Our business model is as unique as each of our team members and combines customer-centricity with tech and chem know-how. Since our founding, back in mid-2018, we have grown into a team of 35 talented people who are experts in their individual fields.
“It is extremely rewarding to work with an increasingly diverse team and so much passion.” – Alina Knoop, Office Manager
At CheMondis, each of our colleagues performs a meaningful role, while enjoying unlimited access to learning, growth, and development opportunities. In addition to being able to take advantage of outstanding benefits, we want everyone to be healthy, to have enough time to vacate and have the financial resources and support they need, in and out of the office.
We have created a workplace that is unique, challenging, smart, and innovative. A workplace that is inclusive and reflects diversity. Where everyone can be their authentic self, and where this authenticity is celebrated as a strength.
We cultivate a working environment that inspires new ideas, promotes ownership and experimentation and supports highly motivated individuals to be truly creative and to serve our customers in the best possible way.
“One of the most rewarding aspects of my work is that I get to work together with great people from various cultures, with different expertise” – Irene Prinz, Head of HR
People who work at CheMondis come from many different backgrounds, both professionally and culturally. Besides this diversity, we are also united by our corporate values and our culture. They guide us in every single decision we make, and we truly live by them.
Our core values are multi-perspectivity, responsibility, vision-driven orientation, collaboration, and personal development. To gain deeper insight into CheMondis, look at our previous blog article, about our corporate values, mission statements, and vision statements here.
Our mindset
Our teams are constantly working on exciting new ways to further develop our culture and way of working. We’re set up in an agile environment with flat hierarchies and small interdisciplinary teams.
How do we live agility at CheMondis? One example is, that we use Scrum as a framework to develop our product. It enables us to release software increments in two-week iterations. In other words, new functionalities, features, and components are deployed to the marketplace at least twice a month.
To get as much as possible released in these sprint-cycles or to provide the best possible customer experience, many teams hold daily stand-ups to align their activities. To help visualize our progress we make use of physical Scrum boards.
Furthermore, we apply Objectives & Key Results (OKR) in order to set and harmonize our company, team, and individual goals on a quarterly basis.
Office environment
Applying agile approaches does not only require rethinking traditional team constellations but also redesigning the working environment we need. For that reason, the CheMondis office was designed to our individual needs and tailored to our networking culture in the format of an open workspace. We work in an environment that makes us feel comfortable and that awakens the urge to participate and collaborate.
“The ergonomics of our surroundings are amazing.” – Jesse, Working Student
Shaped in a semicircle, the office promotes both concentration and relaxation. While offering us multiple areas for creative collaboration, it also gives us the opportunity to speak confidently in secluded rooms. In various living room setups around the office, everyone can take a break and relax or have an informal conversation.
Right in the center of our office is an open space that can easily be – and often is – adapted to different kinds of events such as tech meetups, hackathons, or other business-related events. This is also the place where we come together for our monthly team stand-up, where every team briefly updates all colleagues on current activities, learnings, and highlights.
Our perks
We believe rest and a fulfilled life outside of the office makes a happier, healthier team, which is vital to productivity. For us, trust is one of the most important pillars for being able to work autonomously. This is why everyone at CheMondis profits from flexible working hours and the option to work from home.
When you look at our everyday office life, lunch is the time to socialize at CheMondis. We embrace a healthy lifestyle and always provide fresh fruit in the kitchen as well as snacks, drinks, and coffee.
In our spacious kitchen, lunch can be cooked fresh or bought from nearby restaurant options. Colleagues meet here to enjoy the food – and each other’s company. A great perk is that CheMondis offers a subsidy for our daily lunches.
For us, a healthy lifestyle is not only linked to nutrition, but also to physical activities. Bi-weekly, our yoga teacher Nico gives a yoga class in the office, and on Wednesdays, we have the opportunity to take part in a soccer match.
We regularly promote team events, activities, and everything that brings our team members even closer together – and we also like celebrating our achievements! Whether it be team lunches, concerts, excursions, workshops, or team building activities – there’s always lots of fun.
Team rituals
To promote cooperation across teams and encourage networking, we additionally use so-called “donut dates”. The goal is to pair two people across the teams to get to know each other better and to gain insights into each other’s work fields and challenges by meeting for donuts and coffee.
Furthermore, we cultivate another weekly ritual at CheMondis – “beer time”. To ring in the weekend, on Fridays, every one can meet up in the office kitchen, to socialize, enjoy a drink and to look back at the past week’s achievements.
