CrayoNano poised for private placing
Norwegian UV-LED start-up releases update as it starts to build order-book
Norwegian UV-LED start-up CrayoNano has announced its Q4 2022 financial results with an update on its its products and private placing.
CrayoNano’s patented technology merges AlGaN nanowires and graphene to create a new, strain-free material for making energy efficient and reliable UV-C LEDs.
During 2022, CrayoNano launched the CrayoLED H-Series (CLH-N3S), UV-C LED and began building an order-book as key system integrator customers incorporated the UV-C LED into product designs.
Jo Uthus, CEO said: “We are exceptionally proud of everything we accomplished in 2022. In a challenging period for any business, we successfully launched our first in a series of disruptive UV-C LED and have in a short period of time built a strong sales funnel with significant customer interest and activity.
"We have engaged with over 100 potential customers, creating more than 140 sales leads, and have begun shipping samples for product trials and testing. The resulting demand and feedback we have received has been beyond our initial expectations, as we are now actively working with a larger number of customers to create manufacturing backlog."
UV-C LED update
On 6 October 2022, CrayoNano launched the CrayoLED H-Series (CLH-N3S), UV-C LED for the fast-growing disinfection and sanitisation markets.
The CrayoLED H-series is optimised for disinfection at a typical peak wavelength of 275 nm. Its small package footprint (3.5 mm x 3.5 mm) and high-power performance are said to easily integrate into systems for residential, municipal, industrial and commercial segments, enabling system miniaturisation and longer lasting solutions.
In the period of time since product launch on October 6, CrayoNano has registered over 140 new customer leads and shipped product samples to 40 customers – working directly with a smaller number of customers for their design-in execution.
Customers cover European, US, Canadian and some Southeast Asian markets, spanning a wide range of application areas – with the majority of the customer applications in the water disinfection market – both Point of Use and Point of Entry applications.
CrayoNano is expecting the average design-in cycle of customers to be 6 to 12 months, depending on the start of production as well as their requirements for internal characterisation and qualification.
Operational Update
As part of a planned operational ramp-up, the company has spent the latter half of 2022 testing the production yields to ensure our final production levels are of sufficient quality. This testing will continue through 2023, while it ships smaller unit orders to customers for testing, to ensure readiness for high volume manufacturing from 2024.
The initial inventory of products in the Norway warehouse supports fulfilment of initial pilot customer orders as well as sampling products to customers in support of their design-in and qualification process.
The CrayoNano Taiwan warehouse is expected to be operational in Q1-23, ready to fulfill the majority of volume for our global customer base.
In the CrayoNano Taiwan branch ‘CrayoNano Fab2’ – the CrayoNano cleanroom was installed, tested, and commissioned during Q4-22. The build and commissioning of the cleanroom was on-budget, and the internal wafer manufacturing capacity will support the company’s transition from a fab-less to a fab-lite model.
Financial Update
During the final quarter of 2022, the company recorded €36.5k (NOK 0.4m) of revenue in the quarter as it begun shipping test units to potential customers. These early shipments were recorded at a 22 percent gross margin, below intended operating level on account of the low scale. For the period, net loss before tax was €3.3M (NOK 25.6m).
As part of the planned ramp up, the company continues to invest in building an inventory of finished goods and investing in its fabrication capabilities.
As announced on 13 January 2023, CrayoNano has signed a loan agreement with its three largest shareholders of total €2.5M (NOK 27.5 million). Provided that the private placement is successful, the full loan amount will be converted into equity at equal terms.
The planned private placement will conclude soon, with a listing on the Euronext Growth market shortly thereafter. Prior to completion, the company will share more information on the possibility to participate as a private shareholder.
