Toronto-based deep technology startup Meissner wants to find and develop the next generation of superconducting materials.
Meissner announced $2.6 million USD ($3.6 million CAD) in pre-seed financing on Tuesday to build what it describes as “the discovery engine” for superconductors, using a combination of machine learning (ML), computation, and experimental validation.
Superconductors are “definitely the picks and shovels to unlocking high-growth, high-tech industries.”
Olivia Leng, Meissner
Superconductors are materials that are capable of conducting electricity without any resistance or energy loss, making them far more efficient than normal conductors. They are already being used in MRI machines and high-speed magnetic-levitation train systems. Many tech firms are betting that superconductors will become foundational components of commercial-scale quantum computers and play an important role in realizing the promise of fusion power.
“They’re definitely the picks and shovels to unlocking high-growth, high-tech industries,” Meissner founder and CEO Olivia Leng told BetaKit in an interview.
Leng said existing superconductors can be costly to deploy, as they often require expensive cooling infrastructure, and are prone to sudden, localized hotspots that can melt system components when electricity briefly encounters resistance. Meissner aims to develop and sell new, optimized superconductors that can operate at significantly higher temperatures for specialized uses.
Meissner’s investors include BDC Capital’s Thrive Venture Fund and several big-name angels, including Canadian tech veterans like Andrew Talpash, Anthony Lacavera, Christian Weedbrook, Daniel Debow, Dennis Bennie, Eliot Pence, Greg Twinney, and Michael and Richard Hyatt.
“These are names that I’ve looked up to for many, many years … so it’s kind of surreal to have them actually on my cap table,” Leng said.
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In an interview with BetaKit, Michael Hyatt said Meissner reminds him of his early investment in Toronto-based quantum computer maker Xanadu, a company that many of the other investors behind Meissner have also backed (or, in the case of Weedbrook, founded and currently leads).
“If you believe quantum is going to be a reality by 2030, companies like Meissner will be really important in that process,” Hyatt said. “It’s a derivative bet on quantum.” The successful tech-entrepreneur-turned-investor called Leng “an impressive young woman who is extremely motivated,” and said he was also attracted to the idea that “you can’t vibe code” a competitor.
Meissner is not Leng’s first tech startup. She previously built Toronto-based InkTank to help artists visualize how their tattoos would look on clients’ bodies as they age by converting two-dimensional images into three-dimensional mesh. Leng pulled the plug on that business after learning that tattoo artists were not willing to pay for its platform, as they thought it might drive away their customers.
Leng wanted her next company to be a moonshot, and soon landed on superconductors—an area of interest from her undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, where she specialized in materials science chemistry. She said she spent a lot of time in the lab working with superconductors and running chemical and electrical simulations on them.
“[I] had a good idea of what needed to be done,” Leng said. She formed Meissner 12 months ago, deriving its name from the Meissner effect, when a superconductor expels a magnetic field as it enters a superconducting state, and paused her studies to focus on the company.
“If you believe quantum is going to be a reality by 2030, companies like Meissner will be really important in that process.”
Michael Hyatt
Leng says her now four-person startup has made a lot of progress on the computational side of the equation, building a proprietary ML model that identifies new aerometallic materials with the potential to become superconductors and running quantum simulations on them.
This month, Meissner plans to start testing its top-performing candidates at the University of Waterloo’s Quantum-Nano Fabrication and Characterization Facility.
“We finally get to take our materials that we’ve run very high-fidelity quantum simulations on, that have shown very promising results, out into the lab to see how well those lab results correlate,” Leng said.
Feature image courtesy Meissner.