Berlin Startup Breaking Down Walls (And Costs) For The Chemical & Pharma Industry

Quantum On Demand (QoD)

One of the bugbears of your typical commercial lab experiment these days (or at any time in the past) is the costs incurred to actually do them. Greatly bringing down these financial constraints can do a lot for speeding up R&D while slashing the time it takes the product(s) to go to market, which is a scenario any company within the pharmaceutical industry wants.

Understanding the problem at hand, a startup — which merges ultra-modern prediction methods used in quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics and pioneering AI algorithms to bring its customers “the fastest and most accurate predictions possible — is ready for business.

Meet Quantum on Demand (QoD), a Berlin-based SaaS solution startup founded by Marcel Quennet, Vincent Pohl and Gunter Hermann in 2018.

Next Generation of Chemical Simulations

— Quantum on Demand

The startup’s web-based platform, featuring an easy-to-use web application, is designed to utilize the wonders of chemical simulations. One of the advantages of this is it allows the user to perform tasks without being an expert in simulation, or have the necessary infrastructure in place.

Some of the things users can do are predicting chemical and physical properties of chemical and biochemical compounds, with current features including, spectra, structures, thermodynamics, and reactions. Quantum on Demand promises this feature is planned to be “constantly extended”.

The application can be used through the use web application. If this is not to your taste, the startup provides a RESTful API, which can be integrated into any software.

Marcel Quennet is the CEO and co-founder of Quantum on Demand. His Ph.D. in quantum chemistry from Freie Universität Berlin is complemented by his experience working in the R&D and IT industry.

Gaining his Ph.D. in theoretical and computational chemistry from the Freie Universität Berlin, before co-founding Quantum on Demand Vincent Pohl had stints as a research associate.

The third co-founder of the startup is Gunter Hermann, a theoretical chemist and experienced scientist. Like his two co-founders, Hermann obtained his Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry from the Freie Universität Berlin.

Complete Package For Simulations

So what’s next for these three and Quantum in Demand? First, the team intends to increase the number of users on their platform while launching further pilot projects with companies. This will be as they grow the team, of course.

“Since the development of new chemicals and active pharmaceutical ingredients is a very cost- and resource-intensive process, simulations are increasingly being used to shorten the development time of these products. However, only large corporations can afford the expensive software and infrastructure as well as the necessary experts. With QoD Technologies, we provide a complete package for simulations in a single software solution (Quantum on Demand) and with an attractive price/performance ratio, especially for SMEs.”

— Gunter Hermann, Quantum on Demand

Financially speaking, Quantum on Demand has been supported by a Berlin programme for highly innovative technology companies and private investors and received an EXIST startup grant. It also plans, as of January 2021, to “close a significant financing round shortly, which will allow us to do very well and also grow significantly over the next two years.”

With sadness and heartache all around in the Times of COVID, startups like Quantum on Demand and their novel solutions leveraging AI, ML and quantum-based chemical simulations will have all those stakeholders in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry grinning, for sure.

For more market insights, check out our latest quantum computing news here.