TABLE OF CONTENTS

• News Brief
• About mHUB
• About the Grainger Foundation
• Application Form
• NUMORPHO’s submission

NEWS BRIEF

(CHICAGO April 24, 2024) Today, mHUB announces a program in partnership with The Grainger Foundation, which will award grants of up to $30,000 each to six hardtech companies to support prototyping and advance product development. In addition to product development costs, the program will provide hands-on expertise through mHUB’s design for manufacturing arm, Hardtech Development Services, and other resources that will support the readiness level of selected technologies.

“We’re so thrilled to offer this opportunity to startups for much-needed early, non-dilutive funding,” said Shannon McGhee, Vice President of Programs and Engagement at mHUB. “These grants and partnership with The Grainger Foundation are a critical part in our work to shorten the commercialization timeline for hardtech businesses.”

mHUB is focused on supporting early-stage companies in product development by pairing hands-on resources with capital. This new opportunity will be open to mHUB members that are pre-series A, have demonstrated product-market fit, and meet other eligibility criteria. Priority will go to companies developing physical products in healthcare and sustainability.

Candidates will be reviewed by an internal committee from mHUB leadership, its technical arm, and its Board of Directors to select six startups that will receive up to $30,000 to spend on product development, access to a curated team of engineers and innovation talent through HardTech Development Services, dedicated advising time from mHUB’s bench of Experts in Residence, and additional resources to accelerate their technology.

“This grant will empower teams to mitigate technical feasibility risks, enhance manufacturability, and advance their hardware innovations toward market readiness,” said Bill Fienup, Co-Founder and Vice President of Innovation Services at mHUB. “A major hurdle we often observe at mHUB is transforming a functional prototype into a product that can be produced at scale economically, ensuring the venture’s sustainability.”

Pre-investment and post-investment companies can apply for funding. This is the second non-dilutive grant opportunity launched in 2024 by mHUB for hardtech companies within its member community. In early April, mHUB announced that it had awarded $250,000 in the first quarter alone to underrepresented founders through its Equity in Innovation Program, which brought its total in non-dilutive funding issued underneath its Catalyze Initiative to more than $440,000 since the beginning of 2023.

Learn more and apply here. 

About mHUB: 

mHUB is a leading independent hardtech and manufacturing innovation center that exists to convene the entrepreneurial ecosystem around physical product innovation to ensure that the manufacturing industry continues to accelerate, grow, and thrive. The mHUB community includes over 428 active and alumni startups and small businesses supported by a deep talent pool of product designers and developers, entrepreneurs, engineers and manufacturers, corporate leaders, industry experts, mentors, and investors. mHUB provides a hyper-resourced environment for entrepreneurs to commercialize new hardtech innovations that will lead to new businesses, intellectual property, investment, revenue, and job creation. Since launching in 2017, the mHUB community has generated more than $1.14B in revenue, launched more than 1,502 products, hired more than 5,193 employees, and raised over $1.49B in capital.

Learn more at www.mhubchicago.com  

About The Grainger Foundation: 

The Grainger Foundation, an independent private foundation based in Lake Forest, Illinois, provides substantive support to a broad range of organizations including educational, medical, cultural, and human services institutions.  The Grainger Foundation was established in 1949 by William Wallace Grainger, founder of W.W. Grainger, Inc., the leading broad line distributor of maintenance, repair, and operating products (MRO), with operations primarily in North America, Japan and the United Kingdom.

APPLICATION FORM

About the Grainger Product Development Fund

The Grainger Product Development Grants are part of mHUB’s initiatives to support pre-series A companies in product development. Priority will go to companies developing physical products in climate, health, and sustainability. The application process will be competitive and open to mHUB members who are pre-series A, have demonstrated product-market fit, and meet other eligibility criteria including application review and interviews for the top-ranking teams.

An internal committee from mHUB leadership, its technical arm, and the Board of Directors will review this competitive pool of applicants and select six startups for funding through a two-phase process. The selected six companies will receive up to $30,000 to spend on product development, a curated team of engineers and innovation talent through Hardtech Development Services, dedicated advising time from mHUB’s bench of Experts in Residence, and additional resources to accelerate its technology through TRL 9.

