Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the 2025 Annual General Meeting of AnteoTech Limited. My name is Glenda McLoughlin, and I am the Chair of the Board of the Company. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today, the Turubal and the Jagara people, and I pay my respects to the elders past, present, and emerging. We've reached the appointed time, and a quorum is present, and I'm pleased to declare this meeting of members of AnteoTech Limited open. All attendees should have registered their attendance at the registration desk and via the streaming service, so please see the registration desk if you haven't already done so. Before we proceed, can I please ask you to turn off your mobile phones and also remind you that the use of the recording equipment is prohibited at this AGM?
Please also note that today's meeting is being live-streamed and recorded, so shareholders can view the meeting live but will not be able to ask questions, make comments, or vote through the webcast facilities. I'll now ask our Company Secretary, Andrew Cook, to outline the emergency evacuation procedures for those of you attending in person. Do you want to use this one? Yeah.
Thank you, Glenda, and good morning, everyone. For all our safety, I need to advise of the evacuation procedures. Please take a quick look for the green-lit exit signs, and in the case of an emergency in the hotel, please stay calm and follow instructions given by staff. The hotel has two distinct alarms: a warning alarm, which is the first tone that will sound throughout the building when the fire alarm is activated, or an evacuation, a second tone, if there is a pending emergency. This is a standby alarm. Do not evacuate the room, but be prepared to evacuate if it becomes necessary. The first tone is a beep-beep, the warning tone. Should you hear the alert tone, please adhere to the following: prepare to evacuate, identify the fire exits in your immediate area, and await further instructions from the fire warden staff.
The second tone is a whoop-whoop, emergency tone, and should you hear the evacuation tone, please adhere to the following: calmly make your way to the nearest emergency exit, await staff, and proceed to the assembly point on the ground level in Glenelg Street, under the bridge, where you'll be briefed on the situation. Do not use the lifts and follow staff instructions at all times. Thank you.
Thanks, Andrew. Right, now I would like to introduce you to my colleagues. First of all, Jeff Cumming, over here, a non-executive director. He's also Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee and a member of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee. I would also like to introduce you to Merrill Gray, our Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Also present today is Lucas Milonas, representing our external auditors, BDO, and Lucas will be available to answer any questions in respect to the audit when we consider the financial statements. Members of AnteoTech's executive management team are also here today at today's meeting, and I'd like to introduce you to some of them, if I can find them all in the audience, down here at the front. We have Andrew Cook, our Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary. We have Manuel Wieser, our Chief Technology Officer. We have Dr.
Gautam Rishi, our General Manager, Life Sciences, and we have John Nguyen, our Senior Manager, Quality and Compliance. The team will also be available after the meeting to answer any questions about AnteoTech's business or operations. Now, the meeting has been called under the notice of meeting dated the 24th of October 2025. The notice was released to the ASX by the state share registry provider, MUFG Corporate Markets, and is on the AnteoTech website. It's also been dispatched to those shareholders who have elected to receive a hard copy of the notice of meeting and meeting materials. I now table the notice of meeting and will take the notice as read. Thank you. The minutes of the previous AGM were held on the 26th of November 2024. Being in order, were signed by the chair of the meeting and are tabled for the information of shareholders.
If anybody would like to see them, they are available. Now, before we turn to the resolutions to be dealt with in the formal business of today's meeting, I'd like to make a few remarks on the progress of the company this year. We will then turn to the formal business of the meeting and consider the resolutions before us. We will have an opportunity for questions on resolutions as each is considered, and at the end of the meeting, there will be a presentation by our Managing Director and Chief Executive, Merrill Gray. Some questions were provided in advance of today's meeting, and we will answer those during question time after Merrill's presentation. Both my address and Merrill's presentation are now available on the ASX and on our website.
As most of you would know, this is my first AGM as Chair of AnteoTech, and I'm honored to address you all today. I joined the board in 2021 and was appointed Chair in April this year. Over the past 20 years, I've served on listed, private, and not-for-profit boards, and that followed an executive career in investment banking where I worked in Australia and in Asia and in the U.S. on debt and equity financings, M&A, and advisory transactions. My focus as Chair over the past six months has been on sharpening our commercial focus, strengthening our governance, and repositioning the company towards near-term opportunities. Merrill joined the AnteoTech board in January before stepping in as interim Chief Executive Officer at short notice. Over the past six months, she has restructured the organization to deliver greater efficiencies and built a culture of accountability and performance.
At the same time, she has tangibly expanded our customer engagement with early green shoots appearing. In August, the board appointed her as permanent Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, and we were absolutely delighted that she accepted. AnteoTech is now more agile, more commercial, and better positioned to convert our growing sales pipeline across both our advanced battery technologies and life sciences businesses. I'd like now to turn to our company strategy. AnteoTech, in our view, is one of the most exciting deep tech companies listed on the ASX. Our unique market-leading chemistry platform has tremendous breadth of applications and enormous potential to create value for shareholders and customers across a range of commercial applications. I also acknowledge, as some shareholders would agree, that commercialisation has taken longer to secure than expected. We are currently commercialising our technology across two major growth markets.
In life sciences, growth is driven by global demand for point-of-care diagnostics and chronic disease management, and in advanced battery technologies, growth is driven by electrification across mobility, defense, consumer electronics, and energy storage. Both of these industries are characterized by exacting manufacturing standards, concerns around supply chain security, and long sales cycles. This is the result of a number of factors, including the necessity to demonstrate the compatibility of AnteoTech's technology with customers' product and the tangible performance benefits that it delivers. Once the benefits of AnteoTech's products are clear to our customer, we're then dependent upon our customers' internal decision-making processes around their technology roadmaps, the launch of new products, investment decisions, and often regulatory approvals. This requires an extended period of engagement with a new customer, from initial discussions to commercial collaboration, and finally to commercialization.
We are in the business of building long-term relationships with customers based on trust that we will continue to support them and supply our products to them over the next decade or more. Stability, as well as technical excellence and transparency, are critical to advancing these relationships. This year, we completed a strategic review, and these results were advised to shareholders in June. The company undertook a deep dive into its product value propositions and the management of our commercial relationships. It also reduced costs and refocused resources on sales and commercialisation. Only four months later, we're seeing meaningful expansion of the sales pipeline and faster progression of customer discussions. In our life sciences business, we've made good progress during FY 2025. The launch of AnteoBind NXT marked a major milestone, delivering improved performance and more cost-effective diagnostic test development.
