Ahead of the HackSummit (April 22-23), one theme keeps resurfacing: resilience. And it lies deep within the materials that underpin modern industry.
Few feel this more acutely than Joonatan Laulainen and Thibaud Martin, Co-Founders of AI & lab-powered materials development platform Altrove.
“We’re heading toward a world where we might go to war over critical minerals,” Joonatan says. “And that should feel a bit crazy.”
From electrification to advanced manufacturing, nearly every industrial system depends on a narrow set of critical materials. Much of that supply is geographically concentrated, often in ways that introduce geopolitical risk.
“If a supply tap is suddenly cut, for example from China, you’re not just dealing with a sourcing issue,” Joonatan explains. “You’re dealing with the risk that entire components, and therefore entire products, can no longer be produced.”
Historically, companies have had three options:
Rebuild supply chains elsewhere — a process that can take decades
Develop alternative materials — also a slow, expensive, and uncertain path
Recycle existing materials — necessary but not sufficient to cover the growing demand
Neither is sufficient for the pace and volatility of today’s world.
That’s where Altrove comes in.
Compressing a Decade into Weeks
At its core, Altrove is tackling a fundamental bottleneck: the speed of materials development.
Traditional materials R&D is painstakingly slow. A scientist designs an experiment, runs it, analyses results, and iterates. Even in the best-case scenario, that might mean ~50 experiments per year.
“If you need 300 experiments to get somewhere meaningful, that’s six years,” Joonatan tells us.
Altrove’s approach flips this paradigm to build systems that can:
Design experiments
Run and interpret results
Continuously iterate without bottlenecks
“Call it an AI scientist if you want,” he says. “But really, it’s about building systems that can run experiments, interpret outcomes, and design the next steps, without being constrained by human throughput.”
The result: hundreds of experiments in weeks instead of years.
In some cases, development cycles can be shortened by 90% or more, at least up to validated lab-scale materials.
The Real Bottleneck is Scale
While accelerating discovery is critical, Joonatan is clear: it’s only part of the story.
“The harsh truth is: nothing you do in the lab matters if you can’t produce it at scale.”
He breaks the materials pipeline into stages:
What to make (increasingly computational)
Can it be made? (lab validation)
Can it be optimised? (competing with incumbents)
Can it scale? (the hardest part)
The biggest bottlenecks?
Making the material in reality, and scaling it economically.
Many startups fall into a familiar trap: developing novel materials or processes that work beautifully in the lab but have no viable path to industrial production.
“You might create something incredible using an esoteric synthesis method,” he points out. “But if that method doesn’t exist at scale, or requires inventing a whole new manufacturing paradigm, you’re stuck for years.”
Altrove’s thesis is different: Start with processes that are inherently scalable.
By designing and optimising materials using methods already compatible with industrial scaling , they reduce downstream risk.
“If we can control what happens in the lab—and ensure it maps to scalable processes—we eliminate one of the biggest unknowns.”
Commercial First, Resilience as a Consequence
Altrove operates in a space often framed around national security and industrial resilience. But Joonatan is pragmatic about priorities.
“To build a truly impactful materials company, you have to be commercial first.”
Why?
Because real-world adoption is the ultimate validation.
“You can’t just build something that works technically. If it’s not commercially viable, it won’t be used, and then it doesn’t matter.”
That doesn’t mean resilience isn’t part of the mission. In fact, it’s inseparable.
By enabling faster development of alternative materials and processes, Altrove naturally contributes to:
Supply chain diversification
Reduced dependency on critical minerals
Greater industrial autonomy
But the path there runs through market adoption, not policy alone.
The “Silent Impact” of Materials Innovation
Unlike software or consumer tech, materials companies rarely become household names.
But their impact is everywhere.
“I like to think of materials companies as having a ‘silent impact,’” Joonatan notes.
Take automotive safety. Modern cars are dramatically safer than those from decades ago, not because of visible changes, but because of advances in materials like high-performance steel that absorb more energy on impact.
“People don’t talk about that as a materials breakthrough,” he notes. “But it directly saves lives.”
The same applies across industries:
Better batteries
Stronger infrastructure
More efficient energy systems
Materials are the foundation layer of innovation, quietly enabling everything built on top.
Unlocking Faster Innovation Across Industries
If Altrove succeeds, they remove a key bottleneck in technological progress.
“The idea is that companies won’t have to plan around 10-year material timelines anymore,” Joonatan explains. “They can build for what’s needed now.”
In other words:
Faster materials → faster engineering
Faster engineering → faster deployment
Faster deployment → faster societal progress
Building for the Real World
As Altrove prepares to join us at HackSummit, Joonatan is interested in meeting people who understand the realities of building in the physical world.
He’ll also join Rokas Peciulaitis of Contrarian Ventures for a fireside chat on 22nd April to discuss how AI and advanced materials are rebuilding Europe’s Industrial edge.
“I’m always excited to meet people who’ve dealt with the hard parts of manufacturing,” he adds. “The real bottlenecks, the real timelines.”
Because while software may abstract away complexity, deep tech does the opposite, it forces you to confront it.
And in that complexity lies both the challenge—and the opportunity.