Application criteria

This application is to apply for up to $30,000 in a one-to-one matching grant to support product development through mHUB’s HardTech Development Services. To qualify, the applicant must meet the following criteria:

• Must have identified a problem that is solved with a physical product.
• Must be a current mHUB member in good standing.
• Must be pre-Series A.
• Must provide one-to-one matching funds.
• Have completed and uploaded documents via this form the following requirements:

What We’re Evaluating For at This Stage

This program is a competitive process open to mHUB members who fit the eligibility criteria outlined above. Applications are reviewed and scored by a judging panel including program staff, Experts in residence, and mHUB leadership following the criteria outlined below. Reviewers include technical, business, and product experts. The process leverages Quality Function Deployment (QFD) principles designed to eliminate bias and elevate diverse perspectives, in alignment with the process used for all mHUB programs including its accelerator, award, and pitch competition applications.

• Product-Market-Fit
• Potential of Award to Accelerate Technology through TRL 9
• Management Team Potential

Application Deadline & Award Notification

• Application deadline: May 10, 2024 at 10am CT
• Notification window: May 24- June 7

Application Questions in PDF Form for Viewing

https://resources.mhubchicago.com/form/10470?utm_campaign=mHUB%20Innovation%20Center&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_SUW1Adxq5bRHbPHTOipBwQY5l42qilCkW-fw4Q8pZyOz3bpKgiZTAbtI4vDyGf-uLCAxPdINs02jBKbLBe7u_e7HfMg&_hsmi=304342315&utm_content=304342315&utm_source=hs_email

While the application exists in a form, we highly recommend applicants to keep a record of their working and final answers.

Questions?

• Email: team@mhubchicago.com

NUMORPHO’s SUBMISSION

1. What is your full name

Nitin Uchil

2. What is your company name?

Numorpho Cybernetic Systems

3. What is your email address?

nitin.uchil@numorpho.com

4. What is your phone number?

1-734-945-6463

5. What is the amount you’re requesting in this grant application?

$30,000.00

6. What problem is your company solving? How is this problem being solved today without your solution? Describe the importance of your solution. (250 words)

For over 100 years, hard hats have helped protect workers from various hazards, including falling objects, tools, debris and electrical hazards. However, the hard hat wasn’t designed to protect against injuries from slips, trips and falls, which in 2020 resulted in over 200,000 serious injuries that required days off work according to data from the National Safety Council’s Injury Facts.

Traditional helmets often lack the advanced features necessary to provide real-time monitoring and proactive protection. Without our solution, safety measures rely primarily on passive protection, such as sturdy construction and standard safety protocols. However, these methods may not adequately address dynamic hazards or provide timely alerts in emergency situations.

Our Smart Helmet addresses the critical issues of usability, safety and situational awareness across various industries and activities. Our product revolutionizes safety, usability, and operability by integrating cutting-edge technology – parametric modeling, generative design, additive manufacturing and mobile connectivity by including sensors for geo-location, vision, environmental monitoring, and motion detection. This comprehensive sensor suite enables constant monitoring of the wearer’s surroundings, allowing for early detection of potential hazards such as falling (often referred to as man-down situation), gas leaks, environmental risks, sudden movements indicative of accidents or monitoring quality control and operational conditions in manufacturing.

Whether it’s in industrial settings, outdoor recreational activities, emergency response scenarios, or home care, our Smart Helmet sets a new standard for safety, offering unmatched protection and peace of mind to users across various industries and activities.

7. Please provide a brief product/solution description.

Industry 4.0 has brought about a transformation in the manufacturing sector by automating processes utilizing technologies like IoT, edge processing, Digital Twins, AR/VR an AI/ML to automate, optimize and harmonize processes.

However, except for rare instances, the workers are still unconnected with these processes when they are performing their tasks on the shop floor.

Our Smart Helmet is a revolutionary mobile safety solution that combines advanced technology with innovative design to provide unparalleled protection and situational awareness in the PPE (Personnel Protection Equipment) category. Our basis is Smart Monitoring using our CONNECT-DETECT-PROTECT protocol. It dovetails perfectly with our genAI based process automation platform, the Mantra M5 that coordinates activities in make, manage, move, market and maintain.