We expanded our long-term relationship with the Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, through a renewed five-year purchase agreement, and this further validated the relevance and quality of our technology. Our participation in the Mobius Research Centre, along with the publication of our AnteoBind NXT white paper, generated global exposure, attracting new customers from Canada, Asia, and Europe. Continued innovation has led to the development of multiple new diagnostic and assay applications for both human and animal health, and these efforts translated into results, with life sciences revenue increasing by 110% in FY 2025 compared to FY 2024. This is strong evidence of growing market acceptance and a clear validation of our technology and commercialisation strategy. Our advanced battery technologies business advanced materially during FY 2025 as well.
The team's efforts to develop the cutting-edge technology behind our silicon anode were rewarded this month, with our UltraNode X formulation, excuse me, containing 70% silicon, exceeded the industry benchmark of 1,000 cycles at 80% capacity. Our technology enables improved energy density and performance for lithium-ion batteries and is engineered to serve a broad range of applications. This is a significant achievement, confirming the competitiveness of our technology at commercial scale. During the year, we refined our UltraNode product strategy, introducing UltraNode 75, 90, and X variants, and we defined clear value propositions for each of them. Now, we do continue to engage with our EV customers, including Mercedes, and at the same time, we acknowledge that it can take a number of years to become an accredited supplier into the automotive supply chain.
While we continue discussions with EV manufacturers and their battery suppliers, we have opened up discussions with battery suppliers to the fast-moving markets of drones, military hardware, mobile phones, and consumer electronics. This has resulted in a rapid expansion of customer engagement to over 200 counterparties, and we now have material transfer agreements, or MTAs, with many of them. We signed a binding term sheet with Black Diamond Structures for a joint development agreement to co-develop a next-generation lithium-ion battery additive for the North American market. This is a key milestone that aligns us with an established U.S. industry partner and deepens our footprint in global battery supply chains. We also entered an evaluation program with Wion, a Swiss miniature battery manufacturer.
While our focus in recent years has been on European battery markets, this year, we have taken steps to enter the South Korean market and the Indian markets, with Asia confirmed as a significant growth market for us. During the year, we restructured the organization to align the delivery of the objectives per our strategic review, which is anticipated to deliver around AUD 1.6 million in annualized cost savings, while strengthening our sales and customer-facing capacity. We delivered AUD 1 million in revenue, a 110% increase on FY 2024, and we completed a successful AUD 4.3 million capital raise, strengthening our balance sheet and enabling the next phase of growth. The company maintains a strong R&D foundation while embedding a more commercial operating model across the organization.
Now, on behalf of the board, I'd like to acknowledge and thank our previous directors who retired during the year for their service to AnteoTech, including Ewen Crouch, Katherine Woodthorpe, and previous Managing Director David Radford. The board remains intentionally small, focused, and aligned with our strategy, but the company will consider appointing an additional director in the future as the company requires specific skills, excuse me, to support its growth strategy. I stand for re-election today with the support of the board. Looking ahead, FY 2025 has been a year of platform building strategically, commercially, and operationally for a stronger AnteoTech. With new partnerships, deeper engagement with global customers, and a growing international profile, AnteoTech is well positioned for the future. We're confident that disciplined execution of our 2025 strategy will continue to strengthen our customer relationships, leading to sustainable revenue and continued value creation for shareholders.
Supported by the AUD 2.6 million R&D Tax Incentive and our disciplined approach to spending, we entered 2026 with momentum and with focus. On behalf of the board, I'd like to thank our management team, staff, partners, and shareholders for their commitment and support. FY 2025 has been a year of transformation and of consolidation, strengthening our foundations, refining our strategy, refreshing our leadership, and positioning the company for sustained commercial growth. We look forward to building on the progress that we've made as we continue to unlock the potential of AnteoTech's unique technology platform. Thank you. I am now going to move to the formal business of the meeting. I will just have a quick glass of water first.
Before we proceed to the items of business for today's meetings, I remind you that only shareholders, proxies, or other authorized representatives present in person are entitled to ask questions at today's meeting. Matters raised must be relevant to the business of the meeting. Six resolutions are to be put to shareholders at today's AGM. All resolutions other than Resolution 5 are ordinary resolutions, meaning that to pass, they require at least 50% of the votes cast in favor by shareholders entitled to vote on the resolution. Resolution 5 is a special resolution, meaning that to pass, it requires at least 75% of the votes cast in favor by shareholders entitled to vote on the resolution. Shareholders and proxy holders who have received a yellow voting card are entitled to vote and speak at today's meeting.
Those shareholders in possession of a blue non-voting card are welcome to ask questions, while those attendees with a red card are not permitted to ask questions and are kindly requested to observe the next part of the meeting. If you have not received the correct card, please see the registration desk, and a representative will assist you. Each agenda item will be discussed in turn, and we will address any questions relevant to that item of business. Please wait for me to invite you to ask your question, and please hold up your voting card and state your name before addressing the question. In the interests of all shareholders, could I ask that you be as concise as possible in your question or comment and speak once on a particular item? Please save your questions on individual items until we reach that specific item of business.
Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business. MUFG will collect the voting cards at the end of the meeting. All members, appointed attorneys, corporate representatives, and proxies entitled to vote were given a yellow card upon admission to the meeting. To cast your vote for, against, or to abstain from voting on a resolution, please place a mark in the corresponding box on your voting card. If you place a mark in more than one box in relation to a resolution, your vote for that resolution will be invalid. If you are voting in more than one capacity, for example, as a shareholder and a proxy holder, you will have received two separate voting cards, enabling you to vote in each capacity. I appoint Chris Healey of MUFG as returning officer for the purpose of the poll.
