 Want to learn about stocks, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and the metaverse? Join RichTV.io. Hi, how's everybody doing today? I'm your host, Rich, here on behalf of RichTV Live with our very special guest, the head of strategy and operations for Neo Battery Materials, Danny, huh? How are you doing today, Danny? Good, how are you? I'm doing fantastic. Excited to have you back in the show. And Danny, could you give us a brief introduction to Neo Battery Materials? For those who are new to the company, and can you elaborate on the business development that Neo has focused on within the EV battery industry? Yes, so to start off, we know that 15% of global car sales last year were EVs. And in order to increase the EV adoption rate, EV battery performance in terms of longer driving ranges were ultra fast charging, or, and EV battery cost reductions must happen in the industry so far. So here at Neo Battery Materials, we are developing a unique technology called Silicon Anno Materials to increase the EV driving range by more than 20% enable ultra fast charging and cut down costs all at the same time. Now there's four core battery materials that exist today. The cathode, which is a positive terminal, the anode, which is the negative terminal, separator, as well as the electrolyte. Now today, focusing just on the anode material, virtually all batteries use graphite only for their anode. So this contributes to problems like slow charging, short runtimes, and increasing EV battery costs. Now this is why the industry discuss using Silicon as it's recognized to be a fully grail solution to resolve the problems of graphite today. Now because Silicon is the only material that can be commercialized in the short term that can increase the driving range as well as enable ultra fast charging. From 2022 to 2032, the Silicon Anno market basis, the highest growth among all the battery material value chain components, even including lithium ion battery cells itself. Now it's posed to grow about 54% on a compound annual growth rate basis to reach about 30 billion USD in market size by that 2032 mark. And for neo-battery materials over the past two years, we're playing in this hot sector. And with management and engineering team for the largest battery manufacturers such as LG and Samsung, we have developed an energy efficient inexpensive manufacturing technology. And when we use one of the cheapest Silicon around materials, we'll be one of the lowest cost global producers of Silicon and materials, supplying products that are 70 to 80% cheaper compared to what our competitors can supply at the current moment. Now currently we have established over 60 relationships with global battery cell manufacturers as well as EV automakers. And we're currently ongoing 20 plus active material evaluation for collaborative as well as strategic partnerships. Now we have a clear roadmap to commercialization and we're expediting this process through increasing our customer pipeline and also increasing the speed for optimization at the moment. Well, congratulations on all of your breakthroughs and all of your success so far. Now, NIO has recently inked symbolic agreements and achieved significant technology breakthroughs. Can you give the details of these milestones and how you aim towards achieving the next stages of progress? Yes. So on Tuesday, September 5th, just most recently you have secured our first purchase order for 400 kilograms of our proprietary Silicon anodes named MBM side by an Asian chemical material company that has been under an NDA for a few years. Now this order was received through our South Korean subsidiary and we plan to supply over a one-year period until August 2024 with gradually optimized samples. Now this initial volume purchase order was placed by the customer for their purposes of combining our products with their own battery materials to develop composite anode materials for commercial level lithium ion batteries. Now to give a little background, 100% of Silicon cannot be used within the anode but right now for commercial level usage we need to combine Silicon graphite as well as other materials. So that is why they're conducting this test and this company is actually well known within its country developing robust and high performance materials for batteries and other chemical and electronic applications as well. So they've been testing with several other global battery and EV manufacturers on a long-term basis and they will present the collaboratively developed products to those parties as well. Now this symbolic purchase order was mainly enabled through our technological breakthrough of improving the coding capability of our Silicon anode materials which is the key most crucial component of our technology so far. So new chemical additives that are very cheap were introduced to further strengthen the performance and the reliability of the Silicon in within the lithium ion batteries. Now we've gone through several iterations to validate this optimization in terms of the formulation and we've demonstrated over a 70% increase in the cycle life improvement compared to the previous best manufactured batch. Now to reiterate with cheap additives and with no big modifications we are still able to maintain the 70% cost-reduced advantage compared to our competitors. Now NEO has also sent these optimized samples to battery and EV manufacturers for third-party testing and to give you more background we have been actively delivering samples to global companies in the supply chain as we said we're undergoing 20 plus active evaluations today. Now this latest delivery represents the fourth sample sent to the global battery manufacturer that we've been working with as well as initial sample tests with North American based battery manufacturers as