Matex International is a home grown SGX-Main board listed Specialty Chemicals Company that makes, formulates and distributes its products and services across various industries globally. 

As a forward looking SME that believes in commercially viable research and development (R&D), it aims to translate these efforts to become a world leader in clean colour science technologies and solutions.

“From inception in 1989, we have recognised the need to develop sustainable, low-carbon impact and effective dye and chemical solutions to vastly reduce the negative impacts on environment as textile dyeing processes are a major cause of industrial fresh water pollution around the world,” said Dr Alex Tan, CEO & Managing Director of Matex.

Of recent, its flagship product ranges like Megapro System can help reduce 25% and more water usage and can result in one-third less time at least compared to conventional systems. In its relentless mission to develop eco-friendly products, it was awarded “Specialty Chemicals Company of the Year” by Frost & Sullivan in their Singapore Excellence Awards 2013 and named a finalist in the Singapore Sustainability Award (Green Technology) in 2012. 

Although it has a strong in-house R&D capability, the other reason for Matex’s success today is the willingness to co-invest and collaborate with partners to find solutions. “Nowadays, the world is so connected and innovation happens at a much faster pace. It is not enough to rely solely on company’s own R&D activities to develop new co-innovate to reduce the time-to-market and business risk, said Mr Dro Tan, Executive Director of Matex”.

Matex currently has multiple projects with external collaborators in the pipeline to develop eco-friendly products and processes. For example, through the technology sourcing and assessment assistance of IPI Singapore, Matex was matched with a start-up company to develop and trial on wastewater treatment technologies.

“IPI’s facilitation and crowdsourcing solutions have helped the company unlock new capabilities which can create multiple and rewarding business opportunities for Matex to grow,” said Dr Alex Tan.