Imperial spinout materials startup raises $8 million
Imperial spin-out company Polaron raised $8 million in seed funding, the earliest stage of startup financing.
Polaron builds proprietary algorithms that convert microscopic images of materials into three-dimensional reconstructions, revealing characteristics such as pores or cracks. This microstructural insight is valuable to industrial manufacturers, as it informs a material’s behaviour like strength, cost, and ageing characteristics.
The company was founded in 2024 after years of work by a team from the College’s Dyson School of Design Engineering, led by Drs Isaac Squires (CEO), Steve Kench (CTO), and Sam Cooper (Chief Scientist).
The seed funding round was led by impact investment fund Racine2, which is jointly operated by venture capital firm Serena and nonprofit Makesense. Polaron had already won the £1 million inaugural Manchester Prize in 2025.
In time, manufacturers could use Polaron’s generative artificial intelligence models to design materials like battery electrodes for EV production, instead of relying on manual trial and error, which is slow and laborious.
Imperial News reported that Polaron would look to recruit talent from Imperial as it aims to double its team headcount within a year.
