Get to know one of the 10 Academic Startup Competition winners 2020! IAmFluidics B.V.: a short introduction
After the announcement of the 20 nominated academic startups of the second edition of the Academic Startup Competition, the jury has selected the best 10 startups. They left behind 47 contenders that were nominated by the Association of Universities in the Netherlands, the Netherlands Academy of Technology and Innovation and Techleap.nl. We introduce to you one of the 10 winners: IAmFluidics B.V., a company that developed a technology which allows them to make the production of small droplets and particles up to a thousand times faster. This is possible by manipulating liquids in the air. The technology leverages innovative production processes to engineer superb, sustainable and appealing products based on high-quality microparticles.
The level of the competitors was very high this year, and the most ground-breaking and innovative academic startups were selected to be the ‘Best academic startup in the Netherlands’. These startups are responsible for state-of-the-art and ground-breaking innovations in various fields, including Life Sciences, Health, High Tech, Energy, Logistics and Agri-Food. IAmFluidics is one of the winners in the High Tech field.
Microparticles are a key ingredient of many products, ranging from food and drugs to cosmetics and clothing. However, there is a limiting trade-off between the quantity and quality of microparticle production. As a consequence, markets currently work with suboptimal microparticle formulations. The proprietary technology of IAmFluidics, a University of Twente spin-off, called ‘in-air microfluidics’ enables the chip-free manipulation of microfluidic streams. In concept, microfluidic channels are replaced by micrometer-sized liquid jets that can be combined and manipulated in mid-air, thereby maintaining in-line control.
Innovative technology serves various markets
Via the controlled generation and impact of microjets, this off-chip approach is readily compatible with the production of monodisperse droplets, particles, and fibers at per-nozzle rates that exceed conventional microfluidics up to a 1000-fold for a wide range of particle diameters. IAmFluidics uses their platform technologies and expertise to serve various markets such as cosmetics and personal care, life science and biomedical, pharma and drug delivery.
The company was founded by Dr. Tom Kamperman and Dr. Claas Willem Visser. They are the inventors of the ‘in-air microfluidics’ technology and have been studying chip-based microfluidics and jetting technologies for more than 10 years in world-class research organizations such as Harvard, Max-Planck, and MESA+. Their work has been published in various top-teer scientific journals. They are very happy to be one of the winners of the Academic Startup Competition and looking forward to participate in the unique program of workshops, promotion track and peer to peer learning to help them accelerate the growth and scalability of their business.
Great to have you onboard team of IAmFluidics!