08/25/2022
rP
os
Version:
ED0023
t
Case:
op
yo
ISSN 2594-116X
Case
AEInnova:
From Science to Business
Raúl Aragonés, the founder of a heat-recuperating start-up called AEInnova, was standing in front
of his office in Terrassa (Barcelona), looking at a parked bicycle. It was a sunny summer morning
of 2020 and he wondered how someone, centuries ago, had decided which use of the wheel would
be the most interesting to try first. These strange thoughts came into his mind because at the
moment, he needed to decide which application would be the most interesting for the innovative
tC
technology of his start-up. The time of only conducting research was coming to an end and they
needed to commercialize if they wanted to keep their investors’ support. By next month’s Board
meeting, AEInnova’s investors asked for a full launch and development plan of a first product.
However, their possible product applications were only in a pilot stage and there was almost no
financial information available. How could he decide which of the possible applications would
be the most promising one to commercialize first? Which factors should he take into account to
No
decide this? He urgently needed to choose a path to take or his start-up would fail.
The Entrepreneurial Journey
Raúl Aragonés obtained a degree in Electronics Engineering from the Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona (UAB), where he also obtained an MS in computer architecture research and a PhD in
Computer Science and Microelectronics1. After his PhD, he joined the Design of Integrated Circuits
Do
and Systems (DCIS) group, led by professors Dr. Carles Ferrer and Dr. Joan Oliver. Aragonés’ reAUTHORSHIP
CREDITS
This case was prepared by Professor Jordi Vinaixa and Research Assistant Winnie Vanrespaille from ESADE Business School. Teaching
cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion and are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations
of effective or ineffective management. The case was made based on primary data and published sources. To order copies or request permission
to reproduce materials, contact coleccion.cladea@gmail.com.
Copyright © 2022 ESADE Business School. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means --electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise-- without the permission of
the copyright holder.
Acknowledgment: The development and writing of this case study was supported by the EIT InnoEnergy, funded by the European Union (Specific Agreement No. SGA GA2021 EIT IE).
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
t
ED0023
rP
os
Case:
search about wireless sensing networks and space technologies (energy harvesting) was fruitful;
he published more than 30 papers in international conferences and journals and, in relation to
the research, he supervised the first stage of Roger Malet’s PhD project about power maximization of thermoelectric converters.
Aragonés inherited his creativity from his father, who obtained two patents by working on inventions in his free time. However, while his father was a mechanical inventor, Aragonés referred to himself as a “Climate Change Evangelist”. Following his dream and convinced that his
op
yo
research could be converted into a business opportunity, he decided in 2012 to step down from
his teaching position at the UAB to begin the challenging process of creating his own company
to harvest energy.
The next two years were sometimes difficult for Aragonés since he worked many hours without
salary and had two young daughters at home. Aragonés could not have taken on the entrepreneurial journey without the help of his wife, who provided most of the family income during those
years. Therefore, he decided, in 2013, to search for different sources of funds. To comply with
funding requisites, Aragonés recruited five more engineers and PhD’s from his trusted network
to complete the founders’ team. In 2014, Aragonés’ hard work finally paid off when they obtained
backing from the Repsol Foundation Entrepreneurs Fund2.
tC
Finally, on October 17th, 2014, Alternative Energy Innovations S.L., or AEInnova, was born with
the following mission:
To develop thermoelectric energy generation systems that recover residual industrial
heat to improve energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact.
Aragonés valued his company at EUR 11,000, which was exactly the sum of money the founders
No
invested from their own pockets. He kept one third of the shares and was appointed CEO.
From CEO to President
In July 2015, Aragonés presented his company to ESADE BAN investors to obtain EUR 150,000
and got the attention of several Business Angels, particularly from David Comellas3 who was en-
Do
thusiastic about AEInnova and described Aragonés as a “scientist who likes to sell”.
p. 2
The enthusiasm of Comellas delighted Aragonés, and the next day at work, when he saw the
somewhat chaotic office, he thought that AEInnova could use someone with business expertise,
so he invited Comellas to visit the office. During that visit, Comellas saw that AEInnova was still
much more a university spin-off than an industrial company. Moreover, he noticed that not all
the co-founders were as diligent as Aragonés. Nevertheless, he saw potential in the company and
accepted Aragonés’ proposal to become an investor of AEInnova and simultaneously offered his
services as a business associate, to organize accounting, finance and other business issues.