On the 5th of November, our CheMondis marketplace turned one year old – this is why we are celebrating all month long. Get ready for a series of exciting content, including blog posts, animations, and further company announcements. Whether you are a CheMondis user from day one, a newcomer, or just interested in our marketplace, we are glad you are here with us. Join us on our blog and on all our social media channels to find out all about our birthday month.
What happened so far?
The Europe-based marketplace was founded about 1.5 years ago by the chemical specialty producer LANXESS. Set up as an own legal entity, CheMondis is tackling the challenge of digitalization in the chemical industry. Back in November 2018, the marketplace successfully launched its open beta version.
Since then, over one thousand verified chemical companies have registered with a total of 2350 active users, trading more than 13,000 active products on the platform. Within the last 12 months, trading volumes have been steadily increasing with an increasing customer base.
Last November, we kicked off the beta version with a custom interface and a broad range of elementary marketplace features. These included among others an advanced search function, the possibility to chat between buyer and supplier, Instant Deal purchasing or selling, or individual negotiations.
Over the course of the last year we have expanded our features and functionalities a lot further: an automated product upload, an integrated credit rating service, and most recently the possibility to depict and apply long-term contractual agreements on the marketplace.
Especially, our purchasing options have evolved. Traditionally, there are two different ways of selling products on CheMondis. Suppliers can either choose to sell products directly as Instant Deals at fixed list prices or they can individually issue quotes based on Quote Requests from prospective customers.
A couple of months ago CheMondis introduced the “special offer” feature, allowing suppliers to make custom deals for selected buyers, as both an Instant Deal or a Quote Request. Only a couple of weeks ago, CheMondis has introduced a new option to help buy and sell chemicals on the marketplace – the Agreement.
It allows the buying and selling parties to agree on specific terms for recurring orders for a certain time period and to the buyer to gradually call-off the pre-defined volumes.
Our customers
At this point, we want to thank all CheMondis users. Our success is linked to our users and their continuous feedback. Since last year, we have single-handily verified and personally onboarded around one thousand chemical companies to the platform.
We are especially grateful for all the early movers of the industry and the trust and support the chemical industry in total has given us. We are excited to continue this way.
SynHet – Synthetic Heterocycles
Livchem Logistics GmbH
INNOVOX GMBH
LANXESS Deutschland GmbH
ViVoChem B.V.
Mosselman SA
BÜFA Chemikalien GmbH & Co. KG
Life Chemicals Europe GmbH
Since our launch, CheMondis held over 1700 support chats via our inbuilt business messenger. We support registerd users with difficulties, missunderstandings and other erros, while we inform interested individuals about the CheMondis marketplace.
Team growth
The CheMondis team is an agile and entrepreneurial group of experts from the chemical industry and the world of technology. Our diverse team consists of a variety of personalities, from twelve different nationalities and cultural backgrounds – grouped into three departments. Team Commercial, Team Product, and Team Engineering.
In the course of the last year, the entire CheMondis team has grown to a total size of 30 employees. We are ready, to continue tackling the challenge of digitalizing the chemical industry. We are very happy to have every single team member on board and hope to further recruit talented colleagues. Interested in joining us at CheMondis? See all our current job offers here.
What is next?
The new year is almost there, 2020. Time flies and technology evolves. Technological advancements can lead to the change of a complete industry – as we have seen in the telecommunication industry, during the late 2000s. The internet changed the game.
And now comes CheMondis to help digitalize marketing, sales, and procurement within the chemical industry. In order to make the marketplace even better for users, our developers and designers are constantly working on new features and functionalities. What’s planned next, you might ask yourself.
There are a few components that can already be revealed. We are looking forward to launching an optimized search function, an inbuilt sample demand, and further a brand-new static page. And this is not even a fraction of what will be implemented in the course of 2020. Stay tuned.
In a nutshell
CheMondis has successfully launched the open beta version of the marketplace exactly one year ago. Since then, over one thousand verified chemical companies have registered, trading more then 13,000 active products on the platform.
Within the last 12 months, trading volumes have been steadily increasing with an increasing customer base. New functionalities and features have been and are to be implemented. We are going for more!
Thanks for taking the time to read the CheMondis Blog.
As a marketplace, we act as a mediator between buyers and suppliers. Our main goal is to match a specific buyer demand with a fitting supplier. When buyers turn to the CheMondis marketplace to buy chemicals online, the first stop for them is our search bar. It is located at the top center of the CheMondis marketplace.
Buyers can make use of our search functions and find products conveniently. Suppliers can cast light on their own product portfolio by appearing in the CheMondis search. Our search bar includes a vast variety of functions. For example, it shows you query suggestions, helping you find products even faster.
