Supercritical secures government funding: Whisky and hydrogen - an ideal pairing

Co-Authored: Supercritical and HLK

The collaborative relationship between Supercritical Solutions and HLK demonstrates how valuable it can be for an early stage company and its advisor to form a genuine partnership, enabling a company to build an IP strategy that directly supports its business strategy, maximising the potential for IP to support commercial goals. 

Commercial focus

Established in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, Supercritical Solutions is a deep tech scale-up company spun out of Deep Science Ventures with a vision to make green hydrogen production at a lower cost than fossil hydrogen. Supercritical’s ultra-efficient electrolysis technology is designed to produce green hydrogen at high pressure, removing any need for downstream pressurisation while enabling a continuous and membrane-less design, circumventing many of the problems and inefficiencies associated with electrolysis of water. 

Co-founder and CTO Mike Russ explains that the company has always had a commercial focus instilled into it. “Deep Science Ventures creates companies to solve problems. A lot of companies that spin out of university research have innovative ideas but are looking for a problem to solve. We knew from day one there would be demand for our technology.”

The Supercritical team was formed by Gaël Gobaille-Shaw of Deep Science Ventures, who had spotted the market opportunity and built a team of co-founders, including CTO Mike Russ, CEO Matt Bird and CPO Luke Tan. 

Putting together the right team and blend of expertise is essential for a start-up looking to grow and attract investment. Russ’ advice to other start-ups is to look at the management team as representing three sides of a triangle: “You need your management team to have governance, commercial and technical expertise. If you don’t have all three, you have an incomplete triangle and an incomplete management team”.  Supercritical also recognised that they would need to bring in external expertise at an early stage too, and as a deep tech innovator, recognised that Intellectual Property (IP) advice would be key to support the business strategy. 

Building an IP strategy to reflect the commercial focus

Supercritical evaluated a number of IP advisors early on, and selected HLK, based on its experience of protecting IP and deep technical expertise.  George Tebbutt is a Partner at HLK, working closely with colleague Michael Ford to support Supercritical.  “We’ve worked with Supercritical from the outset. We’ve been able to get to know the business in-depth, and help them with an IP strategy that matches both the technical and commercial trajectories for the company.” 

Deep tech scale-ups like Supercritical are often conducting cutting edge research and development while simultaneously navigating an evolving roadmap to commercialisation.   This means that a good IP strategy looks beyond a current research focus or snapshot of the technology, and instead takes a more complete view of the projected technical roadmap, helping to identify and protect the developments which are going to underpin the USP of the company and protect its value. The close relationship between HLK and Supercritical has been a great example of this working in practice.  Tebbutt explains: “We’ve worked alongside the business as different iterations of product designs and processes have been tested and improved upon, helping us to spot the innovations which really enable and underpin the technology, and adapt the IP strategy accordingly.”  Specialist attorneys at HLK – from engineering to electrochemistry and materials – have been closely involved with Supercritical’s trials and simulations, leveraging data to support IP protection.   Supercritical now has a growing portfolio of patent applications (some unpublished), with new families capturing significant advances in the underlying technology.

From Mike Russ’ perspective, the commercial strategy was reflected in the IP strategy from the first meeting with HLK.  “The discussion went beyond how our technology works, focussing on our objectives, and how IP could support Supercritical’s commercial position and value.   Was the company going to manufacture electrolysis equipment or operate installations, licence its technology to others, or seek an acquisition?  How do Supercritical’s investors view IP? Where will Supercritical fit in amongst the hydrogen market and related industries?”.  

Knowing the possible directions of the business helps to determine a suitable IP strategy.  The focus has been on developing and protecting the core enabling technology which is applicable independent of the particular industrial use case - so the company remains open to opportunities and growth throughout the sector. 

Leveraging IP to expand and diversify

Supercritical’s technology is already being evaluated for markets from whisky production to producing green ammonia for fertilisers and shipping. Russ explains that these diverse end uses leverage the same core technology.  “Our USP is improving the efficiency of chemical production. It’s not about what the chemicals are used for, but making the underlying production more environmentally friendly. When we started the business, the hydrogen industry produced as much carbon dioxide as the entire aviation industry – and only 4% of the hydrogen produced was green. There’s massive potential for us to improve that market. We’ve always focused on established markets like this, despite our technology also being applicable to emerging markets in the hydrogen economy, such as heavy transportation and industrial heating.” 

As the company grows and matures, new adaptations and uses of the core technology are being identified, and the IP strategy is evolving to reflect this.

From HLK’s perspective, the engagement with Supercritical has been a fantastic opportunity to support an IP-rich business working on hard science for positive change.  George Tebbutt summarises: “The highly collaborative approach with the team at Supercritical has been very rewarding – whether we’re diving deep into the technical research, pushing forward the IP strategy or joining investor meetings – our aim is to become an extension of their team, helping their IP become a huge asset that supports commercial goals and value”.

Luke laid down the challenge to the team to run the Ealing Half Marathon early in 2023, naturally it felt like a long time in the future. Being keen and new to running, the opportunity to take on my first half marathon was too tempting to pass up. There were no other takers at the time, and it was down to myself and Luke to carry the banner for the Supercritical team in our local borough of London.