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
t
ED0023
rP
os
Case:
After some fruitful months working together, Comellas helped Aragonés see that most of the
co-founders were not committed enough to the development of AEInnova, mostly because they
were still working other jobs and could not dedicate enough time to AEInnova. However, Aragonés had known them for so long that he did not feel comfortable firing any of them or even
quarrelling with them. In fact, he felt that it was the right moment to step down from his position
as CEO. AEInnova was getting bigger and an external CEO, with a sound business experience,
could manage the start-up better and help it grow more and faster. He thought that Comellas
was the perfect person to take on this role. Comellas, convinced of AEInnova’s potential, accept-
op
yo
ed Aragonés’ proposal and by the summer of 2016 he stepped in as AEInnova’s new CEO. Raúl
Aragonés kept the position of President of the Board and became the new Business Development
Officer. Comellas was glad about this decision and thought that their personalities were very compatible, as he described:
Raul is a dreamer who is in love with his technology. I, on the contrary, am more a “Mister No” who keeps his feet on the ground. Together we can make AEInnova big.
Immediately after taking office as CEO, Comellas restructured the company: some of the co-founders stepped down from their jobs at AEInnova, while others continued to collaborate, but under
a contract agreement with their universities. All of them remained as shareholders.
tC
The Technological Breakthrough
Back in the days that Aragonés was researching energy harvesting technologies at the UAB’s
DCIS group, he was especially inspired by the technology of Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs). RTGs used the Seebeck effecti to convert waste heat of radioactive decay into electricity.4 He was convinced that this technology could also have useful applications to reuse waste
No
heat from industrial processes.
To figure out the scale of the waste heat problem, Aragonés carried out market research. The results were both appalling and promising: appalling because there was a huge problem of waste
heat and promising because this opened an interesting business opportunity. According to a 2015
study in EU-28, some 304 Terawatt-hours of industrial waste heat per year could potentially be
recovered (see Exhibit 1). The technology to convert industrial waste heat into electricity with
Do
“inverted Peltier cells” already existed. However, it was only capable of recuperating one or two
p. 3
Watts for a 100 ℃ thermal gradient. This particularly low yield was due to the interferences that
appear when trying to build up electricity by adding up Peltier cells.
Their research led them to design a new electronic component, based on System-on-Chip technology,ii that allowed hundreds of those inverted Peltier cells to work together without the interferences mentioned above (see Exhibit 2).5 This new electronic component allowed them to
i
The Seebeck effect is a phenomena of a differential in temperature between two ends that generates an electric voltage and vice-versa.
ii
System-on-chip (SoC) is an integrated circuit that includes a processor, a bus, and other elements on a single monolithic substrate.
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
t
ED0023
rP
os
Case:
recuperate up to 20% of the wasted heat and they realized that they had something unique and
very valuable on their hands. Thus, in 2016, to protect their invention, AEInnova filed a patent
for this newly developed technology, for application in the United States (US), Canada and in
the four European countries with the most heat intensive industries (Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy).
The patent (Pub. No. US 2018/0138701 A1) was finally published in 2020. When Aragonés created
AEInnova, the UAB also wanted their piece of the pie. However, the Repsol Foundation had pre-
op
yo
viously recommended them to leave out any political or educational organisation if they wanted
the company to grow quickly. Following this advice, instead of shares, Aragonés gave 3% of royalties on the sales of their patented technology to the UAB. Moreover, AEInnova would be defined
as a UAB spin-off, and the University provided them with a working space in its research park.
The Search for a Thriving Application
Although Aragonés was convinced that their technology had an important industrial potential,
he was not sure which application could deliver the most value and help the company thrive.
tC
PV-panel Performance Improvement
Aragonés, Malet and Oliver discovered a potential first application in a scientific article about the
efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) panels. The article explained that the efficiency depended a lot on
the temperature of the panel and that efficiency could decrease more than 30% during hot summer months. Panels were often cooled by applying cold water on them with pumps and sprinklers,
wasting huge amounts of water and energy. Aragonés’ team saw an opportunity for his patented
No
technology: cooling PV-panels, and additionally, converting the heat transferred into extra electricity, and thus greatly increasing their efficiency. He worked on this idea, together with a team
of students from the EIT InnoEnergy6 Master program in Renewable Energy (MSc RENE) for
six months, checking the prices of PV-panels and calculating the efficiency they could obtain by
using their technology (see Exhibit 3). The results of this analysis were that the performance of
the PV-panels could increase by more than 40% during summer months. However, the PV-panel
cost was constantly decreasing, making it unclear if customers would prefer buying more panels,
Do
or if they would prefer increasing the performance of their existing ones. However, the PV-pan-
p. 4
el industry was booming worldwide,7 making it an interesting application in Aragonés’ opinion.
