Hello everybody, welcome to Solar Foods' half-year reporting. My name is Laura Sinisalo, and I'm today here with my colleagues Rami Jokela and Ilkka Saura. We have an exciting day ahead, at least an hour from it. On the agenda today, we first go through the significant events of the half-year 2025, and then move into the financial highlights. After that, we peek into what happened basically after the review period. In the latter part, we will go to the questions and answers section. You in the audience, you have a possibility to ask questions throughout the session. We will be taking the questions at the Q&A later. As time is scarce, I will give the stage to Rami to start the show. Please, Rami.
Yeah, thank you, Laura. Welcome to this event. This is my first event report where we are in the company, Solar Foods. Like we have already known many times, and we have explained, I will explain one more time who we are. Solar Foods produces a completely new harvest for the humankind. We are a novel food company. We do have a couple of very, very key things. The product, what we have, is a key product. Solein is actually the last half-year time seen that it's a very good product, even better product than what we thought earlier. Customer feedback, consumer feedback, later actually I will tell more about that one. We also have got a lot of good feedback and development for the products and platforms. I will later more talk about that one. Now, who we are, what we are doing. We do have the current status.
We have proven technology. We have regulatory approvals. We can actually sell our Solein in Singapore, but also in the U.S. and those other markets. Now we are targeting as well to go to Europe and the U.K. We do have properly spending. We have put a lot of focus to commercial acceptance, like I commented. I will go more through those and with the partners who we actually have as well. We have been very successful raising the funding over the years. More than EUR 100 million has been over the five seven years actually for this company to raise money. Our mission is very clear. We are the most sustainable global leading technology platform produced the protein. Solein is the market-leading food ingredient in the health and performance nutrition segment, what we have selected our target segment. Our vision is even bigger.
Our vision is that our unique food production platform and also this Solein food ingredient, we believe it will be even family later. There will be the leading solution to feed the people in a sustainable way. Also, like we know, Solein is very high-quality nutritional food. We believe that this will be very good for the humankind, like we said in the first slide. This will also enable the food security for countries around the world. We are in a big mission and vision as well here. Like I commented a little bit about our product. Our product is indeed the last half year when we have put to the market and test market, get customer feedback. It's a groundbreaking. We will go more in detail today, explaining how we compare that to the other protein products on the market or protein categories.
I have very good news to tell to you. This is one of our key value propositions and unique selling points. That actually excites our customers and consumers. The other very good value proposition where we actually had got very good confirmation, like a Good Food Institute, a month ago actually was comparing different platforms. Gas fermentation platform was seen to be the only platform which can scale in fermentation platforms, the really big volumes. One more time, what we do here, we have renewable energy with electrolyzers. We make actually from the water the hydrogen and oxygen. We're using CO₂ as well as a part of the gas. A little bit media reparation as well. Then get actually in a 70 hours time to product. This process is a very efficient process.
If you compare to photosynthesis, it could be the five to ten times faster to produce the food. It's totally disconnecting from the land and our agriculture, which is also a big, big benefit. As long as you have electricity, you can start the food production on the spot. Other thing what is very good in this platform, we don't need any side streams to feed it. It's a gases, it's a renewable energy that what actually is here. Then actually we are able to, within the four walls in a factory, to do all the food. Now I will go to significant events. I have to say that there's a lot of events that have happened in the last half year time what we have gone through. The key events, of course, are the motor commercial.
Like we have said, we have moved from the technical and technology innovator motor commercial global company and go to market. Here are the news. We have signed in the first half of the year supply agreement EUR 1.3 million with Superb Food. That's focusing on the GLP-1 segment. That's growing very, very fast globally, but especially in the U.S. We also have supply agreement with KelpEat, Italian company, targeting the U.S. for the healthy snacking. We got EUR 0.2 million agreement with them. We have announced that we signed also two MOUs up. It's 6,000 tons Solein per year. This 6,000 tons Solein per year is actually 50% of our plant capacity of Factory 02. This is actually quite a big portion. I will tell more about that, how the actual process will go. All right, but anyway, key news, first sales agreements in the U.S. have happened.
