Bcomp, a Swiss startup that makes lightweight materials for industrial applications, raised 35 million dollars in order to expand their team and to increase its production, both through domestic and global facilities.

According to Tech.eu, the funding round saw investments from multiple companies, the most notable ones being BMW i Ventures, Volvo Cars Tech Fund, Porsche Ventures and Airbus Ventures.

Since 2010, the company was able to raise 38.2 million dollars through external funding.

The team was able to create its own type of lightweight material as an alternative to polycarbonates and carbon fiber, and their product supposedly has significantly higher tensile strength (editor's note: the point at which an object will snap or break when bent or pulled apart) while being much lighter when compared to plastic alone, for example.

The material they came up with is a mixture between natural fibers and various grades and compositions of plastic.

bcomp

Photo Source: Bcomp

11 years after the company started off as a project back in 2011, its material has been used by BMW M Motorsport's Formula E car in 2019, as well as by the McLaren F1 team at the 2021 British Grand Prix.

Bcomp's materials were also used by Porsche in their Cayman 718 GT4 CS MR, a car used as the base for the company's fully electric Mission R concept car in 2021.

Another notable company that made use of Bcomp's lightweight materials is Volvo, that used the materials in for the recent concept recharge vehicles in 2021.

Bcomp's lightweight materials still offer a good amount of resistance, which is especially important for electric vehicles that need to be lighter for more efficiency in order to obtain better range and have better power delivery at the same time.

Another advantage of the Swiss company's natural fiber is that it is made from sustainable and renewable sources, such as plant fibers, and it has the potential to be highly adopted into multiple applications, such as boats, cars, infrastructure and aerospace.

Christian Fischer, Bcomp CEO, said that "the success of this investment round is a testament to the many years of hard work from the whole team, paving the way for us to scale Bcomp to an entirely new level. Now is the time to scale our production and deploy our global strategy."