Smart Materials (Accelerator)

Company Description: Annually, about 240 million mattresses are produced globally, with 80% ending up in landfills due to complex multi-layer composite mattress designs. Mattresses today comprise various foams and adhesives that are difficult to recycle. Auxetic PU foam is initially soft and densifies upon compression, durable, molds around the body making it comfier. It can be used as mono-layer in mattresses, making them cheaper to produce and easier to recycle. Until now, the large-scale production of auxetic foam was challenging and costly. Our team, a blend of entrepreneurs, researchers, and material experts, has devised a cost-effective, scalable production method for this foam, making it directly during the foaming stage. We've patented our invention in the Netherlands, and applications are under national phases in the US, Canada, EU, China, and Japan. Our market includes foam manufacturers and mattress producers to whom we offer our ready-to-use solutions via licensing. We have eight global foam manufacturers interested to license, of which two are negotiating a pilot set-ups. We now seek to raise $2 million to upscale our formulations and make our production methods transferable. In addition we have another 37 leads interested in applying auxetic material to automotive and sports gear.