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XTPL is consistently achieving further milestones towards commercialization

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Summary of H1 2019 highlights:

  • Expanding the portfolio of active sales prospects from the display sector
  • Adopting the licensing model for commercialization of the company’s technology for use in open defect repair
  • Starting the third phase of the proof of concept project for a US manufacturer from the smart glass sector
  • Accelerating intellectual property protection (four new international applications submitted in H1 2019) and plans to significantly increase the patent cloud by the end of 2020 (26 new applications);
  • Completing a private placement of more than PLN 10 million;
  • Adopting a new incentive scheme for company’s key employees;
  • Revenue from grants in H1 2019 amounted to PLN 1.6 million (increase by 33% compared to H1 2018);
  • Net result of PLN -15.9 million, reflecting a one-off event of PLN 11.6 million (recognition of the cost of settlement of the share-based incentive scheme, a non-cash operation, without effect on the value of assets, equity and dilution of existing shareholders);
  • Operating costs under control amounted to PLN 6.7 million (excluding one-off)

 

PROGRESS IN COMMERCIALIZATION

In the first half of 2019, XTPL primarily focused on commercialization of its technology in the first two application fields. Recently, the company announced adoption of licensing as a business model for implementation of the nanoprinting technology in the display market for use in open defect repair. The licensing model is attractive to XTPL and is preferred by most of its potential clients who have expressed interest in acquiring the solution offered by the company. These entities have already made reference visits to XTPL laboratories or declared their readiness to make such visits in the short-term.

– The XTPL solution will enable production yield increase of modern production lines in the display sector, which is why it is attracting great interest from manufacturers in this industry. We have taken measures to ensure the highest level of intellectual property protection here, which is to guarantee safe commercialization and appropriate negotiating position for the company before license agreements are signed

– says Filip Granek, PhD, the CEO of XTPL.

At the same time, the company is implementing the third phase of an advanced proof of concept project for a leading US manufacturer from the smart glass sector. Ultimately, implementation of the XTPL solution is expected to bring a significant improvement to the functional characteristics of the partner’s products and open up for him new market segments. Therefore the technological success of the project is in the interest of both firms. If the current tests confirm the effectiveness of the XTPL technology, this may result in joint development of production solutions based on the company’s know-how and intellectual property under e.g. a Joint Development Agreement (JDA).

 

THE IMPORTANCE OF PATENT PROTECTION

At present, XTPL’s key asset is intellectual property. Its protection is one of the company’s priorities. For deep tech companies intellectual property is a product and it determines their market position.

– The global XTPL solution is systematically secured by expanding the patent cloud. Financing activities in this area was one of the main objectives of the issue of XTPL shares carried out in July this year, thanks to which the company’s account has been credited with over PLN 10 million. In recent quarters, we have strengthened our team of engineers, which gave a significant boost to the progress of work on technological development. This allowed us to accelerate our efforts to further protect our intellectual property. By the end of 2020, we plan to increase the number of patent applications by almost three times, and this is just the beginning of building the company’s intellectual property portfolio in various application fields – Filip Granek emphasizes.

 

KEY EMPLOYEES’ IMPACT ON THE SPEED OF IMPLEMENTATION

The development of deep technologies, especially platform ones, which, like the XTPL solution, are used in many industry sectors, requires the involvement of an interdisciplinary team of world-class engineers.

– XTPL is at an interesting stage in the life of a technology company. It has demonstrated proof of concept but needs time and additional resources to refine the concept further with the goal of getting it to the point where the concept can be exploited by it various customers and partners. Questions of feasibility are largely answered; issues of implementability now become the focus. This focus will require additions of engineers with these talents – explains Harold Hughes, long-standing CFO of Intel and CEO of Rambus Inc., and also the current board member of the US subsidiary XTPL Inc.

To attract talent and experienced engineers with unique competences for the team, XTPL, following the example of technology companies from Silicon Valley, has implemented an incentive scheme for the company’s key employees. Its latest edition was approved by shareholders in April this year. The scheme is based on share options (with an exercise price of PLN 165), representing a maximum of 10% of the company’s equity, and the existing XTPL shares.

One of the experts who joined the XTPL team in Q2 2019 is Hiroshi Menjo. He has been developing technology companies in Japan and Silicon Valley for more than 30 years. He supported the largest Japanese players from the consumer electronics market, IT and media markets. He also assisted technology start-ups in North America to develop and implement Japanese entry strategies, and to forge strategic alliances with Japanese companies. One of his tasks at XTPL is to accelerate commercialization of the company’s solutions in East Asia.

– XTPL technology is the one that advanced generation electronics manufacturers have long been waiting for. The first company to find a solution in this area can take over the entire market. XTPL has done a great job in developing technology to the current level and has all what it needs to become a global player.– Hiroshi Menjo says.

 

FINANCES UNDER CONTROL

In H1 2019, the company’s revenue from grants amounted to PLN 1.6 million. This is a 33% increase compared to the same period of 2018, and is in line with the plans to use public funds to co-finance the costs of technology development. Due to the need to settle the existing incentive program for key employees, the company recognized the costs of this operation and, as an outcome, the net result of XTPL in H1 2019 was charged with PLN 11.5 million.

– This is a one-off, non-cash operation, which does not affect the value of assets or equity. Likewise, it has no dilutive effect on the stock held by the existing shareholders, as the settlement was made based on series L shares, which had been issued solely for the incentive scheme in the first half of 2017 – explains Maciej Adamczyk, XTPL management board member.

The company’s operating costs are under control, and amounted to PLN 6.7 million excluding one-offs. The year-on-year growth here is mainly due to the number of international patent applications, expansion of business development structures in Poland and the United States, and the strengthening of the technology team, which is needed to achieve significant progress in preparing the company’s technology for industrial implementation.

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