innv-20241231
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
___________________________
FORM 10-K
___________________________
(Mark One)
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024
or
For the transition period from to
Commission file number 001-42303
___________________________
INNVENTURE, INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
___________________________
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
(321) 209-6787
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share INV The Nasdaq Stock Market, LLC
Securities registered pursuant to section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.
Yes oNox
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Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.
Yes oNox
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.
Yesx No o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).
Yesx No o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,”and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer o Accelerated filer o
Non-accelerated filer x Smaller reporting company x
Emerging growth company x
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.
o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.
o
If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements.
o
Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b).
o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).
Yes o No x
As of June 28, 2024, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, the registrant’s common stock was not listed on any exchange. The registrant’s common stock began regular-way trading on the Nasdaq Global Market on October 3, 2024.
As of April 8, 2025, the registrant had 47,106,300 shares of common stock outstanding.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
None.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page No.
PART I
Item 1. Business 6
Item 1A. Risk Factors 22
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 42
Item 1C. Cybersecurity 45
Item 2. Properties 43
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 43
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 44
PART II
Item 6. [Reserved] 46
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 57
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 58
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 113
Item 9B. Other Information 114
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 126
PART III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 115
Item 11. Executive Compensation 121
Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 139
PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 140
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CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Unless the context requires otherwise, references in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (“Form 10-K”) to “Innventure,” the “Company,” “we,” “our” or “us” refer to Innventure, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.
This Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the Company’s business model, the financial condition, results of operations, earnings outlook and its Operating Companies’ (as defined below) prospects. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or the Company’s future financial or operating performance and may refer to projections and forecasts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by future or conditional words such as “plan,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “outlook,” “estimate,” “forecast,” “project,” “continue,” “could,” “may,” “might,” “possible,” “will,” “potential,” “predict,” “should,” “would” and other similar words and expressions (or the negative versions of such words or expressions), but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking.
The forward-looking statements are based on the current expectations of the Company’s management and are inherently subject to uncertainties and changes in circumstances and their potential effects and speak only as of the date of this Form 10-K. There can be no assurance that future developments will be those that have been anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond the control of the parties) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those factors discussed and identified in other public filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) by the Company and the following:
•expectations regarding Innventure’s and the Innventure Companies’ (as defined below) strategies and achieve future financial performance, including their respective future business plans, expansion and acquisition plans or objectives, prospective performance and opportunities and competitors, revenues, products and services, pricing, operating expenses, market trends, liquidity, cash flows and uses of cash, capital expenditures, and Innventure’s ability to invest in growth initiatives;
•the implementation, market acceptance and success of Innventure’s and the Innventure Companies’ business models and growth strategies;
•Innventure’s future capital requirements and sources and uses of cash;
•Innventure’s ability to meet the various conditions, including the available cash and performance targets and issuance of warrant instruments to the WTI Lenders (as defined below), and access any additional installments draws, if available, under the WTI Facility (as defined below);
•Innventure’s ability to meet the various conditions and satisfy the various limitations under the Standby Equity Purchase Agreement (the “SEPA”) with YA II PN, Ltd. (“Yorkville”), including exchange caps, issuances and subscriptions based on trading volumes, to continue to access the funds available under the SEPA or the Securities Purchase Agreement and related Convertible Debentures (as defined below) due to certain conditions, restrictions and limitations set forth therein;
•certain restrictions and limitations set forth in Innventure’s debt instruments, which may impair Innventure’s financial and operating flexibility;
•Innventure’s and the Innventure Companies’ ability to generate liquidity and maintain sufficient capital to operate as anticipated;
•Innventure’s ability to obtain funding for its operations and future growth and to continue as a going concern;
•the risk that the technology solutions that Innventure and the Innventure Companies license or acquire from third parties or develop internally may not function as anticipated or provide the benefits anticipated;
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•developments and projections relating to Innventure’s and the Innventure Companies’ competitors and industry;
•the ability of Innventure and the Innventure Companies to scale the operations of their respective businesses;
•the ability of Innventure and the Innventure Companies to establish substantial commercial sales of their products;
•the ability of Innventure and the Innventure Companies to compete against companies with greater capital and other resources or superior technology or products;
•Innventure and the Innventure Companies’ ability to meet, and to continue to meet, applicable regulatory requirements for the use of their products and the numerous regulatory requirements generally applicable to their respective businesses;
•the outcome of any legal proceedings against Innventure or the Innventure Companies;
•Innventure’s ability to find future opportunities to license or acquire breakthrough technology solutions from multinational corporations (“MNCs”) or other third parties (collectively, “Technology Solutions Providers”) and to satisfy the requirements imposed by or to avoid disagreements with its current and future Technology Solutions Providers;
•the risk that the launch of new companies distracts Innventure’s management from its subsidiaries and their respective operations;
•the risk that Innventure may be deemed an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the “Investment Company Act”), which would impose burdensome compliance requirements and restrictions on its activities;
•Innventure’s ability to sufficiently protect the intellectual property (“IP”) rights of itself and its Operating Companies, and to avoid or resolve in a timely and cost-effective manner any disputes that may arise relating to its use of the IP of third parties;
•the risk of a cyber-attack or a failure of Innventure’s information technology and data security infrastructure;
•the ability to recognize the anticipated benefits of the Business Combination;
•geopolitical risk and changes in applicable laws or regulations, including with respect to foreign trade policy and tariffs;
•potential adverse effects of other economic, business, and/or competitive factors;
•operational risks related to Innventure and its Operating Companies, which have limited or no operating history; and
•the limited liquidity and trading of Innventure’s securities.
Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements in this Form 10-K are made as of the date hereof, based on information available to Innventure as of the date hereof, and Innventure assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable law.
