Founder of the month: Aixelo

Aixelo helps companies in the chemical and materials industries to integrate artificial intelligence into their daily R&D processes. This mission is not only in our DNA, but also in our name: Aixelo (āk-sel-o) stands for AI-Accelerated Operations. We want new materials to be developed faster and we are convinced that AI can help to achieve this. Our goal is for every chemist to be able to use AI tools as naturally as smartphone apps.

Our software acts as a ‘translator’ between chemistry projects and data science projects: we break down complex AI tools so that they can be used visually and intuitively. This allows chemists to focus on the science while the software analyses the data and makes suggestions in the background.

Our idea came from two directions: on the one hand, at the KIT, where we (Yi, Pascal and Manuel) worked closely together on academic projects and published papers. And at the same time in Boston, where Christoph was working on automating laboratories in his first spin-off. We all realised that AI has enormous potential to transform research in chemistry and materials science, but at the same time, many chemists struggle to use AI tools effectively. Our goal was therefore to develop a platform that would overcome precisely this hurdle and build a bridge between AI and chemical R&D.

We then pushed ahead with the spin-off idea at KIT and took part in accelerator programmes and received scholarships such as the Helmholtz Enterprise Field Study Fellowship. Manuel then went to Northwestern University in Chicago on a scholarship to learn more about AI and modelling, Yi and Pascal continued their research at KIT, and we all stayed in touch. Through Pascal, we got in touch with Christoph, whom he knew from his time at Harvard University. The combination of our different experiences and networks was perfect – creating a strong and complementary team.

Actually, it’s not that complicated to start a company in Germany (especially at the KIT) – there are many support services available. One of the biggest challenges for us was rather to find the right pace. We have to show that AI in chemistry already works today and is not just a future topic. Besides, setting up a company often means building everything from scratch – structures, processes, initial customer relationships – which takes a lot of energy, as well as time and patience.

We sought advice from many sources, for example, at the KIT Founders Forge and the upCAT Accelerator Programme. We were also part of the Helmholtz Enterprise Field Study Fellowship. The community is also important to us – we are active in networks such as SolarTAP, 5HT, EU4MOF and EUMACE and work with partners from industry and research. At the same time, we have built up a very strong advisory board that supports us not only with expertise but also with valuable contacts.

For us, one of the biggest challenges was to make progress in different areas at the same time – from product development to team building and from the website to customer acquisition. It felt like a pentathlon: you train for everything at the same time and you don’t feel particularly good at any of the disciplines. Especially at the beginning, it can be quite overwhelming. But over time, you grow with the tasks, and step by step, systematic structures and processes start to take effect.

An important milestone for us was the release of our first cloud software. Now our pentathlon continues: with a clearer messaging strategy and the provision of tutorials to reach even more research groups who are curious to try out our product and thus achieve faster and better results in their research projects with the help of our AI for materials development.

Yes, we now have clearer roles, defined processes and, of course, a legal structure. But the pioneering spirit remains: we continue to experiment and learn, only now our ‘experiments’ are officially running under the name Aixelo.

We work according to the ‘crawl-walk-run’ principle, which helps us to keep an overview and stay focused with all the tasks that need to be done at the same time. We are currently in the ‘crawl’ phase and want to further stabilise our product and make it scalable. We are working closely with pilot customers to get feedback. After that, we will enter the ‘walk’ phase, in which we will grow, acquire more customers and prepare for a fundraising. The long-term goal is to have a mature product that is used by many R&D teams worldwide.

That brings us back to the modern pentathlon. You have to be willing to learn and try out many disciplines, to make mistakes and learn from them quickly. You also need to be open to working on new topics, have a certain amount of stamina and a team that supports each other.

• Get people with start-up experience on your team: We were lucky to have Christoph on our team, someone who had already founded a company.
• Look for complementary skills: The team should combine technical, IT and business know-how. If you lack a skill or experience in the founding team, look for coaches or consultants who want to support you.
• Iterative product development: Build your product step by step and get customers to provide feedback early on.
• Clear roles and processes: Especially for scientists who found a company, it is important to have clear structures in order to remain efficient despite the experimental spirit of research.

We are still in the early stages and have placed a lot of emphasis on building solid structures. This sometimes feels slow because we can’t constantly show major milestones. We probably won’t be able to answer the question of whether we would do something differently for a few years. Right now, we’re happy to have a solid foundation on which we can grow quickly.

Want to learn more about Aixelo and the founding process? You can find our podcast episode with Christoph and Manuel from the founding team on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.