History
Avantium was founded in February 2000 as a spin-off from Shell. A unique consortium of strategic shareholders including Pfizer, GSK, Eastman Chemical, WR Grace and Akzo Nobel joined as strategic partners and invested in Avantium. Their interest was to accelerate and benefit from the application of high-throughput R&D, initially developed by Shell for catalysis research. A group of venture capitalist firms, DFJ Esprit, Sanders Morris Harris, Alpinvest, MVM, SR-One, and EDB Ventures, and the three Dutch technical universities decided to join the initiative to start an innovative R&D company. This company focused on high-throughput experimentation with applications across a range of industries and created one of the most advanced chemical laboratories in the world.
During the first years of Avantium's existence, the company developed the core elements of its advanced high-throughput R&D technology. Avantium invested significant resources to upgrade the technology it had inherited from Shell (the parallel catalyst testing platform, called Nanoflow technology for heterogeneous catalysis research, parallel batch reactors and catalyst preparation robotics). New systems and the associated software were developed to come to a fully integrated workflow.
In 2000, Avantium entered into a collaboration with the University of Leiden to develop high-throughput technology for crystallization research for small molecules in drug development. Originally, this activity was started under the name Crystallics, which was subsequently integrated into Avantium.
In 2003 and 2004, Avantium focused its business on catalysis research for the chemical and oil industries and on crystallization research for the pharmaceutical industry. The focus on its core expertise and technologies led to several strategic research collaborations with leading chemical and pharmaceutical companies, including BP, Boehringer Ingelheim and GlaxoSmithKline.
In 2005, Avantium started with the sales of research systems (tools) building on its core technology and intellectual property portfolio. The company's first achievement was the launch of the Crystal16®.
In 2006, Avantium launched two other tools: Block96 and Flowrence® for catalysis research and process chemistry. In addition, Avantium established a US branch office to better serve its expanding US customer base. In the same year Avantium initiated its first two strategic development programs:
- bio-based products: fuels and materials
- new crystal forms of marketed drugs
In 2007, Avantium announced the expansion of its facilities in Amsterdam to accommodate the strong growth of its business.
A EUR 18 million private financing round was completed in October 2008. The financing will be used to accelerate its two proprietary development programs. Aescap Venture acted as lead investor in the financing. Other partners of the investment syndicate are Capricorn Cleantech Fund, ING Corporate Investments and Navitas Capital.
Avantium launched a new system to study crystallization processes for the pharmaceutical industry in 2009. The system will be marketed under the name Crystalline.
Avantium launched the brand YXY , for one of the strategic programs, in May 2010. YXY is the technology platform to produce green building blocks for materials and fuels. It converts biomass into furanics.
In April 2011 Avantium announced the spin out of its pharmaceutical service & development business. The spin-out is part of Avantium’s strategic plan to focus on its cleantech and chemicals activities.