Valid proxies received are held by MUFG, AnteoTech's share registry provider, and I will announce the valid proxies received for each resolution when the meeting is asked to vote on each resolution. Please note that all valid proxies that have been received within the prescribed time limits have been admitted. Further, and as set out in the notice of meeting and proxy form, I confirm that I intend to vote undirected proxies given to me as Chair of the meeting in line with the recommendations for each item of business. The Corporations Act and the ASX Listing Rules require that certain persons must not vote in particular ways, and the company must disregard particular votes cast by or on behalf of certain persons on Resolutions 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Full details of these voting restrictions are set out in the notice of meeting.
I'll now turn to the first item, which is to receive and consider the accounts. As required by Section 317 of the Corporations Act, I table for discussion the annual report, including the financial report, director's report, and independent auditor's report for AnteoTech Limited and its controlled entities for the year ended 30th June 2025. This report has been made available to all shareholders. There's no requirement for a shareholder resolution on this item. The company's auditor, Loucas Mylonas from BDO, is present and available to answer any questions in respect of the independent auditor's report. Are there any questions for the auditor in respect of this report? No? Thank you. We'll now move on to the resolutions of the meeting. Resolution 1 is the adoption of the director's remuneration report.
The first resolution is to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as a non-binding ordinary resolution: to adopt the remuneration report for the year ended 30 June 2025. The preparation of the remuneration report is required to be considered by shareholders in accordance with Section 250(a) of the Corporations Act. I'd like to remind shareholders that the vote on this resolution is advisory only and does not bind either the company or the board, although the board will take any discussion at today's meeting into consideration when determining the company's remuneration framework and policy.
I note that if 25% of the votes validly cast on this resolution in this item of business are against the resolution, I am required to put to the meeting a further resolution at the end of the meeting, Resolution 6, that the shareholders consider whether a further meeting should be held to re-elect all members of the board other than the Managing Director and the CEO. Are there any questions in respect of the 2025 remuneration report? No. Thank you. Now, before we vote on the resolution, I advise that the following proxies, as displayed on the screen, have been received. I now move that the remuneration report for the financial year ended 30th June 2025 be adopted. Thank you.
We'll now move to consider the next resolution, and as it relates to my re-election as a director, I'll hand over to Jeff Cumming to chair this part of the meeting. Welcome, Jeff.
Good morning. Thank you, Glenda. Resolution 2 now appears on the screen, and I take the resolution as read. Glenda McLoughlin was appointed to the board as a director on 1st September 2021 and chairman of the board on 1 April 2025. Glenda retires in accordance with the Constitution and, being eligible, presents herself for re-election. Before we put this resolution to the vote, I'd like to ask Glenda to say a few words.
Thanks, Jeff. Thank you. I'd just like to say I joined the AnteoTech board back in 2021 when the company was attempting to commercialise the COVID test and at the very early stages of the investigations into the battery market.
I have to say there's been a lot of ups and downs along the way, as I'm sure all shareholders would appreciate. I'm pleased to say that I've never seen the company in better shape than it's in today. It has so many tangible opportunities in front of us, and I'm honored to be elected by my colleagues to serve as Chair of the Board. I have a commercial background as a former investment banker and also as a company founder. I'm looking forward to applying those skills to support Merrill and the team in their commercialization efforts. I'm grateful, very grateful to the support of those shareholders who have voted for me today to continue as a director of the company. Thank you.
Are there any questions on this resolution?
Hi, my name's Richard. I'd just like to express my thanks to Glenda for stepping up as she has in the last 12 months and taking on the role as Chairman of the Board and how much I know from some of the more substantial shareholders the efforts that she's putting in we appreciate. Thank you, Glenda.
Thank you very much.
Any more questions? If not, before we vote on the resolution, I advise that the following proxies, as displayed on the screen, have been received. I move that Glenda McLoughlin be re-elected as a director. The Board, with Glenda abstaining, unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of Ms. McLoughlin's re-election. I now hand back to Glenda.
Thank you, Jeff. Thank you very much, shareholders, for voting me back onto the Board.
I'll now turn to Resolution 3, which is the issue of long-term options to the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Resolution 3 relates to the issue of long-term options to Merrill, and as provided for in her executive service agreement. Shareholder approval is sought under the ASX Listing Rules to authorize the company to issue 30 million options, being three tranches of 10 million options each, to Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Merrill Gray or her associated entities. The premium-priced options have been designed to align Merrill's incentives with shareholders' interests, and full details of the terms and issue of the details of Merrill's remuneration arrangements are set forth in the notice of the meeting. The opportunity for an equity-based long-term incentive is part of the CEO's remuneration framework.
The grant of long-term options to the CEO is part of the board's strategy to attract talent to the company with a competitive remuneration package to drive the long-term performance of the company. If not approved by shareholders, the board would pursue alternate means to incentivise the CEO for the delivery of long-term outcomes. Are there any questions on this resolution? No? Thank you. Before we vote on Resolution 3, I advise that the following proxies, as displayed on the screen, have been received. I move that approval for 30 million long-term options be granted to Merrill Gray in accordance with the terms of issue set out in the company's notice of meeting. The directors, with Ms. Gray abstaining, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favour of Resolution 3. Thank you. Resolution 4 relates to the issue of options to directors.
Shareholder approval is sought under the ASX Listing Rules to authorize the company to issue 12,500,000 options in aggregate to directors. Full details of the terms of issue are set out in the notice of meeting. The grant of options to directors is part of the board's strategy to attract talent to the company and to retain talent. Each of Resolutions 4a and b require a separate vote, as indicated on your voting cards. The directors, with each director abstaining from the resolution which relate to the issue of options to themselves, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of Resolutions 4a and 4b. Are there any questions on this resolution? No? Thank you. Before we vote on Resolution 4, I advise that the following proxies, as displayed on the screen, have been received. I'll now turn to Resolution 5, which is the approval of a 10% placement facility.
Resolution 5 is a special resolution seeking shareholder approval to issue an additional 10% of issued capital over a 12-month period. Under Listing Rule 7.1a, small and mid-cap listed entities that meet the eligibility threshold are permitted to issue an additional 10% of issued capital over a 12-month period from the date of approval at the AGM. The issue of equity securities under the 10% placement facility would be in addition to the company's ability to issue equity securities without shareholder approval under Listing Rule 7.1. Broadly, Listing Rule 7.1 permits a company to issue up to 15% of its issued equity capital without shareholder approval over a 12-month period.
