MITO Material Solutions

MITO Material Solutions is a specialty chemical company that produces hybrid polymer modifiers for fiber-reinforced composites and thermoplastics. Its patented platform chemistry functionalizes graphene and other scaffolds — including starch, cellulose and lignin — with POSS, giving the materials chemical functionality and making them dispersible in polymers with minimal equipment (the company states a drill and paint mixer suffice). The company describes itself as a graphene functionalizer rather than a graphene producer.

The product family includes E-GO (functionalized graphene oxide), LIGRA (a chemically inert aqueous liquefied graphene solution that can be dispersed through coatings, emulsions and sizing chemistries), ACRE (a cornstarch-based additive), and ready-to-pour, graphene-enhanced resin options such as E-GO Res-1 and Tri-Hdnr-1 developed with Forest Technical Coatings. The additives are designed to work at very low loadings — the company cites performance enhancement at roughly 0.1% concentration and a 20x reduction in required loading — and to integrate into existing production lines without process changes. Reported mechanical performance increases reach up to 135% over baseline for fiber-reinforced composites.

MITO supplies markets including sports and recreation, transportation, automotive, infrastructure, aerospace, marine, armor and composite battery enclosures, and has pursued energy-storage applications such as multifunctional adhesives and EV battery components."]

Founding story

MITO was founded by married co-founders Haley Marie Keith and Kevin Keith, commercializing a toughening additive technology first developed in 2014 that had been shown in laboratory testing to improve toughness by up to 100% at about a 0.1% loading — results that drew interest from the aerospace, RV and automotive industries.

Business model

MITO sells specialty additives and ready-to-pour additive-enhanced resin systems to polymer and composite manufacturers, positioning its products as drop-in materials requiring no change to customers' existing manufacturing processes. Distribution is extended through third-party distributors and a digital storefront.

Revenue is generated from sales of additive products (E-GO, LIGRA, ACRE) and ready-to-pour graphene-enhanced resin systems to manufacturers, supplemented historically by non-dilutive R&D grant funding.

Traction

Products have been adopted in commercial goods including St. Croix Fly's Evos, Evos Salt and Technica carbon fiber fly rods and Folsom Custom Skis' carbon fiber touring skis. MITO received Graphene Council verification covering proof of scale for three to five metric tons annually of E-GO, opened a new Indianapolis facility with in-house R&D and testing space, signed distributors TRiiSO and Eumate International, launched a Knowde storefront, and partnered with Vartega on a graphene-enhanced recycled carbon fiber product (FenixFiber+). It also announced initiatives applying graphene to EV energy storage and multifunctional adhesives, and co-led ISO standardization work for graphene with Cardea Bio.

Latest developments

Australian company FGR is acquiring Mito, taking on all of its commercially proven assets, intellectual property, graphene-focused product lines and manufacturing capabilities to accelerate U.S. expansion and exposure to industrial, aerospace and defense markets. Other recent activity includes extension of its verified functionalized graphene into St. Croix Fly's Technica rod series, presentation of E-GO graphene oxide additives at CAMX 2024, and two initiatives applying graphene to energy-storage applications including EV batteries and multifunctional adhesives.