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During the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Coca Cola introduced a glowing bottle: when you touch the label, the lightsaber of Jedi Knights Ray and Kello Lun will light up. In fact, the smart label on the package plays a role – the label has a built-in battery and OLED (Light Emitting Diode). The battery here needs to work stably under bending conditions, be waterproof and corrosion-resistant, and be cost controllable.

FlexCap Energy, a start-up company in Toronto, Canada, which is a member enterprise of CAMP China Canada joint venture camp, has been able to achieve the above functions. In addition to these cool packaging that can emit light, the thin film battery of Softenergy Technology has been commercialized faster in the logistics and medical fields.

“Our battery application scenarios are expanding and there is a lot of room for imagination.” Shi Haotian, the founder and CEO of Rouneng Technology, said.

Photo from Screenshot of Coca-Cola’s ads

The broad prospects of market segments

In 2015, Shi Haotian, who is doing research on intelligent materials at the University of Toronto, noticed a smart jacket released by Google. The cuffs of this shirt can be turned into a touchpad when people exercise, playing music, receiving information and making phone calls. He also found that at that time, wearable devices, including Fitbit, as well as medical sensors and communication devices all needed batteries with good fit and safety, but lithium batteries could not meet these needs.

According to media reports, in 2016, dozens of explosions and fires caused by battery defects occurred in Samsung’s Galaxy Note7 mobile phone more than a month after its release. Some battery manufacturers, such as LG Chem, have started to develop flexible batteries.

At the same time, the rapid development of the Internet of Things, electronic labels and smart chips also shows Shi Haotian a great prospect of “power supply” for these fields.

“When our founders talked, they thought whether we could use some of the flexible energy storage methods we know better to make a safer product,” Shi Haotian said. Some customers felt very interesting when they saw their “paper like batteries”, and gave them very good feedback and confidence in the market research process.

Facts have proved that they have identified the zinc manganese primary thin film battery market segment. Soft Energy Technology has developed dozens of large customers, and its annual sales volume is stable at more than hundreds of thousands of pieces.

At present, intelligent logistics is the main application market of flexible thin film battery. On the way to Toronto, fresh lobsters from Prince Edward Island need to have a stable temperature control. The smart tag integrated with the flexible film battery can monitor the temperature in real time. This battery can also play a significant role in cold chain logistics such as vaccines.

Shi Haotian said that the endurance of flexible flexible thin film batteries can vary from two weeks to one month. The thickness, shape, size and capacity of the batteries can be customized according to the needs of different customers.

“In the field of intelligent logistics and intelligent packaging, products are shipped in large quantities and require low costs. Parts have gradually become a form of disposable, so they will prefer our products.”

Shi Haotian said that at present, the two film energy storage products JUPITER and NEPTUNE of Softenergy Technology are not rechargeable, and they are popular in the fields of logistics and medical care that do not require high charging because of their low cost.

Compared with lithium batteries, flexible thin film batteries have small capacity, are not rechargeable, have no toxic and harmful substances, have no risk of leakage, explosion and fire, and are safe and reliable, so they are very friendly to medical applications.

The thin film battery of Flextronics Technology can cooperate with temperature sensor and heart sensor to monitor the data of body temperature and ECG. “For example, when dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic in China, many people need to be isolated at the same time. This patch can be used to monitor the temperature of these people. If anyone has problems, they can be isolated immediately.” Shi Haotian also said that, with the prompt function, their batteries can also be used in the products for monitoring the physical state of the elderly, to give early warning when their physical signs are abnormal.

The battery can even be put into baby diapers. Many large diaper manufacturers are experimenting with new products with wet diaper warning function. Shi Haotian told Jiamei Finance that due to the research, development and application of new materials, the performance of the battery has been optimized while the cost has been greatly reduced, which makes it possible to intelligentize some public daily necessities.

Shi Haotian believes that the practical application fields of disposable flexible thin film batteries are very extensive. “In fact, we can’t predict all applications ourselves. Most of the time, customers come to us and ask for some customized products.” Once upon a time, a Chinese manufacturer of tablecloths for gambling tables in Las Vegas found Softenergy Technology, hoping that they could help put batteries in the tablecloths to make them glow. In addition, there are some requirements for luminous clothing used in concerts and concerts.

According to the statistics of IDG Analysis and Frost&Sullivan, the global flexible battery market is expected to reach 14.41 billion dollars in 2022, and will increase to 28.28 billion dollars in 2025 with a compound annual growth rate of 15.3%. By 2030, the market demand will exceed 60 billion dollars. At the same time, the market is characterized by primary flexible thin film batteries.

Photo from FlexCap’s website

Entrepreneur needs to find the right time

The assets of traditional battery enterprises are around 100 million yuan. As a startup company, Softenergy Technology has chosen a path of asset light to ease the capital pressure at the initial stage of entrepreneurship.

“We don’t want to make a product that has super high requirements for overall production like chips, but we want to combine it with a simple existing automated production mode to ensure production quality and efficiency, so as to ensure that the product really goes to the market.” Shi Haotian said that through continuous optimization of basic materials and adjustment and design of his own battery automation production line, the cost of flexible thin film batteries has been greatly reduced compared with lithium batteries and button batteries.

He believes that the current domestic supply chain can fully match the production mode they need. In the actual production process, it is first necessary to ensure that there are feasible electrochemical materials to prepare two electrodes, and at the same time, it is also necessary to ensure that seven different layers of materials can be synthesized in the 0.5mm thick battery. “We have made many changes not only in material science, but also in production to ensure that there is an appropriate synthesis scheme to ensure the overall fit.”

He believed that the rapid development of Softenergy Technology had something to do with the maturity of the market environment. In the past two years, the emergence of low voltage, low current, low energy consumption and low-cost sensors has provided more business opportunities for the disposable batteries of Softenergy Technology.

“In the past, a sensor cost several dollars to make it into a disposable product, which would cost a lot. Now it can be made very cheap. With our batteries, it can meet many disposable needs, and people will buy it again and again.” Shi Haotian said.

This is also the experience he summarized from his past entrepreneurial experience: entrepreneurship should be carried out at the right time.

Ten years ago, Shi Haotian founded an enterprise similar to the concept of unmanned supermarket when he was in college. He marked the products by means of radio frequency tags and displayed them on mobile phones and applications to facilitate people’s shopping.

But customers and investors at that time asked him, do you think everyone can use smart phones?

Looking back, Shi Haotian still thinks his original solution is very good, but the timing seems more important. In addition, they also chose relatively conservative Canadian institutions when financing, and failed to explore American investment institutions.

Photo from FlexCap’s website

Diversified Team

Shi Haotian moved to Canada with his parents when he was a teenager. After receiving his doctorate in material engineering from the University of Toronto, he now works as an associate researcher at Cambridge University, continuing to deepen his research work.

Before the outbreak, he frequently traveled between Canada, Britain and China. The company located in Suzhou is responsible for product transformation and mass production, commercial application R&D and production commissioning of research results; Canadian companies are respectively responsible for new technology research and development and overseas market development.

Shi Haotian, who has been edified by eastern and western cultures, believes that overall diversification is very important for the development of transnational startups. Therefore, the core team of Rouneng Technology is also composed of members with diversified cultural backgrounds and rich entrepreneurial experience.

He said: “Due to different cultural backgrounds and industry fields, customers in China and Europe and the United States have different concerns about technology, products, production and other aspects. A diversified team can effectively communicate with different customers, integrate various excellent parts into the operation and management, and apply them to the operation management. For example, the quick response mechanism, flat communication channels and so on are the advantages of a diversified team.”.