Several months passed and I had barely trained, I had been doing my usual 5 to 10k runs in the evenings and weekends, but nothing more substantial. Safe to say my ‘training’ had not gone to plan. As we closed in on race day, Taza joined the team and it was now a three person race!

Taza and Luke were both aiming to finish the race in under two hours, and I had committed to simply just getting over the finish line. 

Race day was upon us, it was an early start to reach Ealing in time for 9am. The crowds were huge, and needless to say the nerves had set in.

The weather held out as we lined up on the start line, myself somewhere after the 2 hour pacers, Luke and Taza around the 1:50 marker. The race began with a loud shout of ‘have you got the Ealing feeling?’, and I for one was finding it hard to feel it due to my lack of preparation! 

The first 10k seemed to pass by with relative ease, some hill climbs but nothing too strenuous. This was comfortably within my prior experience, and from this point onward I was into the unknown.

A few km into the unknown, things were still good, my legs were working, I had had a gel and was soaking up the energy from the crowd. The route contained a few switch back areas and around km 13 I spotted Luke running towards me on the other side of the barrier, confirming he was indeed in front of me. The steep hill climbs in the following kms took their toll and by 16km, I had slowed down to a walking pace.

A cycle of walking and slow running continued until around 20 km, when it was clear I was on the home straight. 

At this point, I didn't care that the 2:20 pacers had passed me, I wasn’t bothered by my legs aching and the fact that I clearly had a blister on my toe was of no concern. All I wanted to do was finish.

The final corner was a turn into the park for the finish line, by this time I had closed in on the 2:20 pacers and had them in my sights. I wasn't going to let them defeat me, and used every last molecule of energy to burn them on the finish line, 2:19.

We met up, Taza at 1:50 and Luke at 1:55, it felt to me like a monumental achievement. 

A couple of hours of literal & psychological ups and downs akin to the rollercoaster that is innovation! Monday morning’s walk to the tube was a little sore, but hey, same again next year? 20% discount, go on then… I better get training.

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Titi Oliyide, Chartered Engineer, Member of the IET and Senior Process Safety Engineer at Supercritical, has been listed as a finalist for the prestigious Institute for Engineering and Technology’s (IET) Mike Sargeant Medal.

The Mike Sargeant Medal is awarded to an early career professional who has been judged to have made the most significant progress in their career over more than three years.

By being listed as a finalist, Titi has demonstrated technological excellence when undertaking an engineering project & excelled in leadership. She has been an outstanding role model & demonstrated exceptional commitment and has been particularly active in promoting the engineering and technology professions. 

Without a doubt, Titi is hugely inspirational and committed to improving access and removing barriers for young engineers. She has been instrumental in Supercritical’s STEM outreach to date and is a driving force for upcoming programmes that we’ll be opening up soon! As a young, female, black engineer, Titi has demonstrated that in an industry still disproportionately dominated by white men, you can excel and you can make a significant impact on the profession. She is a role model and a fantastic to have as part of the team.

IET summarised EngineeringUK’s report – ‘Engineering in higher education’ – which shows that just 18.5 per cent of engineering undergraduates are female students. The report describes this as an “exceptionally low” figure compared to the 56.5 per cent representation seen across all subjects. The issue is mirrored across the engineering and technology workforce.

The Royal Academy of Engineering reports that “Only 9% of engineers in the UK are from Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds despite 27% of first degree qualifiers in engineering being from these groups. Black engineering graduates are more than twice as likely to be unemployed six months after graduation than their white counterparts. For those that do secure engineering roles, our research has shown that Black engineers experience the workplace differently, reporting that assumptions are more likely to be made about them based on their ethnicity or nationality and that they are less likely to speak up about inappropriate behaviour in the workplace when compared to white counterparts.”

Proactively pursuing opportunities to reach out to minority groups such as Supercritical’s visit to Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls in Ealing as part of Hydrogen Week UK earlier this year, she continues to lead by example as a long serving STEM Ambassador and member of the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE-UK).

Titi will join other shortlisted finalists later this year at the IET in London to hear the final outcome. The whole team at Supercritical wish Titi the best of luck!

Learn more about the finalists here: https://www.theiet.org/impact-society/awards-scholarships/achievement-awards/achievement-medals/iet-achievement-medals-shortlists/?utm_source=shortlist_toolkit&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=achievement_awards

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About the IET

• We inspire, inform and influence the global engineering community to engineer a better world.
• We are a diverse home for engineering and technology intelligence throughout the world. This breadth and depth means we are uniquely placed to help the sector progress society.
• We want to build the profile of engineering and technology to change outdated perceptions and tackle the skills gap. This includes encouraging more women to become engineers and growing the number of engineering apprentices.
• Interview opportunities are available with our spokespeople from a range of engineering and technology disciplines including cyber-security, energy, engineering skills, innovation, manufacturing, technology, transport and diversity in engineering.
• For more information, visit theiet.org

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