Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TextiaOriginCRS (Children Restraint System integrated in the car-seat)

Teaser

Problem addressedCRSs (Child Restraint Systems) are a key passive safety system for kids when suffering a car accident. This element is in charge of minimizing the damage when an accident happens, but all this safety can be affected if the user does not install the solution...

Summary

Problem addressed
CRSs (Child Restraint Systems) are a key passive safety system for kids when suffering a car accident. This element is in charge of minimizing the damage when an accident happens, but all this safety can be affected if the user does not install the solution correctly or if the car isn’t the correct one for the CRS. Textia Origin CRS will avoid user mal functioning by eliminating this critical point, this means we will create the safest CRS for that car model.

Importance for society
The main cause for children deaths are car accidents (i.e. in Spain 78% of all last year’s children deaths happened in car accidents and over one third of children aged between 0-14 years that have died in car accidents weren’t using a CRS). Not using this safety device rises the possibilities of death in over a 75%. The numbers also show that more than a 30% of children who died in car accidents had the CRS solution badly installed. So, taking figures into consideration, not using a CRS and having it badly installed can make the difference between living or dying. In fact, a recent study has shown that using a CRS that is correctly installed decreases in a 75% the probability of death and more than a 90% the probability of injury.

Due to regulatory issues and following with the European Commission challenge of 0 deaths in car accidents that should be achieved by 2020, children deaths have been reduced in the last years but there is still a long way to go. Textia`s vision is to reduce children injuries and deaths when car accidents occur as well as simplifying the election of a CRS and eliminating fitment errors which are the main cause for children deaths. In other words, Textia wants to make cars safer for children.

Overall objectives
The project is focused on understanding client and user needs (from manufacturers to end users) that will imply a difference in the decision-making process and go to market strategy. We also needed to identify key changes required from our functional prototype (all-stage CRS) for the Textia Origin Product and potential development plant to make them happen. Obviously, our penetration to the market must be following a brand priorization strategy that we will also develop with this feasibility study. All these parts will be summarized in a business plan.

Conclusions
We must continue with the Textia Origin CRS because we think it will contribute importantly to Textia success, being one of the main products of Textia by 2025 which will help to recruit 7 additional people in order to develop and commercialize this new product. Additionally, it will be key in many other important aspects for Textia sustaining a global innovative positioning and pioneering the penetration of new markets.

During market access phase I we will be launching the first pilot with the company of a Tier1 car seat manufacturer or with a car brand. Textia has already analyzed which are the most relevant car seats Tier1´s, OEM´s and has already prioritized the main contact brands. We have clearly defined the changes that need to be done from our current Textia Portable CRS product to the Origin version. Textia can implement by itself part of these adaptations, but other companies will be subcontracted to specialist in their field.

Textia has also analyzed the competitive landscape and has key advantages such as time and maturity of the technology which are key for our success, although we have already identified potential competitors. With all these ingredients we have built a business plan for the project (including development plan, commercial and personnel needs as well as potential impact in many indicators such as revenue, employment generated etc.)

Work performed

Work performed
To achieve the goals, we have worked in different lines:
• Leverage secondary resources/ reports for some of the main figures as well as specific points in the feasibility plan.
• Perform primary research (interviews with different stakeholders) to gain additional expertise of the market. List of interviewees is detailed in the technical report
• Extract key conclusions to be applied to the business plan. We have held many team meetings to discuss project findings and elaborate next steps.
• Develop and contrast business plan. We have developed the technical report and and Excel Sheet that has helped us to draft a business plan and put the hypotheses in numbers. All this has been contrasted with people with knowledge in business plan definition

Overview of results
Considering the business plan, we need to launch some important modifications to our current system and bring as soon as possible a Tier 1 to the design process, since they will be the client of our system. We have prioritized them and would need to start contacting them. Additionally we need to start looking for team profiles that could comlement current employees to bring this solution to the market.

To fulfill our objectives, we will need a relevant initial investment (895k€). We will ask for support from the EU SME Instrument program, as a Phase II, among other financing sources, mainly related to current product cash generation that will be already positive in 2022.

Exploitation and dissemination
We were present in 2018 in KindUndJugend children trade fair in Cologne presenting our all-stage prototype. If we are able to make a progress we would like to present our idea, once is already in prototype stage, in the 2020 trade-fair and apply for the innovation prize.

We will also introduce this project as part of Textia\'s business plan that we are presenting to investors.

Final results

Progress beyond state of the art

Today’s CRSs are mainly made out of plastics and metals, rigid surfaces that ensure that when a car suffers an accident the solution stays rigid, absorbs the impact and doesn’t break. CRS manufacturers also include big foams and textiles and make the solution comfortable for children. We don’t need to forget that a CRS is not only a safety element but it will also be where the child seats during his first 12 years of age, so the solution must be also comfortable. However, all this makes current CRSs, big and heavy so they can’t be introduced in a car seat due to logistical and design issues. In addition to this, some sectors that have to do with children safety such as Taxi or car rental don’t use current solutions due to logistical issues (difficulty to know how many kids and of which age will be transported).

Textia wants to break these barriers by creating the first all-stage CRS which is directly installed in origin in car seats because we believe that our unique and patented technology can answer what manufacturers are asking for, a material which has the same stiffness as a conventional plastic but can also be flexible and easily foldable. A technology that under atmospheric pressure is flexible and when we extract the air (vacuum) becomes as stiff as a conventional plastic. This allows that the solution to be folded and hidden inside the car´s seat when it is not needed and appears when needed. Textia has already developed a fully functional prototype of a previous solution (the Portable all-stage CRS) in order to test, first of all the material´s properties and secondly the feasibility of creating an all-stage CRS. This was the first barrier we face, until now manufacturers haven’t been able to create an all-stage CRS due to folding complexity issues. Our material has made possible the creation of a multistage portable prototype CRS that covers group 0-1 and group 2-3. But although we have achieved to simplify the election of the CRS, we still need to reduce user manipulation in order avoid user errors which are the most important causes for children injuries and deaths. This is the aim of Textia Origin CRS.


Impact

For the society
We will be helping in increasing children safety in cars since we will eliminate the two main reasons for children deaths with CRSs: user manipulation and wrong selection of CRS. So we will make the car a safer space for children.

For the company
We expect that Textia Origin CRS product will contribute dramatically to Texia success:
• Adding 23,2M revenues by 2026, Textia Origin will be the main product of Textia co-living by the Textia Portable CRS.
• Sustaining recruitment of 5 qualified team members by 2023 and 7 by 2026.
• Creating a positive cash flow since 2022.

Additionally, we will add up some intangible metrics:
• Pioneering global positioning in child restraint systems.
• Development of knowledge in end user go to market.
• Great positioning as technology based innovative company in an industry where being innovative is the key to create a market change.
• Improvements in the technology that could be in part also applied to other Textia projects.
• Develop needed portfolio to penetrate USA and Chinese markets.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.textiasolutions.com.