Featuring a compact folding structure for easy transportation, storage and utility, our helmet is parametrically designed to offer customizable fit for any head shape.

Additively manufactured using 3D printing technology, it can also be reinforced with high-strength materials like Kevlar or Carbon Fiber for maximum durability utilizing continuous fiber reinforcement technology from our partner company, Markforged a leader in Additive Manufacturing technologies. We have also been well advised on materials, 3D print technologies and PPE (Personnel Protection Equipment) cataloging and distribution by Wurth Additive Group.

Our solution goes beyond traditional helmets by transforming them into active safety systems that provide continuous monitoring and proactive protection. By leveraging technology to anticipate and prevent accidents, our Smart Helmet ensures that users are better equipped to navigate hazardous environments with confidence. The core feature of our Smart Helmet lies in its integration of cutting-edge sensors, including Location, Vision, Environmental, and Motion Sensors. These sensors enable real-time monitoring of the wearer’s surroundings, detecting potential hazards such as gas leaks, environmental risks, or sudden movements indicative of falls or accidents. This is made possible with partnerships with companies like Arduino PRO, Sony Semiconductor’s AITRIOS division and Stroma Vision.

Smart Monitoring: Connect-Detect-Protect – EVERYTHING CONNECTED – Numorpho’s Book of Business

8. Describe your customer. What is the market size? (include Total Addressable Market (TAM)? Why is now the time for your product? What’s your anticipated time to market (TTM)? (250 words)

Our customer base for the Smart Helmet includes industries such as manufacturing, construction, military, emergency response, and outdoor recreation, as well as institutions like nursing homes and healthcare facilities wherein our smart helmets not only serve to detect and protect patients but also help proactively monitor their gait and balance to enable treatment and predictive response. 

We have already created different helmet types for the different demographics as showcased below:

Over the course of a year and a half, we have 3D printed more than 100 complete helmets to ideate over and iterate our designs. This included tightening the tolerances, enabling a Kirigami based slicing for the slats, testing out different mechanisms for folding (stoppers, rails and grooves), and designing appropriate enclosures to hold the sensors and other electronic componentry.

The market size for smart safety equipment is substantial, with an increasing emphasis on workplace safety regulations and a growing demand for advanced safety solutions globally.

The global safety helmets market size was estimated at $3.9B in 2021 and is anticipated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.6% from 2022 to 2030 ($7.7B). We anticipate an aggressive 100% growth rate from $2.5M next year to $20M in 2028 after which there will be a more modest $10M per year to reach our SOM of $40M in 2030.

Companies have been able to use Industrial IoT and AI to develop sensors and use generative design to create additional support features for helmets, such as a multi-directional impact protection system and technology to reduce brain injury.

Now is the perfect time for our product due to several converging factors. First, there is a growing awareness of the importance of proactive safety measures, driven by an increasing number of workplace accidents and regulatory mandates for safety compliance. Additionally, advancements in sensor technology, 3D printing, and artificial intelligence have made it feasible to develop sophisticated safety solutions like our Smart Helmet at a reasonable cost.

Our anticipated time to market (TTM) is relatively short, thanks to our completion of design prototyping, intent for manufacturability, and developed partnerships with technology providers and their versatile manufacturing capabilities. We aim to bring our product to market within the next 6 to 12 months, leveraging our agile development process and collaborative approach to accelerate production and deployment utilizing what we call Linked Solutioning for partners and manufacturers. By swiftly addressing the pressing need for advanced safety solutions, we aim to capture a significant share of the growing market while establishing ourselves as leaders in mobile and smart safety equipment innovation.

In the subsequent two diagrams we represent our Linked Solutioning during the making of the helmet (partnerships for Additive Manufacturing) and after for marketing, sales and distribution.

