National Center of Innovations (NCI) is a resident of Skolkovo Innovations Center nearby Moscow. It has launched a new project of producing and selling UMKA protective liquid. Invest Foresight met with Denis Losev, NCI CEO, who told about the company development since its incorporation in 2013, and the features of the new product based on a hyperbranched macromolecular compound.
When a student at Lomonosov Moscow State University’s Chemistry Dpt., Denis Losev was interested in a practical application of his skills and expertise. As he notes, it was a hopeless situation in the labor market that motivated him to launch his own business, since all a university graduate could expect was a position of a technical engineer or a laboratory assistant with a monthly salary of RUR 30K to 40K ($1K) at best. While studying at the university, Losev jointly with his friends (and future business partners) developed his first innovative product, a car washing liquid which did not require use of water. The product development and testing took a month. The young researchers were inspired by their success and in 2013 they registered FutureTech Ltd. which released the substance to the market. To launch production, the team used their own savings. There were other inventions after that, including a superhydrophobic coating for construction materials and an environmentally friendly paint which glows in the dark indicating emergency exits from buildings.
Innovators presented their product to the rector of Moscow State University which instantaneously secured for them the first investor. At that moment Moscow State University needed a waterless car wash, since environmental norms did not allow washing vehicles at the territory of the university by traditional means. Soon, two waterless wash points were opened, one of them at the university. Yet the investor was hesitant in supporting the other projects of the innovators, even though they had no analogues in the Russian market.
Those other projects were about car surface protection such as nanoceramics and liquid glass. Though no more funding was provided by the first investor, the team gathered RUR 500K ($7.4K) and launched production. A month later, the project broke even.
As Denis Losev describes present-day sales of car surface protection substances, “At the moment, we have about 200 customers a month with an average purchase of RUR 12,500”.
Over four years, the team has developed 37 innovative products. According to Losev, such substances are either unavailable in Russia at all, or the analogues are much inferior to the NCI products. National Center of Innovations is the company which accumulates patents, designs and trade marks held by Losev and his partners who have a hi-tech laboratory of their own and four teams, each in charge of specific projects (and registered as a separate entity) such as protective coating, chemical engineering, chemicals for agriculture, and UMKA (Umnaya Kaplya, or Smart Drop).
As NCI team puts it, the idea of UMKA was quite impulsive.
The product is an additive to any standard washing liquid and is intended to improve its characteristics. Its key component is a water-based hyperbranched polymer which, according to Artyom Manuilov, NCI Development Director, is the results of the team’s latest research.
According to the innovators, UMKA produces 12 different effects. Among those, five-fold extension of the wipers lifetime. The product protects a vehicle windshield from water, snow, ice, dirt, dust, tar, bitum, chemicals, insects, small fragments of stones. The membrane on the windshield bars ultraviolet and improves visibility. Protective coating is renewed each time a washer is activated. Another advantage of the product is, it is absolutely safe for human health.
In Denis Losev’s view, Russian premium protective coatings market is underdeveloped. Yet he sees great prospects for sales of the innovative product due to its low price in comparison to its existing analogues. Besides, Smart Drop can be used by any inexperienced driver since no special car servicing is required and all what is needed is just pouring UMKA liquid into a wiper bottle. Products like that are not available in both Russian and international markets. UMKA is a substitute for anti-rain drop, anti-freeze windshield washer and other useful substances – all at once.
By Christina Firsova