Periodic Reporting for period 1 - LNC (Making Earth Green Again with Liquid Nano Clay)
Reporting period: 2019-07-01 to 2019-09-30
The ultimate goal of the project is to design our commercial-ready automated mobile LNC production units for the automated production and application of LNC in situ. The Feasibility Study specifically aimed to identify how to mature the LNC technology and our commercialization strategy to prepare to license our business solution starting in 2022. We undertook:
1) Technical planning of the specific technical developments and testing needed to arrive at a commercially viable, fully validated LNC mobile LNC production units;
2) Commercialization assessment to refine our go to market strategy and a partner search for the various actors in our value chain;
3) Consolidation of Regulatory Compliance & IP to assess regulations that our technology will need to comply with and opportunities to further consolidate our IP strategy.
4) Financial Feasibility assessment to identify team growth and financial projections needed to ensure ROI by 2027.
In parallel, we have also done an in-depth investigation of the market to support the elaboration of our commercialization strategy and needs for company growth. This complete analysis has been integrated into an updated business plan.
We have evolved our commercialization strategy into a three-tiered plan for evolving both the technology of LNC and consecutive business models for each. For the present, we will continue to commercialize LNC under a B2C model until we launch a B2C business model in 2022 whereby we license our mobile LNC production units and standardize our pricing (annual license fees and royalty fees). In order to ensure that we can carry out this strategy, we have identified the need to grow our team by 18 persons over the next 5 years.
We have identified the needs for an LNC Certification Guideline which will detail suppliers of certified calcium bentonite, documentation for Directive 2006/42/EC, 2009/125/EC and Regulation 167/2013, GLOBALG.A.P. and ISO 14055. We identified new patents and other patens we will need to design around to ensure our own FTO of WO2014028467A1, US9505660B2 and US9464003B2. By undertaking a series of financial projections we have found we will achieve ROI within the second year after our market launch. This is taking into the €1.73 M in costs we have estimated associated with the necessary scientific equipment, consulting services and other project costs.
We have also prepared to develop new references for the key end users identified during our market study. By classifying the appropriate characteristics (i.e. sandy soils, water stress) we have identified optimal locations for a series of three demonstration projects in Palm Springs in California, Huelva in Spain and in the Great Green Wall in Nigeria. With those locations in mind, we have identified potential partners for undertaking these demonstrations and secured LOIs from interested partners.
Regarding our financial assessment, we were also able to identify how many licenses would be necessary to achieve ROI in the first year rather than the second year and generate 20% more revenue and EBITDA in our first year of commercialization. Furthermore, in order to continue to advance our business model and ensure our company’s continued growth, we have planned a third stage of commercialization, as early as 2025, in which we will enter a B2B2E business model whereby we will have multiple pricing models including monetization of data.