Founder (CEO) - Industrial Laser Venture

Who We Are

ATUM is a Singapore deep-tech venture builder and investor. We build companies from breakthrough, IP-backed research, bringing capital, operational muscle, and partners from industry, VC, and government into every build. We've built and backed 15 ventures, and we invest in fast-scaling deep-tech with real fundamentals, not hype.

The Venture

Industrial surface preparation, stripping rust, paint, and coatings before recoating, is a dirty, hazardous, multi-billion-dollar global industry still dominated by sandblasting: abrasive grit, dust, silica, hazardous waste, confined-space risk.

We're building the company to replace it.

The core is a handheld laser, developed at A*STAR, that does in one pass what abrasive blasting needs two steps for: it removes contamination and generates the precise surface profile coatings need to bond, with no grit, no chemicals, no waste.

The technology is real (TRL 6), validated with paint majors, shipyards, refineries, and aerospace OEMs, and protected by a multi-year head start in an ecosystem that takes years to build.

This is a hardware-led, deep-tech company in a conservative, high-value industry. It's a long game with a defensible position and a clear path to category leadership.

The Role

You'll be the founding CEO. You'll own commercial strategy, go-to-market, fundraising, and building the company from zero, alongside a strong technical co-founder, a dedicated ATUM venture team, and the inventor.

Together, we'll

• Validate the beachhead and convert deep industry relationships into commercial pilots and LOIs
• Shape the business model and pricing
• Raise pre-seed and seed capital, and build the founding team
• Take the product from a validated prototype to deployed, revenue-generating systems

This is not a job. It's a founding journey where you share the risk, the upside, and the impact.

Requirements

Who You Are

• Industrial operator: You have built, sold, or scaled in oil & gas, marine, heavy industry, or industrial equipment. And you know how these buyers actually make decisions.
• Field-tested: You have been on the plant floor, in the shipyard, across the table from asset owners and contractors. You turn real-world pain into commercial traction.
• Commercially sharp: You think in unit economics, sales cycles, and business models, and you can lead a technical team without deferring to them.
• A builder, not a passenger: You self-start, run at ambiguity, and own outcomes. You don't wait to be told what to do next.
• Resilient & ready: You have the runway to commit full-time, and you know building hardware in a real industry takes grit and patience.

Benefits

Why Build With Us

• A validated starting point: Real technology, real industry pull, real partners, not a blank page.
• Founder-led: You're the CEO, with meaningful founding equity.
• Funding-ready: ATUM backs the build with pre-seed capital and grant access, plus follow-on funding from our investor network.
• Hands-on partners: We're in the trenches with you on product, GTM, and fundraising, not just on the cap table.
• Domain access: Labs, technical experts, early adopters, and an ecosystem already engaged.