Questions and Answers
Some questions not answered elsewhere
Our first funding round is focused on maximizing company value, not maximizing early revenue. Licensing becomes commercially attractive only once:
- the production process is fully documented
- continuous pilot production has been validated
- customer trials demonstrate measurable benefits
- raw material quality is standardized
- licensees can deploy the technology with minimal support
At this stage, licensing transitions from a custom development project to a scalable business model.
| Before TRL6 | After TRL6 |
|---|---|
| Technology value largely unproven | Commercially validated technology |
| License pricing uncertain | License pricing based on demonstrated economics |
| One-time fee ~100k€ | One-time fee ~200k€+ |
| Limited recurring revenue | Annual fee + royalties |
| Pre-seed valuation | Expected Seed valuation: 6-12 M€ |
A licensee gains years of process development, validation and market entry for a fraction of the cost and risk of developing an equivalent production system independently.
- Avoid years of R&D and process validation
- Enter the market with a proven production system
- Reduce technical and commercial risk
- Secure exclusive regional rights
- Reach profitability faster than independent development
Building from scratch means developing a process. Licensing means building a business.
License revenue is derived from a conservative assumption of gradually increasing annual license sales as the technology reaches commercial maturity and international market acceptance.
Royalty revenue is assumed at 3% of partner production revenue and ramps up gradually as licensed facilities become operational.
Pilot and by-product revenue originates from demonstration-scale production and secondary product streams. It is included to validate the technology rather than as a primary revenue driver.
Operating expenses are driven primarily by personnel, business development, technical support for licensees and IP management. Since SmartMoss follows an asset-light licensing model, operating expenses are expected to grow significantly slower than revenue.
EDITBA increase: the business model is designed around licensing rather than facility ownership. Once TLR6 is achieved, each additional license generates revenue with relatively limited incremental operating cost. The resulting operating leverage is reflected in the expanding EBITDA margin.