CarboMat Inc.

Cover Block

Field	Value
Name	CarboMat Inc.
Tagline	Commercializing low-cost sustainable carbon fibers and anode materials from industrial by-products for composites and battery industries.
Headquarters	Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Founded	2022
Stage	Seed
Business Model	B2B
Industry	Cleantech / Climatetech
Technology Type	Hardware (advanced materials)
Geography	North America
Growth Profile	Venture Scale
Founding Team	Academic Spinout (University of Calgary)
Funding Label	Undisclosed; ~$760,000 disclosed equity-equivalent, plus a CA$1.05M grant

Links

• Website: https://carbomatinc.com/
• LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/company/carbomatinc

Executive Summary

CarboMat Inc. is a 2022 University of Calgary spinout converting low-value oil sands by-products, principally asphaltenes and bitumen residues, into carbon fibers and battery-grade anode materials [CarboMat Inc.] [ZoomInfo]. The company offers Alberta a non-combustion outlet for hydrocarbon by-products while supplying two structurally short markets, automotive-grade carbon fiber and lithium-ion anode material, with a feedstock that competitors do not use. CEO and co-founder Shabab Saad, who holds a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Mexico and an M.Sc. from the University of Calgary, has built the company's technical thesis around a less GHG-intensive end-to-end process for producing carbon fiber from asphaltenes [CarboMat Inc.]. The company was named a Phase II awardee of Alberta Innovates' Carbon Fibre Grand Challenge and received a CA$1.05 million grant tied to that program [JEC]. CarboMat completed Creative Destruction Lab's CDL-Rockies cohort and was selected as a top-20 finalist for the JEC World 2025 Startup Booster competition, with judges drawn from Airbus, Mercedes-Benz AG, ExxonMobil and SWANCOR [CarboMat Inc.]. In November 2025, Houston- and Calgary-based venture studio 8 Clockwise added CarboMat to its portfolio under a strategic partnership intended to scale carbon fiber and battery materials production [Business Wire, Nov 2025]. Over the next 12 to 18 months, the items worth tracking are conversion of pilot output to a paid offtake, the structure of any priced equity round following the 8 Clockwise partnership, and whether the asphaltene-to-anode pathway clears battery-grade qualification with a named cell maker.

Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Confirmed by company website, JEC Composites, Business Wire and ZoomInfo.

Taxonomy Snapshot

Axis	Value
Stage	Seed
Business Model	B2B materials supply
Industry / Vertical	Cleantech / advanced materials for composites and batteries
Technology Type	Hardware / process chemistry
Geography	North America (Alberta-anchored)
Growth Profile	Venture Scale
Founding Team	Academic Spinout
Funding	Grant-led; ~$760,000 disclosed plus CA$1.05M Alberta Innovates grant [JEC]

How the Company Got Here

CarboMat was founded in 2022 as a spinout from the University of Calgary, with a thesis built around finding non-combustion uses for Alberta's asphaltenes, the heavy carbon-rich residue left over from upgrading bitumen [ZoomInfo]. The company is headquartered at 3520 Research Way NW in Calgary, on the University Research Centre campus [CarboMat Inc.]. The opportunity the founding team identified is structural: Alberta produces large volumes of asphaltenes that are typically combusted or stockpiled, while two downstream markets, automotive-grade carbon fiber and lithium-ion anode material, are both feedstock-constrained and price-sensitive.

The company's public milestone trail begins with co-founder and CEO Shabab Saad receiving the 2022 GRInSTEM Award for early-career research [CarboMat Inc.]. In 2023, CarboMat was admitted to Creative Destruction Lab's CDL-Rockies cohort [LinkedIn]. The Phase II award under Alberta Innovates' Carbon Fibre Grand Challenge followed, with the program collectively directing CA$198 million of public and private investment across 18 projects [JEC]. CarboMat's slice of that program is a CA$1.05 million grant tied to its asphaltene-to-carbon-fiber process [JEC]. Most recently, the company was named to the JEC World 2025 Startup Booster top 20 and entered a strategic partnership with venture studio 8 Clockwise in November 2025 to scale both the carbon fiber and battery anode product lines [CarboMat Inc.] [Business Wire, Nov 2025].

Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Confirmed by CarboMat company site, JEC Composites, LinkedIn and Business Wire.

Product and Technology

CarboMat's product surface, as publicly described, has two pillars built on a common feedstock chemistry. The first is low-cost carbon fiber produced through what the company calls an "end-to-end less GHG-intensive process" starting from oil sands asphaltenes, targeted at composites buyers in automotive, aerospace and sports equipment [CarboMat Inc.] [ZoomInfo]. The second is anode material for lithium-ion batteries derived from the same family of carbon-rich industrial by-products, including bitumen residues [CarboMat Inc.]. The unifying technical claim is that the precursor cost is structurally below petroleum-pitch and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) baselines because the input is presently treated as low-value waste rather than a chemical commodity [CarboMat Inc.].

Alongside the product lines, CarboMat operates a small lab services business, offering on-site materials testing and sample submission against a defined equipment list at its Calgary facility [CarboMat Inc.]. The 8 Clockwise partnership announced in November 2025 frames the next stage of work as "scaling" both carbon fiber and battery-grade anode material [Business Wire, Nov 2025].

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Product claims confirmed by CarboMat website and Business Wire; performance specs and pilot throughput not publicly disclosed.

Market Research and Opportunity

CarboMat sits upstream of two end markets: automotive-grade carbon fiber and lithium-ion anode material. Both are simultaneously trying to localize supply chains away from incumbent Asian producers and reduce embodied carbon.

