Cancer-free packaging, non-toxic textiles, safe homes -- these solutions should not be gated behind corporate paywalls. We publish our formulations openly and build a sustainable business helping industry implement them at scale.
Think Red Hat, but for chemistry. The formulations are open. The expertise, certification, and enterprise support are what you pay for.
Every year, millions of tonnes of PFAS, formaldehyde, chromium compounds, and other toxic chemicals are used in everyday products -- your food packaging, your children's clothing, the walls of your home. Not because safer alternatives don't exist, but because the alternatives are locked behind corporate IP and priced out of reach.
We believe that is morally wrong. When you discover that food-grade ingredients can replace carcinogenic coatings at the same cost and the same performance, you have an obligation to share that knowledge as widely as possible. Gatekeeping it would be choosing profit over public health.
So we publish our formulations. Openly. Every experiment, every result, every breakthrough -- shared with the world through peer-reviewed journals and open-access repositories.
Non-toxic chemistry should not be a luxury. Every manufacturer on Earth should have access to safer formulations.
When researchers worldwide can build on our work, breakthroughs happen faster. Thousands of minds are better than one lab.
Open formulations create trust, adoption, and demand -- the business model sustains the mission, not the other way around.
Red Hat proved you can give away the code and build a $34 billion company on expertise, certification, and enterprise support. We're doing the same for chemistry.
Core platform patents protect the catalyst system. Broad Markush claims cover amino acid families.
Peer-reviewed papers create prior art, blocking competitors from patenting applications.
CAGE Certified operates like Intel Inside -- a B2B2C trust signal that cannot be cloned.
Upfront license + 1-3% per-unit royalty. Support, formulation optimization, regulatory compliance.
University research network funded 3:1 through government grants. Continuous R&D at minimal cost.
From university labs to Fortune 500 manufacturers -- a licensing structure that makes non-toxic chemistry accessible to everyone.
Forever free for universities, nonprofits, and government labs.
upfront / 1% royalty on revenue
For companies under $1M annual revenue. No barrier to entry.
upfront / 2% per-unit royalty
For established manufacturers scaling non-toxic production.
negotiated / volume royalty
Multi-division, multi-year agreements for industry leaders.
Open doesn't mean unprotected. Our multi-layer IP strategy ensures the mission is sustainable and competitors can't close what we've opened.
Our core catalyst system is protected by broad USPTO patents using Markush group claims that cover families of amino acid catalysts -- not just single compounds. This means someone swapping one amino acid for another still falls within our patent scope.
Every peer-reviewed paper we publish creates prior art that legally blocks competitors from patenting those applications. By publishing openly, we make it impossible for anyone to close the door behind us. The knowledge stays free forever.
CAGE Certified is a registered trademark and quality mark -- like UL Listed or Energy Star. Even if someone replicates our formulations, they cannot use the CAGE Certified badge. And increasingly, that badge is what consumers and procurement teams look for.
We participate in patent defense networks (LOT Network) that prevent our patents from ever being weaponized by patent trolls. Academic users get unconditional free access. The patent wall protects the open ecosystem -- not the other way around.
We fund university research at 3:1 leverage through Canadian government programs. Every dollar we invest generates three dollars of research value -- and every publication strengthens the open-science ecosystem.
NSERC Alliance Grants match our investment 2:1. A $50K contribution from CAGE funds a $150K research project.
Mitacs Accelerate places graduate students in our lab at $7,500 per 4-month internship, matched by government funding.
Canadian small businesses receive a 35% refundable investment tax credit on all eligible R&D expenditures.
A specific industrial application where toxic chemistry needs replacing -- e.g., "formaldehyde-free wood panel binders."
A professor with relevant expertise takes on the project. Graduate students do the bench work as part of their thesis research.
NSERC Alliance, Mitacs, and provincial programs cover 60-75% of costs. Our investment is leveraged 3:1.
Peer-reviewed papers in journals like Green Chemistry and ACS Sustainable Chemistry. Open access. Available to everyone.
The published science becomes the basis for production-ready, CAGE Certified formulations -- the enterprise layer that manufacturers pay for.