Together a big thing actually for us is that the consumers start to actually get in their country the tasting possibility for the Solein-based products. We have here three different companies. We have a Japanese food company, Ajinomoto Group, who launched actually ice cream in Singapore. Consumers actually can be buying it and tasting and give feedback. Feedback has been very good. Really the nice feedback in social media. Actually when they have given a lot of feedback to Ajinomoto for what we have been receiving. KelpEat the same for Italian food innovator. They were in Florence in the food fair testing that this kind of healthy snacking. Now we have agreement, like I mentioned to you, for them as well. Finnish company, Finnish food company, Fazer also have introduced Solein for protein drinks and snacks. There was in the U.S.
the Tasting the Future event where Fazer was collecting the inputs from the consumers. Of course, they're using that further, improving the products and developing it further. All right, I'm happy to announce these kind of things. Of course, we have been following our announcements. Those obviously will continue in the future as well. What we have done in our company, we have put a lot of focus actually for this health and performance nutrition segment. We have announced that we have a concept for the protein bars. We have a ready-to-mix. Of course, we go for these ready-to-drink products as well. This is a mechanism what we believe that makes much easier for our customers, B2B customers, to see how Solein can be used in this kind of health and performance nutrition segment. I have to say that being part of those customer discussions as well, it really works.
Because then you can taste, you can see what is the nutritional function as well as how good the quality of the composition of the ingredients we have. The first is always the taste. Taste has been very good. That actually leads to next discussions always. That's how we have been now selecting our strategy already half a year ago when I announced how we demonstrate our capabilities. We don't end there. We have gone beyond. Our vision actually is to create the food what is the more nutritious, healthier, and sustainable without compromising the taste and experience. Why this is so important, and you can see some examples actually here in the photos. If you take our main market, U.S., for example, more than 50% of the food is purchased outside of the home, away from the home.
This kind of healthy snacking culture, which is a very big topic at the moment in the U.S., we are really targeting actually to go for that one. Not only what we have health and performance, what I was presenting in a previous slide, but also the product. We are ready when the customers are thinking, okay, can we do healthy snacking more than categories? We are here with our portfolio. Another very successful milestone in the technology point of view for Solar Foods was the announcing that we have done a 100-fold scaling of our production platform. When we move from the pilot and testing actually what is our productivity, now we have demonstrated over the eight months of production, continuous production, that we are achieving this 0.8 gram per liter per hour productivity. Our energy efficiency value is 2.7.
It's even below actually this three, which is better now. We have even better what actually we were targeting for that one. That actually gives a very good parameter when we are designing our next factory, Factory 02. This is a baseline actually. We can directly use these numbers actually and make it very profitable and with a returns case, which Ilkka will of course tell with me later here as well. This is a milestone which there is no other company who has been doing with gas fermentation platform for the food ingredient like we have. We are really the flagship globally for this topic. One more big news was that in February we announced that, yep, we moved to the next factory design. Pre-engineering has started for Factory 02. This is of course a major step towards profitable production scale.
With that Factory 02, this company will become a highly profitable company. What we have been doing, this whole factory program will go in the phases. We can tell later today more in the details. That's a key for us. The first phase to be ready 2028. That's what we have announced earlier. What I commented earlier, we have this memorandum of understanding up to the 6,000 tons of the Solein per year. When this came so quickly, customers are really interested with our ingredient. We started actually thinking, should we actually build even more factories than Factory 02? They came to study the pre-desktop study that if you could actually have the same site in a Lappeenranta area where we are actually one of the studied site areas in Finland.
