Following CardLab Innovation’s participation in CES 2022 and 2023 in the context of the EIC Overseas Trade Fairs (OTF) Programme 2.0, the company has benefited from significant business impact. The CEO of CardLab, Frank Sandelov, describes the positive experience and shares insightful tips for a successful presence in high-level business events.
What is the business impact created following your participation in the trade fair? Is there any milestone achievement to announce?
FS: CES 2023 was a great event with a lot of interest in CardLab solutions, that gave a lot of visitors and business meetings at the event and afterwards. Especially the follow up meetings with potential customers met at the previous CES 2022 has cemented the partnership with Police and Sheriff’s Press, PASP365, where cards presently are in production after having tested the access infrastructure together with the partner and now finally can deploy commercial pilots. The process has taken longer than expected, due to a lack of components, but the partnership with common customer is now moving well ahead.
Discussions had been ongoing with Linxens before the event, but a good meeting at CES and follow up meetings has so far resulted in 2 different projects, where CardLab is positioning us in a partnership with Linxens. We act as their development house for electronic cards and low volume production, where they, in return, will support CardLab in high volume production. Recent orders have been received and negotiation on a €550,000 card order is in progress for delivery Q2, 2024 with further deliveries later.
Meetings at the event and follow up meetings in San Francisco with an undisclosed customer has led to a MOU so far and a $75,000 agreement for project initialisation and specification. Kick off will be Q1 2024 and the development project estimated at $385,000 plus production of cards once prototypes produced and tested.
A further 6 customer candidates are still in progress, but our internal organisation puts a limit on how fast we can initiate new projects and production. We did not fully $1 million in revenue, but will reach approximately $700,000 in the 12-month period and still with a significant increase in 2024 with better component availability and hopefully ability to hire more engineering resources.
With the agreements now signed, a hiring process is in progress to onboard a new Senior Project Manager and min. 1 new SW engineer with our development team in Denmark, and a test and quality engineer and supply chain manager at our factory in Thailand.
The results seen after the CES participation have, also, brought a new investment into CardLab, enabling us to accelerate the growth and bring own standard product to the market in volume and to buy a controlling share in our partner QuardLock to secure a complete biometric “Authentication as a Service” solution to offer and fully live up to our slogan “ Goodbye Passwords – Hello Security”.
To what extent has OTF 2.0 helped you in achieving your organisation goals and business growth?
FS: OTF has helped us create a much more visible CardLab and being part of the European Pavilion has provided potential clients that otherwise would be hard to approach without the EU recognition of the company. Provided it would have been possible to ramp up the supply chain faster the revenue could have surpassed expectations.
OTF participation has also lately started to bring on more candidates for our recruitment process when being very visible on the social media. The OTF has helped save money on recruitment, as enough candidates lately have shown up, finding CardLab a very interesting company with cutting-edge technology and solutions.
From your experience with OTF 2.0, what business aspects do you think exhibitors should consider when preparing for tradeshows, both locally and internationally?
FS: You need to be fully focused on what your purpose of participation is as this determines the story you want to tell. If you are looking for investors, you can exhibit early and largely promote ideas and possibly get investments for getting the product out in pilot and have it tested in a real environment.
If you go for the sale of products and solutions, it has to have a high degree of functionality and be finished for the market.
At the shows, make sure you have a catchy punchline or phrase as an eye catcher and make sure it reflects what you want to say.
What are your ambitions and future expectations for the company after OTF 2.0?
FS: We have now started a scaling process for CardLab with new hires to happen this and next month in order to be able to onboard the next customers. We are also investing in further production equipment at our factory to facilitate the increasing demand. Relocating the factory will be the next step to achieve security certifications and increase capacity significantly.
Continuing to onboard new strategic channel partners will continue, as well to have a better and locally founded sales entity and integration partner.
A business development team is in place refining the new strategic plan aimed at a listing of CardLab within the next 3 – 5 years.
Finally, could you offer any additional tips to prospective applicants?
FS: You should make sure that you have the right and enough team members for manning the booth as it is a busy place.
Make sure to have something to show/ demonstrate that can activate the spectator, as it spurs significantly more interest.
Make sure you have some physical information material as internet at the exhibitions often fail in periods due to overload.
The primary thing is though that you are absolutely sure what the message you want to send/ show is. If you are not crystal-clear in your message, you will lose a lot of interest.
Be aware that OTF participation is not a quick fix, make sure you have time to be well prepared and you know what kind of people you want to talk with.
Before the event, spend enough time to check the visitor list and get the invitation out 1 – 2 weeks before the show – not too early as you then will be forgotten.
Stay with the OTF team, if possible, at the event, as the networking can be great, supporting each other and discussing lessons learned is so much easier.
About CardLab Innovation
CardLab’s mission is to provide convenient means for the most secure identification and authentication, ensuring only the right person has access to information, equipment, locations, and services. Founded in 2012 in Copenhagen as a development house for electronic Smart card solutions, CardLab now provides a full “Authentication as a Service” solution. Designed in Denmark, products are made in house in Thailand with contract manufacturing partners in the EU, USA, and Asia.
About CES
CES is a global consumer electronics and consumer technology tradeshow that takes place annually in Las Vegas. It offers a unique exposure for manufacturers, developers and suppliers of consumer technology hardware, content, technology delivery systems and more. Numerous workshops, fruitful roundtable discussions, keynote speeches from industry leaders and pioneering thinkers aim at helping innovative startups and SMEs learn, grow and scale in today's evolving tech ecosystem.
About the EIC International Trade Fairs and USA Soft Landing Programme 3.0
The EIC International Trade Fairs and USA Soft Landing Programme 3.0 (previously Overseas Trade Fairs 2.0) supports EIC Awardees to promote their commercialisation strategy in foreign markets and leverage business opportunities at the 12 most popular trade fairs, strengthening the EU innovation brand around the world. Selected EIC-funded SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups from EU Member States and associated countries have access to the Programme.
Check the EIC International Trade Fairs and USA Soft Landing Programme 3.0 or additional information. For stories, open calls and events, you may also visit the EIC Community Platform.
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DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.