Industrial Waste Heat Recovery
Another obvious and immediate application of their technology was the large-scale industrial
waste heat recovery from boilers, chimneys, pipes, etc. With their technology, lost heat could be
converted into electricity, and put to use in different processes. Since the energy could come from
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
t
ED0023
rP
os
Case:
a continuous heat source, it could also become an important energy source for processes that need
to be working continuously, even during power outages. The first thing they did to verify the viability of their technology for industrial heat recovery, was to develop a prototype consisting of six
Peltier cells, a heat source, and a water circuit to create a cool side. This construction, together
with the electric chip, operated as an electricity source to supply a 220 Volt pump (see Exhibit 4).
The cost of this prototype was around EUR 3,100, paid with the Repsol Foundation grant. Nevertheless, Aragonés estimated that in recurrent production they could lower the production cost
op
yo
to some EUR 500 per unit. At the time, the system was only capable of recuperating on average
120 Watts per square meter (W/m2) of contact surface, which would not give enough energy savings when compared to the low electricity prices that industrial plants around Europe were paying (see Exhibit 5). Therefore, they first needed to obtain higher heat recovery potentials before
they could commercialize this application. This would require some five more years of research
and development. Once their prototype worked at lab scale and showed its capability of converting almost any heat source into electricity, Aragonés decided to name it the “Waste Heat Recovery Unit” (WHRU).8 The first industrial test of the prototype in real conditions was done on a
boiler in the Engineering school of the UAB. A Spanish newspaper, La Vanguardia, published an
article about that pilot project, which got into the hands of a manager of the car manufacturer
company SEAT (Volkswagen Group). The next day the manager presented the article to his boss,
who showed immediate interest and offered AEInnova a pilot project in their plant in Martorell,
tC
Catalunya (see Exhibit 6). This second pilot project not only provided them with EUR 30,000,
but also with important media impact and a valuable professional image.
While analysing the performance of the installed WHRU in the chimney of the factory, their
contact person at SEAT asked them to use the recuperated heat to supply electricity to a critical
sensor close to the chimney. That provided great insight: Aragonés realized that they could easi-
No
ly convert small heat sources into electricity supplies for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. 9
IoT Monitoring Applications
The energy supply for IoT-devices was usually complex and especially burdensome in chemical
plants, where the maintenance of both the cabled and the battery versions was very labour intensive and costly. Although cabled devices were relatively cheap (EUR 50-100), they required ex-
Do
pensive cabling (according to Aragonés’ own analysis between EUR 50-70 per meter) and could
not be used everywhere. On the other hand, battery powered devices could cost EUR 200-300/
year for battery replacement. Additionally, these devices often needed costly repeaters (up to EUR
5,000/each) every 50-200 meters. Moreover, in Explosive Atmospheres (AtEx-zones), the costs
increased because the lithium batteries used for wireless sensors needed to be very large and very
well protected, since lithium is potentially explosive. Aragonés became fully aware of the real need
for a sustainable and secure source of electricity for IoT-monitoring devices.
p. 5
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
t
ED0023
rP
os
Case:
At the same time, AEInnova was contacted by Soul-Fi, an accelerator focused on SME’s developing innovative web-based solutions for smarter urban life for European citizens.10 Soul-Fi offered
AEInnova to partner with the University of Coimbra (Portugal) in an application for EC funds to
study the application of heat harvesting for IoT. As they had done with the WHRU, they developed a prototype to test the potential of their technology for IoT-devices. Malet assembled their
system-on-chip, containing the proprietary microelectronic technology, with the Peltier-cells and
other electronic and mechanical pieces and added all this to the IoT-device. By the end of 2016,
they were ready to start testing the prototype. They called it “Indu-Eye”, because their IoT-devices
op
yo
were supposed to become the “eyes” of the industry.11 Once the product was fully developed, they
could use it with almost any type of sensor. This, together with the battery-less characteristic,
made it an interesting device with low maintenance costs and a minimal environmental impact.
Considering the whole cycle of manufacturing and usage, the Indu-Eyes could entail a reduction
of up to 95% in CO2, energy, heat and water use, in comparison with batteries.
Moreover, due to the great amount of energy that the device could produce, Indu-Eye would be
able to use long-range wireless protocols with big bandwidth. To connect the Indu-Eye devices to
the internet, a Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) was necessary. Exhibit 7 shows a comparison of two of the most important technologies of the LPWAN-family: Long-Range Wide-Area
Network (LoRaWAN) and Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT).
