Liam Berryman

Foresight Institute’s profile page states that he grew up on the coast of Northern CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a U.S. state on the Pacific coast; its capital is Sacramento and its largest city is Los Angeles. California was admitted to the Union on September 9, 1850, as the 31st state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 39,538,223, the largest of any state.Open the full entry, studied chemical engineering at the University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) is a campus of the University of California system; the University of California was founded in 1868 through a merger of two institutions and moved to Berkeley, California, in 1873.Open the full entry, and was a lead researcher in the university’s Design for Nanomanufacturing Lab. Global Venturing wrote in 2020 that he had previously been a researcher in UC Berkeley’s nanomanufacturing lab.⁠[1][2]

An article titled “SVInsight Article: Nelumbo” on the website of UC Berkeley’s SinBerBEST program, which mentions SVInsight’s Chinese-language coverage of Nelumbo, states that he and Lance Brockway met at UC Berkeley while working on BEARS research funded by the government of Singapore; the two studied the commercialization of sustainable, clean energy alongside 23 other scientists, realized in the process that materials science could solve refrigeration issues, and decided to set up a company to solve heat-conduction issues using materials science.⁠[3]

Nelumbo’s press release of November 2018 states that the company was established in 2015, formed out of UC Berkeley, with a goal of changing the power of materials science in modern society and business, and names Liam Berryman as co-founder and CEO and Lance Brockway as co-founder and CTO. Danfoss’s announcement of June 2018 states that Nelumbo was formed in 2015 by three engineers from the University of California, Berkeley, and calls him CEO and one of the founders.⁠[4][5]

Global Venturing described Nelumbo in April 2020 as a US-based heat exchange technology spinout of UC Berkeley co-founded by chief executive Liam Berryman, Lance Brockway and David Walther: David Walther, Nelumbo’s co-founder and senior vice-president of engineering, was formerly a research engineer at the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, and Lance Brockway had served as vice-chairman of external partnerships at the Berkeley Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Program; the company’s founding project emerged through SinBerBEST, a Singapore-based interdisciplinary research program managed by UC Berkeley. UTEC’s portfolio page likewise lists Dave Walther, Ph.D., Liam Berryman and Lance Brockway, Ph.D., as the three co-founders and states that the company was founded by UC Berkeley engineers. The article on the SinBerBEST website states that Nelumbo was founded by SinBerBEST researchers led by Professor Hayden Taylor.⁠[2][6][3]

On the founding year, Nelumbo’s 2018 press release, Danfoss’s 2018 announcement and Cooling Post’s articles of 2018 and 2020 give 2015, while Kuraray’s 2025 acquisition announcement states that Nelumbo was founded in 2016 as a technology start-up spun out of UC Berkeley, and Nelumbo’s press release of May 2024 also gives 2016.⁠[4][5][7][8][9][10]

On November 15, 2017, Cyclotron Road published an article by Mary Catherine O'Connor in its Medium publication Phase Change, titled “Cyclotron Road innovators recognized on 2018 ForbesForbesForbes is an American business media brand that began with Forbes magazine, founded by B.C. Forbes in 1917. It is known for rankings such as the Forbes 400, the World’s Billionaires list and 30 Under 30, and operates Forbes.com, ForbesLive events and licensed editions in 81 countries. Since 2014 a majority stake has been held by the Hong Kong investment group Integrated Whale Media; a 2021 plan to list on the New York Stock Exchange through a special purpose acquisition company was terminated in 2022. It is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey.Open the full entry 30 Under 30 List”; it states that Cyclotron Road fellows David Bierman (founder of Marigold Power) and Lauren Otto (founder of Laminera), and Nelumbo CEO and co-founder Liam Berryman, were honored on Forbes’s annual 30 Under 30 list for energy, and congratulates the three.⁠[11]

On March 21, 2018, the paper “Nonsolvent-induced phase separation synthesis of superhydrophobic coatings composed of polyvinylidene difluoride microspheres with tunable size and roughness,” written with Lance Brockway and Hayden Taylor, was published (DOI 10.1016/j.porgcoat.2017.12.013). He is the second author, credited with Lance Brockway as contributing equally, with Hayden Taylor as corresponding author. The affiliations given are the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of California, Berkeley, and the Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS), and the paper notes that the two equal-contribution authors were “Now with Nelumbo, Inc.” The work was supported by the SinBerBEST program, funded by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore.⁠[12]

The paper describes making polyvinylidene difluoride microspheres 0.3 to 2.8 μm in diameter by nonsolvent-induced phase separation and spin-casting them into films 6.5 to 16.5 μm thick; the optimized films reached water contact angles of up to 171°, with hysteresis below 12° and slide angles as low as 3°. Foresight Institute’s profile page states that his research led to a novel synthesis process for polymer microspheres, which was patented and later published in the journal Progress in Organic Coatings.⁠[12][1]