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PART I
Item 1. BUSINESS.
Overview
Innventure founds, funds, and operates companies with a focus on transformative, sustainable technology solutions that we acquire or license from technology innovators. These technology innovators are typically MNCs but need not be MNCs. In connection with the founding of a new company, we look to establish a collaborative relationship with at least one MNC that (1) has expressed a need for, and an interest in using or distributing, the specific technology that we intend to commercialize and (2) we expect will become a channel partner capable of providing a path to market adoption, distribution and/or revenue for the new company. This collaborating MNC, which we refer to as a channel partner, may be the entity from which we source the technology or it may be an unrelated entity. As owner-operators, our goal is to take what we believe to be breakthrough technologies from evaluation to scaled commercialization utilizing an approach designed to help mitigate risk as we build disruptive companies that we believe have the potential to achieve a target enterprise value of at least $1 billion. When we say “disruptive,” we mean innovations that, in our opinion, have the ability to significantly change the way businesses, industries, markets, and/or consumers operate. We have launched four such companies since inception: PureCycle Technologies, Inc. (“PureCycle” or “PCT”) in late 2015 (technology initially sourced from The Procter & Gamble Company (“P&G”)), AeroFlexx, LLC (“AeroFlexx” or “AFX”) in 2018 (technology sourced from P&G), and Accelsius Holdings LLC (“Accelsius” or “ACC”) in 2022 (technology initially sourced from the Nokia Corporation (“Nokia”)), and Refinity Olefins, LLC (“Refinity”) in 2024 (technology initially sourced from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (“VTT”); collaboration agreement with The Dow Chemical Company (“Dow”) signed). PureCycle became a publicly traded company in 2021 and, as of the date of this report, Innventure no longer has an economic interest in PureCycle. We refer to AeroFlexx, Accelsius and Refinity as “Innventure Companies” and to the Innventure Companies along with those subsidiary companies that Innventure may found, fund, and operate going forward as the “Operating Companies.”
Innventure’s approach to identifying and commercializing disruptive technology opportunities is designed to help mitigate the risks associated with building start-up businesses by sourcing technology from MNCs and other technology innovators. An important part of our approach is our collaboration with MNCs. These relationships give us access to disruptive opportunities, a combination of thoroughly researched and well-protected technology solutions that potentially satisfy unmet market needs, along with market data and customer insights unavailable to most new ventures. We seek MNC relationships that we believe can provide value as channel partners and serve as catalysts for market adoption of the technology solutions we look to commercialize.
We use our systematic, repeatable DownSelect (as defined below) process to analyze each opportunity across a range of key success factors, including: (1) the disruptive potential, (2) the likelihood for accelerated early adoption driven by economic value creation, (3) the potential to materially address sustainability issues and drive economic value for business-to-business (“B2B”) customers, (4) the ability to create sustainable competitive advantage, (5) the projected ability to generate rapid, sizable financial returns and (6) the potential to create target enterprise value of at least $1 billion. DownSelect uses MNC’s proprietary market and customer data along with our own rigorous analytics to assess each opportunity and seeks opportunities for the MNC to help accelerate early market adoption by becoming early customers or offering channel access.
The DownSelect process consists of four separate phases, with successive phases building on work done in the previous phases and deepening the level of analyses done as opportunities progress through the process.
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Phase 1 – Opportunity Screen: Innventure’s team screens opportunities that are reflective of the four dimensions of the DownSelect Process; (1) technology developed by an MNC or othertechnology innovator, (2) significant market need, (3) transformative solution and (4) strategic execution. We analyze high level business, financial, and technology issues to determine if the opportunity meets our key success criteria.
Phase 2 – Critical Factor Assessment: We identify, assess, and prioritize an opportunity’s critical success and risk factors and develop a plan (to be executed in Phase 3) for in-depth systematic evaluation to quantify value, address critical factors for success of a new business built around the opportunity, and mitigate risk factors. This is an internal assessment to determine if an opportunity is sizable, transformative, and meets the minimum threshold for advancement.
Phase 3 – Comprehensive Quantification: The Innventure team conducts a comprehensive review across all DownSelect dimensions. A core focus is on quantitative analysis and strategy of the immediate new value created for customers. We quantify the potential economic value to the B2B customer, create a pricing model that is sufficiently compelling to predictably drive early adoption, and conduct bottoms-up, real-world testing to further validate key hypotheses, especially around enabling critical success factors and mitigating critical risks. We develop initial financials, including revenue models and capital and operating cost estimates; define preliminary organizational structures and business plans; conduct field validations, often including prospective customer interviews, pilot manufacturing and additional concept and product testing, to help validate critical assumptions.
For an opportunity that successfully passes through Phase 3, the DownSelect team, in collaboration with Innventure senior leadership, recommends to the Board of Directors (the “Board”) that the opportunity move to Phase 4 and proceed to create a new Innventure Company.
Phase 4 – Strategy & Formation: We set the initial strategy, including go-to-market strategies and initial business plan, for the Innventure Company, secure control of the technology via licensing or ownership, and create the new company.
The DownSelect process typically takes six to nine months, though it may take as little as a few weeks to decline an opportunity and as long as a year or more from the start of Phase 1 to full approval to launch a new company. The process is managed by the DownSelect team with support from the broader Innventure team as well as external subject matter experts as required. The primary goal of the process is to confirm that an opportunity meets the key DownSelect criteria, and that we believe that the business has the potential to achieve or exceed a target enterprise value of at least $1 billion. At the completion of the DownSelect process, a new Innventure Company is created, and the approved opportunity is transferred to the new company, at which time Innventure appoints the board of directors and initial management team, typically consisting of Innventure principals and personnel. Innventure selects executives and managers who it believes to have the requisite technical and operational expertise to scale enterprises built around disruptive technologies. Previously, Innventure owned and operated the Innventure Companies and maintained control at least through early scaling. As part of the new Disruptive Conglomerate Model, Innventure intends to retain majority (or sole) ownership.
