VSPARTICLE
VSPARTICLE B.V. is a Dutch nanotechnology company developing spark ablation-based nanoparticle generators and nanoprinters for green hydrogen, gas sensing, semiconductor, and materials research applications, serving enterprises and research institutions globally.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2014
- HeadquartersDelft, Netherlands
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingHardware or Manufacturing
What VSPARTICLE does
VSPARTICLE B.V. is a Dutch private limited company founded in 2014 and headquartered in Delft, Netherlands, that develops hardware and services for synthesizing and depositing nanoporous layers using proprietary spark ablation technology. The core platform consists of the VSP-G1 Nanoparticle Generator, which uses high-voltage electrical sparks (>20,000°C) between electrodes to ablate atoms that condense into 2-200nm nanoparticles in an inert gas stream, and the VSP-P1 Nanoprinter, which deposits these nanoparticles as binder-free, 60-80% porous layers onto substrates. The technology is compatible with 40+ elements and works on flat substrates including PTLs, Nafion, silicon wafers, ITO glass, and MEMS chips via Van der Waals adhesion, and is positioned as a single-step dry alternative to traditional wet-chemistry CCM production, claimed to eliminate ~85% of conventional steps.
The company operates a hybrid business model combining capital equipment sales (VSP-G1 and VSP-P1 for research and process development) with a Deposition-as-a-Service offering that delivers on-demand nanoporous layer coating on customer-submitted substrates with zero CAPEX commitment. Industrial-scale tools — the VSP-G100 (100x output) and the planned High Volume Production Tool (HVPT) with 10+ generators — are under development to enable GW-scale deployment for green hydrogen. Target customers span green hydrogen / PEM electrolysis (Plug Power, De Nora), gas sensing (MCL AccSens project), semiconductor applications (served via Japanese distributors Tokyo Dylec and Kyodo International), and academic materials research (EPFL, DIFFER, University of Delaware, University of Leoben). The company also operates the ENHANSERS sub-brand commercializing SERS substrates and collaborates with Meta AI on the Open Catalyst Experiments 2024 initiative.
VSPARTICLE has raised approximately €21M in total funding across a €14.5M Series A in 2023 led by Plural and a €6.5M Series A2 extension in August 2024 co-led by NordicNinja and Plural, with participation from Hermann Hauser Investment. The company employs 11-50 staff, holds patents on its spark ablation process and the VSP-P1 system, and is led by co-founder and CEO Aaike van Vugt alongside co-founder/CTO Tobias Pfeiffer and COO Tobias Coppejans. Geographic expansion is underway into Japan, the United States, and additional European markets.
VSPARTICLE firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- VSPARTICLE
- Legal name
- VSPARTICLE B.V.
- Website
- https://vsparticle.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2014
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- VSPARTICLE B.V. is a Dutch nanotechnology company developing spark ablation-based nanoparticle generators and nanoprinters for green hydrogen, gas sensing, semiconductor, and materials research applications, serving enterprises and research institutions globally.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
VSPARTICLE industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Nanoparticle Synthesis and Deposition Equipment
- NAICS
- Research and Development in Nanotechnology (541713)
- akta.pro primary industry
- R&D / Prototyping & MPW Shuttle Foundries (HDAHACAI)
Keywords
Where VSPARTICLE is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Delft
- HQ country
- Netherlands
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
VSPARTICLE business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Hardware or Manufacturing
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- R&D Tools Hardware Sales: Sale of VSP-G1 Nanoparticle Generator and VSP-P1 Nanoprinter for research and industrial use. Research tool pricing with flexible four-month trial period available.
- Deposition Service: On-demand nanoporous layer deposition service using proprietary technology. Customers submit substrates for coating with customizable loading, composition, and substrate dimensions.
- Industrial Tools (Under Development): Next-generation production tools including VSP-G100 Nanoparticle Generator (100x output vs VSP-G1) and High Volume Production Tool (HVPT) for GW-scale deployment.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| One time/ perpetual license | Multi-year contract | Research Tool - VSP-P1 Nanoprinter |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Deposition Service - On-demand coating |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels7 records
VSPARTICLE product offering
Product offeringCore offering
VSPARTICLE develops and sells hardware tools (nanoparticle generators and nanoprinters) based on proprietary spark ablation technology for synthesizing ultra-pure nanoparticles (2-20nm) and depositing them as binder-free nanoporous layers on substrates. The company also offers a Deposition-as-a-Service for customers needing outsourced nanoporous layer coating for applications in green hydrogen, gas sensing, semiconductors, and materials discovery.