9. What is your go-to-market strategy?

Our go-to-market strategy for the Smart Helmet revolves around several key pillars aimed at maximizing market penetration and ensuring successful adoption:

1. Targeted Industry Partnerships: We will forge strategic partnerships with key players in target industries such as manufacturing, construction, and emergency services. These partnerships will enable us to leverage existing distribution channels, access established customer networks, and gain valuable insights into industry-specific needs and preferences.
2. Direct Sales and Distribution Channels: We will establish direct sales channels through our website and online platforms, allowing us to reach customers directly and efficiently. Additionally, we will leverage distribution partnerships with safety equipment suppliers and retailers to ensure broad availability of our product.
3. Vertical-Specific Marketing Campaigns: Tailored marketing campaigns will be designed to target specific verticals, highlighting the unique benefits and applications of our Smart Helmet in different industries. This approach will allow us to effectively communicate our value proposition to diverse customer segments and drive demand.
4. Subscription Monetization: Since our Smart Helmet PPE products are embedded with data gathering sensors, the data monitoring, analysis and response could be made utilizing a subscription model.
5. Demonstrations and Pilots: We will conduct product demonstrations and pilot programs with key customers to showcase the capabilities of our Smart Helmet in real-world scenarios. These initiatives will provide valuable feedback, build trust, and generate buzz around our product, paving the way for broader adoption.
6. Education and Training: We will invest in comprehensive education and training programs for customers to ensure they fully understand the features, functionalities, and best practices for using our Smart Helmet. By empowering users with the knowledge and skills to maximize the benefits of our product, we will enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
7. After-Sales Support and Service: Providing exceptional after-sales support and service will be a priority. We will offer warranty programs, technical support, and regular software updates to ensure optimal performance and customer satisfaction over the product lifecycle.
8. Continuous Innovation and Feedback Loop: We will maintain a strong focus on continuous innovation, gathering customer feedback and market insights to inform product enhancements and future iterations. By staying responsive to evolving customer needs and market trends, we will position ourselves as a trusted partner for smart safety solutions.

By executing on these strategies, we aim to establish our Smart Helmet as the go-to choice for organizations and individuals seeking advanced safety solutions, driving market adoption for our products and achieving revenue growth.

10. What evidence do you have that there will be a product-market fit for your solution?

The importance of our solution lies in its ability to transform helmets from passive protective gear into active safety systems. By providing real-time monitoring and alerts, our Smart Helmet empowers users to respond proactively to emerging risks, mitigating potential dangers and enhancing overall safety outcomes. Whether it’s in industrial settings, outdoor recreational activities, or emergency response scenarios, our Smart Helmet ensures that users are better equipped to anticipate and prevent accidents, ultimately saving lives and minimizing injuries.

Our confidence in achieving a strong product-market fit for our solution is supported by several key pieces of evidence:

1. Market Research and Validation: We have conducted extensive market research to identify and understand the needs and pain points of potential customers across target industries. This research included surveys, interviews, and feedback from industry experts, stakeholders, and potential end-users. The feedback received validates the demand for advanced safety solutions like our Smart Helmet, indicating a clear market need.
2. Industry Trends and Regulations: We have observed significant trends and regulatory developments in industries such as manufacturing, construction, and healthcare that underscore the importance of safety and monitoring solutions. Increasing emphasis on workplace safety regulations, rising awareness of occupational hazards, and the adoption of advanced technologies in safety management all point to a favorable market environment for our solution.
3. Early Customer Engagement and Interest: Through initial outreach efforts and product demonstrations, we have received positive feedback and expressions of interest from potential customers and partners. This early customer engagement indicates a strong level of interest in our solution and suggests that there is demand for the features and capabilities offered by our Smart Helmet.
4. Competitive Landscape Analysis: We have conducted a thorough analysis of the competitive landscape to understand existing solutions and competitors in the market. This analysis has revealed gaps and opportunities where our solution can differentiate itself and provide unique value propositions to customers, positioning us for success in the market.
5. Pilot Programs and Proof of Concept: We plan to conduct pilot programs and proof-of-concept trials with key customers to validate the effectiveness and performance of our Smart Helmet in real-world scenarios. These pilot programs will provide valuable insights, feedback, and testimonials that further validate the product-market fit and inform our go-to-market strategy.
6. Basis for our process engineering Platform: As part of the development of the smart helmet concept, we have been evolving our process engineering platform, the Mantra M5 to enable activities to Make, Manage, Move, Market and Maintain. Our product development has helped prove, improve and validate the construct of our genAI based platform in all its tenets: innovation, automation, integration and enactment (actionable intelligence).