The company may seek to issue equity securities under the 10% placement facility for cash consideration, in which case the company intends to use the funds raised for further development of its existing products and/or to potentially fund the development of existing products into new markets of interest and general working capital. Are there any questions on this resolution? No? Thank you. Before we vote on the resolution, I advise that the following proxies, as displayed on the screen, have been received. The directors unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of Resolution 5. Now, I'll just turn to the final resolution, which is Resolution 6, and this is a conditional spill resolution.
Based on the initial voting, it's highly probable that Resolution 2 will receive less than 25% of the vote cast against the adoption of the remuneration report for the year ended 30th June 2025, meaning this Resolution 6 would not need to be considered. However, as the outcome of the vote on the remuneration report will not be finalized until all the voting is completed and the poll taken, we will proceed with the vote on Resolution 6 just as a matter of completeness. Before we vote on the resolution, I advise that the following proxies, as displayed on the screen, have been received. I will just remind you that the directors unanimously recommend that you vote against this item, and I will be voting all available proxies that I hold against this item. Are there any questions on this item of business? No? Thank you. Okay.
If you haven't done so already, please complete your voting card now. I will leave the voting for all resolutions open for a few more minutes, and MUFG will come around to collect your voting cards. Thank you. I think there's one more down the front here. Thanks. There's one over there. I've got everything? Almost? Oh, okay. No rush. All good? Thank you. Thank you, everybody. I'll now declare the poll closed. The results of the poll in respect of all resolutions will be released to the ASX and also made available on AnteoTech's website as soon as practicable following the close of the meeting. I wish to advise that there's no other business, and I'll now close the formal business of the meeting. I'd now like to invite our Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Merrill Gray, to address the meeting.
After Merrill's address, we'll have time for questions and answers. Thank you.
Thank you, Glenda. First of all, I'd like to add my welcome to Glenda's and say thank you very much, everybody, for coming. I'd like to add that I'd like to thank those people that have provided support. Some of that's come through over the past few months by email, but also today. I really appreciate you taking the time to introduce yourselves and to provide me and the board with support in terms of where we're going. Now, I'm looking forward to giving you a presentation. I'm very pleased to be here.
It's basically the year in review and how we've been positioning ourselves and how focused on building AnteoTech's future, which I would say, in terms of how we always speak as a board and in terms of the team that's here, that it's a team effort, but we all see the potential of the company. Actually, we've been working very hard to get the company to this position, and we're really looking forward to the future. I'll go through the year in review and how we see things panning out into the future. Really, I've put these slides in more because it's a release. It's a public release, and we're really trying to make sure that there's consistency of messaging around who we are and what we do.
Actually, it's a slight complication, to be quite honest, for me to go into a meeting and say we're a chemical and materials company. Usually, I get, "Well, are you life sciences or are you batteries?" We are working very hard on how we message the fact that we have a unique platform that can be used in multiple verticals that can create value in a lot of different applications and for a lot of different customers. It is something that, as a board and as a team, we are constantly working on in terms of the specifics of the verticals that we're trying to develop, as well as the overall company value creation. How special and unique what AnteoTech has, we all know, and the messaging around that has been a focus since I got to the company.
Making sure that there's clarity around the specific products and the specific technologies that we have that we can communicate as easily as possible, not only to stakeholders such as yourselves, but to our customers. Starting in terms of just a slight overview, because you all know this as active shareholders and readers of the information that we put out. When we start on the life sciences side, we basically have focused in lateral flow and Luminex, as you're all aware, and the Serum Institute, which is item three here, has been a really big part of our journey so far. We certainly see it as being part of where we're going to go. We've got a really good relationship. I've got another couple of slides on this. Really good relationship.
Things are continuing with the Serum Institute, but what we've been trying to do more recently is leverage that relationship and the commercials around that relationship into other similar customers. We have actually had a sales campaign which has been focused on life sciences companies in India. We have been to some very specific conferences in lateral flow, and there is a little bit more about that as well in my presentation. It is really about making sure that we are making the right connections with customers who are in the position to buy. The good news is, I cannot say for how long, but we have actually got more samples out in the market being tested by potential customers than there have been for at least the last five years at this time in life sciences. That is a really, really important message.
Item two, which is around the fact that we're actually at the forefront. It's again one of the key messages that I'm asked about when I go into meetings with people who want to get on board with the story, is not only for life sciences but also for advanced battery technologies. We're leaders in the markets and the subsectors that we're in. Now, leadership does involve getting people up to speed on how things can change. It's really, really important. I feel like we're a global company. We're working in markets outside of Australia predominantly.
One of the things that I was recently on a delegation to the U.S., which had several highly innovative Australian companies on, I was speaking to one of the CEOs there, and he said, "It's an assumption that Australians go out into the big wide world and say that, 'Hey, we've got something that could halve your costs, make your life a lot easier, and we'll do wonderful things for you. How about it?'" He was really clear on some of the struggles with that particular company in terms of adoption. Not everybody thinks like us. Not everybody does things like us. For me, my job with the team is to navigate through the easiest path. I actually try to say it's the easiest way home for us because we've got great products and we need to secure the sales that everyone's expecting of us.
Actually, one of the questions that came in from a shareholder was, "Could you please go through the value proposition for all of your products and technologies?" Here on one page is for life sciences where our great products can add value. They are very significant. There are a lot of benefits from AnteoBind and AnteoBind NXT that we can bring in a number of markets. Depending on questions, if you go and look at my presentation on our website, I have actually set out the different markets and the value of those markets and the billions of dollars value-wise. We are basically poised for growth. We have got fabulous products, poised for growth. It is about finding the right connections and making sure that we convert to sales. That brings me a little bit to the Serum Institute of India and how that is going.
That is a question that comes through quite often. I'm looking backwards, as you can see, in terms of the contract, the original contract, the five-year contract, and what actually the Serum Institute spent in terms of the products that they purchased. The run rate there is above what was initially projected. They like the product. They come back for the product. Actually, there's growing interest in some other products, which is really exciting for us to be able to come when we have a little bit more information to the market. Now, stepping into advanced battery technologies, you're all aware of what it is that we have and what we do.
