Cambium Biomaterials Inc., an advanced manufacturing startup based in El Segundo, announced in early January that it raised $100 million in series B funding.

The funding round was led by Austin, Texas-based 8VC, with additional participation from firms like Lockheed Martin Ventures, Veteran Ventures and MVP Ventures.

Cambium Biomaterials develops new polymers – essentially large molecules that make up everything from rubber to plastics – for the aerospace and energy sectors. These are areas that require specifically engineered materials to test the fortitude of extreme heat, sound, speed and pressure.

Most polymers currently come from environmentally hostile petrochemicals, but after scientists spent much of the 20th century inventing every new polymer possible – think household names like nylon, Teflon, silicones, Styrofoam, polyester and epoxy – chemical permutations for new materials have pretty much exhausted themselves.

That’s why Cambium is looking to make entirely new materials that humans have yet to touch. The company borrows discovery methods from pharmaceutical scientists, who use artificial intelligence and advanced computations to discover new molecules for drugs.

But instead of being geared towards biology, Cambium’s discovery platform remixes molecules that can be used for different manufacturing processes.

‘Frontier materials’

“Frontier technologies require frontier materials,” Joe Lonsdale, managing partner at 8VC, said in a statement. “Cambium was built in the USA to design and manufacture advanced materials for the future. Their array of product lines is powering many top aerospace and defense innovators.”

For example, Cambium’s ApexShield 1000 resin can stand up to high-speed flight and intense heat, making it useful to seal carbon parts on a rocket motor. In the pipeline are a slew of composite billets, adhesives and foams meant to handle extreme conditions.

Early plastics were first designed to replace ivory with celluloid, silk with polyester and glass with polyethylene terephthalate. Who knows what new materials will replace our silicone baby toys, Teflon-coated cookware and plastic water bottles in the future?