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Our provisional logo <3
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An example setup of the proposed solution. The dispenser and ventilation would start at night and disinfect everything within few minutes!
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Trials of standalone aerosol machine. Our idea would integrate the machine with the existing ventilation.
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Aerosol in action. Yikes! This looks scary, but the fact is that it's 100% safe! And it's gone in 5 minutes, leaving no germs behind!
The problem
The coronavirus is a big strain on society. The economic and social implications could be much worse in the aftermath than the coronavirus itself. The longer the economy stands still, the longer people are limited in their daily lives, the higher the risk of financial ruin and loss of living standard for millions of fellow Europeans.
While the curve of new infections seems to be flattening now, there is an increased risk that COVID could return in the autumn (and for several years after).
Our main objective is to get the people out of their homes again, and the economy restarted as fast as possible. For this purpose it is necessary to limit the exposure. COVID-19, just like flu, can be transmitted by inhalation or touch. While it is relatively easy to impose masks to prevent airborne transmission, it is far harder to control contagion by touch of infected surfaces.
There is always space for human error. While you could wash your hands and regularly disinfect surfaces at home, at work or in public transport, there is no guarantee that it will be done effectively. People will touch contaminated objects and then their faces.
So, how could we effectively limit surface infections in a fast and automatic manner?
The solution: meet sani.fan
In order to quickly and effectively sanitize large spaces, we propose to use our patented (pending) solution, which is a small add-on to an already existing infrastructure: the ventilation/air-condition systems or HVACs, as they are usually called for Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning.
The idea is to integrate an aerosol dispenser into the ventilation systems, either as a part of a new system design, or as an add-on for existing installations. This dispenser would manually or automatically release a disinfectant aerosol “fog”, effectively sanitizing large areas in shortest amount of time (5-15 seconds bursts).
This solution adds a new functionality beyond the DIN SPEC 13779 specification of air-condition/ventilation systems: the disinfection. Therefore, the new type could be called HVADs (Heating, Ventilation, Air-conditioning and Disinfection).
Take a look at this simple, yet mind-blowing invention:
The dispersed liquid is REACH/SVHC compliant, and thus it is safe for humans and the environment. It does not cause any allergic reaction and could be even used in human presence. Most importantly, it is proven to kill 99.99% of bacteria and viruses and keeps the surfaces clean for up to 24 hours.
Areas of application
The proposed areas of application is everywhere, where there is a high density of people in a closed environment:
- Food: restaurants and cafes, supermarkets, bakeries
- Education: schools, universities
- Transportation: train, public buses, car rentals, taxis, planes or even cruise ships
- Entertainment: theaters, cinemas, night clubs
- Government: town halls and other public institutions
- Health: hospitals, gyms
- Residential/nursing homes
- Offices, hotels and banks.
Mode of application: just once every 24 hours!
Preferably when the area is not in use (e.g. at night) a manual or an automatic trigger could turn on the ventilation system and the dispenser would release the aerosol fog, sanitizing the connected area.
- In hotels, separate rooms could be quickly disinfected after the client’s check-out.
- In schools, offices, town halls it could happen automatically at night.
- In public transportation it could be triggered after the vehicle is parked overnight or between shifts.
Prototype / demo
Unfortunately there is no working prototype of integrated solution with an existing ventilation system. We will be working on this.
However, here is a short video of the stand-alone fogging device in action, so you can get an idea:
Depending on the room size, the burst length would vary (would need to be adjusted). And the aerosol dispersion would be even better through a functioning ventilation air ducts!
The benefits for society and the economy
The viruses, depending on the environmental conditions, could survive up to several days on a surface. A sick person, who, for example, touched a chair in the town hall, could potentially infect another person who sits down on that chair two days later.
The proposed solution would regularly sanitize the areas automatically, dramatically decreasing the risk of contagion.
As an added benefit, while the disinfection aerosol passes through the ventilation infrastructure, it also sanitizes the system from within, which is often the source of germs and the reason of infections itself, possibly reducing cases of sick-building-syndrom.
