IP accruing costs. No commercial home.
Prosecution costs accrue on technologies with no clear commercial home. Hatch assesses the portfolio with engineering and commercial rigour and makes the retention decision defensible on evidence.
Technology transfer commercialisation support for TTOs
Every technology in the portfolio represents a decision. Back it or let it lapse. Spinout or license. Invest more resource or move on. Hatch works alongside technology transfer teams to make those decisions with engineering and commercial rigour in the same room, so the calls are defensible and the paths chosen actually lead somewhere.
Most IP never makes it past promising.
TTOs are expected to commercialise more with less resource every year, make defensible decisions on technologies they cannot fully evaluate, and move faster than the institutional processes around them allow. Hatch exists to close that gap.
Our Process
Assessment & Prioritisation
Not every technology in the portfolio deserves the same attention or the same resource. Hatch provides the commercial and engineering analysis to identify which IP has a viable pathway, what that pathway looks like and what it would take to move it forward.
Every priority decision gets contested.
Researchers believe every patent deserves backing. Hatch provides the independent commercial and engineering analysis that makes prioritisation decisions defensible to researchers, leadership and funding bodies.
Industry conversations lose momentum.
Partners disengage when the commercial team cannot speak the engineering language. Hatch brings both into the same conversation so industry relationships move forward rather than going quiet.
Technology transfer commercialisation and engineering in the same room
TTOs operate inside funding windows, academic politics, IP ownership disputes and institutional governance that moves at its own pace. Hatch understands all of it. Every engagement is structured to fit the institutional reality, not to pretend it does not exist. The commercial and engineering work gets done within the constraints, not despite them.
How we help
Hatch works as an extension of the commercialisation team. For early stage IP that means commercial viability assessment, exploitation route recommendation and the engineering analysis to back it up. For later stage opportunities it means market validation, investor ready materials and an engineering narrative that industrial partners and funding panels can interrogate and trust. Hatch has worked inside the constraints of university commercialisation processes long enough to know where the time gets lost and how to avoid it. Lesley Blaine holds an Entrepreneur in Residence position at the University of Birmingham, working directly within the university commercialisation ecosystem. Funding windows, academic involvement, IP positions, researcher relationships and the pace at which university decisions actually move. None of it is a surprise.
Related case study
Two technologies. Two different commercial futures.
A UK university research group had two adjacent thermal-energy technologies from the same lead researcher. Both technically credible. Both with a plausible commercial future. The institutional instinct was to commercialise them together as a single spinout. That was the wrong call.
Quick answers
Is the first conversation free?
Always. No pitch, no obligation, no clock running. The first conversation is about understanding the portfolio, the pressures and whether Hatch can genuinely help. If the answer is no, that will be said honestly.
Can Hatch work within university processes and timelines?
Yes. Hatch has worked inside university commercialisation processes long enough to understand funding windows, academic involvement, IP positions and the pace at which institutional decisions actually move. Lesley Blaine holds an Entrepreneur in Residence position at the University of Birmingham. This is familiar territory.
How does Hatch engage with a TTO per technology or as a retained service?
Both. Hatch works on individual technology assessments as standalone fixed fee engagements, or as an Annual Commercialisation Framework covering multiple technologies simultaneously across the portfolio. The right model depends on the size of the portfolio and the resource available internally.
Interested in our latest thinking?
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.