German AI startup alqem raises $8.5M for rare-earth-free magnets

Jan de Vries · 2026-07-06

Munich-based DeepTech startup alqem just pulled in $8.5 million in pre-Seed funding to build an AI-powered engine that discovers and commercializes next-generation materials. Their big goal? Creating a European-led supply chain for critical materials that the world desperately needs. ### The funding round The round was co-led by UVC Partners and Union Square Ventures. That's a serious vote of confidence from investors who see the potential here. “For the first time, we have a map of the materials universe. Not just a few known compounds, but hundreds of millions of possibilities we can now systematically explore and bring to the world. Materials that will make electric vehicles more energy efficient, wind turbines more powerful, and critical supply chains independent from single-country control,” says Dr. Hanh Nguyen, CEO of alqem. ### Why this matters now Here's the thing: advanced permanent magnets are critical to electric vehicles, wind turbines, robotics, and defense systems. And right now, roughly 90% of them are produced in China. Recent export restrictions have turned materials supply into a geopolitical flashpoint. So alqem isn't just building cool tech. They're tackling a strategic vulnerability for Europe and the US. ### The bigger funding picture 2026 is shaping up to be a big year for AI-enabled materials discovery. Across direct and adjacent materials-related companies, total funding is around $130 million. Some comparable examples: - London-based Polaron raised $7.1 million for AI-led materials science. - Paris/Boston-based Alice & Bob snagged a $3.6 million ARPA-E award for rare-earth-free magnet discovery using quantum computing. - Germany's WeSort.AI raised $10.6 million to scale AI-based recovery of critical raw materials. ### What makes alqem different alqem is building its discovery engine on two proprietary foundations. First, a database of predicted materials that's "vastly larger than anything previously available to the field." Second, high-quality training datasets for material properties that didn't exist before. To close the loop between prediction and experiment, the company also brings in-house synthesis capability. That means they can test their predictions quickly, without waiting on outside labs. The discovery engine has already produced a pipeline of rare-earth-free magnet candidates. Performance has been validated against experimental data. By narrowing hundreds of millions of possibilities down to a tractable shortlist, and automating experimental data analysis steps that typically take hours, the engine becomes more accurate with every iteration. ### The team behind it alqem was founded in 2026 by: - Dr. Hanh Nguyen (CEO): A chemicals and energy executive with 15+ years across McKinsey, Unilever, and OCI Global, where she led billion-euro clean energy and sustainability programs. - Dr. Tiago Cerqueira (CTO): Co-developed Alexandria. - Prof. Milan Allan (CSO): Chair of Experimental Physics, Quantum Metrology and Sensing at LMU Munich. ### Three technical foundations The discovery engine rests on three pillars: **al-mine:** A proprietary database of predicted stable crystalline compounds, deliberately weighted away from rare-earth, toxic, and costly elements. **al-oracle:** A set of high-quality training datasets for material properties that didn't exist before. **In-house synthesis:** The ability to synthesize and test new materials in-house, closing the loop between prediction and experiment. ### What's next “We start where the need is greatest: rare-earth-free magnets, a material the world urgently needs and hasn’t been able to replace for decades. But the engine we are building is not limited to one material class,” says Dr. Nguyen. “alqem is a startup with world-class science translated into a company tackling one of Europe’s most strategic industrial challenges. Advanced materials sit at the heart of the technologies that will define the next decades, from clean energy to mobility to defense,” adds Amanda Birkenholz, Principal at UVC Partners. Only a small fraction of theoretically possible crystalline compounds have ever been synthesized. Hundreds of millions of possibilities remain undiscovered. Alqem is betting that AI can find the needles in that haystack. And with $8.5 million in fresh funding, they now have the resources to prove it.