If you have three factories over there in the same location, we are really making even in a European scale single largest emission reduction in the Moonshot project. With the CO₂ reduction, you compare actually if you do all the proteins with animal proteins. Compare actually if you do the Solein, which is a similar composition of the protein. We are actually giving a reduction of the 10 million tons CO₂, which is actually 25% of the CO₂ of the whole Finland country, and actually equivalent of the road transportation in Finland CO₂ levels. We are really talking of big, big numbers here. We believe that Solar Foods can help sustainability point of view and lowering these emissions Europe scale a lot as well with our new factories. All right, Ilkka, I think you're going to tell a little bit about numbers.
Oh yes.
I will go to the slide.
Thank you, Rami. Hello everyone. My name is Ilkka Saura, CFO of the company. It's my pleasure to share with you the financial highlights of the first half this year. Operating loss was at more or less on the same level as last year at EUR 4.8 million, and loss for the period in total is EUR 5.4 million. This reflects the status of the company where it invests significantly in the growth of future, especially related to go-to-market and its unique technology. Balance sheet has decreased from prior year of about EUR 20 million due to the ongoing amortizations of our fixed assets and debt amortizations. At the end of the review period, net debt remained at a level of EUR 5.5 million and net gearing at 31%. To be noted, the equity ratio was on a very healthy level of 46%.
Cash flow, we have received somewhat material grant payments from Business Finland over the first half, meaning that the operating cash flow and investment cash flows remained on the positive side, whereas on net level, the first half ended with a negative cash flow and that cash balance of EUR 12.7 million. Personnel increased to 57 people from prior year. The company has also started to report the order book on the last row. As you see, we report the order book of EUR 1.5 million and continue to report it to our stakeholders in the future as well. This consists of agreements of KelpEat and Superb Food. One of the highlights over the first half was naturally the additional funding received from Business Finland under the IPK notification. The company currently is holding a financing decision of grants up to EUR 44 million.
EUR 19 million of this amount has been raised, meaning that EUR 25 million remains to be received until the end of FY 2026. Noting that EUR 66 million remains to be granted and company is very actively working with the state authorities to get that granted, for instance, around the CapEx projects located in the southeastern part of Finland. Thank you. Back to you, Rami.
All right. That was fast. Should I speed up? I will not do a speed up because there's a lot of very good stories to tell about what we are going to do next. First, I will tell that after the reporting period, there were a few significant events. Let's go through those and then I'll tell what's going to happen next from the implementation point of view. In July, we signed a letter of intent with an international, it's a global leading brand in health and performance nutrition. We are very, very happy with that one because those are the, if you put all leading companies in this segment, now we have signed one deal actually and big volumes. You can see the annual volume: 500- 1,650 tons annually and over until 2030. I'm personally, of course, I was involved a lot in the discussions.
I know actually how eager this company, for example, is to enable us with Factory 02 and get the volumes and later, we have to talk even more when it's the right time. In order to help the U.S. market, we found out that every country has a little bit different taste and flavor feelings as well. The U.S. is different than what is in Europe. We signed an agreement with the American flavor house, Sensapure, to showcase the Solein suitability and accelerate with our customers testing the different compositions of the flavors in the end products. This is very good as well. We have been now with the help of Sensapure to be in the ICT exhibition, for example, in Chicago. Also, these announced sales agreements, what we actually have, and supply agreements, this company is actually working together.
This is accelerating go-to-market, a very key announcement in my opinion. Monday, we announced that Solar Foods and the city of Lappeenranta are preparing the agreement to reserve the site and for the preliminary studies for Factory 02. I'm very, very happy and thank here also the cooperation with the city of Lappeenranta. Everything has gone very smooth. This site is one of those sites actually that we are planning and thinking here in Finland. We will later tell more about that as well. Today, we announced a couple of more things. Of course, we reviewed our strategy. We confirmed our strategy is very good indeed. What we did actually, we reviewed the prioritization of the implementation. Especially actually the Factory 02, what are the plans actually there and what are the resources there as well? What are the needs for the next steps?