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When an opportunity satisfies our DownSelect criteria, we seek to acquire or license the technology solution from the MNC or other technology innovators and use the initial business plans developed during our DownSelect process as the basis to launch a new “Innventure Company” with initial funding provided by Innventure. From an investor perspective, this model is intended to bring founder shares of a company with a target enterprise value of at least $1 billion onto the Innventure balance sheet, which we believe can provide excellent potential returns for Innventure shareholders as described in more detail in this section.
Historically, and prior to the Business Combination, the Innventure model targeted exits for our new companies at 5-7 years after inception through a sale, initial public offering or merger, including a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. In 2024, we determined that this approach could result in exiting companies prior to creating their maximum shareholder value.
As we continue to advance the Innventure model, we have moved to an approach designed to allow us to build and hold companies, with goals of generating positive cash flows of one or more majority-owned new Innventure companies and maximizing value for investors and other stakeholders. As part of our recently adopted “Disruptive Conglomerate Model,” Innventure intends to retain majority (or sole) ownership. We believe that holding majority stakes in companies allows those companies to mature further and gives us the opportunity to derive greater value from those companies as we operate them over the long term. We are currently deploying this model for Accelsius and Refinity. While an opportunistic sale or other disposition of one or more of our majority-held companies could occur in the future, exit transactions are not expected to be a factor in the business plans for Accelsius or Refinity or for future Operating Companies.
Innventure was founded in 2015 and currently operates its business under a Delaware limited liability company that was formed in 2017. Innventure is a Delaware corporation following the closing of the Business Combination. Our phone number is (321) 209-6787. Our website is www.innventure.com. Information contained on or accessible through our website is not incorporated by reference into this report and should not be considered a part of this report.
We are led by Gregory W. (Bill) Haskell, our Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”), who also serves as a Class I Director; David Yablunosky, our Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”), who also serves as a Class II Director; our Founders, Mike Otworth, who also serves as our Executive Chairman, and Dr. John Scott, who also serves as our Chief Strategy Officer; and Roland Austrup, our Chief Growth Officer; and a strong team of senior leaders that bring experience and expertise in scaling start-ups, capital markets, operations, marketing, and technology evaluation.
Corporate Structure
As of March 7, 2025, Innventure LLC owns 37.9% of AeroFlexx, and the remainder of AeroFlexx is collectively owned by Innventure and AeroFlexx directors, officers and employees (9.0%); Innventus ESG Fund I, L.P. (the “ESG Fund”) (34.7%); and investors external to Innventure and AeroFlexx (18.4%). Further, as of March 7, 2025, Innventure LLC owns 52.7% of Accelsius, and the remainder of Accelsius is collectively owned by Innventure and Accelsius directors, officers, and employees (25.5%), the ESG Fund (4.1%), and investors external to Innventure and Accelsius (17.7%). As of March 7, 2025, Innventure LLC owns 71.8% of Refinity Holdings, LLC (“Refinity Holdings”), an affiliate of Dow is expected to own 5.0%, and the remainder of Refinity Holdings is collectively owned by Innventure and Refinity Holdings directors, officers, and employees (28.2%). Refinity Holdings owns 100% of Refinity. Innventure, through Innventure LLC as its subsidiary, owns 37.9%, 52.7% and 71.8% of AeroFlexx, Accelsius and Refinity Holdings, respectively.
Following the Business Combination, the Class PCTA Units and Class I Units remain outstanding and their holders retain the limited voting rights attendant thereto with respect to matters concerning Class PCTA and Class I business. Innventure otherwise owns all of the membership interests in Innventure LLC.
Following the Business Combination, Innventure’s wholly owned subsidiaries, Innventure Management Services, LLC (“Management Services”) and Innventure GP LLC (“Innventure GP”) continue to serve as the manager and general partner, respectively, of the ESG Fund and, correspondingly, Innventure will continue to
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accrue management fees for providing investment management services to the ESG Fund. Following the Business Combination, the ESG Fund owns 32.5% of AeroFlexx and 4.3% of Accelsius.
The ESG Fund was formed on August 17, 2018, and commenced operations on the same day. The ESG Fund was formed to make venture capital (“VC”) investments in and contribute capital to certain Innventure Companies. Innventure’s wholly owned subsidiaries, Management Services and Innventure GP, serve as the manager and general partner, respectively, of the ESG Fund. Voting and investment power over the ESG Fund’s investments, including the AeroFlexx and Accelsius units held by the ESG Fund, is exercised by the investment committee of Management Services, which consists of Roland Austrup (Innventure’s Chief Growth Officer), Lucas Harper (Innventure’s Chief Investment Officer), and Dr. John Scott (Innventure’s Chief Strategy Officer). The Company, through Innventure LLC, earns management fees for providing investment management services to the ESG Fund.
Market Opportunity
In 2022 alone, the top 100 companies by research and development (“R&D”) expenditure spent over $700 billion on R&D. Many patents fail to be commercialized for various reasons, including misalignment with core business strategies, lack of commercialization resources, and poor timing in the market. While MNCs excel at developing well-protected technologies for their existing businesses, we believe that many MNCs invent additional technologies with significant potential value that may best be realized by a different approach. Our goal is to collaborate with MNCs to commercialize these high potential technology assets, providing a return on the R&D investment and, most importantly, creating products and services based on those technology solutions that will benefit the MNCs and their customers. We look to source technology solutions that come with a strong IP portfolio, market data that supports business plan development, and channel access that helps accelerate the commercialization timeline for the disruptive new company. Technologies can be sourced from MNCs, as well as from other technology innovators.