Not on here, but certainly something that we've made clear in our recent quarterly report is not only do we have AnteoX, which is based on our core chemical platform, and UltraNode, which is our formulations. It's a full anode formulation to go into batteries. What the team has is a very clear understanding of how batteries are put together, what goes into a cell, every aspect of that, all of the additives, the separators, how everything interacts from a cathode perspective. That expertise is very important and is bringing through things like us being able to work in separators. Same chemical platform, just applied in a different part of the cell. I want to be very clear with you that we recently had a very skilled and experienced OEM employee of a very large, well-known OEM come visit with us.
He was very complimentary after we spoke with him about our abilities in the chemicals and additive side of things for cells. He said, "It's a challenge for us. That is a big challenge for us. You've got the expertise, and we are hoping to move that relationship forward." Just to be really clear about what it is that we've got in the market that's different, it's about the chemicals, materials, and how they interact. That is over many years. Many people in this room have been shareholders for a long time and understanding that the life sciences and now batteries and even any further verticals, you've got to be very clear about what your expertise is and where you add value and how everything comes together in the battery, particularly from a chemical and materials perspective.
AnteoX, which is our chemical additive, drop-in additive, which is really, in terms of, as everyone's aware, the Black Diamond Structures relationship that we have entered into, which is a joint product development in the U.S. That's a long-term relationship with a lot of deep respect. A great company for us to be involved with. The executives of that company, the leaders of that company, are ex-Dow Chemicals. They're at DuPont, and they've bootstrapped that business up from zero into being the largest. They have actually got the largest dispersion technology facility in the U.S. It gives us a chance to get on ground in the U.S. with people who are well established. AnteoX is our way there.
We were in the U.S. recently, and we were there to sell AnteoX as a product and in addition to talk to people about collaborations and how our UltraNode product can go into different applications. Yeah, the latest news, the two latest announcements that we've made, which I've got a couple more slides on, have been about UltraNode. That has been, as shareholders you'll be aware, we've been transparent about the progress that's been made there, but there have been a lot of learnings, and there's been a lot of testing and interaction with customers to get us to where we are now. Also, since I arrived, there's been a lot of work on productizing. There's a real clarity around the value proposition by end use.
By that, I mean in terms of what's needed for drones in particular, that's a focus area for us in the U.S. We have a facilitator there who's ex-military, and we went to the battery show with a list of meetings that we actually were trying to talk to people who are already selling drones into the—they now call it the Department of War, but the DOD. It is really getting on the ground with people who are already doing it. It is a really key part of what we're doing. Drones, wearables, and of course, our EV focus. As Glenda's already said, part of moving into South Korea and getting into the South Korean market is for us to be able to get into the battery manufacturers who are working with EV manufacturers. There is a little bit more on that to come.
Our most recent announcement, which was around us meeting a milestone that is often talked about in terms of EVs as a necessity to be taken seriously, and we made that clear in our announcement. I'd just like to congratulate the team for all of the hard work that's gone into stepping their way through to this. From my perspective, it's a continuous improvement approach. It's about being learning from the feedback that we get and actually constantly looking at how to improve. Off the back of this, there are some questions that came through, which Glenda will address in the Q&A that came through from a shareholder's perspective. We are moving forward off these really fabulous results in terms of collaboration. It's just, again, it takes time to really get to know your customers and exactly what it is that they're looking for.
Of course, Wion. That was our second most recent announcement. The team is very involved in that process, and we have been able to start to have some initial discussions about where the testing will lead to. I look forward to being able to come back to all shareholders when we have more information to provide. Glenda talked about the strategic review that we went through earlier in the year. You have all seen this before, but this is really for the second bit, which is the looking forward part of what my presentation is. It is also something that came through a Q&A that came through from shareholders. What I would like to say here is there is pink and blue on here, and the blue is three and the pink is 11.
We basically set ourselves some very significant targets to diversify in a very specific way, not be unfocused, but each of those items on there requires knowledge, rethinking things, redoing things, messaging things. My comment to everybody is that it's a really massive focus, but there's a lot of work underneath each of these items. Fourteen specific items, of which three were well underway before I got there, and another 11 we are working our way through. I just wanted to be clear that it is very structured, and it is an approach that we are sticking to and moving forward with. When I came into the company, there's obviously fantastic foundations, if you like, long, deep skills across the teams, the two verticals, and a chemical manufacturing capability in terms of the pilot plant.
That has also been improved upon using Kaizen and continuous improvement workshops for AnteoBind. We are well set up for expansion of chemical demand for AnteoBind and AnteoBind NXT. That has all taken place in the last few months. We have our pilot plant and its capacity for AnteoX. We also have the capacity to be able to produce and sell AnteoBind and AnteoBind NXT. We come to the sales focus. That is actually a really important part. I know questions have come to me through our investor email about, "What is it that you are going to do differently to what has been done before?" That is a very valid question. Everybody has been doing everything. There are a few aspects to that that are quite important.
I think that my view coming into the company is that AnteoTech is viewed as a leader, as a leader at the forefront of the sectors that it's in. As such, people want to know what AnteoTech's doing. They really would like to engage, and they would like to be clear on, "Will this be the future? How will this interact? How will this work with what we're doing?" For us, we can only do so much of that with limited resources. We have to be really focused on where this is going to lead us to in terms of sales, in terms of our shareholder investment. It is a matter of filtering those things so that it's understood what we've got in the market in case people want to come to us to collaborate.
It is also about being very clear on what I call line of sight on what the sales is likely to be. The more information we get about, "Okay, how are you going to use this and where are you going to use it and what is that going to mean?" That is what the team is more focused on. There is also an element which comes from certainly Glenda and I being involved and Jeff as well, his background, that we really need to be clear who we are targeting. From our experience base, we need to be clear how some of these companies are playing in the market. We have to be clear that they will convert, okay? Because it is not hard to know from experience who actually is really there to get a lot of information and who really wants to transact.
