Ilika plc (LON:IKA) Chief Executive Officer Graeme Purdycaught up with DirectorsTalk to discuss developments in their Stereax and Goliath battery programmes, including production milestones, customer engagement, and upcoming events.
Q1: Graeme, in August, Ilika announced the successful completion of process qualification for Stereax Manufacturing at Cirtec’s facility. How are the first production runs going?
A1: It’s been so satisfying actually to see the whole process running from beginning to end, working together with Cirtec Medical, our scale-up partners, and we’ve seen the wafers go all the way through, being processed into dyes, being stacked. So ,actually, we’re very excited about the progress that’s been made that’s now starting to bear fruit in terms of having product that we’ve got on test ready for release to customers.
Q2: How is customer demand for Stereax developing?
A2: What we’ve also seen is that that initial pipeline of customers that we put together following our activities on the pilot line that we had set up here at our facility in the UK has further developed. We’ve been working hand in glove with the Cirtec business development team and keeping all of those relationships warm while they wait for further deliveries. We’re very happy at the prospects that we’ve got there.
I think the other thing to say is that some of these areas that the Stereax battery is designed to address are seeing significant growth and very strong demand in terms of end applications coming to fruition. So, things like implanted sensors, so things like blood pressure, etc., orthopaedic implants, neurostimulators, orthodontic devices for aligners and for health monitoring, and then also some ophthalmological applications as well. So, some really great sectors that we’re selling into.
Q3: Will Cirtec and yourselves be promoting Stereax at any events that are coming up?
A3: Just as we sit here talking, there is an event going on in Silicon Valley called MEDevice, and Cirtec are representing both their product portfolio and, of course, Ilika’s as part of that. So, that’s actually ongoing today if you happen to be in Silicon Valley.
In January, there’s another event called the NANS event or North American Neurostimulation Society, and we will actually be together with Cirtec representing our offering at that, followed up in February by MD&M, which is an important conference and event that we often go to.
Q4: Now, back in May, Ilika announced customer validation of its 2Ah prototypes, what you call Goliath P1 cells. It sounds now that you’re nearly ready to send out your larger 10Ah cells. Is that right?
A4: So, we’ve referred to these as a P1.5 prototypes. We’ve given guidance that we want to release these by the end of the calendar year. We’ve got a series of batches of cells that have been on test, and the results are very encouraging. We think that we’ve cleared the hurdle that we set ourselves, the bar, the performance criteria for releasing those.
So, we can be proud of the progress that we’ve made, just in the space of 6/7 months since we got feedback on the P1 cells. We anticipate releasing the initial batches of those to our customers before the end of the year and into 2026.
Q5: Are you making these batteries on your own equipment?
A5: Yes, absolutely. That’s really one of the milestones that we’ve hit this year, is that we’ve completed that 1.5 megawatt-hour pilot line that we said we wanted to build so that has allowed a massive increase in productivity.
That’s really important to get that reproducibility, because one of the challenges, if you have a process where there’s a lot of manual intervention, is not only does it take longer, but also you get variability because people do things slightly differently, you know, one technician to another, one operator to another, and you end up with having an unwanted degree of variability in your product.
So, by implementing this automation, we’re now getting much tighter data sets, and the performance of the batteries is much closer to the absolute numbers that appear on spec sheets.
Q6: After the award of the grant funding you announced in July, you must be pleased with the level of government support that you’ve been receiving for the Goliath programme?
A6: Yes, absolutely. So, that was a great grant award that we’ve had. We’ve now completed the first quarter of execution of that programme and it’s great to still be collaborating with the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre and have the steering oversight of the University of Oxford to make sure that we’re using state-of-the-art approaches and also Jaguar Land Rover. So, some great commercial interaction as part of those discussions.
We expect actually our activities and that particular grant to accelerate in the second half of the financial year that we’ve just started, and then beyond that with further grant awards that we’re currently applying for.