Product overview
VSParticle offers a portfolio of hardware products and services centered on spark ablation technology for nanoparticle synthesis and deposition. The core portfolio consists of the VSP-G1 Nanoparticle Generator for producing nanoparticles (2-20 nm) through electrical spark discharge, the VSP-P1 Nanoprinter for depositing these nanoparticles as nanoporous layers on substrates, and a Deposition-as-a-Service for customers who need outsourced layer coating. The company also offers industrial-scale tools including the VSP-G100 for higher throughput and the planned High Volume Production Tool (HVPT) for GW-scale deployment. A spin-off brand, ENHANSERS, commercializes SERS substrates produced with the core technology. All products target applications in electrocatalysis (particularly green hydrogen), gas sensing, and materials discovery.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- ENHANSERS: Commercially available SERS (Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy) substrates with unmatched reproducibility and sensitivity, produced using VSPARTICLE's spark ablation technology
- VSP-P1 Nanoprinter
- VSP-G1 Generator
Products and services
- VSP-G1 Nanoparticle Generator A nanoparticle generator that uses a high-voltage electric field between two electrodes to cause electrical sparks that locally heat electrodes to over 20,000 degrees C, ablating atoms that cool and condense into nanoparticles of 2-20 nm in size in an inert gas stream. Designed for research and industrial applications.
- VSP-P1 Nanoprinter A nanoprinter that couples with the VSP-G1 to enable controlled deposition of nanoparticles to form nanoporous layers. The aerosol enters a vacuum chamber and is accelerated to hypersonic speeds through a printing nozzle, directed with a focused trajectory towards a substrate on a controlled XYZ-stage. Designed for material development and small-scale production testing.
- Deposition-as-a-Service On-demand nanoporous layer deposition service using proprietary dry deposition technology to deposit highly porous, homogeneous layers on customer-chosen substrates for applications in electrocatalysis and gas sensing. Customers submit substrates for coating with customizable loading, composition, and substrate dimensions.
- VSP-G100 Nanoparticle Generator (Industrial) Next-generation nanoparticle generator designed to increase mass output by 100x compared to the VSP-G1, targeting 25,000 sparks per second with 100x faster printing speed for process development and scale-up.
- High Volume Production Tool (HVPT) Planned production tool incorporating at least 10 particle generators for industrial-scale nanoporous material production, part of the company's scaling roadmap from research to mass production.
- ENHANSERS (SERS Substrates) Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy substrates produced using VSPARTICLE's spark ablation technology, offering unmatched reproducibility and sensitivity for chemical and biological sensing applications such as chemical analysis, medical diagnosis, forensics, environmental monitoring, and food safety.
Quantifiable outcome
- Reduces material discovery time from ~10 years to ~1 year
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use VSPARTICLE
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
VSPARTICLE technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature5 records
VSPARTICLE partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Ten partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.
- CLEANHYPROflagshipEU-funded project collaboration enhancing pilot production line for iridium nanoparticle catalyst layers. CLEANHYPRO creates single entry point for SMEs to scale electrolysis materials for green hydrogen production.
- De NoracoreCollaboration on next-gen Porous Transport Electrodes (PTEs) for PEM water electrolysis. De Nora develops PTLs optimized for low iridium catalysts while VSParticle provides single-step dry coating for nanoporous layers.
- Plug PowercoreJoint development of high-efficiency iridium catalyst reducing iridium use by 90%. Achieved production cost of ~$1.00/kg, enabling green hydrogen cost competitiveness with fossil-based hydrogen.
- University of DelawarecoreResearch collaboration alongside Plug Power for developing new high-efficiency iridium catalyst for green hydrogen production.
- EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)coreResearch collaboration achieving high selectivity in CO2 reduction. Partnership on Open Catalyst database 2024 with Meta AI for training AI models on catalyst materials.
- Materials Center Leoben Forschung GmbH (MCL)coreAccSens Project - collaboration on optimizing sensing layers for specific gases. Joint development of multiarray gas sensors for formaldehyde detection using nanoporous metal oxide layers.
- University of LeobenminorAcademic partnership alongside MCL for developing multiarray gas sensors using VSParticle's nanoprinting technology.
- Meta AIcoreOpen Catalyst Experiments 2024 collaboration synthesizing alloy catalyst datasets for Meta's AI models to predict effective material combinations for CO2 electrolysis.
- Tokyo Dylec Corp.coreJapanese distributor for VSParticle products in the semiconductor and nanotechnology markets. Located at 1 Naito-cho Building, Naito-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0014.
