A Night to Remember - traceless® at the Deutscher Zukunftspreis 2025
- traceless
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
The evening of the 19th of November was a milestone we will never forget. traceless®, represented by Anne, Sina and Niklas, stood on stage as one of the three finalists of the Deutscher Zukunftspreis 2025 – one of Germany’s highest honours for science and innovation. For our young company, founded just over five years ago, this recognition meant more than words can describe.
A powerful moment in Berlin
A large part of our team travelled to Berlin for the ceremony, joined by customers, partners, investors and long-time supporters who have believed in our vision from the very beginning. Seeing so many familiar faces in the audience – cheering, celebrating and sharing this moment with us – was one of the most meaningful parts of the night.
And while we didn’t take home the award, standing on that stage as finalists felt like a victory of its own. The Deutscher Zukunftspreis honours innovations that unite scientific excellence, industrial scalability and social benefit. Being recognised in this context confirms that the path we chose – creating materials in harmony with nature and building a new kind of industry – is valued and needed.
Anne Lamp, CEO & Co-Founder: “You don’t have to wait for an industry to change, you can build the one you believe in.”
Proud to represent a new generation of industry shapers
As a company, we are not the traditional finalist: no decades-long corporate history, no large R&D departments – but a young, female-founded, science-driven scale-up determined to rethink how materials are made.
We stood on that stage not just as traceless®, but as representatives of a forward-thinking generation of innovators who believe that industry and sustainability can evolve together. A generation that sees the shift toward a circular bioeconomy not as a distant vision, but as something we are actively building today.
It was also a celebration of our team – engineers, operators, chemists, project managers and many more – who dedicate themselves every day to turning an idea into industrial reality.
Our innovation at the core of this recognition
At the heart of traceless® lies a technology built on a simple idea: nature already provides the polymers we need for our biobased materials. We extract these natural polymers from agricultural residues and functionalise them to give them thermoplastic properties – making them meltable and mouldable for industrial use.
This bridges a long-standing gap: natural polymers work in biological cycles, but without thermoplastic behaviour they can’t be used in technical processing.
Our work follows three guiding principles:
Natural logic – using polymers that already circulate in nature and designing materials that align with biological cycles.
Industrial fit – ensuring traceless® materials run on existing machines as a true drop-in alternative, delivering key functional properties without creating microplastics.
Scalability – building a process that can move from lab to full industrial production, enabling real market impact rather than remaining a niche solution.
Niklas Rambow, Head of Technology Development: “Sustainability and scalability can go hand in hand, and that is essential for industrial impact.”
This combination is what makes traceless® a new class of materials. And standing on the Deutsche Zukunftspreis stage as finalists reinforced how relevant this innovation has become for the future of materials and manufacturing.
A different starting point for a different kind of industry
The origin of traceless® lies in a bold choice. After her studies, our CEO and co-founder Anne realised that the industries her degree prepared her for were not aligned with the future she wanted to help shape. Instead of stepping into a field that didn’t reflect her values, she set out to build the kind of materials industry she wished existed – one where industry and nature work together, not against each other. It is this mindset, that continues to guide traceless® today.
Inspiring others to take their own bold steps
If our presence on that stage showed anything, we hope it is this: you don’t have to wait for an industry to change – you can help create the one you believe in.
We hope our story encourages others to take bold steps off the beaten path, to rethink established systems and to explore solutions others may consider too ambitious or unconventional. Innovation begins with the courage to imagine something different.
Sina Spingler, COO: “Real progress happens when technology meets the courage to think differently.”
Looking Ahead
The evening in Berlin has given us even more motivation to keep going: to scale our technology, to get our first large-scale production plant running and to keep proving that natural polymer materials are not just ecologically necessary, but also economically scalable.
We may not have brought home the award – but we return with something just as valuable: the confidence that the world is ready for a new materials industry, and the momentum to keep pushing that vision forward.
Our deepest gratitude goes to the entire traceless® team, our partners and customers, the DZP organisation and jury, and everyone who travelled to Berlin or supported us from afar.
Your belief in our mission made this moment possible.
Thank you for being part of this unforgettable night. 💚