tC
Nevertheless, Aragonés was worried that their technology could be copied once they started using
the prototype in pilot projects since their patent of the thermoelectric power generating system
was only covering the WHRU application. Although Indu-Eye used the know-how of thermoelectric equipment design gained during the WHRU development, it did not incorporate the patented technology, and they needed to find an appropriate way to protect their development. He had
heard many horror stories about companies that spend a lot of money on patents, but that were
still copied through small changes in products or technologies. Trying to sort out this dilemma,
No
Comellas came up with the idea of covering the microchip, containing the encrypted information,
with a hard resin, embedding the whole generation unit. It was a great idea to protect the technology since the device could not be hacked without destroying the microelectronic cell, and it
was a lot cheaper and less burdensome than patenting. To test the first prototype of the Indu-Eye
device, Aragonés convinced Repsol to perform a pilot with a prototype that included a sensor to
monitor vibrations at their factory in Puertollano (Castilla-La Mancha). By the summer of 2017,
they already had the pilot project confirmed and the IoT-device installed on an oil refrigerant
Do
pipeline. The communication technology used for this pilot was LoRaWAN for internet connec-
p. 6
tion (see Exhibit 7.1). The pilot was a success and the Indu-Eye LoRa Vibro sensor still worked
perfectly after more than two years of operation.
As it had happened with the WHRU, AEInnova was now winning awards for the Indu-Eye product, including the Best Solution for Innovative Technology at the IoT Solutions World Congress of
2017. This award got the immediate attention of Vodafone, who as a telecommunications company
was interested in AEInnova’s technology for their IoT data exchanges. They proposed to partner
with AEInnova to develop Indu-Eye powered sensors with NB-IoT communication infrastruc-
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
t
ED0023
rP
os
Case:
ture, an alternative technology for LoRaWAN that worked with SIM cards (as in cell phones) to
connect devices to the Internet (see Exhibit 7.2). Vodafone invited AEInnova to present their
IoT technology, using Vodafone SIM-cards, in their stand at the Mobile World Congress of 2018
in Barcelona. At the congress, oil company Cepsa discovered the Indu-Eye products and offered
AEInnova a paid pilot in some of the AtEx-zones of their plant in Huelva (Andalusia), again to
monitor vibrations, but this time with NB-IoT communication infrastructure. This pilot was also
a success and the Indu-Eye NB-IoT Vibro was technically validated. At the time, other big telecom companies were also developing their NB-IoT infrastructure solutions for IoT. Some of them
op
yo
tested the Indu-Eye with their SIM-cards, showed interest to invest in AEInnova, and even foresaw possibilities to become AEInnova’s official technology partner for NB-IoT industrial sensors.
For telecom companies, it was essential to enter the market of industrial IoT-devices because
there was a huge data transfer market that was just opening. Additionally, they had to get in it
very fast to gain the largest possible market share, because by becoming the suppliers of the entire infrastructure of an industrial company, they would create a very high entry barrier for other telecom companies.
An Indu-Eye based business seemed very promising (see Exhibit 8). Nevertheless, to be able
to sell it in the European Economic Area, a separate CE-certification for every new component
(thermoelectric generator, wireless node, and sensor) was needed. This was a very costly and
tC
slow process, normally performed by an external company. Moreover, to sell sensors for installation in AtEx-zones, every component also needed an AtEx certification, including for manufacturing, making it even more costly.There was only one Spanish company that could do this:
Laboratorios Madariaga.12
No
The Competitive Landscape
There were many companies researching and selling cooling panel solutions, using different tech-
nologies. However, most of those solutions were unable to achieve the efficiency increases that
AEInnova could with its technology. Moreover, the option of buying new PV-panels rather than
having more efficient panels could be seen as a competitive solution in many cases.
AEInnova was also not the only player in the market for heat harvesting. There were many com-
Do
panies that converted different energy sources (solar, thermal, vibration, etc.) into electricity.
For example, Matrix Industries13 a company based in Silicon Valley, was even using body-heat
to supply energy for watches. Luckily for AEInnova, not many of those companies were selling
or developing industrial solutions, although there were some companies, such as II-VI Incorporated,14 that were recuperating heat to supply small industrial equipment. Nevertheless, a real
competitor of the WHRU, capable of generating the same amount of energy per square meter,
did not exist yet. This was of course a good thing, but it also meant that Aragonés had to evangelise to convince some early adopters to start using their technology.
p. 7
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
t
ED0023
rP
os
Case:
One of AEInnova’s main competitors in wireless, battery-less sensors was Everactive,15 an American company that used different energy sources (solar, thermal, vibration, etc.) for IoT devices.
However, the thermal batteries developed with their technology were less efficient than Indu-Eye.
The energy generation they produced was so low that they could not use long-range communications, and had to use short-range wireless communication technologies, like Bluetooth, incapable
of sending data over very long distances. Regarding the battery powered IoT-devices, their main
disadvantage was that they could not use long-range communication without having to change
the batteries constantly. Moreover, they were costlier (around EUR 2,000/unit) than Indu-Eye
op
yo
(estimated price of EUR 1,000-1,300).