Every breakthrough deserves to be rewarded. Researchers who contribute viable formulations share in the royalties forever.
Of net licensing revenue from any formulation you invent. If a manufacturer licenses your bio-based coating and pays CAGE royalties, 25% goes to you -- for the life of the patent.
Goes back to the inventor's university department -- funding more research, more students, and more breakthroughs.
Reinvested into the platform: more research partnerships, more bounties, more enterprise support -- growing the ecosystem that generates the revenue.
Open chemistry challenges with cash prizes for specific breakthroughs. Think "bug bounties" for formulation science.
Optimize an existing formulation parameter
New application or major performance gain
Entirely new industrial vertical enabled
Fundamental platform-level discovery
All prize-winning results are published openly. Winners retain co-inventor rights on any resulting patents and receive ongoing royalty shares.
Every sector below uses toxic chemistry that can be replaced with food-grade alternatives. Each one represents a research opportunity, a university partnership, and a licensing revenue stream.
PFAS-free grease-proof wrappers, pizza boxes, takeout containers, baking paper, produce trays.
Formaldehyde-free wrinkle resistance for cotton shirts, bedsheets, uniforms, and medical scrubs.
PFAS-free DWR for outdoor apparel, activewear, workwear, and technical fabrics.
Compostable barriers for hot/cold drink cups, paper plates, and molded fiber containers.
Amino acid catalyzed depolymerization of PLA back to lactic acid monomers at lower temperatures.
Water-resistant coatings for shipping boxes, pressure-sensitive labels, and industrial packaging.
Formaldehyde-free binders for plywood, MDF, particleboard, and OSB panels.
Chrome-free tanning agents for automotive leather, fashion, and furniture upholstery.
Zero-VOC binders and coalescing agents for architectural paints and industrial coatings.
Non-halogenated flame retardants for curtains, upholstery, children's sleepwear, and industrial workwear.
Biodegradable seed coatings, controlled-release fertilizer encapsulation, and mulch films.
Formaldehyde-free fiberglass and mineral wool insulation binders for residential and commercial buildings.
Biocide-free hull coatings for ships, boats, and marine infrastructure.
Biocompatible coatings for surgical drapes, wound dressings, and implant surfaces.
Bio-based conformal coatings, flame retardants, and solder flux for circuit boards.
Bio-based flocculants, membrane coatings, and pipe linings for municipal water systems.
Bio-based protective coatings for solar panels, wind turbine blades, and battery separators.
Interior trim coatings, underbody protection, and stain-resistant seat treatments.
Combined market size across all sectors where toxic chemistry faces regulatory pressure, consumer backlash, or both. Every application is a research project, a publication, and a licensing opportunity.
A clear path from lab bench to global licensing platform, with each phase funded by the revenue and grants from the previous one.
Months 1-6 (Q2-Q3 2026) | Budget: $15K-$25K
Months 7-18 (Q4 2026 - Q3 2027) | Budget: $50K-$100K
Months 19-36 (Q4 2027 - Q3 2028) | Budget: $200K-$500K
Year 1
Grants + SR&ED credits
Pre-revenue R&D phase
Year 2
First enterprise licenses
+ grants + SR&ED
Year 3
10-20 licensees
Multiple verticals
Year 5
At scale: ARM-style royalties
60-70% margins
Based on Red Hat ($34B exit), ARM (1-2% per-unit royalty), and Qualcomm (68% licensing margin) as analogues. Conservative estimates for a platform chemistry company capturing 0.01-0.1% of a $400B+ addressable market.
Gave away the code. Sold expertise, certification, and enterprise support. Acquired by IBM for $34 billion. 87% subscription revenue, 84% gross margin.
Patent licensing generates $5.3B/year at 68% profit margins -- only 16% of revenue but 49% of total net income. The most profitable division of the company.
Built a $7B company on certification alone. UL Listed is the trust mark for product safety. The CAGE Certified model follows the same playbook for chemistry.
Whether you're a researcher who wants to make chemistry safer, a manufacturer ready to go non-toxic, or an investor who believes in open science -- we want to hear from you.