Nature shows how it works: spider webs are light but robust. Dragonfly wings too. The Austrian tech startup Fibionic takes advantage of exactly this principle and has developed a process to produce light but stable components for companies.
Fibionic has now completed seed financing of three million euros. The round is led by VC Redstone and Euregio+ as well as the two VC firms Caesar and Leap435. Business angels also took part in the round.
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Thomas Rettenwander (CEO) and Johannes Mandler (CEO) founded Fibionic in 2021. Elias Hirschbichler (CFO) joined as founder three years later.
First product: bicycle saddle
Fibionic already has an initial use case for the lightweight technology: Deep-Tech bicycle saddles are produced for the Italian manufacturer Selle Italia – based on the structure and structure of a dragonfly wing. Design, prototypes and series production come from Fibonic.
For its process, the startup uses strong fibers such as carbon, glass or natural fibers and turns them into a kind of grid, or places the fibers exactly so that they form a stable basic skeleton. According to Fibonic, only as many fibers are used as necessary.
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The fibers are then embedded in plastic. Fibionic saves up to 60 percent of material on the bicycle saddle. This also reduces the overall weight of the product. According to Fibionic, it should take one minute to produce a part. The startup has patented its process.
“We enable the scalable production of extremely powerful, ultra-light products – quickly, sustainably and cost-efficiently,” says von Hirschbichler in a statement from the startup.
This is how Fibonic wants to use the fresh capital
The tech startup plans to use the financing to expand into other industries. Lightweight construction is also relevant for the automotive, aviation, defense and robotics sectors. The founders also plan to further expand both the team and the technology platform and software. The focus is also on scaling production. The team wants to bring pilot applications into series production.
Fibionic provided Gründerszene with the pitch deck with which they were able to convince investors. You can find more pitch decks on our pitch deck overview. You can get feedback from experts for your own slides here.