Next steps
Exhibit 9 shows AEInnova’s sources of funding since its inception. Comellas and Aragonés were
satisfied with the funding received, and even more so with the fact that almost half of it came
from public sources, which meant that it did not generate dilution of the founders’ equity. Moreover, they knew that many big technology competitors were not yet evolving to the industry 4.0iii
paradigm.16 That could allow AEInnova to become the disrupter triggering a wave of creative destruction of the last century industry incumbents. This idea was aligned with Aragonés’ dream:
tC
We want to become the industrial processes digitalization stakeholder of reference. We
want AEInnova to become the Apple of the IoT business.
They had never thought of selling the company to make money, but as an exit strategy for their
investors, they were already planning to go public. However, before they could realise their dream,
they had to prove the viability of their technology by commercializing a first product.
No
The results of the pilots were very promising and AEInnova was earning many accolades and prizes (see Exhibit 10). Aragonés considered these awards, grants and funds as a validation of the
attractiveness of their technology. However, although they had already considered ways of marketing (through engineering offices, commercial agents, key account managers, etc), Aragonés
could not entirely celebrate those achievements before having sold their first product.
AEInnova’s investors were becoming especially impatient since they wanted to see some com-
Do
mercial results from their investments. Aragonés was having sleepless nights. He only had one
p. 8
month to develop a plan to launch a first product, and they did not have the resources (money,
people, etc.) to commercialize more than one product at the time. He urgently had to decide which
of their technology applications they should concentrate on and which go-to market strategy they
should use to make AEInnova thrive.
iii Industry 4.0 represents the fourth revolution in manufacturing, enhancing the third revolution (adoption of automation) with smart and autonomous systems fuelled by data, machine learning and IoT.
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
rP
os
500
Te
x
til
e
&
Ot
he
r
at
he
r
Le
tru
ct
io
n
uc
ts
ns
d
Co
d
Qu
&
300-400 °C
200-300 °C
100-200 °C
<100 °C
Non-ferrous
metal
Chemical
Non-metallic
- Food, drink
& tobacco
mineral
Paper &
printing
Other
industries
an
d
in
W
oo
Fo
o
in
400-500 °C
sp
500-1000 °C
dr
M
g
Pr
od
hi
ry
ne
ry
t
en
ac
M
in
or
tE
qu
Pr
&
m
tin
g
co
ac
Pa
p
&
k
in
er
to
b
in
m
Tr
an
tC
120
d,
Waste heat potential (TWh/year)
>1000 °C
160
lic
al
et
-m
on
N
200
er
al
l
ic
a
em
et
al
Ch
us
rro
-fe
N
on
Iro
n
&
St
ee
l
0
op
yo
100
ar
200
W
oo
300
in
g
EU-28 industrial heat
consumption: 1820.73 TWh/year
400
m
Heat consumption (TWh/year)
600
ip
Exhibits
Section
t
Exhibit 1. Heat Consumption and
Waste Heat Recovery Potential of
Europe in 2015 17
80
40
No
0
Iron & Steel
EU-28 Waste Heat Potential per country un 2015 (TWh/year)
80
70
60
50
40
20
10
0
Au
st
Be ria
lg
i
Bu um
lg
ar
Cr ia
oa
t
C ia
Cz ypr
ec us
h
De Rep
nm
a
Es rk
to
n
Fi ia
nl
an
Fr d
a
Ge nce
rm
an
Gr y
ee
H ce
un
ga
Ire ry
la
nd
Ita
l
La y
Li tvi
a
t
Lu hua
xe
n
m ia
bo
ur
g
N
et Ma
he lta
rla
nd
Po s
la
Po nd
rt
Ro uga
m l
a
Sl nia
ov
a
Sl kia
ov
en
ia
Sp
Un
a
ite Sw in
d ed
Ki en
ng
do
m
Do
30
p. 9
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
Exhibits
Section
t
rP
os
Exhibit 2. AEInnova’s
technology
Peltier cells can work as generators when submitted to a thermal gradient (Seebeck effect) or absorb energy to generate a temperature differential between their two faces (Peltier effect). These
effects have two problems:
1.
Power self-consumption: When connecting more than one Peltier cell either in series
or in parallel at different temperatures, a self-consumption effect may take place, meaning that the energy generated by one cell may end up being consumed by another cell.
2.
Possible heating of the cold cell side and cooling of the hot cell side decreases the tem-
op
yo
perature gradient, while this gradient is needed for electricity production.
The electronics of AEInnova’s products is completely controlled by System on chip technology.
This allows reduce of costs, improved reliability and repeatability. AEInnova’s electronics design, together with the System on chip technology, allowed the reduction of the above mentioned
heating/cooling and self-consumption effects. Malet was the technology architect of this patent.
