Seed funding projects to give a rapid boost to commercial feasibility - Annual Report 2024

15 June, 2025

Providing early commercial funding to pursue commercial milestones can help researchers convert academic work into commercial value. The seed funding we provide aims to build commercial capability and confidence for researchers to validate the potential applications of their research and work with their Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) to begin packaging intellectual property into an investable proposition. We regularly see the small amounts of seed funding (less than $25k) lead to ambitious commercial projects as we have seen both Spherelose and Ternary Kinetics launched this year after receiving seed funding.

Ternary Kinetics is developing technology to "move electricity as a liquid, to power electric trucks, trains, planes and industry, with zero emissions renewable power." With the most rapid turnaround from scientific proof of feasibility to investment we've yet seen, Principal Investigator Professor Aaron Marshall was able to start his second company in partnership with Sean Molloy and Sean Simpson and raise over $3M capital from local and international investors, in an 18-month period. The rapid acceleration from the lab to a commercial venture is highly exceptional in deep tech, and demonstrates that the cleantech innovation network locally is beginning to operate highly efficiently to bring innovation to market. Aaron's research at Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha University of Canterbury continues to focus on numerous electrochemical solutions to the world’s energy transition.

Spherelose is scaling up the production and formulation of a bio-sourced, biodegradable surfactant from cellulose into a range of products that rely on emulsifiers and surfactants for their active properties. Developed by Associate Investigator Dr Jack Chen, the proprietary process and material provide a platform technology that is well-placed to displace petrochemical emulsifiers and enhance the sustainability of cosmetics, detergents and related product categories. Jack was a finalist in the Sprout Agritech Breakthrough Innovator category of the 2024 KiwiNet Awards. He continues to develop the technology as CSO of Spherelose, while researching further green chemistry solutions to many of the world's sustainability challenges at Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau Auckland University of Technology.

We look forward to seeing the commercial ambitions of our 2024 seed funding recipients achieved in the coming years. These recipients were:

• Associate Investigator Dr Michel Nieuwoudt - Raman laser diagnostics
• Associate Investigator Professor Peng Cao - battery anode materials
• Associate Investigator Dr Matthew Cowan - fluidized bed gas separation process
• Associate Investigator Professor Renwick Dobson - antimicrobial peptides

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