According to Jan van Dijk, Assistant Professor and researcher in the Elementary Processes in Corona Discharges group (EPG), says that Plasma Matters BV concerns a spin-off that is based on the modeling and simulation efforts taking place within his group. The CEO of the company is Diana Mihailova, Bulgarian by origin and a former PhD candidate and ex-postdoc at the EPG group.

The company provides consultancy in the area of plasma technology while also focusing on the sale of licenses for the simulation toolkit Plasimo that was developed in-house, with all the appurtenant services and support. Mihailova has already landed orders from companies including ASML and several international universities and expects that this year’s turnover will amount to 160,000 euro.

Simbeyond BV is run by two former PhD candidates of Applied Physics, Siebe van Mensfoort (CEO) and Harm van Eersel (CTO), and was incorporated last week. This company concentrates on the sale of sophisticated software, named Bumblebee, for the simulation of organic-electronic devices, OLEDs in particular. CTO Van Eersel needs to defend his PhD thesis on November 16, for that matter.

With Bumblebee, Simbeyond has taken the lead over all other parties that are active in this market, Van Mensfoort explains. “Our simulation software, which has genuine predictive value, is not going to replace the whole experimental process, but definitely a considerable part of it. This will save companies costs and lead time.”

Meanwhile a large chemical group from the top 5, whose name Van Mensfoort cannot release, is already working with Bumblebee, and in the months to come the CEO will intensify his search for more customers. “If within several years our turnover does not exceed 1 million euro, there is something we are not doing right.”

At present the persons concerned do not wish to say anything yet about the other two BVs that may be set up within the foreseeable future, also because they are still involved with matters relating to the intellectual property.