Sebastian Brenner, Managing Director of CheMondis
“Finding the right product for your specific need is our central goal!” Sebastian Brenner – Managing Director
Using Product Search Efficiently as a Buyer
In order to reduce the time you invest into searching for chemicals, we installed three different search trails into CheMondis. You can find new suppliers, new products, and new substances by using our search bar and filters.
Receive a vast array of products by using the search bar. While doing so, search by product name, substance, formula, CAS number, and/or supplier name. In order for you to find products and substances even faster, query suggestions show up, while typing in a search term.
On the upper left sidebar, buyers can filter by industries, referring to the industry in which the product is applied in. Suppliers and Buyers can filter by the following industries:
Industry Filters on CheMondis
Adhesives & Sealants
Agriculture
Ceramics & Glas
Chemical Manufacturing
Cleaning Products
Construction
Cosmetics & Personal Care
Food & Feed
Leather & Textiles
Lubricants
Packaging Materials
Paints & Coatings
Pharma & Life Science
Plastics
Pulp & Paper
Research Chemicals
Rubber
Water Treatment
Other Industries
Multiple industry filters can be combined and applied.
On the lower left sidebar, buyers can find and select the product group (E.g.: Solids, Resins) and subgroups they are looking for, in order to further distinguish and search more efficiently.
Product Groups on CheMondis
Acids & Lyes
Additives
Agrochemicals
Bio-based Materials
Flavors & Fragrances
High-Performance Materials
Intermediates
Monomers
Monomers & Polymers
Oleochemicals
Packaging
Pigments & Dyes
Purification Agents
Ready-to-Use
Reference Material
Resins
Solids
Solvents
Surfactants
Further product groups are categorized in specific subgroups. Product groups and further subgroups can and should be combined with industry filters.
You may also combine all search options: For example, use the search bar and then apply industry filters and product group information to limit the search results.
Can’t Find the Product you’re Looking for?
We started CheMondis back in 2018, so our marketplace is still relatively young. In case you can not find the product, you are looking for, we are happy to personally help you find what you need. Please enter the search term you are looking for and provide your e-mail address. Our customer support will reach out to you.
Further enjoy an abundance of services varying from personal on-boarding to individual, on-demand product searches. Take advantage of our one-on-one customer service and contact us today. We are here to help you find the right product for your specific needs – make CheMondis work for you.
Using Product Search Efficiently as a Seller
In order to make your products more accessible for buyers, suppliers must understand how the CheMondis product-search functions. There are three easy steps, which you can follow, in order to make your products more accessible on the CheMondis marketplace:
Choose Product Groups and Sub-groups
Link your product to relevant product groups and subgroups. By doing so, customers searching for a particular product group will come across your product automatically(E.g.: Solids, Resins).
Select Industry Filters
Users searching by industry-filters can select the industry within which they wish to find products. Link your product to proper industries, to make your product more accessible (E.g.: Agriculture, Construction).
Formulate Product Decriptions
Our search bar extracts data directly from product descriptions. If you want to make your offer more accessible for buyers, make sure to formulate your product descriptions.
To avoid a high number of technical or product-related questions, make sure to have an appropriate product description and up-to-date safety and technical data sheets in place. This creates trust among buyers and suppliers.
Now it is up to you
What do you think of the CheMondis product search? Is it helpful? What is most helpful to you? And which other features could be useful on the marketplace? Let us know and leave a comment in the section below!
Thank you for taking the time to read the CheMondis blog.
REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals) is the European regulation. It addresses the production and use of chemical substances and their potential impacts on both human health and the environment. The regulation also established the European Chemical Agency (ECHA), which manages the technical, scientific, and administrative aspects of REACH.
REACH describes substances of very high concern (SVHC). Producers, importers or suppliers of products that contain SVHC-listed substances are obliged to notify ECHA when:
working in Europe,
and the total quantity used is more than one tone per year,
and/or the SVHC is present at more than 0.1% of the mass of one produced object.
ECHA has included 6 new substances to the SVHC list for authorization, extending it to a total of 197 substances. Four of the substances, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, were added to the SVHC list with the involvement of the Member State Committee (MSC) after public consultation. More information about the substances and reasons for their inclusion on the SVHC list are informed below.
Substances added to the SVHC list
Pyrene
Reason for inclusion: Substance is toxic, very persistent and very bioaccumulative in accordance with the criteria set out in Annex XIII.
CAS No.: 129-00-0; 1218-52-1
Phenanthrene
Reason for inclusion: Substance is very persistent and very bioaccumulative in accordance with the citeria set out in Annex XIII.