On June 22, 2018, the Thiel Foundation named 20 people to the 2018 class of Thiel Fellows, who receive $100,000 and mentorship from the foundation’s network; he is item 16 in the list, from San Mateo, California, with Nelumbo in the energy-efficiency field, described as co-founder and CEO of Nelumbo, a company that has developed a new materials platform able to significantly increase the energy efficiency of any refrigeration system.⁠[13]

The Thiel FellowshipThiel FellowshipThe Thiel Fellowship is a two-year grant program started by investor Peter Thiel and run by the Thiel Foundation that funds young people who skip or stop out of college to build new things instead. The program has been criticized by figures in education for encouraging young people to leave college.Open the full entry is a two-year program founded by Peter ThielPeter ThielPeter Thiel is an American entrepreneur and investor, a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, and the first outside investor in Facebook. He is a partner at the venture capital firm Founders Fund and founded the Thiel Fellowship, which funds young people to leave college and build new things; his public skepticism of higher education, his support for Trump in 2016, and his funding of litigation against Gawker Media have drawn controversy.Open the full entry in 2011 for young people who want to build new things; Thiel Fellows skip or stop out of college.⁠[14]

On June 26, 2018, Danfoss announced that it had bought minority shares in Nelumbo, without disclosing the size of the stake. The announcement states that Nelumbo’s surface treatment technology can improve heat exchanger performance and corrosion resistance, and that the company had eight employees and was based in Hayward, California. Speaking in the announcement as Nelumbo’s CEO and one of its founders, he said, “Nelumbo and Danfoss are breaking through the fundamental challenges that heat exchangers face today,” added that together the two could deliver unique functionality to customers and significantly raise the bar for what these products can do, and said he was very excited to see the partnership make a lasting impact on the HVAC market. Lars Rasmussen, vice president of Danfoss Cooling Heat Exchangers, said in the announcement that the investment would bring customization capabilities to customers.⁠[5]

Cooling Post wrote on June 27, 2018, that Nelumbo’s products included Ice-Nein, a surface modification for refrigeration equipment said to reduce defrosting times, keep cooling coils operating more cleanly and improve energy performance, and Omniphobe, a coating that keeps air-conditioning coils clean and dry and is said to provide significant energy savings; Jürgen Fischer, president of Danfoss Cooling, described Nelumbo as “a very promising company” and said the partnership demonstrated Danfoss’s ambition to invest in new, innovative technology.⁠[7][5]

On November 14, 2018, Nelumbo announced a $5.5 million Series A round, led by Berkeley Catalyst Fund and oversubscribed, with Photon Fund, 1517 Fund, UPC Renewables and Danfoss in the syndicate; the money was to bring its first products to market and form strategic partnerships to develop and commercialize new products. At the same time the company expanded its board and opened a new 8,000-square-foot headquarters in Hayward, California, housing offices, an R&D lab and testing center, and a pilot production plant able to ship commercial-scale product directly to customers. The expanded board comprised Laura Smoliar, managing director of Berkeley Catalyst Fund; Liam Berryman, co-founder and CEO; Lance Brockway, co-founder and CTO; and Mike Hopkins, the recently retired CEO of Ice Energy, as independent director. He said in the release that the new headquarters gave the company the end-to-end commercialization ability it wanted and, being in the center of the Bay Area, let it attract talent from universities such as UC Berkeley and Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityStanford University is a research university in California founded by Leland and Jane Stanford in 1885 and opened in 1891.Open the full entry and from “hard tech” companies in Fremont and San Jose.⁠[4]

The release states that Nelumbo’s technology includes a multi-functional and customizable surface modification platform that can be integrated with base products for dramatic differentiation, performance advantages and access to new markets by solving critical technical challenges, with cooling, specifically heat exchangers, as its first targeted vertical; it states that the company has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Cyclotron Road Fellowship, the Thiel Fellowship and Forbes 30 Under 30 for Energy. He said in the release, “The team and I could not be more pleased with our Series A financing,” and that the quality of the investors who had joined was the result of Nelumbo having developed a technology platform with application to many end products and demonstrated demand in its first targeted vertical of cooling.⁠[4]