On the carbon fiber side, Alberta Innovates' Carbon Fibre Grand Challenge is a market signal: the program is built around the thesis that Alberta's bitumen can be redirected into "large-scale production of carbon fiber and advanced manufacturing products," and the second phase has mobilized CA$198 million of combined public and private investment across 18 projects [JEC]. The company's own public framing ties the addressable demand to composites use in automotive, aerospace and sports equipment [ZoomInfo].

On the battery side, anode material demand is driven by lithium-ion cell production scale-up across North America, and the policy backdrop in both Canada and the United States favors domestic and allied-sourced active materials. The specific niche CarboMat targets, carbon-rich anode precursors derived from hydrocarbon by-products, overlaps technically with petroleum-coke and synthetic-graphite supply chains that today are concentrated outside North America.

Sizing claim	Value
Carbon Fibre Grand Challenge Phase II total investment (public + private)	CA$198 million across 18 projects
CarboMat's grant within that program	CA$1.05 million
JEC World 2025 Startup Booster jury participants relevant to demand-side	Airbus, Mercedes-Benz AG, ExxonMobil, SWANCOR

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Program-level capital and jury composition confirmed by JEC and company site; specific carbon fiber and anode TAM figures not publicly available.

Competitive Landscape

No direct competitors are named in the cited sources. The relevant competitive set divides into three groups: incumbent carbon fiber producers using PAN or petroleum-pitch precursors; fellow Carbon Fibre Grand Challenge Phase II awardees; and the synthetic graphite and petroleum-coke supply chain that currently feeds lithium-ion anode production [CarboMat Inc.] [JEC].

Where CarboMat appears defensible today is on feedstock economics and place. Asphaltenes in Alberta are abundant and presently low-value, and the company is physically located on a University of Calgary research site with active provincial program support, JEC startup recognition and a venture studio partner in 8 Clockwise [CarboMat Inc.] [JEC] [Business Wire, Nov 2025].

Data Accuracy: ORANGE -- No named competitors in cited sources; competitive map is inferred from program structure and category dynamics.

Opportunity

If CarboMat executes, the prize is becoming the default North American supplier of asphaltene-derived carbon fiber and anode precursor. The single largest plausible outcome is that CarboMat becomes the reference producer for a new precursor class, asphaltene-derived carbon, that simultaneously serves composites and battery anode markets from a single feedstock pool.

Scenario	What happens	Catalyst	Why it's plausible
Composites first	CarboMat lands a named pilot offtake with a tier-2 automotive or sports composites buyer, anchoring a priced Series A.	A signed pilot supply agreement following JEC World 2025 jury exposure.	Jury includes Mercedes-Benz AG and SWANCOR, both active composites buyers [CarboMat Inc.].
Battery pivot dominates	Anode-grade material clears qualification with a North American cell maker and becomes the larger revenue line.	A named cell-maker qualification within 12 to 18 months.	8 Clockwise partnership explicitly cites scaling "battery-grade anode materials" [Business Wire, Nov 2025].
Provincial champion	CarboMat becomes Alberta's anchor demonstration of non-combustion bitumen use, attracting follow-on provincial and federal capital.	Successful Phase II milestones under Alberta Innovates.	CA$198M program is already structured around exactly this outcome [JEC].

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Scenarios anchored to confirmed program capital, partnership announcement and JEC jury composition; no comparable public market cap available in cited sources.

Sources

1. [CarboMat Inc.] CarboMat Inc. - High-Value Advanced Materials | https://carbomatinc.com/
2. [CarboMat Inc.] Our Team - CarboMat Inc. | https://carbomatinc.com/our-team/
3. [CarboMat Inc.] Our Vision - CarboMat Inc. | https://carbomatinc.com/vision/
4. [CarboMat Inc.] CarboMat Is Named As One Of The Awardees in Phase II of Alberta Innovates' Carbon Fibre Grand Challenge | https://carbomatinc.com/carbomat-in-alberta-innovates-carbon-fibre-grand-challenge/
5. [CarboMat Inc.] CarboMat Team Among Carbon Fibre Grand Challenge Phase II Finalists | https://carbomatinc.com/carbomat-team-among-carbon-fibre-grand-challenge-finalists/
6. [CarboMat Inc.] News Archives - CarboMat Inc. | https://carbomatinc.com/category/news/
7. [CarboMat Inc.] Lab Services - CarboMat Inc. | https://carbomatinc.com/lab-service/
8. [CarboMat Inc.] Career - CarboMat Inc. | https://carbomatinc.com/career/
9. [CarboMat Inc.] Contact Us - CarboMat Inc. | https://carbomatinc.com/contact-us/
10. [CarboMat Inc.] Congratulations to Shabab Saad for receiving the 2022 GRInSTEM Award | https://carbomatinc.com/shabab-saad-recieved-grinstem-award/
11. [JEC] CarboMat receives a grant of CA$1.05 million | https://www.jeccomposites.com/news/by-jec/carbomat-receives-a-grant-of-ca1-05-million/
12. [Business Wire, Nov 2025] 8 Clockwise Announces Strategic Partnership with CarboMat to Scale Sustainable Carbon Fibers and Battery Materials | https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251112148022/en/8-Clockwise-Announces-Strategic-Partnership-with-CarboMat-to-Scale-Sustainable-Carbon-Fibers-and-Battery-Materials
13. [LinkedIn] CarboMat Inc. LinkedIn company page | https://ca.linkedin.com/company/carbomatinc
14. [ZoomInfo] CarboMat - Overview, News & Similar companies | https://www.zoominfo.com/c/carbomat-inc/1313811339
15. [Creative Destruction Lab] Creative Destruction Lab 2023/24 Graduate Companies | https://creativedestructionlab.com/blog/2023-24-graduate-companies/