well. Now to answer the last question to get to the next stages of progress we have secured five more battery professionals to increase our R&D capacity and we'll be moving to a larger facility to develop our products as well. As mentioned, we have also established an effective feedback loop or a relationship with these global players and this has drastically helped us to incorporate new levels of performance. Now, despite working around a short timeline these companies have been thoroughly impressed and we are diligently working and cooperating to ink advanced agreements with these parties at the moment. And I will be looking very, very closely to see you guys ink those agreements. Now in August your company has announced advancements in a product collaboration with NanoReal and the formation of the R&D task force for solid state batteries. Can you comment how these developments fit in with NEO's silicon and nodes and commercialization? Yes, so not only just for the battery industry but for any company collaborations are always a shortcut to commercialization and other catalysts. And this is why our advancement with NanoReal has been significant. So NEO has actively discussed since the initiation of our company that carbon nanotubes or CNTs are nanomaterials that are very strong and robust being 100 times stronger than steel with high electrical conductivity properties like copper. So with NanoReal's high performing CNT technology we have combined this as a nano coating material for NEO silicon and nodes presenting a new product in the portfolio. So we are currently undergoing preliminary testing to improve cycle life as well as the energy capacity and how well the silicon performs within a commercial level lithium ion battery. Now this formal partnership is named as Project 2N-CSI which will be used to jointly apply to non-diluted funding as well as our other commercialization plans in Ontario. And most interestingly, this is actually the first EV battery materials collaborative product being developed by two Canadian Ontario based companies. Now we have both have a vision to help the province to become a critical EV battery hub in the coming years as well. Now alongside this, we have also internally formed an R&D task force for solid state batteries or SSBs for short. Now SSBs are another hot topic within the industry as this next generation material has the capability to increase the driving range but most importantly, be fire resistant. Now multiple global battery and EV manufacturers have requested for SSB compatible silicon anodes to us. And now due to the high demand and request we have secured top battery professionals for SSB research and we aim to launch a silicon anode material product with this task force. So NEO products are very versatile and resistant to obsolesion. So not only are we targeting current materials, we have a long-term plan to be relevant throughout the growing lifetime of the EV and electronics industry. Now, Danny, in extension to the first commercial plant in South Korea, you mentioned that NEO has also announced an initiative to move into Ontario for North American expansion. Can you please explain how you plan to execute this expansion and what we can expect as next steps? Yes, so as much as we love South Korea, NEO Band Materials is an Ontario based company and we love our roots as well. So with numerous global players coming into the province, such as the LG Stellantis joint venture called NextStar Energy and Volkswagen's Battery Plant in St. Thomas, we view that Ontario will become a critical battery hub in the next few years. And to start with NEO Band Materials, we've made an initial application to a federal level grant funding of $1.5 million to $80 for a total project estimate of $2 million. And to grow this further in terms of the funding magnitude, we have been in discussion with the provincial government, municipalities as well as academic institutions to establish a well-connected Canadian network for R&D deployment as well as expansion. Now, I could construct our second commercial plant here near the Greater Toronto area and we will fund this plant through a majority of non-diluted funding measures. Now, this is how we'll protect dilution but scale rapidly using government money. So we are currently discussing about economic incentives, supply chain proximity, site selection, foreign trade programs and support and other relevant considerations to determine the optimal location and environment within Ontario. So we'll provide another update on our Ontario operations through a subsequent press release. Fantastic. Very excited to continue to watch you guys continue to grow and develop. NEO Band Materials has been a huge success story so far in 2023. I must bring your attention to the symbol in Canada. It's NBM in America. It's NBMFF and I must remind you that Rich TV Live is strictly for information and education purposes. Please do your due diligence and do your research when you're looking into companies that we're talking about and featuring and interviewing. In saying that, I do believe that NEO Band Materials is very undervalued, under-appreciated and under-exposed and I believe it has huge potential. Thank you for joining us today. The head of strategy and operations for NEO Band Materials, Danny Ha. Thank you for joining us today Danny and we'd love to have you back in the future. Thank you so much Richard. Always a pleasure. Now remember, you're not winning, you're probably not watching because we bring the winners, we bring your CO interviews, trending topics, breaking news and we bring them to you first. Have a great day everybody. I'm your host Rich from Rich TV Live with the head of strategy and operations of NEO Band Materials, Danny Ha, saying have a nice day. We'll see you guys soon.