Closed Loop Partnership Model
Our Closed Loop partnership model is designed to capitalize on Innventure’s, MNCs’ and other technology innovators’ respective complementary capabilities. MNCs and others fund extensive R&D programs which create technology solutions with the potential to satisfy significant unmet market needs. MNCs also have the potential to serve as valuable channel partners that can provide paths to distribution and/or revenue for our operating companies. We use the term “Closed Loop partnership model” to describe an ongoing collaboration in which (1) the MNC typically provides proprietary insights and data about the markets they serve, particularly focusing on unmet needs or unsolved customer problems in those markets, as well as access to the market via existing channels and/or customers; and (2) IP-protected technology solutions that satisfy those unmet needs are sourced from that MNC or a different MNC or technology innovator. In furtherance of our Closed Loop partnership model, Innventure assesses the relevant technology solution and, if it meets Innventure’s rigorous screening criteria, Innventure seeks to acquire or license the solution and use it as the basis for a new Innventure company. A Closed Loop partnership can be one in which the MNC itself is an initial customer for the product or service of the new Innventure company and where early adoption of the solution by the MNC helps enable rapid growth of the new company. Alternatively, technology may be sourced from an entity that is not an MNC or that is not a potential channel partner if Innventure believes that it can establish a relationship with an MNC that will serve as a channel partner that can enable market adoption of the technology that Innventure seeks to commercialize.
Potential Benefits to Innventure
For Innventure, the Closed Loop partnership model seeks to provide access to disruptive, developed technology solutions from MNCs and other technology innovators that satisfy well-understood and unmet market needs along with the proprietary market and customer data to help Innventure advance the development and commercialization approach. Some of the potential benefits to Innventure include the following:
•Access Advantage: The relationship with an MNC provides unique access to MNC technologies and/or the information needed to help Innventure evaluate a disruptive technology solution in the context of specific unmet market needs. Using both data from the MNC and its own evaluations, Innventure determines if the opportunity should progress to a new Innventure Company.
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•Developed Technology Solutions: MNCs invest significant time, money, and technical expertise in developing and protecting innovative technology solutions that satisfy unmet market needs for them and their customers. This all occurs well before Innventure acquires the technology solution. A new Innventure Company that sources the technology solution from an MNC—including IP such as patents and trade secrets, product prototypes, manufacturing equipment, and other assets—has access to the MNC’s technical expertise for transfer and early industrialization of the technology, all of which helps reduce commercialization time, save money, and mitigate common risks inherent to start-ups.
•Institutional Data Set: MNCs also spend significant time and money developing deep, proprietary market knowledge, which is very difficult for a typical new venture to replicate. MNCs are in a position to provide Innventure with highly robust data, including market insights and customer testing, to understand unmet market needs and to assess the technology solution and potential business models.
•Early Customer Adoption: We believe MNCs with which we collaborate will be motivated to catalyze market adoption of a technology solution by becoming early customers and/or providing channel access to facilitate the initial customer base to drive financial and strategic value. When Innventure sources technology from an entity that is not expected to be a channel partner, it seeks to establish a relationship with an MNC that will serve as a channel partner for the new company. In some cases, MNCs may choose to sign offtake agreements with the new company and/or facilitate access to prospective customers within their sphere of influence (e.g., suppliers or customers). We believe when an MNC is the original “inventor” or an early adopter of the technology solution, it may bring immediate credibility to the new Innventure Company which can lead to greater interest from potential customers.
Business Model Today
Innventure’s business model is the culmination of lessons learned over the past three decades. In 1993, when the first version of what is now Innventure was created, we studied both failed and successful startups to understand how to identify and manage risks to achieve a higher success rate for early-stage companies. We believe we have built a repeatable, systematic, risk managed approach to business building that is substantially different from traditional VC models. Innventure is not a venture capital company. VCs typically make many minority investments, assuming that only a small percentage will succeed and do not operate the underlying companies. In contrast to this approach, Innventure maintains controlling stakes in a limited number of operating companies that we vet, launch, build, fund and operate, with the goal of operating these companies over a long-term period. The Innventure model is designed to help mitigate the significant risks inherent to establishing and building disruptive businesses.
Using our proprietary DownSelect approach, we focus on assessing and mitigating risk well before the new Innventure Company is formed. When we do launch, we believe new Operating Companies are more mature than typical startups, due to the extensive investment by the MNC or other technology innovators in developing technology solutions, the rigor of the Innventure DownSelect process, and the experience of our Innventure company leaders. This prospective head start, coupled with the other components of the Innventure model, are designed to yield a higher success rate than other start-ups and VC-backed companies.
The Business Combination
On October 24, 2023, Learn CW Investment Corporation (“Learn CW”) and Innventure LLC entered into a business combination agreement (the “Business Combination Agreement”) with Learn SPAC HoldCo, Inc. (“Holdco”), LCW Merger Sub, Inc., a direct, wholly-owned subsidiary of Holdco (“LCW Merger Sub”) and Innventure Merger Sub, LLC, a direct, wholly-owned subsidiary of Holdco (“Innventure Merger Sub” and, together with LCW Merger Sub, the “Merger Subs”). On September 30, 2024, the stockholders of Learn CW approved the business combination (the “Business Combination”), and the Business Combination closed on October 2, 2024 (the “Closing Date”). The Business Combination has been accounted for using the acquisition method of accounting. The Company determined the accounting acquirer to be Holdco. Accordingly, the Company recorded assets acquired, liabilities assumed and non-controlling interest at their acquisition date fair values and recognized goodwill.