We will tell later more about that one. We also publicly now said what is the company estimate of total capital requirement for the whole strategy period, so until 2030, so next five years' time. Two other big announcements today was that in order to speed up our go-to-market, we decided to put all resources, sales, marketing, application development, regulatory affairs, and business development under one management, one organization, under one person in our management. Why to do that one? It's very clear. I want to put all resources, support together with the customers, do these concepts. It's a cooperation way together with customers, make application development, select the categories where we are launching those, how we are positioned to end product on the market, which market we go for those as well. It's a process with this novel food ingredient products we have.
This organization definitely has now all our in-house resources, and they can very fast prioritize which customers we go for and what we do next. It will help actually speed up our go-to-market as well. I'm very happy for this one. So Trells Norcard is leading this organization. I'm very happy that Juan and his Garcia actually supporting this and also continuing until the end of the year. Then make sure that the transition works very, very well towards the customers and intended as well. We also announced restructuring to strengthen company's operations, especially taking the resources, what we have very, very good resources in the R&D area as well as the Factory 01 area, how we utilize that better actually for our Factory 02 project. Internally to transfer this know-how and very well developed over the years resources that we can accelerate our factory project as well.
This change negotiations is starting after internal meetings actually will start today. Of course, we follow up the process here for the change negotiations. We are doing this to accelerate. We have not planned any reduction or layoffs. Just like that you know that we are doing all this to accelerate it forward. Let's talk about the next what is a strategy review. I mentioned already the main outlines, everything remained the same. We also highlight what are the three key priorities. It's all about sales, get the production facility that we get more volumes out to our customers, and also implementing the investment program. For example, to get the international investors part of that as well. The strategy period we made also very clear that Factory 01, we are aiming to sell all volumes and secure the sales agreements for Factory 02.
We are focusing actually this health and performance nutrition segment, fast movers and bigger companies, also CPG companies, consumer packaged goods companies, and of course entering the strategic partnership with them. That's our plan. This is a key slide. Priorities what I already referred a little bit, the next 18 months, how sales, Factory 02, where the volumes and investment work together. Key actually here is the first to get the product to the market, so Solein can be tested by our customers and consumers and use Factory 01 volumes for that one. Then further build the order book, the Factory 02 volumes, which actually enable that we will get Factory 02, all the funding and all actually the plans clear. Factory 02 actually key is optimize the CapEx. We have modular design, we are partnering, and also make a value engineering.
We know that this efficient blueprint what we can actually take like a play of bricks to other places if you have a Factory 03 or 04. We continue improving our productivity. We have done very, very well over the years like you have heard. Also this energy efficiency. Now we have what we have done and what we have been now already investing and have partners. We are also using AI machine learning as well on the top. Why we do that one? It speeds up. We know what we do, but using actually these modern tools and mechanisms. It will help us to do faster what we want to do and better confirming the results faster as well. We also are looking for opportunity for this network of factories. More than one big factory, Factory 02. Investment program is a key actually as well.
Three elements if I go for that one. Of course that will support both in operations and the Factory 02 CapEx investments. We of course are looking at different forms of investments, equity, debts, and grants. Now some very, very positive news. We have already announced that we are focusing on the U.S. health and performance protein market. There's a $10 billion market. It's highly growing, more than 10% annually growth. Our segments, what we have RTD, RTM, and protein bars, are basically growing fast. This is a big one. We can have up to 100 Solein facilities to take this to market if you think about it. We want to more what we are planning now actually here to easily can actually digest these volumes. Price point is high. It seems to stay high.
The latest reports we have for the last week, it looks like this kind of price point of what high quality protein or the whey reference stays high. Of course, we have all needed to sell in the U.S. as well with the self-affirmed GRAS status we have. Our Factory 01 is FDA registered as well. This was actually need, market need. This is a supply. That is actually one of the key information today. There is a gap, and especially a gap for the whey protein, which is a reference for this kind of high quality protein where we are targeting to as well. You can see that in 2028, there is a 100 kilotons gap expected, even with announced supply additions that are coming in the market. There is actually a gap, and that is exactly the gap we go for.