Beyond COVID, the influenza affects millions of people, claiming thousands of lives every year. Implementing the HVAD systems in all public places and transportation would drastically decrease the spread of any virus and bacteria, protecting the economy and our living standards.
On top of that, HVADs would help us fight the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospitals that cause countless deaths in EU every year.
The business plan
Our pitch deck can be found here: http://sani.fan
The team
Roman and Vitaly have been High-tech entrepreneurs for over a decade. Our small team in Leipzig usually focuses on distributed AI and IoT solutions for smart cities and mobility, including hardware and software. Now we are using our experience in IT, hardware and business to fight an invisible enemy.
We are closely working with the producer of the Taiwanese standalone fogging system, which also provides a disinfectant liquid. There is enough technical know-how to offer solutions or support for European HVAC manufacturers in order to start building or upgrading to HVADs.
The official European distributor of the aforementioned system/liquid is on board and will setup a pan-European supply chain.
Incorporation and funding
The company will be incorporated in Saxony, Germany.
We are looking for interested partners from the industrial ventilation manufacturing, who would be willing to license the technology and/or invest in the newly incorporated company. Preferably from within the EU.
We will apply for EU-funded grant in Saxony, which would cover up to 80% of our expenses (if the project is deemed as techno-politically important, more info here: https://www.sab.sachsen.de/f%C3%B6rderprogramme/sie-m%C3%B6chten-ein-unternehmen-gr%C3%BCnden-oder-in-ihr-unternehmen-investieren/forschung-und-entwicklung.jsp#program_conditions ).
Hence, the first step is: (1) Securing the initial funding (about 250.000 EUR) , (2) Incorporation and (3) Application for grant(s). The funds should be sufficient to run initial company operations for at least 2 years.
Our mission and value proposition
Partners acquisition
We will talk to HVAC manufacturers and seek partnerships to build first prototypes based on partner's existing ventilation systems for different applications in industry, office spaces, vehicles, etc.. We will license the technology, which should provide a stable cashflow from HVADs sales.
Sales of disinfectant
We will seek exclusive disinfectant supply agreements. The business model is very similar to ink catridges sales in the printing industry. The company will setup a pan-European supply chain for the disinfectant liquid.
Pilot tests
The company, together with potential partners, will setup and live-test the effectiveness of the system in different environments and situations.
Policy/lobbying
We will approach and present our solution on institutional level. Given favourable pilot tests, we will push for policy changes to make anti-viral air-conditioning and ventilation systems obligatory in all public spaces and transportation, maximally protecting EU citizens from current and future epidemics and seasonal flu.
The competition
We have recently applied for German patent and are pending application for international patents, which will happen this year. There is no other matching solution, hence competition is non-existent as we are creating an exclusive market for our product and service.
An alternative with comparable effect would be existing stand-alone fogging machines. However, they require manual operation and need a lot of operation time in large areas, increasing the costs of disinfection and risk of human errors.
A less effective alternative competition is labour-intensive manual disinfection, which is slow, more expensive and less thorough compared to our solution.
The estimates: our project in numbers
Revenue streams
We see two main areas for the company revenue:
A. Licensing of our technology
The license would be based on a percentage of total sales and exclusive disinfectant supply agreement. The amount of sales depends greatly on policy. A favourable European policy could increase our market by several orders of magnitude.
B. Disinfectant sales
This is by far the biggest revenue stream. A disinfection of a vehicle, for example, would cost about 1-2 EUR with at least 50% revenue margin. More about potential numbers below. Our estimate is that, even without favourable policy changes and only 0.1% reach, we quickly head into a 50-100 million EUR revenue range.
Potential market size for the disinfectant
Our licensing agreement would include exclusive supply for the disinfectant. There are two markets we will be targeting:
- Public transportation
- Public closed spaces: basically all non-residential closed spaces.