Pursuant to the Business Combination Agreement, among other things, (i) LCW Merger Sub merged with and into Learn CW (the “LCW Merger”), with Learn CW as the surviving company of the LCW Merger and (ii)
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Innventure Merger Sub merged with and into Innventure (the “Innventure Merger” and together with the LCW Merger, the “Mergers”), with Innventure LLC as the surviving entity of the Innventure Merger. Following the Mergers, each of Learn CW and Innventure LLC became a subsidiary of Holdco, and Holdco became a publicly traded company. Holdco changed its name to Innventure, Inc. in connection with the Business Combination.
Sustainability as a Value Driver
We believe sustainability issues create new markets and are primary drivers of revenue, cost, and risk that impact value creation for long-term business performance for many of the verticals in which Innventure focuses. MNCs and others are increasingly focused on sustainability. The Innventure model is designed to help MNCs and others meet their sustainability goals by building companies around technology solutions that deliver sustainability benefits and assist MNCs and others in achieving their stated sustainability objectives. Our approach is that sustainability must first be economically viable. We focus on opportunities that we believe are commercially viable and profitable over time scales measured in decades and that provide a positive impact on the planet. As demonstrated by the success of PureCycle, Innventure Companies not only have the potential to create economic value but have also progressed products that have potential for significant positive impact on the environment.
•PureCycle: Purifies and recycles post-industrial and post-consumer polypropylene waste back to a like virgin grade polymer, usable across a broad range of applications and markets. PureCycle became a publicly traded company in 2021 and, as of the date of this report, Innventure no longer has an economic interest in PureCycle.
•AeroFlexx: Combines the best attributes of flexible pouches and rigid bottles to provide consumer packaged goods (“CPG”) companies with a novel, curbside recyclable primarily liquid package that uses up to 85% less virgin plastic than standard rigid bottles, significantly simplifies packaging supply chains, and enables innovative package shapes and creative artwork. AeroFlexx is in the early stages of operations and is beginning to ramp up its commercial production capabilities. The current manufacturing footprint installed and on order is projected to be sufficient to meet projected demand through mid-2025.
•Accelsius: Delivers a transformative industry solution to thermal management to central processing units (“CPUs”) and graphics processing units (“GPUs”) in datacenter and telecommunications applications, with potential to allow operators to increase computational throughput and capacity, increase revenue, reduce operating costs, increase energy efficiency, and drive sustainability across server, switching, and edge computing environments. Accelsius is an early-stage company that is just beginning revenue-generating operations. Accelsius has been focused on developing and commercializing data center cooling products since its inception in 2022 and delivered customer proof-of-concept pilots in Q2 2024.
•Refinity: Intends to commercialize process technologies for converting low cost, abundant plastic waste to drop-in chemicals directly useful in and consumable by the existing petrochemical supply chain.
Innventure is committed to long-term sustainability and making the planet a better place to live for all, while simultaneously creating significant enterprise value for our shareholders.
Competition
We view our competition through two frameworks: competition to acquire technologies from MNCs and other technology innovators and competition faced by our Operating Companies.
Other Technology Acquirers
We believe we have a unique offering for MNCs and other technology innovators looking to monetize and commercialize their R&D. We believe VC firms and other potential acquirers who are active in the market typically do not possess the in-house business creation and operations management that is at the core of the Innventure strategy. Some VCs and other potential acquirers invest in companies who license IP from universities, nonprofit research institutes, or national laboratories. In those cases, the VC and other potential acquirer need to spend significant time and effort building an initial team and starting the business, then transferring and often further
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incubating technology, developing products, and defining business plans. We don’t believe any VCs and other potential acquirers have a business model that is as comprehensive, vertical agnostic and focused on creating new companies that can achieve a target enterprise value of at least $1 billion as Innventure.
Other potential competition might include individual entrepreneurs looking to purchase technology solutions from an MNC or other technology innovator. We believe that while individual entrepreneurs may have the right technical or business skills, they frequently lack the credibility and financial resources to meet the requirements for the top, most disruptive technologies resident in MNCs and other technology innovators. We also believe these entrepreneurs can lack the resources and business infrastructure to quickly establish a new company, reducing the likelihood of a successful commercialization process. Members of Innventure’s core team have put into practice various components of the DownSelect model for choosing opportunities to scale over the past thirty years. This history, along with our ability to work in collaboration with Technology Solutions Providers, are key drivers of Innventure’s success to date and critical to Innventure’s future growth.
Innventure Company Competition
The competition at the Innventure Company subsidiary level varies by company and by the markets they serve. The examination of the competitive landscape is a key component of the DownSelect process. Innventure is focused on building companies that have unique products that will transform industries. More detail on competition for both AeroFlexx, Accelsius and Refinity are provided below in the business sections related to each company.
Intellectual Property
For an opportunity that meets all DownSelect criteria and for which Innventure enters into a contract to license or acquire technology from an MNC or another technology innovator, Innventure focuses on acquiring commercial control of the application of all IP related to the specific opportunity. Each such contract is unique is crafted to address long-term value sharing among Innventure, the new Innventure Company, and the technology provider. Such a contract typically involves Innventure or the new Innventure company acquiring or licensing the IP for use in defined applications and geographies, and Innventure’s objective is to maintain maximum freedom to practice (with unlimited access and control as the primary goal) across many applications, industries, markets, and geographies for the new company which will be built around and, ideally, ultimately take ownership of the IP. In some cases, Innventure will license IP instead of fully acquiring the rights, but the license must provide that Innventure and the new company has sufficient exclusive access to practice and commercialize a technology solution defined by the IP across the broadest set of applications, industries, markets, and geographies in order to meet Innventure’s goals. Also in selected cases, Innventure may agree to a limited number of applications, industries, markets, and/or geographies if the MNC or other technology innovator intends to use the IP in one or more existing business(es), and Innventure often provides a grant-back license to practice the IP for its own business but not for sale or sharing with other unaffiliated enterprises.