Exhibit 3. PV-panel cooling
study, by Aragonés and MSc
RENE students
tC
Problem
The efficiency of a solar panel is reduced by its heating, in a proportion that, depending on the
type of cell, is around 0.30% per degree Celsius (ºC). This means that a solar panel at 50 ºC is
6% less efficient than a solar panel at 30 ºC.
Solution
No
The concept of the PV panel cooling study was intended to improve the performance of PV solar
panels by passive cooling, using Peltier cells and the patent of Aragonés. For the development, Aragonés and the MS RENE students used a matrix of 4 Peltier cells on a PV panel and managed as
such to lower the temperature to 8 °C on a cloudy day in February (worst case scenario), implying
an improvement in the performance of the panel by about 8%. However, they calculated that they
could increase the efficiency of the panel by 40% during sunny summer days. As such, they estimat-
Do
ed a mean efficiency increase of 24% every day of the year (during more or less 6 hours per day).
p. 10
Cost (2018 data)
≈
Average cost of a 100 Watt (W) solar panel: EUR 40
≈
Average cost of a Peltier cell for 100 W panel: EUR 600; for 4 cells: EUR 2,400
≈
Average electricity prices (taxes and levies included) in Spain and the European Union:18
2018 – Second Semester
EU (28 countries)
Spain
0.21 €/kWh
0.25 €/kWh
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
t
rP
os
Exhibit 4. Prototypes of
AEInnova’s Waste Heat
Recovery Unit 19
op
yo
Exhibits
Section
Exhibit 5. European industrial
plants yearly electricity consumption
in 2018 and average electricity prices
by sector from 185 plants 20
1,000
100
80
60
40
10
20
le
Do
Pa
c
Ta
b
as
s
Gl
w
ar
ka
w
e
gi
ns
n
tre
g
G
am
la
ss
Al
u
N
m
itr
in
og
iu
m
en
Fe
rti
lis
er
St
ee
lE
AF
Re
fin
er
ie
s
St
Pr
ee
im
l
ar
BO
y
Al
F
um
in
iu
m
iu
s
in
um
rT
ile
Al
ry
da
Se
c
on
l&
Fl
oo
Ti
le
d
Ro
of
W
al
m
0
s
1
an
ks
ic
Br
140
120
100
No
Do
160
Electricity Price €/MWh
Electricity consumption (GWh)
tC
10,000
Median Electricity Consumption
Average Electricity Price €/MWh
p. 11
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
t
rP
os
Exhibit 6. WHRU prototype
in SEAT factory of Martorell
(Spain)
Do
No
tC
op
yo
Exhibits
Section
p. 12
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
Exhibits
Section
t
rP
os
Exhibit 7. Comparison of LongRange Wide-Area Network and
Narrowband IoT 21
LoRaWAN and NB-IoT are both Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) technologies that
can serve devices in multiple IoT markets (utilities, smart buildings, logistics/asset tracking, industrial/smart manufacturing, smart agriculture, etc.). The table below shows a comparison of
the two technologies.22
Technology
Parameters
LoRaWAN
NB-loT
125 kHz
180 kHz
Coverage
165 dB
164 dB
Battery Life
Peak Current
Sleep Current
Throughput
Latency
Security
Geolocation
Cost Efficiency
(Device and
Network)
Technology Comparison
Bandwidth
op
yo
Bandwidth
15+ years
10+ years
32 mA
120 mA
1µA
5µA
50 Kbps
60 Kbps
Device Class
Dependent
<10 s
AES 128 bit
3GPP (128 a 256 bit)
Yes (TDOA)
Yes (en 3GPP Rel 14)
High
Medium
Coverage
Battery Life
Cost
Efficiency
Throughput
Geolocation
Security
Latency
LoRaWAN
NB-loT
Source: ABI Research
tC
7.1. LoRaWAN IoT-protocol and advantages
Long-Range Wide-Area Network (LoRaWAN) is an open LPWAN system architecture developed and standardized by the LoRa Alliance, a non-profit association of more than 500 member
companies. This technology is patented by Semtech, which charges a fee on each LoRa chipset
No
in sensors and gateways.
LoRaWAN consumes less power than NB-IoT and thus has a longer battery life. Additionally, by
using the unlicensed spectrum, it also has a lower total cost of ownership. Moreover, LoRaWAN
has better indoor penetration capabilities (higher coverage). LoRaWAN’s is a good solution for enterprise private networks that want complete control over their infrastructure and devices. Lastly,
in April 2019 there were more LoRaWAN networks than NB-IoT networks (113 LoRaWAN net-
Do
works and only 90 NB-IoT networks) worldwide.
p. 13
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
t
rP
os
Exhibits
Section
7.2. NB-IoT IoT-protocol and advantages
NB-IoT is a radio technology standard that operates in the licensed spectrum, so acquisition of
Radio Frequency spectrum from network operators is needed. This technology covers cellular
telecommunications technologies, which provide a complete system description for mobile telecommunications. NB-IoT devices are moving towards embedded SIM (eSIM) usage.
