Bringing innovation to life

Hatch works with four audiences on the commercialisation of research-led, engineering-intensive technology: university researchers and principal investigators (often at discovery programmes); Technology Transfer Offices and research commercialisation teams; pre-spinout ventures preparing for incorporation; and young spinout companies between proof-of-concept and Series A. Our clients operate across clean energy, advanced materials, robotics, motorsport, nuclear, and adjacent deeptech fields, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Deeptech commercialisation is the process of turning research-grade technology — typically originating from a university, national lab, or corporate R&D programme — into a business with identifiable customers, a defensible business model, and a route to capital. It is distinct from general startup advisory because the underlying technology is often pre-revenue, the development timeline is long, and the commercial questions (which application to pursue, how to price, which partners to engage) are tightly coupled to engineering decisions that cannot be made without technical judgement. Generalist consultancies tend to handle the business model and leave the engineering to the founders; specialist firms work at the intersection.

No single stage is required, but Hatch is most useful in the window between early technical conviction and Series A readiness. That spans ideation TRL1-8, pre-spinout decision points, the first year of an incorporated spinout, and the proof-of-concept-to-traction stretch, certification before a priced institutional round. If you are post-Series A and scaling, there are likely better-fitted partners than us.

Engagements typically run between three and nine months and include some combination of: market screening and beachhead selection; business model design; engineering-to-product translation; investor-facing narrative and materials (memorandum, market sizing, pitch deck, risk register); and decisions on where the venture should own value and where it should partner. We work in intense, outcome-anchored phases rather than open-ended retainers. Most engagements produce a set of defensible artefacts the client can take to investors, partners, or a TTO panel at the end.

Hatch works as an extension of a university commercialisation team taking promising technologies through structured market screening, business model analysis, and investor-facing proposition development. For early-stage IP we assess commercial viability and recommend a path forward: spinout, license, further development, or no-go. For later-stage opportunities we prepare investment-ready materials, test commercial assumptions, and frame the engineering story for industrial and investor audiences. We are used to working inside institutional constraints funding windows, academic involvement, IP positions, and the pace at which university decisions actually move.

Yes — that is part of what you are paying for. Many pre-spinout ventures discover, on closer examination, that the market they assumed or the business model they scoped will not actually fund. Finding that out before incorporation is significantly better than finding it out after. Where the existing plan will not lead to a fundable business, we will say so, and where possible we will help you build one that will. Advisors who only confirm the plan in front of them are not doing commercialisation work; they are doing presentation work.

Deeptech commercialisation decisions — which application to pursue, which partner to engage, what to own and what to outsource — cannot be made well without engineering judgement, and engineering decisions cannot be made well without commercial context. Most advisory firms separate the two: a business consultancy handles the market case, a technical consultancy handles the product. The seams between them are where ventures lose time and money. At Hatch, both capabilities sit inside the same firm and are applied to the same problem at the same time. That is not a marketing line; it is the operating model.