Ilika expecting to start year with 'record' revenue commitments

Materials innovation and solid-state battery technology company Ilika updated the market on its trading on Friday, saying that since its last trading update in November, it had announced four “significant” commercial deals, which were resulting in a strong ramp-up of revenue relative to 2015/16 and which would continue to support revenue growth into 2017/18.

The AIM-traded firm said it expected to start 2017/18 with a record level of revenue commitments amounting to around £1.8m.

Ilika's stated business aim was to add licensing revenue to the development revenue it currently generated.

While levels of interest were “encouraging”, the board said predicting the timing of when the licenses would generate revenue remained a significant forecasting challenge for the company.

Given the proximity to the end of Ilika's current financial year and the duration of negotiations with OEM potential licensees, the board added it seemed increasingly likely that revenue from licensing may first have an impact in 2017/18.

“We are continuing to see a reinforcement of our customer relationships, with long-standing partnerships with companies like Toyota and Seagate being further cemented,” said Ilika CEO Graeme Purdy.

“It's also great to see the upturn in revenues relative to last year allowing us to start 2017/18 with such a strong order book.

“The number of potential licensees, their level of interest and the diversity of applications is giving us growing confidence in our licensing model.”