
CHEManager Innovation Pitch
The CHEManager Innovation Pitch is both a showcase and a competition for start-ups in the chemical industry. Each year, industry experts select a winning start-up from the finalists.

The CHEManager Innovation Pitch is both a showcase and a competition for start-ups in the chemical industry. Each year, industry experts select a winning start-up from the finalists.

The CHEManager Innovation Pitch, the start-up promotion initiative of CHEManager and CHEManager International, has given more than 100 start-ups from over 15 countries the opportunity to present their innovative ideas, products and technologies to a broad target group since its launch in 2019.

Interview with Olli Kähkönen, Nordic Bioproducts Group

Interview with Franziska Walde and Lukas Fischer, Refinq

Dorothee Arns, Director General of FECC, discusses current challenges, market trends and her vision for the chemical distribution industry in Europe.

Today, economic success is defined by a different perception and practice of supply capability and supply security. This applies not only to the European trade with chemicals but to the entire chemical value chain.

The Discourse on Green Chemistry Interactive Pitch Competition, held on November 5, 2024, at Wiley's Berlin office as part of Berlin Science Week, showcased a range of innovative projects aimed at addressing critical environmental challenges.

Lonza inaugurated its new facility at the Colmar, France site. The new Innovaform Accelerator will serve as a Center of Excellence for developing and innovating capsule-based manufacturing and delivery solutions for oral and pulmonary administration.

Last week, US chemical producer Huntsman opened a new innovation center in Tienen, Belgium, strengthening its research and development (R&D) capabilities.

Matthias Hofmann, Group Innovation & Technology Management Director at Azelis, provides an in-depth insight into the company’s innovation activities and the underlying market trends.

Anna Bertona, Group CEO at Azelis, looks back on her first six month in this role and gives an insight into her plans for the company's development.



In this interview, Phillip Chalabi, Umicore’s director Strategic Projects and Innovation, gives an overview of the company’s activities in precious metal chemistry.

Roquette, a French multinational supplier of pharmaceutical and nutraceutical excipients, announced an investment by its venture capital arm Roquette Ventures in Danish start-up Biograil.

Aralez Bio, a San Francisco-based start-up, has engineered a platform of enzymes that creates 100 times more compound diversity using processes that are also 50 times greener than conventional methods.

German chemicals, pharmaceuticals and life sciences group Merck has opened a digital hub in Singapore, the first outside of the US and Europe for its digital business.

Rising demand for sustainability-related products will create a huge growth opportunity for chemical companies.

In today’s world, where environmental sustainability is at the forefront of global concerns, green chemistry stands as a beacon of hope. This field focuses on inventing sustainable solutions that mitigate the harmful impact of traditional chemical processes.

The Heidelberg-based start-up Blue Activity replaces 100% of biocides in cooling water treatment with natural, functional microorganisms. The product change increases the efficiency of cooling tower performance and reduces water consumption and operating costs.

Process manufacturing companies waste almost $100 billion globally every year while formulating novel materials and chemicals due to the trial-and-error approach to R&D and the lack of tools to leverage the experimental data in real-time.

With more than 80% of all chemical products manufactured using catalytic processes, catalysts are the number one value generator in the chemical industry.

Manual experiment monitoring and data capture is still the status quo in most biotech and pharma labs, compromising efficiency and project timescales. But there is a better way.

The Spanish computational chemistry start-up Nextmol (Bytelab Solutions), a spin-off from the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that accelerates research and innovation in sustainable specialty chemicals through “in silico” experiments using molecular modeling and artificial intelligence (AI).

Interview with Alban Chesneau and Nicolas Castet, Carbon Waters

From agrochemicals to textiles: the broad range of use of surfactants will be at the center of interest of the 11th World Surfactants Congress, CESIO 2019 in Munich

Interview with Florian Hildebrand, Greenlyte Carbon Technologies


Johnson Matthey (JM) looks back at a legacy of 200+ years. Established in 1817, the London, England-based chemical company reported annual revenues of about €18 billion in 2022. JM has built a global presence with operations in more than 30 countries. The company’s strategy is based on the vision for a cleaner, healthier world and mirrors society’s need to create a more sustainable future. JM has set out to catalyze the net zero transition by delivering sustainable solutions to customers enabled by innovative technology and leading positions in JM’s key markets automotive, chemicals, and energy. To get a better understanding of the role JM’s technological developments play for a sustainable future, Michael Reubold spoke with Maurits van Tol, the company’s Chief Technology Officer.

Interview with Klara Yoon, Tina Rose and Stephan Enthaler, New Dawn

Interview with Fajer Mushtaq and Silvan Staufert, Oxyle

Companies in the materials industry – including chemical companies – are seeing a revolution that is likely to drive a new wave of growth. To succeed, however, they will need to rethink their value chains, expand manufacturing in the region, and take advantage of digitally powered approaches to innovation.

Dutch specialty chemicals producer Nouryon is expanding its Application Development Centers in Deventer, the Netherlands, and at Chattanooga in the US state of Tennessee to offer advanced technical service capabilities dedicated to cleaning in Europe and North America.

The UK’s Center for Process Innovation (CPI) opened its Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Center in Glasgow on Nov. 30, with the aim of accelerating new technologies in the pharma industry.

Interview with Lisa Z. Mobech and Bjol R. Frenkenberger, MIR Insight

