NB-IoT is a more secure solution than LoRaWAN. Moreover, it has a higher throughput and usually also a lower latency than LoRaWAN. This all makes NB-IoT better suited for commercial and
op
yo
consumer IoT applications requiring connectivity at a great scale.
7.3. Worldwide LPWAN connections by technology
from 2017-2023 (estimation) 23
Number of LPWAN connections by technology worldwide from 2017 to 2023
(in millions)
800
tC
Number of connections in millions
1000
600
400
No
200
0
2017
2018
Sigfox
2020
NB-loT
2021
LTE-M
2022
2023
Other
Source: IHS. Statista
Do
LoRa
2019
p. 14
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
rP
os
Exhibits
Section
t
Exhibit 8. Internet of Things (IoT) as
a promising technology
8.1. Global IoT revenue by technology segment from
2018 until 2023 (estimation) 24
Global loT revenue by technology segment ($bn), 2018-2023
350
300
55
op
yo
USD$(bn)
250
200
37
26
150
100
16
13
50
101
0
31
2018
2019
2020
Software and services
226
190
161
143
127
30
24
20
17
37
44
2021
2022
Connectivity
Devices
2023
Source: GlobalData, Technology Intelligence Centre
tC
Source: GlobalData, Technology Intelligence Centre
8.2. Global share of IoT projects in 2018 25
loT Segment
Details
Global share of loT projects¹
Americas Europe
1
Smart City
2
Connected Industry
3
Connected Building
4
Connected Car
5
Smart Energy
6
Other
7
Connected Health
6%
8
Smart Supply Chain
5%
No
Do
p. 15
Insights that empower you to
understand loT markets
2018
23%
17%
12%
11%
10%
8%
9
Smart Agriculture
4%
10
Smart Retail
4%
N=1,600 global, publicly
announced loT projects
Americas
Europe
MEA
N/A
APAC
APAC
34%
45%
18%
45%
31%
20%
53%
33%
13%
54%
30%
12%
42%
35%
19%
50%
34%
11%
55%
29%
15%
49%
36%
12%
39%
26%
31%
53%
35%
9%
Trend²
1. Based on 1,600 publicly known enterprise loT projects (Not including consumer loT projects e.g., Wearables, Smart Home). 2. Trend based on
comparison with % of projects in the 2016 loT Analytics Enterprise loT Projects List. A downward arrow means the relative share of all projects
has declined, not the overall number of projects. 3. Not including Consumer Smart Home Solutions.
Source: loT Analytics, Jan 2018
Source: loT Analytics, Jan 2018
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
Name
Pre-seed
Funding
2014
Seed
Funding
2015-16
Valuation:
11,000
1 M*
Co-founders
11,000
Awards & prizes
(Exhibit 10)
17,500
Repsol Foundation
312,000
11,500
Funding
Round 2
2018
Funding
Round 3
20182020
2 M**
3.65 M**
4.25 M**
Company
Shares
2020
14,588
55.4%
1,500
/
/
Public Grant: SME
instrument of
Horizon2020
50,000
/
Public Grant:
FIWARE project of
Horizon2020
75,000
/
Public Grant:
NEOTEC program of
CDTI
196,000
Public Grant: LIFE
program, HEAT-R
/
636,000
/
294,000
/
Public Grant: H2020
EIC Pilot Indu-Eye 2.0
507,000
/
Public Grant: Nuclis
d’economia Circular
130,000
tC
Public Grant: H2020
Harvestore Project
David Comellas
30,000
3,000
Acceleration fund
(InnoEnergy)
160,000***
33,986
7 ESADE Business
Angels
/
2.2%
17,865
14.1%
175,411
7.4%
100,000
2.6%
CxC Renovables
650,000
13.4%
No
Sabadell bank
Former Vice-president
BASF Europe
200,000
4.9%
Internal bridge
investment round
399,000
included
above
1,530,000
100%
TOTAL:
Do
t
Funding
Round 1
2017
op
yo
Exhibits
Section
rP
os
Exhibit 9. AEInnova’s Public Grants
and Private Funding (in EUR)
340,500
326,500
424,485
1,403,865
* Post-money valuation
** Pre-money valuation
*** Funding in two tranches: 100,000 with a call option for 10% of founders shares plus EUR 60,000 with a
call option for a 5% of founders’ shares. They executed the call option in 2016.
