Tony Tianyi Sun, Ph.D., MS, Lux Research Analyst02.02.16
How to grow revenue is always one of the most important questions for startups. At Lux Research, we have regular conversations with innovative developers in the flexible electronics industry and track how they progress over the years. While many of the companies we re-profiled were growing, only 10 grew and had revenues of $1 million or more, indicating that their growth was not an anomaly. In the table below, we listed these companies as well as their average annual growth rate (increase in revenue over the time between Lux profiles).
Growth of these companies reveals three major trends in materials-based flexible electronics.
• Thin-film battery companies grow from strategy shift. Two out of the top three companies are thin-film battery (TFB) companies, FlexEl and Imprint Energy. FlexEl used to develop and sell its proprietary TFBs in the past but then changed the business model to providing battery development services. As a result, it was able to leverage its know-how in battery designs and grew its revenue significantly by 20-fold. Imprint Energy, on the other hand, used to target a wide range of applications like body-worn medical devices, sensor networks, and powering devices in the Internet of Things (IoT). In 2015, the company realized that its battery’s low internal resistance is a good value proposition to satisfy the power drain from Bluetooth communication, which is widely used in wearables and IoT. As a result, Imprint now refined their market focus to these applications, leading to multiple new projects and thus was able to generate more revenue from licensing.
• Fast expansion of the emerging display market led to growth of most companies. QD Vision, Novaled, Nanosys, and Kent Displays develop materials directly needed in emerging displays (organic light-emitting diode, quantum dot displays, and reflective displays). Growth of these companies is expected, because they were able to benefit from the fast growing market, which will grow from $7.3 billion today to $21 billion in 2020 (see the report “The Multi-Billion-Dollar Emerging Display Opportunities”). Wysips develops transparent solar cells, but it was able to find growth from integration into displays of consumer devices, such as mobile phones and tablets.
• Need for innovative conductive materials drives the growth of both material suppliers and equipment developers. Graphenea andSouthWest NanoTechnologies develop functionalized graphene and carbon nanotubes for a range of applications. Optomec develops printing tools using metal nanoparticles. Growth of these three companies is the result of their manufacturing capacity expansion in the past year, reflecting an increasing need for innovative conductive materials.
These examples show there are many ways to grow materials revenue in flexible electronics; however, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy. By monitoring what is working in the market, developers can better target partnerships, or just model their research and development and go-to-market where others are finding growth.
Tony Sun is an analyst on the Wearable and Flexible Electronics Intelligence team at Lux Research, which provides strategic advice and on-going intelligence for emerging technologies. Tony holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics from Boston College and obtained his B.S. in Physics from Peking University in Beijing, China. For more information, visit Lux Research.
| Companies | Average annual revenue growth |
| FlexEl | 610% |
| QD Vision | 440% |
| Imprint Energy | 190% |
| Graphenea | 100% |
| Wysips | 50% |
| Novaled | 50% |
| Nanosys | 45% |
| Optomec | 25% |
| Kent Displays | 15% |
| SouthWest NanoTechnologies | 7% |
Growth of these companies reveals three major trends in materials-based flexible electronics.
• Thin-film battery companies grow from strategy shift. Two out of the top three companies are thin-film battery (TFB) companies, FlexEl and Imprint Energy. FlexEl used to develop and sell its proprietary TFBs in the past but then changed the business model to providing battery development services. As a result, it was able to leverage its know-how in battery designs and grew its revenue significantly by 20-fold. Imprint Energy, on the other hand, used to target a wide range of applications like body-worn medical devices, sensor networks, and powering devices in the Internet of Things (IoT). In 2015, the company realized that its battery’s low internal resistance is a good value proposition to satisfy the power drain from Bluetooth communication, which is widely used in wearables and IoT. As a result, Imprint now refined their market focus to these applications, leading to multiple new projects and thus was able to generate more revenue from licensing.
• Fast expansion of the emerging display market led to growth of most companies. QD Vision, Novaled, Nanosys, and Kent Displays develop materials directly needed in emerging displays (organic light-emitting diode, quantum dot displays, and reflective displays). Growth of these companies is expected, because they were able to benefit from the fast growing market, which will grow from $7.3 billion today to $21 billion in 2020 (see the report “The Multi-Billion-Dollar Emerging Display Opportunities”). Wysips develops transparent solar cells, but it was able to find growth from integration into displays of consumer devices, such as mobile phones and tablets.
• Need for innovative conductive materials drives the growth of both material suppliers and equipment developers. Graphenea andSouthWest NanoTechnologies develop functionalized graphene and carbon nanotubes for a range of applications. Optomec develops printing tools using metal nanoparticles. Growth of these three companies is the result of their manufacturing capacity expansion in the past year, reflecting an increasing need for innovative conductive materials.
These examples show there are many ways to grow materials revenue in flexible electronics; however, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy. By monitoring what is working in the market, developers can better target partnerships, or just model their research and development and go-to-market where others are finding growth.
Tony Sun is an analyst on the Wearable and Flexible Electronics Intelligence team at Lux Research, which provides strategic advice and on-going intelligence for emerging technologies. Tony holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics from Boston College and obtained his B.S. in Physics from Peking University in Beijing, China. For more information, visit Lux Research.
