University spin-offs are entrepreneurships promoted by one or several members of the university community whose business is based in the use of knowledge and conclusions resulted from university research.

The creation of MatCO (Porous Materials for Advanced Applications, SL) derives from the first generation of results of the European project Chemical Engineering of Functional Stable Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs): Porous crystals and Thin-film Devices, led by Carlos Martí-Gastaldo (researcher Ramón y Cajal at ICMol and founder of the spin-off). It has received funds from the Starting Grant of the European Research Council.

The team led by Martí-Gastaldo at ICMol, FuniMAT (Functional Inorganic Materials (a research group straddling between inorganic chemistry and materials chemistry), has developed in the last years new porous materials to implement them in environmental projects. “Our goal is to develop new materials to apply them in catalysis, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis and energy-storage for the development of a new generation of tools as well as its transformation into solar energy,” indicates the researcher.

MatCO is backed by several companies and stockholders. It is located in the business breeding ground of the academic institution at the Scientific Park. The most important fund is BeAble Capital. It is a European technological and financing based investment fund with a long experience managing emerging industrial companies. It provides qualified personnel to the company in order to make the management and decision-making more professional. “In BeAble we analyse 300 technologies a year and only choose 10,” states Alberto Díaz, founder of the investment fund. Apart from the research team, we were interested in MatCO because its technology can have an important impact in certain market segments that are growing and are focused on non-covered demand. Additionally, we understand that developing the MOFs can influence the market within a reasonable period of time for the type of investments that we offer. The new chief technical officer (CTO), Montaña Elviro, stated that “founding now means improving the trading processes of MOFs to supply them in a large, efficient and profitable manner.”

These materials are protected by a patent owed by the Universitat de València and the Universidad de Granada. These academic institutions have licensed the patent to MatCO, in its role of spin-off and following the transfer of knowledge that characterizes the universities in the 21st century. “The fact that a company works on a protected patent gives us a valuable advantage,” points out Alberto Díaz. He has expressed that he feels very comfortable with the management of the Universitat de València. “It is an institution that understands very well the concept of technological transfer.”

Martí-Gastaldo claims that “university research has the tools to approach and transform the civil society. Sometimes, it is only necessary that the researcher is dynamic and enterprising to transfer the knowledge beyond the academic field, where our work is certainly interesting for others.”