- Kyodo InternationalcoreJapanese distributor for VSParticle products. Located at 2-10-9, Miyazaki, Miyamae-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa-ken 216-0033, Japan.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
VSPARTICLE competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Mantis Deposition: Mantis Deposition (UK) designs and manufactures nanoparticle cluster source and deposition systems for thin-film and nanomaterials research. It is the closest direct peer to VSPARTICLE's spark-ablation-based nanoparticle generation and deposition hardware.
- CreaTec Fischer & Co. GmbH: CreaTec Fischer (Germany) supplies cluster beam deposition and nanoparticle/cluster source equipment used in materials research and surface engineering. It overlaps directly with VSPARTICLE's nanoporous-layer deposition approach for research and prototyping.
- Angstrom Engineering: Angstrom Engineering (Canada) manufactures thin-film deposition systems (thermal evaporation, sputtering) for R&D and pilot production. It competes for the same lab-to-pilot deposition tool budget that VSPARTICLE targets with the VSP-P1.
- PVD Products: PVD Products (US) supplies magnetron sputtering, PLD, and custom thin-film deposition systems for research and production. It addresses overlapping customer use cases in nanoporous and functional thin films across academic and industrial labs.
Broad incumbents
- Bühler Group (Leybold Optics): Bühler's Leybold Optics division delivers large-scale vacuum and thin-film deposition equipment for optics, glass, and electronics production. It is a broad incumbent whose portfolio overlaps with VSPARTICLE's downstream industrial deposition ambitions, but at much larger scale and broader scope.
- Oxford Instruments: Oxford Instruments (UK) provides plasma processing, ion beam, and etch/deposition tools used across semiconductors, materials research, and nanotechnology. It serves an overlapping customer base of research institutions and industrial fabs with a much broader equipment portfolio.
- Bruker Corporation: Bruker supplies analytical and nanoscale characterisation instruments (XRD, AFM, electron microscopy) used in nanomaterials and catalysis research. It is adjacent rather than directly competitive, but its tools are commonly found in the same customer labs that purchase VSPARTICLE's systems.
- HORIBA Scientific: HORIBA Scientific provides particle characterisation and Raman/SERS instrumentation, and offers SERS substrates. It overlaps with VSPARTICLE's ENHANSERS SERS substrate offering and shares the same nanoparticle-research customer base.
Emerging players
- Citrine Informatics: Citrine Informatics offers an AI-driven materials discovery platform used by the same enterprise materials R&D teams that adopt VSPARTICLE's nanoprinters. It is an emerging, partially overlapping participant in the AI-accelerated materials-discovery stack.
Others
- Umicore: Umicore (Belgium) is a major supplier of precious-metal catalysts and PGM materials for PEM electrolysers and fuel cells. It is an adjacent ecosystem participant whose catalyst products are used in the same PEM applications that VSPARTICLE's nanoporous layers enable.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
VSPARTICLE social profiles
Digital presenceVSPARTICLE financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
VSPARTICLE leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
VSPARTICLE funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds7 records
Investors9 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
VSPARTICLE M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about VSPARTICLE
What does VSPARTICLE do?
VSPARTICLE develops and sells hardware tools (nanoparticle generators and nanoprinters) based on proprietary spark ablation technology for synthesizing ultra-pure nanoparticles (2-20nm) and depositing them as binder-free nanoporous layers on substrates. The company also offers a Deposition-as-a-Service for customers needing outsourced nanoporous layer coating for applications in green hydrogen, gas sensing, semiconductors, and materials discovery.
Is VSPARTICLE a public or private company?
VSPARTICLE is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was VSPARTICLE founded?
VSPARTICLE was founded in 2014. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is VSPARTICLE based?
VSPARTICLE is headquartered in Delft, Netherlands, in the Europe region.
How does VSPARTICLE make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. R&D Tools Hardware Sales are the primary driver. The others are deposition Service and industrial Tools (Under Development).
Who are VSPARTICLE's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Mantis Deposition, CreaTec Fischer & Co. GmbH, Angstrom Engineering and PVD Products. Broad incumbents are Bühler Group (Leybold Optics), Oxford Instruments, Bruker Corporation and HORIBA Scientific. Citrine Informatics is listed as an emerging player. Umicore is listed as an others.
Does VSPARTICLE have an API?
No public API is recorded for VSPARTICLE.
What industry is VSPARTICLE in?
VSPARTICLE's product category is Nanoparticle Synthesis and Deposition Equipment. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAHACAI, R&D / Prototyping & MPW Shuttle Foundries. Its NAICS code is 541713.