That is the next slide I like to tell about. Solein plays the same end application space actually where we see, and that is also preferred by the customers, the whey protein. High-end whey protein, actually the price point and also the composition of the nutrition and amino acids and other. It is really actually the reference where actually we are seen at the moment. The middle you can see why we actually have this challenge in the whey. It is a declining milk production and also stagnating whey supply because whey is a byproduct from the dairy industry. Now, of course, every customer is looking where they can find the for this demand is higher than supply. It is a very good position for us to come in because we are similar amino acid profile than whey.
We are similar at the cost point, but less volatile actually where customers are looking actually how to cost for them will develop. We are natural taste, great texture as well and functionality. Additionally, we are scalable. We can scale fast like I said at the beginning with the electricity and build these facilities and factories. We have additional nutritional values. Our product is dairy and allergen-free. Plus sustainability. Many big companies, they have their own sustainability targets. They are looking actually how they can reduce the CO₂. If the target is 2030 to have a reduction or 2035 or later, we have now been discussing very big CPG companies, also health and performance companies. They are looking for the sustainable solution. Actually, that's the space for us. Here is a, I will not go through all here. This will be later shared. The key actually is here.
You can see that the dairy, the whey is a benchmark typically. Yellow means actually it's a high, it's a good. The other colors actually mean the other end. Solein, what we have, it's very similar in the way to amino acid profile. That's typically what they ask. Taste and texture, it's a natural, neutral in that and similar to the whey. Feedback what we have had, it's easy actually to use and make a flavoring and so on. It's a good feedback. Functionality, it's a similar. We have also ingredients like we have commented earlier that we have fibers, we have beta glucans, we have also the B2 vitamins, we have also the iron. We have other things as well. It might be superior to the whey in a point. If you think of sustainability, we have put this, how much emissions per kilos. It's a big, big difference.
More than 10x better actually. Of course, labeling point of view, some of those our customers are looking for that as well. Key message here is customers' point of view, we are referred to the whey, or actually we have some even better areas where they are interested to work with us. We see that we can be the solution to help this demand for this there at the moment, health and performance nutrition segment, especially with the high quality proteins I look for. That's actually where we are targeting our customers and who we are talking to at the moment. Who is actually the biggest need, who can accelerate our journey in the growth. Those are the discussions. There's one more time, these are our three products. We have a ready-to-mix, ready-to-drink, and ready protein bars.
These are our concept products what we are actually working with the customers. You can see that the protein volumes are in the U.S. health and performance segment very high already. The growth is very, very high. My last slide here, I'd like to conclude with the customer feedback. Now the last three, four months, we have started to collect actually when our product has together with customers been on the market. We have been doing actually the tastings together with our customers. You can see that the B2B customers, functional taste that this comes actually to a lot. There's a big positive surprise. It's like, wow, this is actually how your protein bites and your concept actually are tasting. Also, the end customers in exhibitions we have been doing and through also our partners like I commented. There is a very positive feedback. What is actually the right-hand side?
This is perhaps one key information. How much these industry professionals are ready to pay premium for Solein? Is it like a typical what you actually saw earlier slide? Are they ready to pay a little bit more? Our positive surprise is actually based on this, when they find the ingredients, they are ready to pay more. We have some additional values that what they really value as well. We have done our internal work. We see actually where we should be our price point and how actually the value proposition and unique selling points works. This is actually also the confirmation for that one. Ilkka, your time. Tell what we do next.
Thanks, Rami. Okay, as part of one of the announcements today, the company announced the capital requirement for the strategy period from 2025 to 2030. I'm here to go this through with you. As communicated before, the modular design of the technology enables us to build Factory 02 in phases. Why in phases? We aim to de-risk this case for our investors, not overinvesting in too early stages against the growing demand levels and matching the price point and finding the right categories. We keep the estimation on starting the production of the first phase in 2028, producing Solein of about 3.2 kilotons with already achieved cell productivity and energy efficiency. The CapEx levels are shown also in this slide.
