How to Transform Sustainable Energy Technology into a Unicorn Start-Up: Technology Review and Case Study

Dasheng Lee,Kuan-Chung Lin

doi:10.3390/su12073018

Abstract

Renewable and sustainable energy technologies must undergo commercialization before contributing to people’s sustainable development. Among different approaches, commercialization to become unicorn start-ups has attracted considerable attention. Unicorn start-ups are companies achieving a valuation of over US$1 billion before launching initial public offerings. Herein, a company adopting solid oxide fuel cells as its single product and becoming a unicorn start-up is considered the case company (Company B). Established in 2001, Company B accumulated US$825.7 million of actual funding and a peak valuation of US$2.9 billion before being publicly listed. After being listed in July 2018, Company B achieved unicorn start-up status. Searching ScienceDirect Online and the IEEE/IET Electronic Library, this. study collects reviews of fuel cell technology development trends. From CB insights, the study collects the timing and amount of funding received by fuel cell-related unicorn start-ups worldwide. The Derwent Innovation (DI) tool is employed to analyze the status of fuel cell-related patent applications of these unicorn start-ups. This study integrates technology review, business status, and patent application data for analysis. Unlike previous technology reviews focusing on researches and developments, this study emphasizes the analysis of intellectual-property-based (IP-based) commercialization strategies. Specifically, it analyzes key factors explaining how a company producing solid oxide fuel cells could transform into a unicorn start-up. These factors are compiled into a ladder framework to provide a reference. Five quantitative indices are promoted. From the managerial point of view, this framework provides an executable guideline for effectively transforming sustainable energy technology into a high-valuation unicorn start-up.

Highlights

Commercialization is the process of introducing a product or sales model into the market [1]
The study computes the number of patent applications filed and amount of funding received by the unicorn start-ups
The results indicate that for start-ups with continual funding and successful initial public offering (IPO), the curve for the number of patent applications and that for the amount of funding are highly correlated

Summary

Introduction

Commercialization is the process of introducing a product or sales model into the market [1]. It is the only way to make renewable and sustainable energy technologies (RETs and SETs) available to people. Successful commercialization has many different approaches such as the point sales and marketing in a single location, in one or several regions, or into an international market. Among these approaches, commercialization to become unicorn start-ups has attracted considerable attention. Commercialization to become unicorn start-ups has attracted considerable attention It enables an effective and fast way for adoption of technology products throughout the world. How to transform SET into a unicorn start-up was investigated.

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Conclusion