Ilika plc (LON:GEO) Chief Executive Officer Graeme Purdy caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss their final results for year ended 30 April 2017
Q1: It looks like it’s been a great year for Ilika’s Stereax solid state battery technology, could you give us a recap on the milestones that you’ve reached?
A1: It has been an exciting year, I think we’ve made some great progress.
We’ve 2 commercial agreements that we’ve got in place, development agreements with a bioelectronics company for medical miniature implants and then secondly a development agreement with Sharp for integration of our Stereax solid state battery technology with their photovoltaic to make integrated PV panels with batteries.
The other important milestone this year has been the launch of our P180 high temperature industrial battery for the industrial internet of things.
Q2: So, is the uptick in revenue related to that?
A2: Absolutely, so the development agreements that we’ve got in place are generating revenue for the company and they are longer term agreements which actually will also allow us to recognise revenue in the financial year that we just started.
Q3: I also see that you have a significant programme in place with Toyota?
A3: We do, we’ve had a long-term relationship with Toyota, we first started working with them back in 2008 and they’ve formed the TRI, or the Toyota Research Institute, actual headquarters in California in the US. We’re working together with them on using artificial intelligence and machine learning to combine it with our high throughput platform for materials innovation in order to come up with improved materials for energy conversion.
Q4: Could you give us some insight into the commercial pipeline over the coming year for Ilika plc?
A4: I think there’s been strong progress in the conversations we’ve been having with potential licensees of the Stereax technology. At the start of this calendar year, back in January, we had our half-year results and we talked about 25 or so non-disclosure agreements that we had in place with partners, about half of those have now matured into materials transfer agreements where we’ve sent samples of our products for evaluation at those potential partners.
We’ve also entered into the 2 R&D programmes that I mentioned earlier as well as having licencing proposals in play with a number of potential parties.
So, we’re feeling that we’ve reinforced the commercial pipeline and are well placed for further revenue growth for this year. We have actually an order book of about £1.7 million already in place so we’re looking to build on that with further agreements as we progress.
