What if we could usher in a revolution of clean products by adding better surface materials?
Advanced materials enable transformational climate and sustainability progress
The Challenge
Materials production is 25% of global carbon emissions today, and the products we use are built by processes invented decades ago.
Heating and cooling products can be optimal with precisely designed surfaces.
What if we can solve frost and ice to unlock a whole new threshold of performance per dollar spent?
The Opportunity
Heating and cooling equipment is a major contributor to energy consumption and carbon emissions; we must develop affordable products with higher performance.
Apparel can have a positive impact with precisely designed surfaces.
What if we could use abundant minerals to get all the performance with none of the harm?
The Future
The use of toxic substances to provide waterproofing is ubiquitous today and damaging to people, planet, and environment. We believe we have found a better way.
The first accessible platform to bring metamaterials to everyday products.
What if we could harness this surface structure and scale it to many industries?
The Science
Metamaterials (precise surface morphology or surface structure) provide incredible properties like extreme ice resistance, droplet ejection, higher reaction rates, manipulation of light, and more.
Our mission is to deliver the materials platform of choice that enables the best products for people and the planet.
What if we could create new products together with improved performance, reduced cost, mitigated emissions and clean ingredients?
The Team
Nelumbo is a 21st century materials company led by experienced entrepreneurs and engineers. We value sustainable outcomes, speed, transparency, and bold moves.
Nelumbo News
Why Nelumbo?
Established in 2015 with a goal of changing the power of materials science in modern society and business, Nelumbo is a recognized pioneer in the field of advanced surface modifications and a trusted partner for developing, manufacturing, and selling redefined products using innovative surface technologies. Nelumbo was founded by UC Berkeley engineers with a lifelong desire to see broad adoption and acceptance of materials science as a new path for delivering value to the world.
Driven by this goal, Nelumbo has successfully developed multiple products with partners, shipped hundreds of products to customers, deployed pilot manufacturing, and developed relationships to bring innovative technologies to market at scale. The company’s consistent track record has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy, Cyclotron Road, Forbes 30 under 30, and leading materials science investors including Berkeley Catalyst Fund and Photon Fund.
Nelumbo is headquartered in Hayward, California with offices, a research & innovation center and production facilities under one roof. We are located in the Bay Area near world-class facilities such as Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Stanford University. You can measure our success from the deployed products that we alter for the better, the strength and depth of the people at our company, and our direct positive impact on energy and environment – what we believe is the defining challenge and opportunity of this century.
The Nelumbo Team
Join Nelumbo
Being Part of Nelumbo means working with the world’s most advanced surface modification platform to redefine what is possible with traditional products. This is very challenging and rewarding work – what we do fundamentally alters our collective future and means our team members will be able to walk down the street and point to multiple products with their technological fingerprints. Our philosophy is to hire for the long term, and we are passionate about building people as well as products. Everyone is expected to make an immediate impact on the company.
Investors & Partners
We are proud to be working with many outstanding investors aligned with our goals. Our institutional investors include Prime Mover’s Lab, University of Tokyo, Edge Capital, Safar Partners, Darwin Ventures, Neue Fund, Berkeley Catalyst Fund, Photon Fund, 1517 Fund, and UPC Capital Ventures.
Danfoss, a leading global manufacturer and service provider whose solutions are used in areas such as refrigeration, air conditioning, heating, motor control and mobile machinery, is also an investor and commercial partner for our first product suite.
Finally, we would like to recognize the Cyclotron Road Fellowship, the U.S. Department of Energy, and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab for continued partnership and support.
Andrew Brentano
, Chief of StaffAndrew manages Nelumbo's operations, heavily focused on team enablement. With past experience working in applied AI and as a sustainable agriculture entrepreneur, he brings a cross-disciplinary perspective to solving big world challenges. Alongside work he enjoys gardening, cooking, building furniture, and spending time outdoors.
Francisco Negrete
, Process Line OperatorFrancisco operates and maintains the equipment and machinery of the process line. He takes care of the coupons as needed and parts process when required, and processes per specification for several applications. In his free time, he enjoys bike riding and hiking.
Jan Hu
, Research Engineering AssociateAs a part of the Research team, Jan works on developing and characterizing advanced materials for use in the textiles industry. Outside of Nelumbo, Jan enjoys any and all outdoor recreation especially running and hiking. Her time spent outside has paired well with her hobby of landscape film photography, which she develops herself.
Nick O'Neill
,Nick is working to provide the data and analysis needed for market ready products and expanding our test capabilities for future growth. Outside of work, he enjoys exploring California with his wife & dog, playing basketball and reading.
Nick is working to provide the data and analysis needed for market ready products and expanding our test capabilities for future growth. Outside of work, he enjoys exploring California with his wife & dog, playing basketball and reading.
Michael Ung
, Lead Project EngineerMichael helps improve Nelumbo’s production capabilities and throughput. He oversees quality control and ensures all products and prototypes meet Nelumbo’s quality standards. During his free time he enjoys fishing along the California coast, woodworking, and playing basketball.
David Walther
, PresidentDavid Walther is the President of Nelumbo and a US Department of Energy Entrepreneurial Fellow. Outside of the office, David enjoys watersports, skiing, museums, cooking, and traveling with family.
David Walther is the President of Nelumbo and a US Department of Energy Entrepreneurial Fellow. David has spent the past 20 years building teams to address challenging interdisciplinary opportunities in the areas of Power and Energy, Fire Safety, Sensors, Biomass, Renewable Chemicals, and Energy Efficiency. David’s expertise in materials, heat and mass transfer have been applied to a variety of technology platforms, from winemaking, to NASA spaceflight experiments and industrial biotechnology resulting in more than 60 technical publications, and patents. David enthusiastically enjoys working with international partners to transition technologies from the laboratory and white board settings to commercial scale. David holds BS degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering (Thermosciences) from UC Berkeley and has previously worked at the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, Fruition Sciences, and Cobalt Technologies. Outside of the office, David enjoys watersports, skiing, museums, cooking, and travelling with family.
Liam Berryman
, Chief Executive OfficerLiam focuses on building Nelumbo through developing lasting relationships with employees, customers, and investors. He enjoys science fiction and fantasy literature and surfing the California coast.
In 2015, Liam co-founded Nelumbo and during Liam’s tenure as CEO, the company has successfully developed and achieved product-market fit for their first product, attracted major investors from both venture and corporate backgrounds across two rounds of financing, and built partnerships in the U.S., China, Europe and Mexico.
Liam Berryman has also participated in the world-renowned Cyclotron Road program, an elite 2-year program supporting hard technology, energy focused companies. He has been recognized by the Forbes 30 under 30 list for Energy, and as a 2018 Thiel Fellow. Liam also has a published scientific article and patent application from his work at UC Berkeley.
Lance Brockway
, CTO & VP Business DevelopmentDr. Lance Brockway is the Chief Technology Officer at Nelumbo and a US Department of Energy Entrepreneurial Fellow with multiple published articles and patents in his field.
After more than a decade of interdisciplinary technology development work, Lance decided to invest his technical skills to improve the performance and longevity of heat transfer systems. His passion for solving long-lived problems and taking nanotechnology from niche applications into the mass market led to the idea and development of a surface structure platform that is the basis for Nelumbo. Lance holds BS and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University and has previously worked at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UC Berkeley, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.