A Year of Precision : Physics-First Materials Discovery in 2025
Providing the correct data, the most robust physics, and the most intuitive tools to ensure the materials of tomorrow are discovered today.
Written by
Jenna Kang
The landscape of materials science is shifting. While the world is captivated by the promise of Generative AI, those of us deep in the trenches of discovery know a hard truth: AI is only as good as the physics it understands.
At PhaseTree, we spent the last twelve months moving beyond the hype. We believe that the materials discovery field is currently data-impoverished; existing databases are often too sparse or too "noisy" to reliably predict complex properties accurately. We are in a premature stage for pure-AI plays. Bridging this gap doesn’t just happen by feeding larger models with more data. Critical physics and real-world phenomena need to be accounted for as well.
Our philosophy is simple: Physics first, AI on top. By anchoring our technology in decades of domain expertise, first-principles calculations, and multi-scale simulation, we are building a foundation that doesn’t just guess—it calculates with certainty.
As we look back on an extraordinary year, here is how PhaseTree is defining the next era of materials intelligence.
Building the Ground Truth
For the past few years, we have been quietly engineering a physics-based toolkit capable of predicting target materials with unprecedented accuracy. This year, that work culminated in the launch of our Multi-Scale Simulation Tool.
By integrating fundamental physics with easy-to-use interfaces, we are generating an abundance of unique, high-fidelity data. We know that we can’t just wait for the right data to come along, so we decided instead to empower researchers to create it.
This commitment to accuracy is reflected in our community impact: This year, we surpassed 1.0 million downloads on CLEASE, our open-source tool for cluster expansion and Monte Carlo simulations. It is a testament to the industry’s hunger for robust, physics-driven frameworks purpose-built for computational material science. CLEASE is only the beginning of our multiscale stack, and more powerful modules will be released on our platform.
Fueling Growth and Innovation
Our vision for a physics-led future has gained significant momentum in the capital and innovation markets. This year, PhaseTree reached several critical financial and strategic milestones:
€3M pre-seed funding: We secured a 3-million-euro investment to accelerate our R&D and scale our simulation infrastructure.
InnoBooster grant: We were honored to receive the Innobooster grant, further validating the technical novelty and commercial potential of our multi-scale approach.
CDL accelerator: PhaseTree was accepted into the prestigious Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), joining a cohort of world-class deep-tech companies to refine our scale-up strategy.
From Lab to Industry: Momentum in Motion
2025 marked the transition from "building" to "deploying." We officially released our first commercial software, bringing our decades of expertise into the hands of materials scientists worldwide.
We are also proud to have launched our first major industrial client projects. These collaborations are already proving that when you combine deep physics with AI-optimized workflows, the time-to-market for specialized materials shrinks from years to months. We are already solving real-world challenges for our enterprise partners.
A Team of Specialists
To solve the hardest problems in materials science, you need the world’s best minds. Over the last 12 months, PhaseTree has grown from a core team of 5 to 14 dedicated professionals. Most notably, we have doubled the number of PhDs in the company, ensuring that every line of code we write is backed by rigorous scientific theory.
Looking Ahead
The future of materials discovery isn't found in a black-box algorithm; it is found at the intersection of physical laws and computational power.
PhaseTree is no longer just building tools; we are building the "ground truth" for the entire industry. As we move into 2026, our focus remains steadfast: Providing the correct data, the most robust physics, and the most intuitive tools to ensure the materials of tomorrow are discovered today.
To our partners, our growing team, and the million-strong CLEASE community, thank you for a remarkable year! The journey into the heart of the matter has only just begun.