Weeding those things out in a way that is valuable for shareholders is one of the key things for me. Moving to the year that was and how we're moving forward. Obviously, we went through a restructure. Again, I would like to thank the team. There's been a number of changes around roles and responsibilities and how people have needed to take on further work. We are trying to do more with less and make sure that we manage our costs as prudently as possible. Of course, the CFO accelerated our R&D tax rebate, which took a lot of work, was excellent, and allowed us to bring more cash into the company to allow us to continue with our development of our pipeline. I've already talked a bit about the client relationship management side of things. Really, it's more of that for 2026.
It's really more of digging deep into who are we talking to, why are we talking to them, and where are they getting to with the samples we're providing them. I cannot tell you enough how supportive TIQ, so the Queensland government, has been for us and Austrade as well. What that has done is it means that we have groups who are very specialised in the jurisdictions and the geographic locations we're going into, who really I was just last week talking to both, actually spoke to both Austrade and TIQ's directors in South Korea. It gives us people who will go to meetings, who will speak in the language, in the local language, who know the culture, who can give us advice. They can help us with legals if we need to find good legal, on-ground legal advice.
I'd say to you, it's a bit early days. It hasn't necessarily delivered what we'd like it to, but we will use that prudently, cost-effectively to get us out further into the world. We're very lucky to have that support. The Arena grant, we talked about not taking up the Queensland grant that was offered to us. We've also announced how that impacted our cash flow because it was, of course, one-for-one matched. We had to have the money to be able to do that. I think the work's been done by the CFO for us to be able to maintain our Arena grant, which has a value of up to around AUD 4 million by pushing the milestones out. There's a bit of work going on around that.
We want that to attract a strategic partner because that grant money is on the table and leverages their money. That remains to be seen, but it has been a good job to be able to continue to have the Arena grant available for us to access. It is just an optionality there. I guess that is a bit about where we have been. I really want to make sure that I am clear on the messaging that is around sales with a line of sight is what we are really focused on for shareholders. Some of that involves us being really clear about what it is we have got and what value it adds in getting close enough to our customers to understand what they really need. We also need to showcase our know-how and what we actually know about their business and how we can add value.
The pipeline is bigger than it's been before. I'd like to say it's also about how we are qualifying. We're prioritizing that pipeline. We are in a structured way. We're doing sales campaigns with those that we're not as close to. What we've got in the office is for each of the verticals, there's key potential accounts. There's a key potential account list. If you're on that, that's a really big thing. It gets a lot more focus. Collaborations, we're very focused on collaborations with, again, a line to sight on sales, which is where BDS comes in, but also some other collaborations that we're hoping to do, which we really look forward to moving forward in the short term as quickly as possible. Of course, there's strategics. That's actually a really big part of what the board is working through.
We look forward, again, to being very transparent about where we're heading. All of this, which I wanted to give you a little bit of granularity, building off Glenda's speech about what's going on within the company. All of this is within some very interesting times out in the big wide world. There are some pretty incredible things going on, and we were exposed to that at the U.S. Battery Show, which is around, for example, the Chinese announcing it was actually just after we got back that they would no longer provide battery materials, batteries, or the equipment to be able to build into your products, certain battery materials out of China to a long list of Western companies. That in itself creates opportunities for us, particularly around UltraNode and our ability to deliver high performance using micron-sized silicon that's available everywhere in the world.
We have trialled and tested a lot of different raw materials. It is hard to say that we sat in the Battery Show with people talking about what could happen in the world and where the U.S. will need to go with being able to have drones. Again, we are all very aware of what is going on as part of their defense or military maneuvers. It is quite sobering to sit there that people sit, they basically talk about it matter-of-factly. We would like to participate in that as things move forward. I think really most importantly, it is about shifts and us being able to take advantage of that both in batteries and life sciences. Just as a summary, again, I wanted to make clear that we have a strategy. We formulated that in a very structured and practical fashion.
We have aligned everything in terms of the delivery of that strategy, and we have made progress. The commercial execution of that around our U.S. market entry, where BDS is part of that, but there is much more to come there. We are working very hard on that. That is where I am talking about with drones and wearables and the conversations that we are having in the U.S., which we are really very focused on bringing to fruition. Of course, we on and the manufacturability of UltraNode, that is a really big step. We have put in the quarterly that we are also working with researchers, well-renowned researchers in terms of doing pouch cell testing, which, again, it is more about our ability at commercial scale, improving that out.
South Korea is our, we talk about Asia, but South Korea and India, South Korea has been our leader and through Chang Shin, an established supplier into the battery supply chain. We are making progress. It's been a bit of a challenge because we haven't been importing or exporting, if you like, at significant volume, and we need to be compliant with whatever jurisdiction we go to. It has allowed us to get really organized about South Korea and the U.S. and make sure we're compliant into Europe. It's basically taking the company another step forward in terms of our ability to service customers. There are some great potential customers in there, and we're looking forward to how that pans out. I guess the other part of what's on the slide is about life sciences.
I mean, obviously knowing that AnteoTech's history is from life sciences and actually the chemical platform emerged out of life sciences. We have reconnected with people who know that and understand that. What's really great about that is you're not taking them up a learning curve. They understand our chemical platform and then the great work that's going on in the life sciences team with the White Paper. We have got other papers to come. We just put one out, which was about biorefining and biopurification. It's on our website. There are some very significant opportunities for us in the life sciences space. We are really looking forward to being able to bring them through and be able to discuss that in the marketplace. It is a significant part of our growth plan.
I guess it's really quite important for me to finish off to say thank you very much for the opportunity that I have in working with the team, working with the board to move the company forward. Coming in from the interim on the board into the interim role and then into the ongoing MD's role, what I want is I want to make sure, again, working with the team and the board, that we position the company this time next year differently. We've moved the company forward substantially. It's something, again, back to my incentive. I'm incentivized to do that, and it is something I want to do. It is something that I think the company's capable of doing. It's a really big thing that we need to change the dial, if you like, and we need to do things differently. We've got a strategy.
It's very clear. It's a roadmap. We're delivering on that. Am I confident that that will change the company? I am. Otherwise, we are putting an enormous amount of effort, investing very heavily in everything that we're doing and being very cautious, but in a prudent way with the money that we're investing. I just really want to say thank you. Thank you for incentivizing myself and the team. It all flows through. We have very clear targets that the board sets about what needs to be done. The message is clear also, which I've had through from shareholders, get on with it and deliver. That in itself, which as it flows through to the executive team and how on a daily basis we interact and move forward and get things done.