With the price point of whey and whey protein isolates and the higher concentrates, the first phase could generate revenues of about EUR 50 million and by also absorbing a majority of the tariffs introduced by the U.S. government. The second phase, another set of 3 kilotons generating EUR 50 million of revenue and 70% of EBITDA, very, very attractive returns looming in the horizon based on the overarching assumptions shown on the right-hand side. Electricity price of EUR 40 per MWh existing in the Nordic energy markets and the assumption of selling the excess heat to the district heating network. In a sense, given that these are based on the already achieved production parameters, technological risk associated with these figures has more or less been eliminated. What this CapEx means from the company perspective, naturally the company has other capital requirements than capital expenditure and want to illustrate this for you.
With the phase one and two, which already is a very attractive investment case for both equity and debt investors, CapEx of EUR 182 million is topped up with the operating expenses over the strategy horizon, existing debt service, and some working capital requirements for the ramp-up phase. The company has already also been discussing about partnerships, strategic vendor partners were discussed today in the announcements, which means that the company could utilize build-operate-maintain partnerships in some of the technologies around the production process. We have identified multiple avenues to utilize this opportunity, especially related to utilities, buildings, cooling, and heating, the non-core technologies, and allowing us, Solar Foods, to focus on its core capabilities, that being the bioprocess and the core technology. Also, utilizing the remaining grants under the IPK notification, the capital requirement is somewhere about EUR 100 million for the strategy period.
With the return shown on the previous slide, this allocated to the optimal equity amount, this is actually starting to sound like a very interesting investment opportunity, which we will be discussing as we discuss about the investment program with potential investors. We also announced that the company is also pursuing opportunities to invest in Factory 02 outside Finland. There are multiple very interesting areas to do that. We have identified or we are evaluating three sites currently in Finland, one site in Denmark, and there is a very interesting discussion going on in the Middle East and the U.S. as well. It is more of a plug-and-play solution, which can be plugged wherever needed and optimally in those areas where green energy and green hydrogen or blue hydrogen are available in scale and at the interesting price levels.
With these words, we would move into the Q&A section and invite Laura back on the stage.
Fantastic. Thank you very much, both of you. We will start the Q&A session. You have still time to add on questions to the list. We have plenty here. I don't know if we can take everything, but let's begin. I will ask the question and then one of you, or maybe both of you, will answer. We'll see. Okay, first one. What are currently the main hurdles holding back sales leads from signing either supply agreements or factory zero-to-volume agreements with you?
Of course, customer side, they need time to test the product. They need to think actually where they put the loans in their timeline and also the resources. What we do today, I don't know if they're holding back, but actually we are working together selectively. Okay, these are the logos of customers we want to have. We do have this jointly, the concept application development, and then actually planning carefully. Okay, this is actually a country. This is actually the place we launch it. These are the product categories as well. I'd rather say that actually it's a process than holding back.
Thank you, Rami. Perhaps, Ilkka, this is for you. How does Solar Foods handle the politics in the U.S., especially the fees?
Okay. Of course, we monitor the situation very closely. The company is well prepared towards changes in the regulation. We are preparing for FDA notification, which has been one of the items discussed in the news of the U.S. What comes to tariffs and possible trade war situations, as I told you, the already announced tariffs of 15%, the company expects to absorb those relatively easily without too big hit on the margins and profit levels. We are pretty well aligned against those.
Thank you, Ilkka. Could you provide us with more color on the required provisions for the memorandums of understanding regarding Factory 02 production capacity for them to lead to binding agreements?