This combination of market research, industry trends, early customer engagement, competitive analysis, planned pilot programs and proof of using it as a basis for building our platform provides strong evidence that there is a significant product-market fit for our Smart Helmet solution. We are confident that our solution addresses genuine market needs and will resonate with customers across various industries and applications.

11. Describe your founding team.

Nitin Uchil, Founder, CEO & Technical Evangelist. With a background in Aerospace, Automotive and Strategy & Digital Consulting, Nitin is building Numorpho as a company that builds products using a themed process engineering platform that combines his background and experience with new emerging technologies. For this project, he his utilizing his experience in product lifecycle management and safety engineering when at Ford Motor Company and his interactions with Volvo when he was there. When he started his career in Aerospace engineering, he was involved in instituting design optimization and sensitivity analysis which is now known as generative design for the International Space station, the Space Shuttle program and various aircraft designs. He was involved in external aerodynamics, and under-hood and underbody thermal management for various car manufacturers: Mercedes, Audi and Jaguar. He was also responsible for parametric modeling of vehicle crankshafts for different engine configurations and is utilizing this for the unique design pattern of the helmets.

Full bio at:

• https://nitinuchil.wordpress.com/career-vitae/
• https://numorpho.org/2022/12/28/nitins-bio/

Jared Clemens, Lead Designer and Intern has been helping build the deign variants of the helmets using parametric modeling, CAD design initially in Fusion 360 and now in an equations and macros driven SolidWorks, cataloging the design in our PDM system and creating appropriate media and Bill of Materials files. He was also instrumental in incorporating the firmware and connecting the electronic componentry for the housings to hold the Arduino Nicla sensors, battery pack, on-off switch and the charging set up. Jared has worked in a wide variety of disciplines including neuroscience research (Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Chicago), organic livestock farming, construction and end-to-end product development.

Shreekumar Vinekar, MD, Chief Advisor is a neurologist and doctor who has been helping us with the design of helmet with particular focus on head impact and concussions. He has also been helping is with defining the generative AI aspects of the underpinnings of our process engineering platform by helping with pre-training aspects with emphasis on language understanding and meaning generation. 

Scott McGowan, Advisor for Strategy and Go-to-Market advises us on strategy and go-to-market considerations based on his manufacturing and digital transformation background. For the helmet, he and his wife Deb have been proponents and will be our first use case for the Biking variant since they are avid bikers in the Colorado area and take a couple of biking trips to Europe every year.

Shish Sridhar, Advisor for Retail and Microsoft partnership helps us with our start up program with Microsoft and its VC arm M12.vc. He has introduced us to the Industry Cloud team responsible for the Cloud for Manufacturing offering and its Federal division which we have availed of in our interactions with MxD, the DoD organization in the Chicagoland area whose thesis is design for manufacturing, cybersecurity and supply chain implications.

Professor V (Paddy) Padmanabhan, my peer from engineering school helps in defining the basis for cutting edge and disruptive technologies advises us on setting the stage for new emerging ways where new thinking and methodologies to do things are needed for progression. 

More details at: https://numorpho.org/2023/01/01/advisory-board/

12. Please describe your product roadmap to commercialization and your biggest technical challenges. (Indicate where you are and what steps you need to take to get in through manufacturing. How will the grant help?)

Here is our representation of the TRL levels for hard tech development that includes a combination of mechanical and electronic component design, development and deployment.

We incubated at mHUB with the help of their ecosystem partners to mature thru the initial Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) up to 5 to research, conceptualize, define, design and prototype our smart helmet solution.

