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Story 12 February 2024
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EIC Success Stories – ISCLEANAIR: The EIC has helped us enlarge our operations in Europe and overseas

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Following ISCLEANAIR’s participation in Gastech 2023, the company has benefited from significant business impact. The Managing Director, Giuseppe Spanto, describes the positive experience and shares insightful tips for a successful presence in high-level business trade fairs.

 

What is the business impact created following your participation in the trade fair? Is there any milestone achievement to announce?

GS: The participation in Gastech has been successful for ISCLEANAIR, which laid the foundation for very promising partnerships and new possible developments also in the Far East.

Among all the meetings set up, five were finalised into deals and materialised in actual business based on our prominent technology positioning globally, namely cooperation agreements at the innovation, technology, and commercial levels. These allow us to engage with different international players while focusing on our business model and strategies (IPRs transfer models, in particular) to create additional value, access funding and start new projects for the further validation of the APA technology.

Thanks to these agreements and contracts, we have enlarged the area of operation, now active in the main industrial countries in the world and we are now simultaneously working in the USA (and Canada), Mexico, widely in Europe, the UK, India, China, Japan, Turkey, and also in Africa. This allows us to have a greater impact by generating both social and business value and awareness in so many different countries.

Finally, we are very proud of our actions in execution, and we are confident we can improve in the scaling-up phases because we are asset-backed. We were also recently contacted by an international writer who selected us as one of the 30 leading companies worldwide, for his upcoming book on "Born Global" enterprises.

 

To what extent has OTF 2.0 helped you in achieving your organisation goals and business growth?

GS: The OTF 2.0 Programme was extremely helpful for improving our mindset and awareness and in working to achieve our goals allowed us to enhance our visibility in the international arena.

It offered us the chance to observe addressable and target markets in the Asian regions from a closer distance. It also allowed us to take part in meaningful conversations with fellow participants in the European Pavilion and other attendees that generated creative thinking and further input for potential collaborations.

Considering our technology-driven business and the positioning of leadership and supremacy at the global level, the international trade fairs are not the most appropriate places to sell our technology and solutions or generate ROI under product sales.

Participating in international trade fairs offers the possibility to get in touch with interested stakeholders and start conversation for potential cooperations, which otherwise would be hard to initiate.

To sum up, the benefit of attending such trade fairs is that it facilitates important business meetings and innovation discussions. In addition, it offers a trustworthy and reliable brand and recognition that we, as the European champions and beneficiaries, can improve also our mindset and ourselves and benefit from pursuing new business goals, opening new opportunities that can be consolidated with a right industrial and commercial follow up.

 

ISCLEANAIR

 

From your experience with OTF 2.0, what business aspects do you think exhibitors should consider when preparing for tradeshows, both locally and internationally?

GS: The objective of taking part in tradeshows is to enhance mindset, knowledge, mindfulness, and network. In addition, it allows the company’s visibility to increase stakeholders' awareness and take in new prospects to expand the business partnerships and build a broader base of contacts from which to establish meaningful collaboration relationships.

Therefore, exhibitors should consider many business aspects to take advantage of the unparalleled fairs and connected events and be prepared to have the most impactful presence.

The booth plays an important role because a well-designed and attractive desk increases people’s proneness to stop and encourages attendees to ask questions to learn more. Promotional material (visuals, brochures, presentations, videos, …) also is key because it helps attendees to remember the company. Pre-event marketing is pivotal as it builds anticipation and informs the current audience about your participation. At the same time, after-event remarks and follow-ups are the key to a successful outcome because they allow the exhibitor to keep in touch with the new leads and nurture the relationship.

Also, communication efforts should be consistent, and the message should stand out: preparing a short pitch and delivering a catchy (commercial and investor-oriented) presentation (1-3-5 minutes long, with the different audiences) usually make a difference in telling the value proposition and can raise engagement of passers-by.

Speaking with passion and tone, clearly and in a detailed way helps in highlighting the benefits of the value proposition and on solutions offered. Last but not least, the strategy and goals should be well-defined beforehand to maximise the experience and the resources invested.

 

What are your ambitions and future expectations for the company after OTF 2.0?

GS: At ISCLEANAIR, we have in mind to cooperate with the EIC, the European Commission, and other institutions and agencies (like CINEA, the EIB, etc.) in the future. Our aim to work within the very ambitious program designed in these years in the light of the climate and air pollution emergency based on our assets, that is already under development and aims at consolidating the activities, patents, and know-how within international markets whilst also exploring new ones and other strategic topics.

