EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

FFoQSI approached us with a product in its final development stage. A great deal of research work has gone into a biofilm training-dataset for machine learning which can be accessed by a sensor that measures biofilms directly on site. The database is currently being trained in specific environments to address individual problems. This is all very relevant because biofilms are responsible for billions of euros of damage in areas where it comes to food hygiene or pathogenic contaminations. Being part of the COMET centre, the organization's expertise lies in the field of research along the food chain. The students at the WU institute Entrepreneurship & Innovation brought in their expertise in to push a potentially groundbreaking idea successfully to the market.

Goal

Biofilms cause health threats and high costs. It is therefore of interest to recognize them at an early stage and eliminate them accordingly. Food producing companies clean their productions lines rather frequently, but not specifically, as the exact composition of complex biofilms remains unknown. Unnecessary cleaning agents are used or, in the worst case, do not work as they are not specific to the biofilm contamination. The remaining questions tackled were: Are the customers pains’ high enough for the solution? Is the sensor profitable compared to the cleaning measures? Which target customers should be focused on? And what is the best way to market such a service?

Methodology

To answer the questions above, our research was broadly divided into two phases: In the first phase, we mainly worked with secondary sources. We acquired an understanding of the market and derived initial conclusions from this for our marketing plan and revenue model. In the second phase, we then interacted with potential customers ourselves to find out what their specific needs are. For this we conducted multiple interviews and surveys.

Results

There is a market need for the biofilm sensor. Although corrosion is the major problem with biofilms and although the market for medical and human health is larger, we chose the food processing industry, in which FFoQSI has the strongest network. The food safety compliance market is expected to grow strongly over the next few years, and we also found that companies in this industry spend on top of what is regulated to ensure quality, as recall and brand image costs might be enormous. Based on this information we were able to identify opportunities due to upcoming regulations, build our business plan and give recommendations of concrete go to market steps. Our go-to-market strategy includes a comprehensive marketing plan and a revenue model with 3 revenue streams, centering around a subscription-scheme for the continuous use of the database.

Cooperation Partner

• FFoQSI- Austrian Competence Centre for Feed and Food Quality, Safety & Innovation

• Technopark 1/ Haus D, Tulln an der Donau, Austria

• www.ffoqsi.at

Contact Person

• Katharina Schuster - katharina.schuster@ffoqsi.at

Student Team

• Ana-Maria Draganova

• Anas Ikarri

• Hector Hollein

• Nicolas Löblich

• Tim Jungkunz

Project Manager

• Richard Olbrecht

• Diana Lauer

• Shtefi Mladenovska