By combining advanced materials expertise with AI-powered experimentation, the alliance aims to compress years of development of catalyst ink for electrolysis into months
BERLIN, GERMANY AND VALENCIA, SPAIN / ACCESS Newswire / January 29, 2026 / Matteco and Dunia Innovations today announced the start of a strategic collaboration to accelerate the development of next-generation functional layers used inside AEM (Anion Exchange Membrane) electrolyzers, a key technology that enables large-scale hydrogen production from electricity and water.
As the hydrogen sector moves toward the critical goal of reducing production costs toward the ~$2/kg range, further progress increasingly depends on advances in materials. Achieving this requires not only higher efficiency but also greater durability, manufacturability, and stable performance at industrial operating conditions.
At this stage, AEM water electrolysis emerges as a key technological pathway. Continued progress in this area depends on improvements in catalyst layers; the thin material layers inside an electrolyzer that largely determine how efficiently and reliably it converts electricity into hydrogen.
Matteco already delivers high-performance AEM catalyst materials and industrially relevant formulations that address today's market needs. This collaboration is designed to build on that foundation, accelerating the evolution of these technologies toward future generations of electrolyzers.
Catalyst layers represent one of the most critical and complex bottlenecks in AEM electrolysis. Even small improvements in efficiency, durability, or ease of production can unlock disproportionate system-level gains, reducing electricity consumption, extending stack lifetime, and lowering overall operating costs.
At the heart of the partnership is a shared ambition: to dramatically compress the time required to translate promising material concepts into industrial-grade solutions. Matteco contributes deep expertise in electrocatalysts, functional inks, and scalable electrodes, while Dunia brings its AI-guided experimentation platform, which helps test and compare many different material options quickly and consistently, under conditions that reflect how real electrolyzers operate.
Historically, progress has been constrained by slow, trial-and-error development cycles and limited experimental throughput. By tightly integrating advanced materials science with AI-powered experimentation and data-driven optimization, Matteco and Dunia aim to reduce development cycles from years to months, enabling faster iteration, deeper insight into performance drivers, and more reliable scale-up pathways. The collaboration is structured with the explicit goal of expanding into a longer-term strategic partnership.
"For a long time, the industry has treated discovery as the hard part. In reality, discovery is cheap. What's truly hard is turning ideas into materials that perform reliably, scale cleanly, and make an economic difference. This collaboration reflects our ambition to push AEM electrolysis performance beyond today's benchmarks", said Dr. Alexander Hammer, CEO and co-founder of Dunia Innovations
"Matteco has built a strong technological base in AEM materials, and this partnership allows us to accelerate its evolution with unprecedented speed and precision. Now, we can move faster from targeted design to validated, industrial-ready solutions. This is a true co-development effort, aligned from the outset with the realities of commercial electrolyzer", said Dr. Gonzalo Abellán, Co-founder and CTO at Matteco.
Beyond its immediate technical goals, the partnership reflects a shared view on how industrial materials innovation should work: start from the end application, define clear inputs and outputs, and judge success by performance in the real world.
By embedding AI directly into the experimental loop, rather than stopping at simulation, Dunia and Matteco position themselves not as service provider and client, but as long-term technology partners committed to accelerating the material breakthroughs needed for scalable, competitive green hydrogen.
ABOUT MATTECO
Matteco is a deep-tech company developing advanced material solutions for clean energy systems. Headquartered in Spain, the company develops next-generation catalysts and electrodes for water electrolysis, with a strong focus on AEM technologies for green hydrogen production. Its industrial-grade material platforms are engineered to enhance efficiency, durability, and operational stability, positioning Matteco as a key technology partner for electrolyzer manufacturers and energy infrastructure players.
ABOUT DUNIA
Dunia builds the world's most advanced autonomous labs for materials discovery; an AI-native industrial stack designed to bridge the simulation-to-reality (Sim2Real) gap. Its platform, IRIS, merges robotics, multi-modal AI, and real-world experimentation to accelerate breakthroughs across energy, chemicals, and advanced manufacturing. Dunia's mission is to industrialize discovery and unlock a future of abundance.
CONTACT:
Name: Gonzalo Arenas
Email: hello@dunia.ai
Phone: +49 15560 431896
SOURCE: Dunia Innovations GmbH
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/industrial-and-manufacturing/matteco-and-dunia-innovations-launch-collaboration-to-break-the-materi-1114994