Cooling Post wrote on January 15, 2019, that Nelumbo and Danfoss signed a partnership agreement in December 2018 at a meeting in Danfoss’s Hamburg office attended by Danfoss Cooling president Jürgen Fischer, Liam Berryman, Lance Brockway and Lars S Rasmussen, vice president of Danfoss Cooling Heat Exchangers; Danfoss planned to deploy Nelumbo’s surface modification technology on its microchannel heat exchangers, and the two would jointly develop and produce customized solutions for the air-conditioning and refrigeration market; the agreement followed Danfoss’s 2018 investment in Nelumbo. Speaking as Nelumbo’s CEO, he said, “Our business model is to develop strategic partnerships with leaders in markets of interest to us,” adding that “we are delighted that our first one is with Danfoss.” Lars Rasmussen said that demand for the technology was growing and that Danfoss was excited about its potential.⁠[15]

Cooling Post wrote on April 15, 2020, that Nelumbo had raised $14 million in new funding in a Series A expansion led by Prime Mover’s Lab and University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC), with further investment from existing shareholders including the Danish manufacturer Danfoss; Nelumbo said it would use the money to significantly grow its cooling unit and launch a new business line while continuing to explore and develop its advanced technology platform. Speaking as Nelumbo’s CEO, he said he was very excited to welcome new partners matching the company’s ambitions; that “since our founding five years ago” the company had succeeded in attracting significant commercial partners, validating large market pain points and developing opportunities for new verticals; and that with the financing and its new partners’ support it planned to double down on its leadership position as the company transforming the products that form the fabric of society.⁠[8]

Global Venturing wrote on April 16, 2020, that the $14 million expansion was co-led by UTEC and Prime Mover’s Lab with participation from Berkeley Catalyst Fund and Danfoss, that Safar Partners, Darwin Venture Management, Neue Fund and Photon Fund also joined the round, and that the extension brought Nelumbo’s Series A to $19.5 million; the initial $5.5 million tranche in 2018, led by Berkeley Catalyst Fund, had included Danfoss, UPC Renewables, Photon Fund and 1517 Fund. The article states that Nelumbo’s surface treatments for heat exchangers in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) units improve performance and corrosion resistance, with products including ones for freezer defrosting units and air-conditioner coils. UTEC’s portfolio page lists Nelumbo under its UTEC4 fund (2018 vintage) and states that Nelumbo’s main product suite targets longstanding frost and corrosion challenges in air-conditioner heat exchangers, that one of its applications has been sold in a cross-border deal, and that UTEC supports it in building business alliances in HVAC and functional textiles.⁠[2][6]

Kuraray’s 2025 announcement states that Kuraray and Nelumbo signed an exclusive partnership agreement in 2023 to apply Nelumbo’s surface modification technology to fibers and other polymer products, and that Kuraray’s evaluation found the technology could broadly improve substrate surface functions, including water repellency, without using PFAS and other increasingly regulated chemicals.⁠[9]

On April 2, 2025, Kuraray Co., Ltd. announced its decision to acquire Nelumbo through its U.S.United StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry subsidiary Kuraray Holdings U.S.A., Inc., without disclosing the purchase price. The announcement states that Nelumbo, headquartered in Hayward, California, and led by CEO Liam Berryman, focuses on the development and application study of surface modification technology; the acquisition supports Kuraray’s medium-term plan “PASSION 2026,” one of whose three challenges is “Innovation Starting with Networking,” and Kuraray did not expect a material impact on its consolidated performance. Kuraray America’s website carried the acquisition announcement the next day.⁠[9][16]

Nelumbo’s website states that Nelumbo Inc. is a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of the global specialty chemical company Kuraray, with operations in the United States and Japan, and that its products were developed from technology invented by UC Berkeley scientists and engineers. UTEC’s portfolio page marks Nelumbo as “Exited.”⁠[17][6]

Foresight Institute’s profile page states that, as CEO, he has led Nelumbo from a garage start-up to an emerging company solving major problems for top-tier clients, that Nelumbo has received more than $17 million in private funding, and that he is a personal advisor and mentor to select CEOs building big, unique ventures, supporting areas including deep technology and climate, market analysis and financial planning, fundraising, clarifying story, public speaking, strategic deal structuring and building growth teams.⁠[1]

The page states that he is a member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO) and has been a featured speaker at a variety of energy and climate conferences, including Cleantech Forum, European Venture Fair, NREL Industry Growth Forum, Energy & Impact Symposium, Cleantech Open, Verge, Hive, the National Investment Banking Association (NIBA), SinBerBEST and the Cleantech University Prize.⁠[1]

Foresight Institute’s profile page states that he lives in Berkeley and is a lifetime reader, runner and surfer.⁠[1]

Nelumbo: Official website: https://www.nelumbo.io/ (opens in a new window).⁠[17]

Thiel Fellowship: Official website: https://thielfellowship.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[14]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-berryman-4963975b/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]