A Busan-based startup using artificial intelligence to dramatically shorten new materials development timelines has established a Singapore subsidiary to accelerate its global market expansion.
According to Busan Creative Economy Innovation Center on the 27th, portfolio company Wellmetics Inc. recently achieved significant milestones including the Singapore entity establishment, global investment attraction, overseas proof-of-concept validation, and major corporate patent transfer partnerships.
Wellmetics secured a €25,000 (approximately 38 million won) investment from global accelerator Startupbootcamp in exchange for an 8% equity stake in its Singapore subsidiary. The company also placed second in the MIT DesignX program, earning prize money of 30,000 UAE dirhams (approximately 12 million won). Additionally, Wellmetics was selected for IPHatch, an intellectual property-based open innovation program, and is pursuing patent transfers and joint research with Panasonic.
The company is expanding its international presence. It showcased its technology at global exhibitions and conferences including SLUSH in Finland and SWITCH in Singapore, and is in contract negotiations with a French flexible electronics materials company. Wellmetics is conducting proof-of-concept trials with a Finnish water treatment specialist and signed a memorandum of understanding with German semiconductor firm SilTest for collaboration in semiconductor testing and materials.
Wellmetics' competitive edge lies in its AI engine trained on integrated data from patents, academic papers, and physics-based simulations. The platform combines reinforcement learning and graph neural networks to propose candidate materials tailored to specific objectives during early-stage development. Applicable across carbon capture, batteries, semiconductors, water treatment, and packaging materials, the technology demonstrated its capability by reducing development time for carbon capture materials from approximately seven years to one year in actual PoC trials.
The global materials market's shift toward "multi-objective optimization"—simultaneously demanding high performance, functionality, carbon reduction, and energy efficiency—presents additional opportunities. Wellmetics differentiates itself by incorporating these factors from the materials discovery phase.
Busan Creative Economy Innovation Center's overseas expansion support contributed to the company's growth. Through programs including "Plug in: Osaka" linked with Japan's Quint Bridge open innovation hub and "Plug in: Singapore #5" providing local strategy development and one-on-one meetups, Wellmetics built networks with major corporations and venture capital firms. These connections led to early-stage collaboration discussions with new materials and cleantech partners in Japan and Singapore.
Wellmetics plans to intensify its European eco-friendly materials market push following its selection for Finland's SLUSH 2026 program while expanding Middle East partnerships. The company's mid-to-long-term goal is to become a global platform leader in AI-based new materials design.
"We have focused on applying AI research experience to industrial settings to reduce the time and cost of materials development," said Aichi Shatyabruta, CEO of Wellmetics. "We will grow alongside global partners as an AI platform supporting sustainable materials development."