Best Innovation Developed in Partnership With University-based Research 2016

“When I look at the façade of a glass office building, I see an area that is totally passive,” said Thibaud Le Séguillon, CEO of Heliatek. “What our technology does is activate these buildings to generate electricity.”

Heliatek was spun off from the Technical University of Dresden and the University of Ulm in 2006. The company has developed an organic solar film, known as HeliaFilm, which can convert daylight into electricity.

“Our customers are building and construction materials companies,” Le Séguillon explained. “They integrate our film as an energy-generation device into their materials, which could be glass, concrete, steel or membrane. Whatever you construct a building with, that is where our film is going to go.”

Le Séguillon said his company’s technology could effectively transform any façade into a power station. “When you look at an Ikea store, for example, this big blue box could be covered in our film, generating electricity every day of the year,” he said. “We have created a new technology, a new manufacturing process: now we are creating new markets. As a society, we are moving towards decarbonised, decentralised energy generation, and Heliatek is about to change the world as we know it.”

Heliatek has begun manufacturing HeliaFilm on a small industrial scale, and has completed pilot installations of its technology in Japan, China, Singapore, India, Europe, Egypt and the US. In 2015, Heliatek worked with Singapore firm vTrium Energy on Asia’s largest BIOPV (Building Integrated Organic Photovoltaic) project, while HeliaFilm was also incorporated into a concrete façade at the headquarters of German building materials company Reckli.

Heliatek is now talking to strategic investors in Europe, Asia and North America in a bid to raise €75m ($81.7m) in order to finance the shift to large-scale manufacture.

“What is important is that all our existing investors are going to participate in this next round,” said Le Séguillon. “They have been involved in every round since the beginning of the company and they like the progress we are making.”

Existing corporate venturing investors include BASF Venture Capital, Innogy Venture Capital and Bosch, all of which took part in Heliatek’s C-financing round to raise €18m in September 2014 alongside Wellington Partners, eCAPITAL, HTGF and TGFS.

“Europe is extremely good at developing new technology, the public subsidies are there. But what is difficult is to bring mature technology to industrialisation and commercialisation.”

Le Séguillon added: “We have to convince people we are going to create a multi-million euro company and that we are for real.” This is being done through Heliatek’s pilot programmes as well as what Le Séguillon described as “the pull of the market”.

“We have partnerships with building and construction companies and these customers are ready to talk to our investors to say that, in order to activate their material, they need HeliaFilm.

“That’s the best testimony, when the market is pulling. For investors, it reduces the risk they face.”

Given the groundbreaking nature of the technology that Heliatek has developed, it comes as no surprise that the company has been nominated for, and won, numerous awards. In November last year, for example, Heliatek received the Renewable Energy Design Award at the Elektra European Electronics Industry Awards in London. And three months earlier, the firm was selected by the World Economic Forum as one of its Technology Pioneers for 2015.

Fulvia Montresor, head of technology pioneers at the World Economic Forum, said: “Heliatek is part of a group of entrepreneurs who are more aware of the crucial challenges of the world around them, and who are determined to do their part to solve those challenges with their company.”

The accolade meant that Heliatek was invited to the forum’s prestigious Annual Meeting, which has just taken place in Davos, Switzerland [Jan 20-23].

Speaking before the event, Le Séguillon said: “This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience: it gives us the chance to interface with different industries, present our product and share our view of the future.

“There are also meetings with potential investors. As a startup, this really gives us credibility and access to the CEOs of large organisations which are thinking of investing in us.” Le Séguillon added that the awards his firm had been nominated for are “very good exposure and recognition of our progress”.

Crispin Leick, the former managing director and chief investment officer of Innogy Venture Capital, said: “Heliatek is a great company. When this technology hits the market, it will change a lot.”