The amount of market that we can capture largely depends on the policy. Here are very conservative approximations of some of our market segments to show its magnitude:
1. Public transportation
Buses: +890.000 in circulation (+40.000 new every year) with +500 billion passenger-kilometres in 2017. Air travel: +4 million of flights in 2019 carrying over +500 million people in 2019. Train: +9.6 billion of passengers transported in 2018 Sea: +400 million of passengers in 2018
The public transportation alone is a huge market. With a policy requiring anti-bacterial ventilation in buses would mean +40.000 new installations in buses alone. Without policy changes, if only 1% of airplanes would be sanitized before boarding, it would mean +400.000 EUR in revenue just from air travel alone.
Add other travel means like buses, ships, trains and taxis and the sales of disinfectant for the public vehicles could quickly reach millions a year: without any favourable policy changes (which we will pursue on European level).
2. Public closed spaces
This part is even more complicated to estimate for several reasons:
- There are a myriad of different commercial and institutional buildings, which are almost impossible to quantify.
- Each building would require a disinfection at least once every night to keep it clean for 24 hours.
- The cost is about 1-2 EUR per 100m3 with 50% revenue margin.
So how many m3 of closed public spaces are there in Europe and how much of it can we cover? Again, it all depends on policy, but even without any institutional help a tiny fraction of those spaces would amount to huge numbers. Here is a peek of spaces and stat estimates across Europe:
- Shopping malls: in Germany alone there are 480 shopping malls, which would require an estimated total of 216.000 EUR worth of disinfectant each and every day. This does not include supermarkets and smaller shops. This is just one country. Even with 0.1% of market reach this would amount to over 1.2 million EUR of revenue for the whole Europe.
- Restaurants: There are over 700.000 restaurants across Europe. An average of 1000m3 disinfection treatment, would lead to a potential daily revenue of 7.000.000 EUR. Even with a 0.1% reach, we would be looking at a 2.5 million EUR in yearly revenue.
- Health clubs and fitness centres in Europe: +59.000 with a total treatment estimated at 1.7 million EUR every day. 0.1% reach would mean about 650.000 EUR revenue a year.
- Hotels: 3 billion nights are spent in Europe in accommodation, with over 65% being hotels. Just in hotels, if we sanitized 0.1% of rooms after each stay at a 1 EUR cost, there would be about 1 million EUR of yearly revenue.
These are just a small sample estimates that already sum over 5 million EUR in revenue at 0.01%-0.1% reach. They do not include: Theaters, Cinemas, Night clubs, Offices, Banks, Town halls, etc., etc.
We estimate that it could be at least a 30-40 million EUR revenue market for buildings and 10-15 million EUR market for transportation.
If favourable policy changes are reached, these estimates could grow by several orders of magnitude.
The requirements: What we need
Investors
Our initial operations need financing for at least two years, to be on the safe side. Up to 80% can be financed through public grants. Even so, we are looking for additional 250.000 EUR of capital to get us through the initial stages of incorporation, grant applications, partnership acquisitions, supply chain setup and live tests.
Industrial contacts
Interested parties in the industrial ventilation industry. Several modalities are possible on how to participate and benefit from this project.
Institutional contacts
Policymakers with high interest in this topic, who might be able to help with pilot tests and future advancement of the technology to protect our citizens.
The hackathon
We hope we could awaken your interest and convince of the magnitude and importance of this solution. We are open for discussion or any further questions related to this idea.
Our slack channel: #sanifan
Stay safe!
P.S. It has been a wild weekend where we could finally work on all the details of sani.fan! We have worked on our business plan. We have revised our patent and reviewed the technologies involved. We have created a presentation deck, talked to our mentors, launched the website, prepared marketing materials and the video, talked to dozens of relevant people from the industry, made plans for the next steps in the organization of supply chains, etc. etc. etc. Most of all we have enjoyed every minute of it, because of all the great people involved, great feedback and because we believe in our cause!
Built With
- ambition
- attention
- care
- confidence
- courage
- focus
- imagination
- love
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