Since most opportunities are enabled by novel technology solutions, IP typically includes but is not limited to invention disclosures, patent applications, granted patents, trademarks, trade secrets, institutional know how, process and product prototypes, pilot and demonstration systems, process and product plans and designs, market data, customer insights, customer and market testing and validation, field, and production data, related to the technology solution. In selected cases, IP may relate to a business or service model innovation.
Each new Innventure Company, including AeroFlexx, Accelsius and Refinity, develops or intends to develop company-specific IP strategies that build on and expand their IP portfolios to provide protection of processes, products, services, business models, and other innovations and support the continued growth of the companies. For example, Accelsius is based on a two-phase direct-to-chip passive liquid cooling technology acquired from Nokia, which Accelsius productized as an active, pumped solution to design approaches to solve the challenge of increasing server rack power density and meet the rising demand for efficient cooling systems in datacenters and telecommunication systems.
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Human Capital Management
Total Compensation and Rewards
We provide competitive compensation and benefits, which include market-based pay keyed to relative industry data. We offer a full complement of health and welfare benefits such as health, dental, vision, life insurance, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance. A 401(k)-retirement plan with company match is offered. In addition, employees are granted equity awards in newly created Innventure Companies through various programs to promote equity proprietorship opportunities.
Workforce Culture
We focus on building a workforce that is responsive to customer needs, attentive to being efficient and cost conscious for our financial stakeholders, and entrepreneurial and innovative in seeking to create new disruptive companies. We actively recruit talent that builds a culture reflective of the desires and the needs of the customers we partner with and serve. We actively support equal opportunity employment and provide a working environment of equity and inclusion for all employees.
Employees
The aggregate number of employees employed by us and contractors engaged across Innventure, AeroFlexx, Accelsius and Refinity as of March 14, 2025 was 153.
Accelsius
Overview
Accelsius provides a direct-to-chip liquid cooling solution for servers (and other computing devices) in data centers and edge computing locations. Accelsius aims to exploit three powerful industry trends that it believes are converging:
1.an exponential predicted increase in the thermal footprint, or thermal design power (“TDP”), of server and GPU chipsets which are now beginning to exceed the capability of the incumbent refrigerated-air cooling systems;
2.increased and unpredictable global energy costs; and
3.an increased level of commitment to environmental sustainability, including from C-suites and corporate management teams.
Reducing data center power usage is a significant opportunity to meet public environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) commitments, but the predicted increase in TDP of future servers will make this extremely challenging.
Accelsius has developed NeuCool, a direct-to-chip liquid cooling solution using a scalable closed loop two-phase system with a dielectric coolant. Liquid coolant enters an evaporator plate that is installed directly on a CPU or GPU. Heat generated by the operation of the CPU or GPU causes the liquid coolant to boil, extracting energy and generating vapor that flows away from the evaporator plate through tubing to a separate condenser, where energy is extracted and coolant vapor returns to a liquid state. The liquid coolant is pumped back through common tubing, returning to the evaporator plate and starting the process again.
Market Opportunity
Approximately 3% of the world’s power is consumed by data centers, of which 40% is used for cooling. The global data center cooling market was $15.7 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a 17.1% compound annual rate growth (“CAGR”) to over $56 billion in 2030. Of this, the data center liquid cooling market is projected to grow at a 24.4% CAGR from $2.6 billion in 2023 to $7.8 billion in 2028. However, it is not just data center servers that would benefit from new cooling technologies. Other markets include edge computing and power electronics across a number of industry verticals, such as construction, healthcare and hospitals, manufacturing, media and
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entertainment, retail and wholesale and transportation and logistics. Edge computing is being driven by data gravity, i.e., the need to do processing as close as possible to where the data is generated. As datasets become exponentially larger, cost and latency issues drive a need for computing power in edge locations (e.g., in cell phone towers). The market intelligence firm 451 Group predicts that over 556,000 organizations globally will use Edge IaaS by 2027. Based on their prediction, we estimate that two million servers will be installed in edge locations annually by 2027. Because edge installations are often poorly suited for traditional refrigerated-air cooling, we believe two-phase, direct-to-chip cooling may be the most cost-effective and sustainable option.
In addition to energy costs, traditional cooling systems use a considerable amount of water. As an example, ChatGPT can use upwards of 0.5L of water for as little as 50 prompts. The newest cell phones require faster networks, smart technology is connecting all aspects of our lives, and artificial intelligence (“AI”) is being used at unprecedented levels. Current cooling technologies struggle with the rising heat densities associated with the processors to support these applications. For example:
•Components: Increased software stack (including AI) require higher performance processors which increase heat dissipation.
•Equipment: More powerful servers, routers, switches, cell tower base stations, and other computing equipment require improved system level cooling.
•Systems: Denser racks of equipment are dissipating more heat per unit area.
•Facilities: Heat management capacity of data center and telecom facilities are pushing the limits of current air cooling technologies.
•Growth: There are currently 4.1 GW of new data centers planned.
Sustainability Benefits
We believe Accelsius will allow its clients to meet their sustainability needs while providing a more affordable option. We also believe that, by adopting Accelsius cooling solutions, clients can more efficiently use their resources, capital, space, energy, and water. Direct-to-chip cooling offers large savings compared to air cooling in full scale deployments, specifically including:
•Total Cost of Ownership Savings: Cooling accounts for approximately 40% of a data center’s energy consumption.
