The Brief

UK-based Plaxica develops technologies that convert negative-value waste streams into high-value products. It was getting limited traction in China and engaged us to provide a physical local presence, in order to drive their business development efforts on the ground, focusing on their Xylex and Optipure technologies.

The Approach

We first drew up a long list of potential licensees across a number of sectors including chemicals, pulp waste, and food & beverage. We engaged and presented to the targets and quickly honed this down to a handful of prospects that expressed serious interest in the technology. In parallel we monitored the Chinese government policy environment regarding the use of bioplastics, which would drive domestic interest.

The Result

One of the most interesting prospects agreed to a PoC and negotiations for a licensing deal started. However at the same time Plaxica was talking to Sappi Biotech in South Africa who wanted an exclusive arrangement. Partly due to the interest shown by the Chinese, Plaxica was able to negotiate a favourable deal, and in September 2017 announced it was to be bought out completely by Sappi.

The Brief

We were tasked with identifying prospective partners and customers in the Greater China consumer electronics ecosystem to subsequently promote and license P2i’s liquid repellant nano coating technology to these companies.

The Approach

During the initial market sweep, we conducted 40 phone interviews to validate potential opportunities followed by company visits to more than 20 validated prospects. Intralink needed to determine the best route to market for P2i: do we focus on EMS contract manufacuters (CMs) like Foxconn who could ‘push’ the technology to their customers or do we focus on the OEMs? Through phone interviews and initial face-to-face meetings with decision makers, we quickly learned that the OEMs were making all design decisions for their next-generation devices, so we focused efforts on China’s top 15 consumer electronics brands.

The Result

We licensed P2i’s Aridion™ technology to two of China’s top three handset OEMs (at the time of sale), Huawei and TCL. P2i received an NRE and royalty fees worth millions of dollars, but more importantly it was able to leverage its work with Huawei and TCL to expand its customer base to multiple tier-two OEMs. P2i has since formed a WFOE, set up an R&D Centre in Shenzhen, and has commercial and technical staff located throughout China.