The original aims of the SAM project were to establish a route to market in medical textiles for Spintex’s unique aquamelt based silk fibres, through market research to validate the potential, followed by completing regulatory approvals through notified bodies. Further objectives were centred around establishing new routes to market through conferences, pitching events and networking opportunities.
Great success has been achieved in defining the suitable markets for this new material processing route.
A major result of this work was the difficulty posed by accessing the medical markets first. Originally chosen due to the possibility of working with smaller scales, and potential impacts, changes in regulatory environments, and investor nervousness in medical applications. Feedback from institutional investors and angel networks, was heavily negative in regards to the initial route to market in medical applications, due to the perceived high capital costs and risks associated. This was despite the potential for ISO certification, which as a concept, proved to be insufficient to assuage concerns, due to lack of clinical in vivo testing. Such testing often is lengthy, complex and expensive, and fell outside the scope of support from the FET project. Despite this, interest was strong in the core technology and potential for new market opportunities.
Furthermore, through the analysis of the patent landscape and environment, it became clear that strong patent protected intellectual property rights are critical to investor confidence and success within the medical fields, far more strongly than in alternative textile markets, where often processes can be protected purely through know how and trade secrets. Without the assured means to protect and pay for the protection necessary, this route proved extraordinarily difficult without adjustment.
Further difficulty was found in the concept of bringing new materials to the medical market, with most investors and customers, far more interested in discrete product applications, over the broader context of new biomaterials.
The results of this market research led great credence to a potential pivot from the first targeted market of Spintex in medical, to sustainable garment textiles, capitalising on improvements in R&D, that supported increased capability in production, to allow the scale for realising this. Furthermore, with potential total available markets compared, sees medical textiles at $16B, with the serviceable available market of biotextiles at $5B. The broader silk textile market for fashion alone is $17B, of which all is a part of the serviceable available market to Spintex. Furthermore, market trends indicate the eco-textiles market, currently at $74B, will reach $95B by 2025, with a CAGR of 12%, indicating the strong growth potential afforded by this pivot.
Unlike as envisioned in the proposal, the feedback from market research demonstrated a better route to medical applications, by first establishing product releases in a less regulated market, such as sustainable textiles. Responses from investors, and key industrial players and customers, were overwhelmingly positive for this new direction, by directly cutting the regulatory risks, and demonstrating an increasingly stronger market fit.
The application of Spintex’s fibres for medical applications, has not been terminated however, and will now be better established, by our inclusion in a new consortium EC project, BioBased ValueCircle (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2020), where our fibres will be directly tested in vivo, and for a specific medical product in regenerative medicine.
Utilising the travel and subsistence budget, had some of the strongest impacts on the investability and market potential of Spintex’s technology, allowing for access to support, groups and investors further afield than would have been possible before. This includes pitching events such as Pitchfest London 2019 (UK), Venturefest 2019 (UK), BioSeed (UK), Industrial workshops (UK), Fashion For Good 2019 (NL), and industrial contact meetings.
Dissemination and public engagement of Spintex’s technology and the connection of SAM project has been greatly boosted by access to this funding, particularly by utilising channels from accelerators, and investors, leading to publications in Vogue Business and EcoTextiles news, as well as video.