•Space Savings: Accelsius allows data centers to densify, increasing the number of servers per rack, increasing the number of racks per unit area of data center, and increasing revenue for a given data center footprint and reducing costs as less space is used.
•Energy Savings: Eliminates air conditioning needs and costs associated with legacy air-cooling systems.
•Water Savings: Potential to eliminate water use in cooling system.
Value to Clients
The Accelsius solution allows clients to align data center operations with sustainability goals and increasingly competitive commercial requirements:
•Enables the adoption of high wattage processors. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers has suggested that the exponential increase of CPU and GPU wattages is expected to soon exceed the capacity of most existing air cooling systems.
•Dramatically improves density in the data center. With Accelsius’ technology, air heat syncs are not required, allowing more processing power in each server. Racks no longer must be depopulated to allow air flow, nor are cold and hot aisles needed.
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•Allows more power to be allocated to computing rather than cooling. An average data center allocates around 40% of their power to cooling and other overhead. When power used for cooling is reduced, more incoming power for data centers can be used for computing tasks, and data center capacity can be increased dramatically. We estimate that we can reduce the power allocated to cooling by around 49%.
•Is compatible with legacy infrastructure. Although new data center builds will prioritize liquid cooling, brownfield sites are still actively introducing AI / machine learning (“ML”) and other dense workloads. Accelsius technology can fit in a standard rack and connect to existing facility water loops.
•Heat removal head room. We believe Accelsius technology will be designed to support not just this generation of processors, but many more to come. Standard CPU power consumption is expected to exceed 500 W and standard GPU power consumption is expected to exceed 700 W by the end of 2025, with high performance GPUs reaching 2000 watts in 2026. Based on the recent trajectory of increasing CPU and GPU power consumption, we believe there is a high likelihood that chips may reach temperatures of up to 2500 watts in the near future. The ability to cool these power processors helps protect the investment in Accelsius’ NeuCool technology.
History
The basic two-phase cooling technology underpinning NeuCool was developed at Nokia Bell Labs over a three-year period from 2019 to 2022. Innventure formed Accelsius in May 2022. Accelsius and Nokia executed a Patent Purchase Agreement dated May 27, 2022, and a Technology License and Know-How Agreement dated May 27, 2022, to transfer the passive, two-phase, direct-to-chip cooling technology from Nokia to Accelsius. Subsequently, Accelsius has significantly improved the technology to enhance its thermal cooling effectiveness and productized an active, pumped solution to make it more suitable for high volume production.
Current Status
Accelsius is an early-stage company that has recently begun revenue-generating operations, including initial shipments of product. Accelsius has been focused on developing and commercializing data center cooling products since its inception in 2022 and delivered its first products to market in Q3 2024. Accelsius has implemented development and applications testing capabilities at its headquarters in Austin, Texas. Accelsius has also built in-house fabrication capabilities for key heat transfer components and set up manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure.
Accelsius has signed binding revenue-generating agreements, as well as non-binding memoranda of understanding, with third parties with whom it will deploy NeuCool thermal management systems to operating data centers. These third parties include hardware equipment original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”), value-added resellers, and data center operators, all of which Accelsius believes represent key customers across the data center and telecom industries. Accelsius engages with potential customers in a collaborative evaluation of project needs and technical fit, taking into consideration system requirements, existing/planned infrastructure, and both present and future customer objectives. Accelsius’ agreements typically outline an implementation process consisting of four phases: assessment, initial deployment, scaled deployment, and ongoing service.
Current manufacturing assets and supply chain infrastructure are anticipated to support market demand through mid- to late-2025, and additional capacity expansions and/or collaboration with selected contract manufacturers will be staged to meet customer needs as demand is expected to grow in 2025.
Customer Landscape and Growth Strategy
Accelsius’ go-to-market strategy is through partnerships. Accelsius has signed binding revenue-generating agreements, as well as non-binding memoranda of understanding, with third parties with whom it will deploy NeuCool thermal management systems to data centers. These third parties include hardware equipment OEMs, value-added resellers, and data center operators, all of whom Accelsius believes represent key customers across the data center and telecom industries. Accelsius will deliver kitted NeuCool cooling systems for inclusion in ecosystem partner server deployments. Specific components of the NeuCool systems are designed to work with standard CPUs
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and GPUs and will be common across all kits; other components will be customized to match specific server designs for each partner.
Competition
The potential size and high growth of the liquid cooling market has attracted several startup competitors across different liquid cooling technologies. This market has seen an influx of single-phase water cooling DLC competitors; however, we believe Accelsius and Zutacore are currently the only two companies that have sold two-phase refrigerant-based solutions in the market. With two-phase DLC becoming increasingly necessary to cool increasingly high powered chips, we believe that additional potential competitors will enter this market. Due to the complexity of designing and optimizing two-phase solutions, we believe that other potential competitors may face delays in entering this market.
The liquid cooling solution that Accelsius offers is well positioned compared to many other liquid cooling solutions because we believe it (i) uses the most thermally capable liquid cooling technology (two phase direct-to-chip) and (ii) is the most robust. Compared to other solutions, the Accelsius two phase direct-to-chip cooling solution is designed to provide high heat transfer capabilities in an easy-to-install form configured to work equally well with greenfield data center deployments and retrofits of servers in existing data centers. The Accelsius NeuCool solution does not use water as the working fluid, so no water ever comes in contact with critical, high value electronic components, and our solution is designed to be field serviceable. Accelsius’s product includes design features that allow data center technicians to swap and service components using industry standard practices.
