Smoltek’s CEO comments on the intended agreement that Yageo backed out of

On March 26, 2024, Smol­tek had to announce that Yageo, at this time, does not intend to sign the license and ser­vice agree­ment with Smol­tek.
Link to the offi­cial press release, from Decem­ber.
Link to the offi­cial press release, from yes­ter­day.

Yageo’s decision not to go ahead and sign the license and ser­vice agree­ment that both parties inten­ded to enter into is extremely unfor­tu­nate from our per­spect­ive, con­sid­er­ing all the energy and the resources we have inves­ted in this collaboration. 

Håkan Persson, CEO of Smoltek

Håkan Persson, con­tin­ues:
“After this dis­ap­point­ing news, I have had intense dis­cus­sions with both the board and oth­er inter­ested parties. We will now gradu­ally cre­ate a plan for how to pro­ceed. The poten­tial of our CNF-MIM tech­no­logy for capa­cit­ors is intact, and it con­tin­ues to be of great interest to Yageo as well as to oth­er inter­ested parties. Now, unfor­tu­nately, Yageo has decided to leave the col­lab­or­a­tion with us, at least for the time being. And this means that we have to look at what oth­er pos­sib­il­it­ies we have.”

Back­ground inform­a­tion on the col­lab­or­a­tion

We star­ted this pro­cess togeth­er with Yageo right after the sum­mer of 2023. And we have col­lab­or­ated intens­ively dur­ing the autumn, which was then fur­ther intens­i­fied dur­ing the first months of this year with many activ­it­ies from both parties. But unfor­tu­nately, based on their cir­cum­stances and pri­or­it­ies, Yageo has chosen not to pro­ceed with this con­tract nego­ti­ation at this time.

Håkan Persson, CEO of Smoltek

And he con­tin­ues:
“It is import­ant to high­light that we have gained valu­able exper­i­ences from this col­lab­or­a­tion. They con­sist of both tech­nic­al achieve­ments, regard­ing product devel­op­ment as well as indus­tri­al volume man­u­fac­tur­ing, and an excel­lent plan for com­mer­cial­iz­ing the tech­no­logy. We can con­tin­ue to build on this, regard­less of Yageo, with intact poten­tial when it comes to being able to deliv­er a unique capa­cit­or product to the mar­ket. We have thus gained a lot from this col­lab­or­a­tion in terms of build­ing knowhow and rel­ev­ant skill­sets, as well as what we need to do to carry out a com­mer­cial­iz­a­tion. And we are still aim­ing to do this.”

“We had a part­ner in Yageo, who up until very recently said they were will­ing to help us fin­ance the remain­ing devel­op­ment by pay­ing for our devel­op­ment work. Now we have to find anoth­er way to do this. Their sur­pris­ing decision was new inform­a­tion for us, and I have spent most of this day try­ing to get a grip on the situ­ation and start look­ing at how we can resolve this for the future.”