Okay, that's a little bit reflecting what I said already. It's a process. What we have defined in these MOUs and also letter of intent process are the steps: product development, which categories we select, which flavors we select. Is it the protein bars? Is it the protein drinks? Is it the ready-to-mix and so on? Doing together with our partner, there are clear milestones. With those milestones, it actually goes to the definite agreement as well. It's a process, and the process is defined. I'm very happy because it's a clear process, what we are doing as well. Later, actually, we can have this nice agreement announcement coming out.
Thank you, Rami. All right. What is the current average Solein content percent of total weight in products utilizing Solein? What about in the future? What is the maximum feasible share of Solein in final products?
Okay, so of course it depends on what kind of product you have and how much you use. You only need a tiny piece of it and then you claim actually it's Solein also in there. Health and performance nutrition, we want to have it if it's one of the snacks. It's one person. If a person is selecting the nutrition and how many in the diet, how many times he will eat, it will be actually like 20 grams actually you will get the Solein. Of course, we need to put enough of that as well. It's similar to what you can find in the protein bars today because our protein content is 80%. It's very high. It's like equal what you have in whey proteins, the 80% as well. It depends actually what kind of product at the end and how they want to actually have it.
Okay, thanks. How has the consumer feedback been so far on Solein in the United States so far? Does it generally differ from the feedback received in Singapore?
U.S. market, actually what is happening at the moment, the health and wellness is a big, big topic. There's a McKinsey study actually saying this is like a $2 trillion market globally, but its main market and drive actually is in the U.S. If you visit any of those cities, you will see by yourself and there's a protein bar of healthy snacking all places. I commented that eating away actually from home is more than 50%. The point actually is here that the U.S., they are of course looking actually what is a healthier choice when they have this takeaway actually away from home and perhaps cannot select so easily actually to what they eat. It's booming. It's really, it's booming at the moment and like all this 10% gate guard what actually was commenting. The time is now.
The challenge actually, I go back actually to my presentation, the supply for high quality proteins is globally limited. We have a huge opportunity actually come with you refer to the whey plus additional benefits and come to the market actually for these products and helping in the U.S. as well.
I'd like to add on the Singapore. Ajinomoto and some other partners over there have been launching products heavily around sustainability, and we see that it resonates very well among the customer base over there. Recently, the Aquatics of Singapore, where Ajinomoto had multiple ice creams available. That's the feedback that we get.
Thank you. I noticed Denmark on the list of interesting factory countries. Has Iceland not also reached your attention utilizing electricity, heat, and CO₂ from high temperature geothermal sites?
That's right. We only mentioned the ones that are where we are most advanced. There is a list of other opportunities, Iceland being one of them, and then also other countries in Europe. There seems to be lots of interest towards factory projects like these where added value is very strong.
Thank you, Ilkka. In your IPO prospectus, you mentioned discussions with four space industry companies that you demonstrated your technology to. Are these discussions still ongoing or have you altered your focus toward consumer goods companies?
Yes. Just before or just after the list, I don't recall correctly, but we won the NASA Deep Space Food Challenge category of international companies. Discussions with U.S. space companies have continued and we expect to announce the business plans of our space business later in the future. That's in the making. We also announced with our partner, Tim Kopra, the CEO of Starlab.
Thank you. How would you expect build-operate-maintain partnerships to affect the economics and the risk sharing in the Factory 02 investment?
We see tremendous potential to add value. By introducing reduced CapEx levels, which you also saw on the capital requirement slides, we'll increase the internal rates of return somewhat significantly and the returns of the shareholders. That is a very warmly welcomed opportunity. Hopefully, we can announce more about those soon.
Thank you, Ilkka. Let's take one more question. What would the potential partners do in Factory 02?
Like I told, the main opportunities relate to the buildings, real estate, hydrogen production, energy connections and grids, and cooling and heating, which are not essentially our core technology, that being the bioprocess. There, we see most of the potential.
Thank you, Ilkka and Rami. Thank you to the audience. Thank you for being here with us today, and see you soon again.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Have a good day.
Great day.