Minerva Carbon GmbH officially founded

Minerva Carbon aims to develop high-performance carbon materials for sustainable energy storage technologies. The deep-tech startup was founded by Dr. Abdu Bilican, Jonas Gram, Julius Kaiser, and Nguyen-Khang Tran.
Bilican developed the synthesis process as a doctoral student in Dr. Wolfgang Schmidt’s research group at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung. It is expected to help make batteries more powerful in the future.

On July 28, 2026, an important milestone on Minerva Carbon’s agenda was the notary appointment. After the startup received a grant of 1.8 million euros in June 2025 as part of the EXIST Research Transfer I program, the team is currently focusing on setting up a pilot plant for the production of high-performance carbon materials and on further developing its business model. The process developed by Bilican enables significantly faster production of carbon materials on an industrial scale. This results in high-performance materials for energy storage, such as those required in demanding applications ranging from mobility and aerospace technology to data centers for artificial intelligence.

To this end, a team at Minerva Carbon comprising specialists in materials science, automation technology, and business administration is working on the project. This was followed by the official founding of the GmbH with the participation of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung. Administrative Director Dr. Verena Schultz-Coulon and Director Professor Ben List signed the articles of incorporation together with the founders.

“We are very proud of the technology transfer from our institute that has led to the founding of Minerva Carbon. Basic research has given rise to a promising synthesis process that could help tackle such important challenges as the energy transition. We wish the startup team every success in its next steps, which we will actively support,” says Administrative Director Dr. Verena Schultz-Coulon.