p. 16
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
Exhibits
Section
Year
Name
First award Repsol Foundation
2014
First award EcoEmprendedor XXI
First Award Green Building Council
First Award UAB Ideas Program
First Finalist United Nations Award
Ideas4Change
First Finalist Everis Foundation Award
2016
No
Do
2018
2019
2020
t
312,000
15,000
Free booth in Construmat
2,500
Start-ups Incubation program
50 hours business consultancy
5,000
First Award Cafè Aventura (Sabadell
Municipality)
1,500
First Award Caixa d’Enginyers Emprenedoria
5,000
First Finalist Emprendedor XXI
50 hours business consultancy
European Commission
Seal of Excellence
First Finalist Energy Transition Awards of
German Energy Agency DENA
Mission to World Energy Forum
First Finalist Advanced Factories Fair,
category innovation in industry 4.0
-
Best innovative technology of IoT World
Congress
Free marketing campaign
First Finalist Spanish corporate awards by
EnerTIC
-
First Award Acció, Best Catalan Startup
150 hours of international commercialization
support
First Award “The one to watch” of European
Business Angel Network (EBAN)
1,500
European Commission
Seal of Excellence
La SalleDemoDay. BestStartup.
-
First Award Chamber of commerce of
Terrassa.
-
SECOT “Revelation Entrepreneurs of the
Year”
-
First Award Go!ODS from United Nations,
Global compact for SDG-7 (affordable & Clean
Energy)
-
European Commission
Seal of Excellence
StartupOle: the best European Energy Startup
40,000 € in Amazon Web Services
Association of Engineers of Catalonia: First
Award Industry 4.0
-
European Commission
Seal of Excellence
First Award G-STIC (Global Sustainable
Technology & Innovation Conference)
Free booth Chinese tech fair
European Commission Innovation Radar:
Top EU Key Innovator for autonomous
sensors node
-
tC
2017
First Award Volkswagen Think Blue
Money / Prize received (EUR)
op
yo
2015
rP
os
Exhibit 10. AEInnova’s
Awards and Prizes
p. 17
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
t
NOTES
rP
os
Exhibits
Section
1
For more information: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ra%C3%BAl-aragon%C3%A9s-ortiz-phd77bb9a60/?originalSubdomain=es
2
For more information: https://www.fundacionrepsol.com/en/entrepreneurs-fund
3
For more information: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidcomellas/?originalSubdomain=es
Jiang, Mason (March 2013). An Overview of Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators. Submitted as
coursework for PH241, Stanford University. Retrieved from http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2013/
ph241/jiang1/
4
For more information: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/system-on-chip
5
For more information: https://www.innoenergy.com/for-students-learners/master-school/master-s-in-renewable-energy
op
yo
6
7
For more information: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/solar-photovoltaic-panel-market
8
For more information: https://aeinnova.com/wrhu/
For more information https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2014/05/13/simple-explanation-internet-things-that-anyone-can-understand/#1ce2e61d1d09
9
For more information: https://www.fiware.org/about-us/
11
For more information: https://aeinnova.com/indu-eye/
12
For more information: http://www.lom.upm.es/
13
For more information: https://www.matrixindustries.com/
14
For more information: https://ii-vi.com/product-category/products/thermoelectrics/power-generators/
15
For more information: https://everactive.com/
tC
10
Marr, B (2018). What is industry 4.0? Here’s a super easy explanation for anyone. Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/09/02/what-is-industry-4-0-heres-a-super-easy-explanation-for-anyone/#2d4e412b9788
16
Papapetrou, M. et al. (June 2018). Industrial waste heat: Estimation of the technically available resources
in the EU per industrial sector, temperature level and country. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.
com/science/article/pii/S1359431117347919
17
Eurostat (2020). Electricity prices for household consumers - bi-annual data (from 2007 onwards).
Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/nrg_pc_204/default/table?lang=en
No
18
For more information: https://www.technologyreview.es/s/4779/aeinnova-podria-convertir-hasta-el-20-del-calor-residual-industrial-en-electricidad
19
CEPS and Ecofys (October 2018). Composition and Drivers of Energy Prices and Costs: Case Studies in
Selected Energy Intensive Industries – 2018: Final Report. Retrieved from https://www.ceps.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/ET0318091ENN.en_.pdf
20
21
For more information: https://ubidots.com/blog/lorawan-vs-nb-iot/
ABIresearch (June 2019). LoRaWAN and NB-IoT: Competitors or complementary? Retrieved from
https://lora-alliance.org/resource-hub/lorawan-and-nb-iot-competitors-or-complementary
Do
22
23
For more information: https://ubidots.com/blog/lorawan-vs-nb-iot/
For more information: https://www.windpowerengineering.com/global-iot-market-to-reach-318-billion-by-2023-says-globaldata/
24
25
For more information: https://iot-analytics.com/top-10-iot-segments-2018-real-iot-projects/
p. 18
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Shahbaz Abbas, NUST - National University of Science and Technology until Mar 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860