Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. announced that it has made a minority investment in Materia Bioworks Inc. through 321Catalyst, its corporate venture capital (CVC) fund.

Mitsui Chemicals announced an investment in Canadian startup Materia Bioworks.

By utilizing the biomass materials in Materia Bioworks’ bioplastic design services, Mitsui Chemicals aims to expand its provision of bioplastic materials offering to customers globally.

Furthermore, Mitsui Chemicals will collaborate with Materia Bioworks to meet the performance and quality requirements of customers through the possible joint development of new bioplastic materials.

More about Materia Bioworks

Materia Bioworks is a Canada-headquartered startup established in November 2023. The company utilizes computational chemistry and AI (MAPS)to develop a platform that can efficiently design and formulate sustainable materials, such as bioplastics.

By leveraging computational chemistry and AI, the company streamlines product development using bioplastics, a process that traditionally required significant time and cost, thereby reducing development time and costs while also driving down the cost of bioplastics themselves.

Materia Bioworks’ AI-powered platform – MAPS (Material Application Prediction System) has the following functions:

• Material design: Formulates and designs bioplastics and other sustainable materials to meet target performance specifications such as thermal properties, mechanical properties, permeability, physical properties, etc., with AI suggesting optimal formulations and material designs.

• Manufacturing optimization: Conducts simulations of customer’s production lines using digital twins and provides advice on optimal manufacturing conditions to the customer, such as processing conditions.

• Marketplace: Connects customers with verified bioplastic suppliers through a proprietary marketplace network.

• Compliance support: Supports companies in obtaining approvals for bioplastics in compliance with regulations in various countries by leveraging a proprietary database of biomaterials and biodegradable materials.