I'm very impressed with the capability of the team, but the cadence of what we need to do and what we've been doing is constantly increasing. We're trying to go faster with less and do more, not just more, do more things effectively that add to the bottom line. Very happy to take questions. Of course, the executive team is here for any questions that you might have over a coffee and tea. I'll now step back and hand back over to Glenda. Thank you.
Thanks, Merrill. Thank you very much. It was great. I'd now like to open up the meeting to Q&A. We did receive some questions from shareholders before the meeting, which I'd like to answer. I'll deal with those first. We had four questions. If there are any questions from the floor, we welcome them to either Merrill or myself. The first question we had from a shareholder was, does the UltraNode X product that recently achieved the milestone of over 1,000 cycles have anything to do with Black Diamond Structures, or is this purely based on AnteoTech's own IP? The answer is no. It doesn't have anything to do with Black Diamond Structures. UltraNode X's performance is independent from the combined product that's being developed with BDS. It's solely our IP. Hopefully that's cleared that up.
The second question from a shareholder was, can you clarify if the 1,500 cycles referenced is for ESS or EVs or both? Now, I'd just like to say that the 1,000-cycle target at 80% has always been a baseline target for us. It demonstrates suitability for EV applications, and that was a very important milestone for us to achieve. Having said that, we will always try and improve our products. We will be looking at increasing those cycle numbers on UltraNode. 1,500 cycles is not particularly a target we're aiming for, but it would be a good milestone to achieve. Naturally, we are always trying to improve our products, and we do have a continuous improvement policy in the company. I hope that clarifies that question.
The next question we had coming in was, does the 1,000 cycles at 80% capacity need to be validated by third parties before anyone will consider signing any form of JDA? If so, how long is that expected to take? Look, as a matter of process, any potential customer will look to validate our results in their own lab and with their own product. This testing usually takes around three months because that is the time it takes to charge and discharge a cell. Secondary validation might also be required in different cell formats, such as single-layer pouch cells, multi-layer double-sided pouch, or cylindrical cell formats. This could be part of a JDA. Every customer has a different way of validating new technology.
There is no standard process here, but we do understand that all customers will need to validate our technology to put it into their product. As we have previously stated, many of these sales pipelines are already being focused on and pursued. Some of the customers we are working with, we have been working with them for some period of time now already. It is not like we are starting everything new from today. The final question we had sent in from our shareholders was quite a big one, actually. It was, what do you believe are the key competitive advantages of AnteoTech technology, and how widely do you foresee the technology being implemented at scale? Across both the life sciences and the advanced battery technologies business, our products and technologies enable higher performance to be achieved generally at a lower cost, and generally, we produce less waste.
That is, they involve less raw material inputs right from the outset. That is a benefit to most customers, and most customers are looking for cost improvements and performance improvements. This is quite I could go on probably for another hour about our sort of competitive advantages of our product. I think I would just direct that shareholder to the brochures on our website. That gives all of the product benefits in detail, and you can read them for yourself at your leisure. Look, as far as the potential market applications for our product, we think that the potential is enormous for our products. We see them being widely implemented at scale for both life sciences beyond the lateral flow and also into Luminex applications. We are looking at chemiluminescence and ELISA plate immunoassays.
We're looking at a whole range of additional and advanced applications in the life sciences space. On the battery side of the business, anybody who follows the battery sector will be reading how silicon anodes are coming into the market now. Typically, silicon anodes have about 5%-10% silicon in them. That's the standard in the market. Everybody is trying to get more silicon into their battery. We are really at the cutting edge at 70% silicon. This is a huge technical achievement on the part of the team. Does everybody in the market know about us? No. No, they don't. That's our job, and that's Merrill's job, and that's the team's job to get that news out there. We're working pretty hard on it.
One of our issues is actually convincing them that it's true, I think, because a lot of people have been trying to get that. We are very upbeat about the opportunities and the potential in both sides of our business. They were just the four questions that came in before the AGM. Are there any questions from the floor?
Thanks, Glenda. I'm Peter Kemmis. I've been a shareholder.
Hi, Peter. How are you going?
Good. I've been a shareholder for 15 years. I’ve seen the company grow and change and develop quite a bit over time. I'll just say very quickly, congratulations. I was going to ask a question, which I'm not going to because I think you answered. It's just the way the company has evolved in being able to handle all the hurdles that you deal with, and you articulated those very well, Merrill, I thought. The company, I think, is doing terrifically well. I mean, I look over the years, and I think of the AGMs I've been to and the amount of learning that's occurred and the strength of the company and the sheer breadth of its technology. That's not the question. My question was simply about getting this out into the wider world. Now, how are we managing our web page?
Because actually, that's, I think, of increasing importance.
Thanks, Peter. That's a good question. It's on the board agenda for our next meeting, actually. Look, we're conscious that we need to get our story out there and get it into the media and get it into the online world as well. We are developing strategies to improve that. You probably will have seen that we've improved our sort of socials posting, etc. But Merrill, do you want to say something about that?
Yes.
Yes. Did I turn?
Yeah.
Okay. Thank you very much for that question. We just, this week, put an UltraNode page up. Again, since I've gotten there, we've had good feedback that we need to improve every aspect of our communications on. I'm pleased to say that we actually have one of our communications team here from NWR Communications. Kristen's up the back. With the CFO, we have basically implemented a comms strategy. The website is part of that, and we will restructure that, and there's quite a bit going on. It's also been a little bit to do with a couple of roles, which are sales roles in the business, which we have got one, which we'd already put in the strategic review.
It is really about it being someone's specific job to design, budget, and implement that in a fully integrated fashion around a bit broader, which is what we are talking about with the comms. For us, I would give you a bit of information, for the UltraNode X, the UltraNode X announcement, with the help of NWR and Small Caps, I did a presentation. We did have, I think the number was 232,000 views through the channels. We basically spent a bit of money on opening the channels, and yeah, we got a massively increased number of views on our news. These sorts of strategies we are working on and constantly evolving to get more news out through different channels.