CAS No.: 85-01-08
3-Benzylidenecamphor
Reason for inclusion: Substance is toxic for reproduction (article 57c).
The chemical industry supplies raw materials to almost every other industry and is essential for economic competitiveness. Although essential, chemicals must be properly managed to avoid damage to human health and the environment. Each country or economic union has a specific way of regulating and controlling chemicals. Within the European Union, we have REACH.
REACH stands for Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals. It is a European Union regulation that addresses the production and use of chemical substances, and their potential impacts on both human health and the environment. REACH came into force on the first of June 2007 and has been described as the most complex legislation in the European Union’s history.
REACH AIM: Improve the protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals and promote alternative methods for the assessment of hazards of substances.
How does REACH work?
REACH establishes procedures for collecting and assessing information on the properties and hazards of substances. The regulation has been established by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), which manages the technical, scientific, and administrative aspects of REACH.
ECHA receives and evaluates individual registrations for their compliance. Further EU member states evaluate selected substances to clarify initial concerns for human health or for the environment. Authorities and ECHA’s scientific committees assess whether the risks of substances can be managed.
To comply with the regulation, companies must identify and manage the risks linked to the substances they manufacture and market in the EU. They must demonstrate how the substance can be safely used, and they must communicate the risk management measures to the users.
REACH obligations are not only complied with manufacturers of chemical substances, but also to all companies which deal with preparations of the product or articles that contain those substances. For this reason, REACH has an impact on a wide range of companies across many sectors.
If you are an importer of chemical and non-chemical products (such as paints, clothes, furniture, plastic, etc.) you need to ensure that all components should be registered under REACH. Companies established outside the EU are not bound to the obligations of REACH.
The responsibility for fulfilling the requirements of REACH, lies with the importers established in the European Union, or with the only representative of a non-EU manufacturer established in the European Union. REACH applies to substances manufactured or imported in quantities of 1 tonne or more per year, per manufacturer/importer. Some substances are excluded from all or certain aspects of REACH.
Total exemptions
Radio-active substances
Substances under customs supervision
Substances used in the interest of defense and covered by National exemptions
Waste
Non-isolated intermediates and transported substance
Partial exemptions
Substances used in food
Medicinal products;
Substances included in Annex IV of the REACH Regulation which are known to be safe (such as Nitrogen)
Corn
Oil
Substances covered by Annex V of the REACH Regulation
Substances which occur in nature, if they are not chemically modified
Minerals
ores, ore concentrates
cement clinker
natural gas
liquefied petroleum gas
natural gas condensate, process gases and components thereof
crude oil, coal, coke
Substances occurring in nature other than those listed under paragraph 7, if they are not chemically modified unless they meet the criteria for classification as dangerous according to Directive 67/548/EEC. (Examples include beeswax and some fibers)
Polymers (however, monomer shall be registered)
Recycled or recovered substance already registered
Re-imported substance
Substances used for the purposes of product and process-oriented research and development (PPORD) Note: PPORD notification shall be submitted instead.
China, the largest chemical manufacturer in the world, has also moved towards a more efficient and coherent system for the control of chemicals in compliance with GHS. Balkan countries such as Croatia and Serbia are in the process of adopting the EU REACH system under the auspices of the EU IPA program.
Switzerland has moved towards the implementation of REACH through partial revision of the Swiss Chemical Ordinance. Turkey has also paved the way to adopt REACH with the new Chemicals Management Regulation.
Transported isolated intermediates
Manufacturers or importers of transported isolated intermediates in quantities of 1 tonne or more per year need to submit a registration dossier(unless the substance is exempted from the registration provisions). The information to be submitted for standard registration purposes is listed under article 10.
However, a registrant of transported isolated intermediates can provide reduced registration information according to article 18 (2) if he confirms that he is manufacturing and/or using the substance under strictly controlled conditions and if he confirms himself or states that he has received confirmation from the user that the substance is used under strictly controlled conditions as described under article 18 (4).
In that case, both the registrant and the users are each liable for their own statement regarding the strictly controlled conditions.
Article 18 on CheMondis
As described in our Terms & Conditions, suppliers must comply with the regulations in order to sell their products on CheMondis. Next to safety and technical datasheets, users can add other relevant information about their products.
Further, suppliers are requested to tick a specific box indicating that their products are regulated by article 18, which covers the registration of transported isolated intermediates.
Our chemical team constantly re-checks all product information, including the indications about article 18. Nevertheless, CheMondis cannot be heald liable for all information provided by third-party-sellers.
Thank you for taking the time to read the CheMondis Blog.
