Cottonwood Technology Leads €3 Million Funding Round for Plasmotion

Chem­nitz — plas­mo­tion, a German deep-tech company that deve­lops and manu­fac­tures indus­trial machi­nery and proprie­tary elec­tro­lytes for the plasma-elec­­tro­­ly­­tic surface treat­ment of metal compon­ents, has secu­red new finan­cing tota­ling 3 million euros, led by the Cotton­wood Tech­no­logy Fund and supported by the Euro­pean Inno­va­tion Coun­cil (EIC) fund. The invest­ment will support plas­mo­ti­on’s next phase of indus­trial growth, inclu­ding the contin­ued commer­cia­liza­tion of its proprie­tary plasma poli­shing tech­no­lo­gies, the scaling of its stan­dard machine plat­forms, and the expan­sion of its busi­ness with indus­trial custo­mers in Europe and around the world. 

plas­mo­tion is head­quar­te­red in the Chem­nitz region, one of Germany’s tradi­tio­nal centers for advan­ced manu­fac­tu­ring and mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring. The company is a spin-off of the TU Berg­aka­de­mie Frei­berg and deve­lops a new gene­ra­tion of auto­ma­ted tech­no­lo­gies for the surface treat­ment of metal components. 

Its tech­no­logy combi­nes elec­tro­che­mis­try and plasma physics to polish, deburr, clean, and modify metal surfaces—without conven­tio­nal mecha­ni­cal poli­shing or aggres­sive chemi­cal proces­ses. A key diffe­ren­tia­tor is the JETPEP tech­no­logy deve­lo­ped by plas­mo­tion, which makes it possi­ble to apply plasma-elec­­tro­­ly­­tic poli­shing selec­tively to speci­fic areas of a compo­nent. Using a control­led elec­tro­lyte jet, this process allows for the treat­ment of complex geome­tries and indi­vi­dual surfaces without having to immerse and polish the entire compo­nent. This opens up appli­ca­tion possi­bi­li­ties for large and complex compon­ents, as well as for manu­fac­tu­ring envi­ron­ments where diffe­rent parts have diffe­rent surface requirements. 

plas­mo­tion combi­nes proprie­tary elec­tro­lyte formu­la­ti­ons, process exper­tise, in-house mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, and auto­ma­tion into an inte­gra­ted solu­tion. The water- and salt-based elec­tro­lytes are desi­gned for a wide range of metals and alloys, inclu­ding stain­less steels, tita­nium, alumi­num, copper, and specialty alloys. 

The tech­no­logy enables surface rough­ness levels of up to appro­xi­m­ately Ra 0.02 µm while simul­ta­neously combi­ning poli­shing, debur­ring, and clea­ning. Exis­ting and vali­da­ted appli­ca­ti­ons range from medi­cal tech­no­logy and precis­ion engi­nee­ring to jewelry and tool­ma­king, as well as semi­con­duc­tor equip­ment and other state-of-the-art manu­fac­tu­ring industries. 

Indus­tria­liza­tion of a New Approach to Surface Finishing

Many high-quality metal compon­ents still require labor-inten­­sive mecha­ni­cal poli­shing or conven­tio­nal elec­tro­che­mi­cal proces­ses that involve multi­ple produc­tion steps. Plasmotion’s goal is to replace these complex process chains with highly auto­ma­ted and repro­du­ci­ble finis­hing proces­ses that can be directly inte­gra­ted into indus­trial manu­fac­tu­ring. The unique combi­na­tion of plasma physics, elec­tro­che­mis­try, and fluid dyna­mics makes this possi­ble through unmat­ched geome­tric accuracy. 

The company’s port­fo­lio includes the dive.pro systems for dive-based plasma poli­shing, as well as the jet.pro systems for spot proces­sing, which are based on plasmotion’s JETPEP plat­form. Both systems operate enti­rely without the use of hazar­dous subs­tances and can ther­e­fore be easily inte­gra­ted into a CNC manu­fac­tu­ring environment—without the need for special floo­ring or protec­tive equipment. 

Vincent Step­pu­tat, co-foun­­der and CEO of plas­mo­tion, said: “We never inten­ded to build labo­ra­tory equip­ment. Every plas­mo­tion machine is desi­gned from the very first sketch for high-quality manufacturing—as a stan­dard machine that a custo­mer quali­fies once and then deploys shift after shift on the produc­tion floor. Our dive.pro systems are alre­ady doing exactly that in our custo­mers’ manu­fac­tu­ring faci­li­ties. With Cotton­wood and the EIC Fund by our side, we will now bring JETPEP to the same level of indus­trial matu­rity and expand plas­mo­tion internationally.”

Patrick Claes­sen, a part­ner at Cotton­wood Tech­no­logy Fund, said: “plas­mo­tion is exactly the kind of indus­trial deep-tech company Cotton­wood likes to invest in: complex science trans­la­ted into a tech­no­logy that solves a very speci­fic manu­fac­tu­ring problem. Surface finis­hing may seem like a rela­tively simple step in manu­fac­tu­ring, but for high-precis­­ion compon­ents, it can be one of the most labor-inten­­sive, costly, and diffi­cult proces­ses to auto­mate. We see signi­fi­cant oppor­tu­ni­ties to scale this tech­no­logy globally.”

The new funding will be used to bring the jet.pro and jet.pro 3D systems into series produc­tion, expand the manu­fac­tu­ring of plasmotion’s stan­dard machi­nes and elec­tro­lytes, and grow sales and appli­ca­tion deve­lo­p­ment in Europe and inter­na­tio­nally. This funding comes at a time when Euro­pean indus­try is incre­asingly focu­sing on advan­ced manu­fac­tu­ring, auto­ma­tion, resource effi­ci­ency, and redu­cing depen­dence on labor-inten­­sive produc­tion processes. 

About the Euro­pean Inno­va­tion Coun­cil (EIC) Fund

The Euro­pean Commission’s Euro­pean Inno­va­tion Coun­cil Fund is a deep-tech inves­tor that invests across all tech­no­logy sectors. The EIC Fund aims to bridge a criti­cal funding gap and support compa­nies in deve­lo­ping and commer­cia­li­zing disrup­tive tech­no­lo­gies. With its exten­sive network of inves­tors and stra­te­gic part­ners, it shares risk and enga­ges market players.