The website is part of an integrated strategy, which is around comms, our investor relations, and I see that as part of some of the planning that we're doing for 2026 to make sure that we do an excellent job on that. Actually, there's a lot to it in terms of AI, for example, and how people actually call up information and how our website needs to be fully updated to make sure that that's the case. Thank you for your question. It is on our list of things that we need to do and get on with. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I think that one of the things that we are looking at focusing on, there'll be some work done is on AI search optimization via our website and materials. That's something that we haven't done previously, and there's going to be a project looking at that. Secondly, I'll just add that in terms of marketing, during the year, Merrill and the team have worked really hard on getting white papers out on our products. What we've found is there's been increasing customer engagement via search where they've come across our white paper, and then there's inbound inquiry on our products. That's pretty exciting to see some of the customers that are big customers out there that we have inbound inquiry on that we've never really had any engagement with them before. A lot of work is going on in this.
We're aware that shareholders want us to do more in the marketing space, and we'll be working on that further in 2026, that's for sure. Okay, other questions? Richard?
Oh, thank you. My question is for Merrill just regarding the UltraNode 1,000-cycle milestone. Have you noticed much change in the quality and quantity of interactions with potential customers since you've made the announcement?
It has only been a week.
It has. It was something that Glenda said in her presentation, which was around because, yeah, it's been a week. The answer is what we did make sure we did, one action we did take was make sure that some of our core customers, again, on that key potential account list, specifically got that announcement so that we had a list of who really needed to know, right? I think there's been one. There's one that's come into my inbox that we'd really like to talk. I guess I'm always interested in the impact of what we're doing. For example, when we get better comms, people will look me up and say, "Who's that?" You know there's more activity, so more eyes on. The same with the UltraNode X. We got it out there. We got more eyes on it.
There is one party that came to us and said, "We'd really like to talk," and we expect more. It is really not just about the announcement. It is about what we do afterwards with the follow-up. Yeah, it is a fair question. I mean, again, you have the opportunity to speak to Manuel over a cup of tea and coffee. Thank you.
Yeah, it's no doubt we will be pushing this more out through our existing channels and trying to open up some new channels as well. Work in progress, Richard. Any other questions? Peter.
It's Peter Kemmis again. A few years ago, there was quite a bit of emphasis on our moving up the value chain. I just wondered about AnteoBind, what sort of plans might be there.
Yeah, why don't you answer that one? Yeah. What I can say is we have plans. We have to be very careful about what we have in place before we're able to make any serious to be able to talk about that. It's a very, if I just go back to just the really important messaging, for example, the collaboration with BDS around our product, going in with their product and a better product for customers. I've been asked in a couple of different ways today about what are you doing with UltraNode. Obviously, we're looking to try and get UltraNode, whatever it would be, 70, 95, or X, in a collaboration with a cathode and with an overall cell. I mean, that's just an obvious thing for us to be doing. We are working on that.
That is in the battery side. For me, it is the same, but different for life sciences. We have what we have, and we need to leverage ourselves off what we have been doing. When it comes to what is being done with beads and particles, that is what we are talking about around our product with other people's raw materials. How do we add value to our end customers? There is a lot being done in this space, but it has to be fully tested, fully formulated, for us to be able to say anything further than that. That is good. Do you want to just talk about PFAS?
Yes, by month, by month.
No, you go. You can talk about it.
We're very conscious of the strategic plan and the highly focused strategic plan. We're also, from a strategic partnership perspective, because we are a chemical and materials company, we had a workshop earlier in the year, which is around how this wonderful chemical platform could be used in multiple verticals. Out of that, the whole organization attended, so everybody attended. We wrote up all the ideas of how we could use the core technology. Out of that, a number of things around coatings. It's actually in some of my presentations. I've actually put a list of what things we could do. We're very careful and very prudent about not spending shareholders' money and time on many things.
One thing we have moved forward with, which is around some early-stage testing on PFAS, which most people will understand is the forever chemical. We have a very small project that is in-house that is looking at could our chemical be used in conjunction with other processes that are trying to eliminate PFAS from, for example, industrial waste, so leachate from municipal waste. What we're doing at the moment is we're doing strategic intelligence gathering around people and parties. We had a very good meeting last week where someone had introduced us into a collaboration which has a number of companies involved. We will do some more work internally and about how we might be able to explore that channel, that avenue a bit further. That is on the water purification, water refining side of things.
I think it's really, I think many people in this room, and I do get emails that come through investor relations, understand that the core technology has many applications, many opportunities to add value. We have two verticals, and we are moving them forward in commercialization terms as fast as we possibly can. That'll get to Glenda to add as well.
No, thanks. Thanks, Merrill. Okay, are there any other questions? No? That's great. Thank you very much. Thank you, everyone, for coming today, both in person and via the live stream. We welcome your participation, and we thank you for your support of the company. I'd now like to close this meeting and invite shareholders to join us for refreshments in the foyer. I'm sorry, Peter, you'll have to ask me separately over sandwiches if you have a question.
Yes, I will tell you that now. I just wanted to let you know that the voting will be up on the ASX shareholder platform. I have also been advised that there will not be a spill meeting later today as we did not receive more than the voting required for a spill meeting. Thank you very much for that. Do you have another question, Peter?
Would you allow me to make a comment?
Sure.
I think we have a product here. I think I'd call it the UltraNode 95% plus. Is that what the voting show?
Yes, I think so. I think so. Thank you very much. Really appreciate support from shareholders in your voting today. That is very kind. You can all go and look online as to the actual numbers. All resolutions have been passed except for resolution six, which did not receive the sufficient votes for us to go forward with the spill motion.
I'll make one comment before you go.
Sure, Richard.
I think last year we were told that Jeff was going to resign by now. I hope you don't let him do that.
No, Jeff is the knowledge bank of the organization. He knows all the mistakes that the company's made in the past and many of the good things that they did to take it forward as well. He is very valuable to us on the board, and I'd like to acknowledge him and thank him for his contribution on the board. He is a wonderful colleague to work with. We will always be looking at our board skills that are required to take the company forward and whether we need to add more directors or whether we need different types of skills. Board composition is always a work in progress. At this point, Jeff is here for the duration, I would say. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. I'll close the meeting. Thank you.