Frequently asked questions about VCG.AI

VCG.AI helps you make decisions about renewable and circular materials. You use it to find material pathways, check whether they can work commercially, and follow market changes that affect them.

A pathway is the route from a feedstock, by-product or waste stream, through one or more conversion technologies, to a material and the products that use it.

A BioLink® is the knowledge graph behind VCG.AI. It connects feedstocks, technologies, materials, suppliers and applications, and holds more than 30,000 material pathways that our experts have validated. The pathways and companies you see in the app come from BioLink.

Anyone who makes decisions about materials and feedstocks. Our customers use it in R&D, procurement, sustainability, corporate strategy and investment planning. Regional development agencies use it to find value chains that suit their region.

When several teams in one company share a workspace, they all work from the same pathways and sources.

General AI chat tools answer questions on any subject. VCG.AI covers one area in depth, the circular economy and bioeconomy.

Domain experts curate the database. The platform links research papers, patents, market reports, company data and life-cycle assessments to real companies and supply chains. Every result lists the sources it is based on, so you can check them yourself.

Most of those tools focus on one type of data, such as patents or market reports. VCG.AI puts technologies, research, patents, markets, projects, start-ups and life-cycle assessments in one place and connects them along the value chain.

No. VCG.AI works from public data and industry data from a commercial provider, so you can start right away. If you want results that reflect your own operations, you can add your own data later.

We combine public sources such as research papers and patents with company and industry data from a global business data provider. Our experts review the pathways and any attached data.

We refresh company and market data frequently and add new publications and patents upon request. Each source in a result shows its publication date.

Coverage is deepest for organic by-products, residues and waste. We are adding textiles and chemicals now, and plan to add metals and construction materials.

To check whether a specific material is covered, ask us in the chat.

Yes. You can analyse pathways for any location. The analysis accounts for local feedstock availability, regional economics and regulation.

A pathway result shows the feedstock, the conversion technologies, the resulting material and its applications. It also lists suppliers and technology providers at each step.

VCG.AI rates each pathway's commercial viability on six factors:

Use VCG.AI to support your decisions, and check before you act on them. Every result cites its sources, and our experts validate the pathways in BioLink. Any analysis can still contain errors or miss very recent news. Read the cited sources before you commit to an investment or a supplier.

If a result looks wrong, tell us in the chat. One of our experts can go through it with you.

Colleagues in your company's workspace see the same pathways and sources you do.

VCG.AI tracks new technologies, competitor activity, patents, supplier readiness, regulatory changes and market growth for the pathways you follow.

The app is in English.

Yes. Alongside the platform, we run custom projects with our in-house experts and a wider expert network. These cover questions the platform can't answer on its own.

Talk to your account manager or message us in the chat.

Only users in your company's workspace can see the data you add.

We host the platform in Frankfurt, Germany and process personal data under GDPR.

We do not use your data to train AI models.

Click the Help and Support icon in the bottom-left corner of the app to message our team.