Circular economy: Startup ChemChimp drives digitalisation of the chemical industry

Together with partners from industry, the startup ChemChimp is driving the digital transformation in the chemical industry. We spoke to Managing Director Tom Schoffelen about current cooperation projects and challenges on the road to the circular economy.

Tom, can you start by telling us a bit about the background – What challenges in the chemical industry led to the founding of ChemChimp?

Digital transformation and transition towards a Circular Economy represent a huge challenges for the chemical industry. ChemChimp was founded with the ambition of being a reference to embrace and meaningfully contribute overcoming these challenges.

Can you briefly describe for our readers how you solve these problems with ChemChimp?

ChemChimp is an ecosystem in which we develop ad-hoc sustainably advantaged solutions to navigate the aforementioned transformations. Within this ecosystem, we find ChemSmog, our distinguished platform a B2B marketplace for selling chemicals. With this tool the goal is to prevent chemical inventory disposal by identifying fields of applications where this to-be-disposed material is a relevant solution.

Who are your customers and which countries do they come from?

Europe is a leading region (or a front runner) in digitalization and circular economy transition, therefore, ChemChimp started with European large, medium, and small chemical enterprises and we have conducted business in more than 6 European countries. Today we are proud of having also developed partnerships outside Europe, with active business in regions as Turkey, UAE, Qatar, and Uzbekistan.

Can you give us a little more insight into a current cooperation project that you are particularly enthusiastic about?

We engaged a large leading chemical company to test the ChemChimp ecosystem with the goal to valorise their inventory. Together with them we have defined the functionalities of their inventory and I am very excited to report that, with our digital platform, we identified an alternative use. The application proposed will prevent the disposal of the inventory, and, in addition, the inventory will be adopted to add sustainable advantage to the future application. It is a win-win for the seller and the buyer, and it is a validation of our digital ecosystem.

How did you come into contact with this company?

At ChemChimp we believe our greatest asset is our agile partner network, therefore, in addition to the network I build by being active for some time in the chemical industry, we are highly proactive in meeting our future partners through joining conferences, trainings, webinars, workshops, actively participating in discussion groups, and of course, via social networks.

Were there any particular challenges in the cooperation? And how did you overcome this?

Yes, in each of our experiences there have been challenges, and we have been able to overcome them so far. When talking about this specific multinational we are working with, the first challenge we faced was identifying our buyer persona, and we overcame it by strongly focussing on the organization pain-point. The second challenge is the difference in governances between a large corporation and a small agile start-up, here we agreed on ground rules that would enable the trial with our digital platform remaining compliant.

The year 2023 is almost over. Can you give us some insights into how you plan to develop this collaboration and your company as a whole in the coming year?

This 2023 went very fast, we met many people with different backgrounds, collaborated with companies of different sizes and active in multiple fields, we joined a multitude of events, and I am confident in saying that we received, in all cases, very positive and constructive feedback. Our first priority would be to capitalize on this feedback and implement the learning to improve our platform.

We do believe in the power of the many, therefore expanding our network and building long-lasting relationship will surely be our goal. This will in turn expand our portfolio offerings and we aim to acquire competencies in adjacent fields to offer the best possible collaboration by increasing our team. We are determined to maintain our first-mover position by remaining at the front edge as a digital value-added solution provider, therefore we will continue actively engaging in forums to foster innovation.

Kontakt

Webseite: www.chemchimp.com

LinkedIn: Tom Schoffelen