Wrong Market. Right Technology.

A UK university had developed a novel process for the recovery of battery anode and cathode materials. Technically credible. No market validation. No commercialisation path. No industrial partners.

What Hatch did

Built the market validation from scratch, no previous assessment existed. Engineering and commercial work ran together from day one, with a working prototype developed alongside the market strategy. The right beachhead was identified in battery scrap recovery, the commercial pathway defined, and the industrial partners needed to scale brought to the table.

Those industry relationships changed everything. What started as a university technology with no commercial foundation became a university and industry collaboration with a credible path to scale and a jointly developed £5M bid to fund it.

Where it stands

Bid submitted. Industrial partners engaged. Findings remain commercially confidential.

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Hatch writes about the engineering and commercial decisions that determine whether deep tech reaches the market, and the forces shaping whether it gets the chance.

UK Robotics Adoption Needs Air Traffic Control

The UK has the lowest robot density in the G7. This year the government funds Robotics Adoption Hubs and a Central Convening Body to fix that. The catch: it only works if we build it as air traffic control, not a help desk. Here is how, and where Hatch fits in.

How to win more grants under Innovate UK’s new strategy

Innovate UK has changed direction. A strong technical story is no longer enough on its own. The new strategy aims to build high-potential UK businesses, not fund isolated projects. Assessors calibrate applications against a portfolio-level view of what Innovate UK wants the UK economy to look like. The commercial case is no longer supporting evidence. It is the case for funding. A defined beachhead market, sized credibly. A named first buyer and a reason they buy. A clear line from the grant-funded phase to the work that follows. The founders who win start this work long before the form opens.

What Deep Tech Investors are actually looking for today

A TRL 7 demonstration is not an investment thesis. Neither is a patent filing, a peer-reviewed paper, or a proof of concept. These are necessary conditions. They are not sufficient ones. Sophisticated deep tech investors evaluate four things in parallel with the technology: market validation, beachhead clarity, IP coherence, and team completeness. The weakest of the four sets the valuation. Most deep tech ventures leave the commercial questions until the technology is ready. That sequencing is the standard failure pattern. The most expensive version of it is discovered at the investor meeting.

Every great project starts with a conversation

If you are not sure where to start that is exactly what the first conversation is for. No pitch, no pressure just a conversation.

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