Following ourt participation in the international trade fairs, we have redesigned an expansion plan ready to go, with prominent partners, to concretely answer stakeholders and the serviceable markets globally and operate directly locally. We thought to operate and serve directly at the local level, over the Jubilee 2025 in Rome, the Olympic Winter Games Milan - Cortina 2026, the redesign of infrastructures and subways, the Millenium Jubilee 2033, carbon capture and removal, carbon collector systems to fight climate change. At ISCLEANAIR, we recently became a benefit company (part of wider activities to be a B-Corp), to indisputably declare the vision and develop actions at the service of people and our planet, of institutions, Governments, and Environmental Authorities.

Thanks to the launch of new partnerships developed through the international trade fairs, we are now operating across different environmental sectors and countries, while establishing ourselves as a leader and a differentiating company. The difference is in the vision and the way we traced activities, the mission is in execution thanks to the tech assets and competencies in our hands.

Future expectations relate to validating the technology through additional projects focusing on new target groups and serviceable markets (ammonia absorption in the farming sector to be stored and used in the energy sector, HVAC integration at the equipment levels, to improve performances in buildings and infrastructures, green hydrogen cycles, and attention to the actual generation from methane combustion …).

Mainly, they will be devoted and focused on the commercial and sales activities and large replicability of projects and differentiating solutions for ambient air pollution abatement, controls and purification, and integrated multi-service activities, in addition to vast actions of improvement of energy efficiency and cost savings.

The Far Eastern markets are - in fact - complex and our strategy in these regions is based on an approach specifically designed to be effective for distant markets. When approaching distant markets, we prefer to operate mainly through local partnerships and JV models. This is done through specific commercial agreements and licensing models for production and commercial activities, distribution, and sales, as well as the option to transfer know-how and intellectual property rights if required by the peculiarities of the target markets, together with support services for processes and also for plant design and technical developments, to support effective business feasibility.

ISCLEANAIR has also designed, developed, and tested an attractive alternative model for progressive business developments, to be considered as an ad-hoc option depending on the individual cases (e.g., specific countries, different territories, and/or business types). This option is usually structured with ISCLEANAIR's retention and delivery of the key intellectual property elements of the APA technology (production of core elements and components, and some IoT/AI cores), as well as management of intellectual property rights, and royalties focused on business development and continuity, production by the local partner of the other parts and some electronic components, as well as commercialisation of the APA technology and management of the local usable markets, also to create value locally.

Therefore, our expansion in Italy and abroad is designed to get alliances, business partnerships, IPRs transfer models, and technical support directly and through third parties, thanks to industrial, commercial, technical, and strategic cooperation agreements with local stakeholders in the large, profitable, and very promising target groups and serviceable markets (SOM), we have the ambition to create and share value everywhere on a local base and scale up faster, at the service of people and the environment.

 

Finally, could you offer any additional tips to prospective applicants?

GS: Our golden tips to prospective applicants are as follows: to prepare well for the activities in compliance with the individual and companies' nature, take advantage of the promotion program and marketing campaigns to gain the best level of visibility; to prepare for each event specifically, to make the most of the whole experience (i.e., schedule with efficacy all the meetings arranged).

When possible the best is to participate in the fairs with a couple of company representatives and partners, with the assurance of having a person standing at the booth, longer, engaging with visitors, and collecting relevant contacts and information to personalise your follow-ups and new tactics and strategies, whilst the other one can have meetings or explores the other booths, where is possible to follow cherry picking approaches, and get inspirations and great good surprises.

 

About ISCLEANAIR

Is CLEAN AIR Italia S.r.l. is an innovative advanced technology company that has been involved in the development, industrialisation and marketing of APA (Air Pollution Abatement) technology and related services IS CLEAN AIR solutions on a global scale since 2015.

About Gastech

With over 800 exhibitors, Gastech is the largest energy exhibition and conference for natural gas, LNG, hydrogen, climate technologies, energy manufacturing and low-carbon solutions – areas providing the defining answers of the coming decade as the world decarbonises its energy systems.

Gastech provides a global platform for businesses to showcase the latest strategies and cutting-edge innovation to industry leaders, decision makers, and financiers across the energy value chain. From the largest technology providers and energy suppliers to the most game-changing start-ups.

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. 

To follow the latest news and learn more about getting involved, please visit the EIC’s official social media accounts on Twitter and LinkedIn.

 

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.

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