Our product roadmap to commercialization encompasses several key milestones that guided us from concept development to current state and will lead us to mass manufacturing and market launch. Here’s an overview of our roadmap and the steps we need to take to reach each milestone for the 6 horizons (items in red will be fulfilled as part of the grant):

1. Ideation and Concept Creation: This was initiated during the D3AMP program sponsored by MxD and conducted by Drexel University and progressed with the AMx program at the Richard Daley School’s Advanced Engineering MTEC center run by 3Degrees.
2. Design and Prototyping: We have already completed design and prototyping phases and design for manufacturability by reviewing the various standard head forms and creating a design pattern for folding.We are currently finalizing the design and functionality of our different Smart Helmet variants. Our next step is to finalize the design including testing simulation using CAE software and prepare for production.
3. Manufacturing Setup and Tooling: The next phase involves setting up manufacturing facilities and tooling for mass production. This includes selecting production partners, sourcing materials, and developing manufacturing processes optimized for efficiency and quality. We have already begun this process and are validating small batch manufacturing with our partners.
4. Pilot Production and Testing: Once manufacturing facilities are established, we will initiate pilot production runs to validate the manufacturing process and ensure product quality and consistency. Rigorous testing will be conducted to verify compliance with the different safety standards and performance requirements. Utilizing SMEs from the mHUB ecosystem we have generated initial test plans and identified key labs to undergo physical testing (Virginia Tech, etc.). We would like to have a complete set of FMEAs for the different helmet variants based on the needed compliance for that domain with consideration for country/region specific needs.
5. Certification and Compliance: Following successful pilot production and testing, we will seek certification and regulatory approvals required for commercialization. This includes obtaining safety certifications and compliance with industry standards in target markets. (ASCII, CPSC etc,). We have cataloged these tests.
6. Market Launch and Distribution: With certification and compliance in place, we will proceed with the market launch of our Smart Helmet. This involves executing our go-to-market strategy, including sales, marketing, and distribution efforts to reach customers and drive adoption. Here we have partnerships with some companies.

Our biggest technical challenges revolve around:

1. Foldability Locking and Harness Design: Albeit we have a good system to prevent the inadvertent folding of helmet in adverse conditions, we would like to make it fool proof. We would also like to integrate it to the harness system (retainer, fit ratcheting, suspension system, foam, front pads and chin straps) so that the entire system is conformant to meeting safety and usability conditions.
2. Sensor Integration and Calibration: Integrating multiple sensors into the helmet while ensuring accurate calibration and seamless operation poses technical challenges. We need to optimize sensor placement, data fusion algorithms, and calibration procedures to achieve reliable performance in diverse environments.
3. Materials and Manufacturing: Selecting suitable materials and manufacturing processes to achieve the desired balance of durability, comfort, and affordability is critical. We will be addressing considerations related to material selection and use, 3D printing techniques, and quality control to ensure consistent production of high-quality helmets. For regular helmets we will be using ABS and PETG for the shell, and for our high-end versions SLS technology, or Markforged Continuous Reinforced Fiber using Kevlar and Carbon Fiber infill.
4. Software Development and Integration: Developing the software ecosystem to support sensor data processing, connectivity, and user interface functionalities requires robust software engineering capabilities. We have and intend to use my background in managing versions of both code and product variants based on GIT repository and PLM systems. We need to address challenges related to software development, integration with hardware and electronic components, firmware updates, security and privacy protection, and compatibility with external systems. We have a pilot ready for smart monitoring already developed with Arduino’s help and we plan to continue this with their recommended partner 4IEC who are now part of mHUB.

A grant would significantly accelerate our progress along the product roadmap by providing funding for key activities such as:

• Further research and development to address technical challenges and optimize product performance.
• Investment in manufacturing setup, tooling, and pilot production runs.
• Certification and compliance efforts to ensure regulatory approvals and market readiness.
• Marketing and distribution initiatives to support the market launch and drive customer adoption.

The grant would provide crucial financial support to expedite our path to commercialization and position our Smart Helmet for success in the market.

Uploads:

13. Please upload your detailed pitch deck or simplified business plan (maximum upload size of 10MB)

• The Problem 
• Our Solution
• Customer Demographics
• The Opportunity
• Path to Commercialization
• Funds Utilization
• Founding & Development Team
• Supporting Material

14. Optional: please attach any other key documents here (maximum upload size of 10MB)

• Podcast with Arduino with Scott McGowan conducted by Ben Strahan

   

Stage II (note: this will be a requirement if the applicant moves to stage II in the application process)

Please upload your Product Requirements Document (maximum upload size of 10MB, Note: should include what fundamental questions the project should answer, connect to the largest uncertainties in the Value Proposition Canvas/business plan/pitch deck, and include prioritized features and performance)