This case study was adapted from an article originally posted in Business Weekly.
Accelerated Materials – a University of Cambridge spin-out founded in 2020 by Dr Nicholas Jose, Professor Alexei Lapkin and Dr Mikhail Kovalev – approached us to explore international opportunities for its nanomaterial scale-up technology.
First steps
The company had developed a platform to help manufacturers address a perennial challenge: how to turn laboratory breakthroughs in nanomaterials into industrial processes that are both commercially viable and cost-effective. The technology combines intensified microreactors with machine learning.
With the technology nearing commercialisation, the team needed to identify its first major market. Their conclusion was clear: Asia.
“Japan, South Korea, China and India are home to some of the world’s largest and most advanced manufacturing economies,” said Accelerated Materials’ CEO, Dr Nicholas Jose.
“We already had contacts in Asia as a result of my time developing our research in Singapore but needed a more structured way to start exploring commercial opportunities.”
Big in Japan
The team recruited us to turbocharge their Asia expansion, starting with Japan.
During an initial quickfire, 10-week project, our Tokyo team conducted thorough market research, identified potential clients and partners and secured meetings that provided introductions and early-stage feedback.
“These were high-level technical discussions,” said Dr Jose. “Having Intralink’s bilingual team attend with us was essential – we needed extensive communication support, as well as guidance on interpreting the nuances of how business is done in Japan.
“The meetings also helped us refine aspects of our technology to suit Japanese companies and we learned how to explain it to different types of partners. It was a great starting point.”
The Accelerated Materials team came into the process with the intention of broadly targeting manufacturers of electronics, petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals. But sometimes it takes an exploratory project to work out where the key opportunities really lie.
Through initial meetings with a wide variety of prospects and taking on board their feedback, our cilent was able to zero-in on the most promising opportunity in Japan: semiconductor packaging.
Strong foundations
One year after our project kickstarted their expansion in Japan and identified areas of interest, Accelerated Materials is continuing to grow its presence in Japan, with a focus on its newfound key opportunity sector.
The company is now positioned to expand further across Asia’s advanced manufacturing hubs, supported by the relationships, insights and market-entry groundwork laid by our team.
