Hatch works with university researchers, principal investigators, and academic teams to turn technical promise into commercial direction market fit, funding pathway, spinout readiness, and the hard decisions about which applications are worth pursuing and which are not.
We work alongside universities and research-led startups to convert complex innovations into tangible products. Our approach brings clarity to technical challenges, helping teams move from theoretical research toward practical implementation with confidence. Whether refining prototypes or preparing for commercial production, we support each phase with strategic engineering insight.
Assessing technologies against real market demand, customer economics, and commercial viability to identify the strongest opportunities and most defensible market entry points.
Your research is strong, but the market case is thinner. You have been asked to describe the problem your technology solves, who will pay for it, and how big the opportunity is and the answers you have are not yet disciplined enough to put in front of an investor or TTO panel.
The discovery phase gave you confidence that something commercial sits in your research. It did not give you a roadmap to spinout, a business model, or an investor-ready proposition. You are looking at Phase II and beyond without a clear plan.
The technology could serve several markets. Without a disciplined way to compare them, you risk chasing all of them — and reaching none.
We work with researchers, universities, and innovation teams to bridge the gap between breakthrough ideas and real-world commercial success. By combining deep technical understanding with strategic commercialisation expertise, we help ensure promising research has a clear, credible, and investment-ready pathway to market.
We help deeptech ventures, universities, and innovation teams turn complex engineering and research into commercially viable, investment-ready businesses. From market validation and commercial strategy through to investor materials and spinout support, we ensure the commercial pathway is as strong as the technology behind it.
Related case study
A UK university research group commissioned Hatch Oxford to provide the commercial backbone of their bid for national innovation funding. The work assessed the market for a novel power-electronics technology across voltage levels, ran a structured outreach programme to end-users and tier-one manufacturers, and identified the realistic commercial pathway: a low-voltage entry segment in the renewable integration market, with tier-one partnership as the only viable route into the conservative utility sector at higher voltages. Engagement and findings remain commercially confidential.
We help innovators, researchers, and businesses turn ideas into commercially viable products through a blend of engineering expertise, market insight, and hands-on delivery.
We help innovators, researchers, and businesses turn ideas into commercially viable products through a blend of engineering expertise, market insight, and hands-on delivery.
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.
Hatch works primarily on fee-based engagements. Equity participation is possible on a selective basis where the work warrants it and the venture is at a stage where equity can be meaningfully priced, but it is the exception rather than the default. We are transparent about fee structure up front — no retainer creep, no undefined scope. Every engagement starts with a named set of outcomes and a named set of deliverables.
Between the two co-founders, Hatch brings more than thirty years of engineering experience across clean energy, advanced materials, robotics in the nuclear industry, motorsport, and industrial manufacturing — delivered inside startups, scale-ups, and established industrials. We list sectors we have actually worked in rather than sectors we could theoretically cover; we turn down engagements where we cannot credibly add value. If your venture sits in a field we have not named, tell us what it is and we will be honest about whether we are the right fit.
Hatch operates on both sides of the Atlantic — from Oxford in the United Kingdom and from Grand Rapids, Michigan in the United States. We work with UK universities including Oxford, Birmingham, Newcastle, and Strathclyde, and with US partners including the University of Michigan and Michigan State University. Engagements can be run remotely, on-site, or a combination. The transatlantic footprint is part of the firm's operating model — it lets us help UK-origin ventures navigate US markets and US-origin ventures navigate UK funding routes.
Hatch is likely a good fit if: your technology originates from research (university, national lab, or corporate R&D); you are between early technical conviction and Series A; you need both engineering and commercial judgement applied to the same problem; and you would rather work directly with experienced co-founders than with an account team. Hatch is probably not the right fit if: you need a large delivery team, a pure software startup advisor, general management consulting, or a firm that will confirm whatever plan is already in front of it. In either case, the fastest way to find out is to talk to us.
Use the "Let's collaborate" form on this site and select the option that best describes you — researcher, TTO, pre-spinout, spinout, or something else. You can also email us directly at the address in the footer. Either way, one of the co-founders will respond personally.
Innovate UK has changed direction. Chasing a grant with a strong technical story is no longer enough. Under the new strategy, the best applications start long before the form is opened — and read like business cases, not project briefs.
In most deeptech ventures, engineering and commercial decisions are made by different people, at different times, in different rooms. That split is where value leaks — and the ventures that reach Series A in defensible shape are the ones that never let it open in the first place.
Most university spinouts do not fail because the underlying science is weak. They fail because the systems surrounding them are designed to generate ideas, not to sustain industrial businesses. The "valley of death" is, in practice, a gap in ownership — and closing it requires more than better advice.
Partner with Hatch to bring clarity, momentum, and commercial success to your innovation.
