The technical feasibility study clearly demonstrates the ideal ‘starting-point’ applications for Integrates SolidCool technology to be transport climatization and marine cooling. Cold storage installations, the cooling application put forward in Integrates project proposal, is ideally launched after two other segments of cooling applications, as explained in §1.3.
In the commercial feasibility study, the business model as a component supplier is defined in detail with a strong view on market introduction, the location of Integrate in the Value Chain and a logic buildup of the pricing strategy. In terms of Intellectual Property, integrate has a global freedom to operate using its current and future patents. In the past, only 1 patent was filed that approaches Integrates mass production methodology. The patent was filed during a time that thermoelectric materials had a much lower efficiency. Its commercialization, then, was set in the wrong timeframe. The right time to commercialize mass produced thermoelectric heatpumps, is now.
The business model, the pricing strategy and the bill of materials allow for a detailed financial plan buildup. In order to realize its ambitious sales targets, Integrates financial plan shows a cash need of 1,2 mio EUR. Given its relatively low overhead and high margin, this results in a increasing personnel count to 14 people by 2022 and investing ~700 kEUR in tooling, Intellectual Property and the development of the mass production concept for SolidCool heatpumps.
After the investment, Integrate launches its first products in 2021 and manages to be breakeven the year after. Investors see a net present value of 7,2 mio EUR, a return on investment of 827% and an Internal rate of return of 85%. Considering the variety of product applications that are planned to follow, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
