment Manager @ NOVA, the Corporate Venture Capital arm of Saint-Gobain

What does it take to transform a university research project into a successful Deep Tech startup in advanced materials?

This episode spotlight the case study of FibreCoat, a startup that began at RWTH Aachen University and evolved into a disruptive force in the advanced materials industry.

Learn how FibreCoat tackled challenges like scaling, market adaptation, and forging strategic partnerships to bring affordable, high-performance fibers to traditionally inaccessible markets.

Hear from Robert Brüll, CEO of FibreCoat, and Adarsh Sowcar, Venture Investment Manager at NOVA - the Corporate Venture Capital arm of Saint-Gobain, as they discuss how vision, adaptability, and collaboration between CEO and early-stage investors drive success in a competitive industry.


💡 What You Will Learn from the FibreCoat Journey:

  • Integrate with Existing Infrastructure: Leveraging existing production capacity reduces costs and accelerates scaling.

  • Value Investor Collaboration: Partnering with knowledgeable investors can provide strategic guidance and industry connections.

  • Embrace Market Feedback: Listening to customer needs helps refine the product and achieve market fit.

  • Be Willing to Pivot: Adapting to new challenges or opportunities is crucial for long-term success.


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KEY INSIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE

🧵FibreCoat: Market, Team, Tech

FibreCoat aims to address the challenge of expensive materials by producing high-performance fibers at an affordable price, making them accessible to a wide range of industries.

The company specializes in metal-coated fibers, with its first product being aluminum-coated glass fibers. Traditionally, such materials cost between $300 to $600, or even thousands of dollars, per kilogram.

FibreCoat’s innovative processes allow them to offer these materials at prices ten times lower, enabling applications in sectors like automotive that were previously impractical due to cost. This approach ensures the availability of high-quality, lightweight, and high-performance materials for a broader audience.

Technology

The company achieves this by leveraging existing high-speed fiber-spinning capacity, integrating its proprietary coating technology directly into production lines. This method is specifically designed to utilize established infrastructure, reducing costs while maintaining efficiency.

The coating adds novel properties to the fibers without compromising affordability, as the production process retains its high-speed capabilities. FibreCoat’s intellectual property centers on the ability to apply high-quality coatings at rapid speeds, ensuring both scalability and sustainability in their production methods.

Team and Operations

FibreCoat's team is comprised of approximately 40 professionals dedicated primarily to operations and research and development (R&D). The operations team manages the production lines, while the R&D department develops and customizes coatings to meet specific customer requirements. The company operates on a global scale, with its primary production facilities located in Georgia, where an additional 60 to 70 team members contribute to manufacturing efforts.

The Importance of Pivoting

As we will discuss, FibreCoat has demonstrated a strong ability to adapt by embracing several significant pivots throughout its journey. These shifts have involved changes to material types, manufacturing processes, and even target markets. Each pivot was driven by the company’s responsiveness to external factors, such as supply chain disruptions, evolving customer demands, or geopolitical challenges. This adaptability has been a cornerstone of FibreCoat’s ability to navigate a complex and dynamic industry landscape.

“We are a spin-off of Aachen University, and the technology goes back to 2014. This was all university research—getting public funding, building the team, bringing in students, and gaining insights. It was a very chaotic time for FibreCoat. Then, we received a big government grant called Exist in Germany. It was 1.2 million euros to spin out of our university [...]. We officially founded the company in early 2020, two weeks before the lockdown in Germany. Then COVID hit. All of our ideas involving polymers didn’t work out because we couldn’t get extruders, and we couldn’t get polymers. Chemists cannot work from a home office. That’s how we committed to metal coating in the first place. We used all of 2020 to get to industrial scale—in this case, pilot scale at one ton per month production—which we achieved in early 2021. With this, we served our first customers.”

Robert Brüll - CEO, FibreCoat

🤝 Building a Founder–Investor Relationship

During an advanced materials incubation program in Germany, FibreCoat caught the attention of Saint-Gobain NOVA, the corporate venture capital arm of Saint-Gobain. The partnership was built on more than financial backing. NOVA brought deep expertise in materials science and industrial scaling, positioning them as a valuable collaborator.

Learning Together

When the war in Ukraine caused energy prices in Germany to soar, FibreCoat relocated certain production activities to Georgia. This move demonstrated the company’s agility in responding to external pressures and highlighted the importance of maintaining a flexible operational model.


"I think one thing that we always keep in mind is to have a broad perspective of innovations within the advanced materials space. And then, second, to engage with startups that are fairly early in the technology development cycle, in order for us to have the ability to work with these entrepreneurs and innovators at a very early stage, to really understand how Saint-Gobain can be helpful. We have a lot of competencies internally within the organization and can really be a force multiplier for these companies. [...] We went with an open mind and with a mindset of: how can we learn from this novel technology and innovation? How can we be part of the story and contribute? So that was the starting point. Subsequently, you know, we participated in the first investment around FibreCoat in order to kickstart a formal collaboration and partnership between the operating business of Saint-Gobain and FibreCoat."

Adarsh Sowcar - Venture Investment Manager, NOVA - Saint-Gobain


📈 Crafting a Scalable Plan in Advanced Materials

1. The CEO’s Perspective

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