From Research Lab to Global Platform: Validika’s Playbook for Commercializing Deep Tech

Twelve years ago, a German mechanical engineer was studying something his colleagues thought was crazy: electric bus batteries. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Validika Diagnostics founder Claudius Jehle shared how he turned this seemingly niche research project into a company that now monitors over a gigawatt hour of batteries globally.

Finding the Commercial Problem in Academic Research

The journey began with a practical challenge in the lab. “You cannot just take these hundreds of kilograms of battery acid from the vehicle and put it into a lab,” Claudius explains. This limitation forced his research team to innovate, developing algorithms that could assess battery quality through field data.

Their solution involved “equipping the first buses with telematic IoT devices, gathering huge amounts of data, and to come up with algorithms that analyze field data, continuous data coming streamed from the assets.” What started as a research necessity would later become the foundation for a commercial platform.

Recognizing the Market Opportunity

The pivot from research to business wasn’t immediate. By 2017, while leading a research group of twelve people, Claudius and his team spotted a massive commercial opportunity. “Residual value of electric vehicles, leasing contracts around EVs, large stationary systems in containers. Gigawatt hours of batteries worth billions or even trillions will be around us, and nobody’s going to know how they are,” he recalls.

This realization led to a crucial insight: “Everything around the quality of the battery will be a thing in some years.” The team realized their research could solve a problem that would soon affect multiple industries, from automotive to energy storage.

The Reality Check: Starting from Scratch

Despite having working technology and paying customers at the research institute, commercialization wasn’t straightforward. “We thought, quite naive as we were, we’re going to spin that out, found Validika Diagnostics, and we’ll just take these clients with us, because what should go wrong?” Claudius shares.

Reality proved different. Early customers were hesitant to work with a new startup, particularly during COVID. The team had to rebuild many aspects of their technology. “We made a lot of mistakes. We learned a lot of things during this research time how not to do it. So we were building from scratch a lot of new concepts from a new plain slate.”

Navigating Academic-Commercial Relationships

One major challenge was securing intellectual property rights. “In Europe, many universities and many research institutes… did not back then five years ago, understand that this could be a revenue source for them as well, these spin outs,” Claudius notes. This made negotiating license agreements particularly challenging.

Building Trust in a Technical Market

The transition from research to commercial product required a different approach to building credibility. “We are dealing with a very complex technological component. So the market and early adopters and everyone needs to trust you. So you need to come up with a trustable story and not just marketing alone,” Claudius explains.

Their approach focused heavily on demonstrating technical expertise through industry events. “For me, early adopters and finding interested people, my recipe would be to speak at as many events and exhibitions as possible,” he shares.

Lessons for Commercializing Research

Validika’s journey offers several key insights for researchers considering commercialization:

1. Look for practical limitations in research that might signal market opportunities
2. Focus on problems that will affect multiple industries
3. Be prepared to rebuild technology for commercial use
4. Don’t assume research relationships will translate to commercial relationships
5. Build trust through technical expertise rather than traditional marketing

Today, Validika’s technology monitors batteries across multiple continents, from utility-scale installations to electric bus fleets. Their experience shows that successful commercialization often requires more than just good technology – it requires identifying the right market moment, being willing to rebuild for commercial needs, and finding effective ways to build trust with commercial customers.

For researchers and technical founders looking to commercialize deep technology, Validika’s story suggests that the key lies not just in the technology itself, but in recognizing when that technology can solve an emerging market need. As Claudius notes about their future potential, “This can easily grow our company and the product… to dozens, if not plus $100 million business SaaS business easily.” Sometimes, the best commercial opportunities come from solving seemingly mundane research challenges in innovative ways.