Accelsius’ two phase direct-to-chip liquid cooling technology is an effective alternative to the limitations posed by other liquid cooling technologies. We summarize below some of the operational issues faced by competitive liquid cooling technologies based on that user feedback:
Single-Phase Immersion:
•Expensive (~$100,000 per tank) and with limited thermal headroom (< 50 KW);
•Requires modification (re-layout) of server internals for liquid flow and server warranty is usually void;
•Servicing requires removal of servers from sealed liquid cooling baths and is time consuming and expensive;
•Forklift upgrade of existing rack infrastructure and inefficient use of real estate; and
•Leading competitors include LiquidStack, Green Revolution Cooling, and TMGCore.
Two-Phase Immersion: In addition to the issues outlined above, two-phase immersion is also:
•Very expensive (~$175,000 per tank);
•Vapor can get trapped in the servers causing localized hot spots;
•Very few pilot implementations are expanded on because “no one wants tanks full of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances coolant in the data center;” and
•Leading competitors include LiquidStack, TMGCore and Submer.
Single-Phase Direct-to-Chip (e.g., water):
•Water leaks that can cause catastrophic failure in servers and are the most significant risk. Users state that water leaks around electronic components have occurred and destroyed the servers: “Not a question of ‘if’ it will leak, but ‘when’ it will leak”;
•Bio-fouling (biofilm build up) within pipes and cold plates is a concern;
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•Cooling higher thermal densities requires large pumps and high pressure/flow rate of water (increasing chance of leaks & electricity use); and
•Leading competitors include CoolIT Systems and STULZ.
Intellectual Property
Accelsius has developed a comprehensive IP strategy initially built around five filed patent applications and one granted patent, with several improvements and new inventions moving through the patent application process. Accelsius is also using trade secrets to protect certain aspects of the technology solution and manufacturing process.
AeroFlexx and Refinity
Overview
AeroFlexx manufactures what we believe to be one of the first flexible packages designed to act like a rigid bottle (the “pak”). Its proprietary integrated valve eliminates the need for discrete closures, removes the need for pumps, and enhances the consumer use experience, while its proprietary air frame provides structural rigidity throughout the entire package lifecycle, including end of life collection and sortation. The package eliminates 50-70% of plastic used, potentially up to 85% less virgin plastic than traditional rigid bottles by incorporating recycled content and can be curbside recyclable where all plastic bottles are accepted1. Prior to filling, the package is shipped in a freight efficient flat pak format that reduces supply chain cost and complexity.
The product is also designed to solve the challenges of shipping liquids in the e-commerce channel while equally performing in traditional brick and mortar retail channels. It is ISTA-6 Amazon approved for both prep-free packaging and ship in own container, allowing customers to ship liquids more easily via the e-commerce channel. In our experience, the benefits of International Safe Transit Association (“ISTA”) certified packaging can be realized through cost savings, product protection, increased brand loyalty and greater customer satisfaction. The potential labor & cost savings stem from elimination of preparation materials.
AeroFlexx is headquartered in West Chester, Ohio. The firm’s 27,082 square foot facility currently has the initial commercial line installed with a nameplate design capacity of over 50 million units per year. We expect that two additional lines will be launched by the end of the second quarter of 2025.
Refinity intends to commercialize process technologies for converting low cost, abundant plastic waste to drop-in chemicals directly useful in and consumable by the existing petrochemical supply chain. Refinity believes that it is uniquely positioned for success because Refinity has exclusively licensed a proprietary advanced recycling process to convert minimally sorted, low-cost mixed plastic waste to drop-in chemicals, including olefin gases (e.g., ethylene and propylene) and hydrocarbon liquids (e.g., naphtha substitutes) at yields that Refinity believes are higher than other conversion technologies. Refinity plans to target the 240 million tonnes/year of mixed plastic waste that incumbent recycling technologies cannot typically use in a cost effective and scalable way. Additionally, Innventure’s collaboration with Dow is expected to provide engineering and operations insight for Refinity’s advanced recycling process, detailed understanding of what product quality is needed to integrate with typical petrochemical plant operations, and different site and plant integration options that take advantage of existing infrastructure.
Refinity exclusively licensed the rights to novel technology for advanced recycling of mixed plastic waste from VTT. The core technology is a proprietary application of fluidized bed processes that are routinely operated in the refining industry to make transportation fuels and in the petrochemical industry to make high volume chemicals. Fluidized bed processing uses very uniform and efficient heating and short residence times to convert waste plastics into the chemicals from which those plastics were originally made. We also expect the process to use a wider range of plastic waste feedstocks than competing technologies. Using the equipment and capabilities available at VTT, Refinity plans to tune operating conditions and optimize yields for different types of plastic wastes. Refinity also expects to use the equipment for the engineering studies needed to design the first plant.
1 Not recyclable in all communities. Check locally.
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Market Opportunity
The global packaging market is estimated to generate annual sales of approximately $900 billion with an estimated average annual growth rate of 3.1% for rigid plastic and 4.7% for flexible plastic packaging over the next three to five years. The estimated addressable market for AeroFlexx applications is approximately $400 billion across several market categories including personal care, household products, food, pet care and industrial.
On average, 400 million tonnes per year of plastic are produced globally, and 380 million tonnes per year are disposed of as plastic waste. Of that, 46% of plastic waste is landfilled, 22% becomes litter, 17% is incinerated, and 15% is collected for recycling, with less than 9% actually recycled after losses. Refinity is targeting the 91% of plastic waste that is currently not recycled. Specifically, Refinity intends to focus on using the 240 million tonnes per year that are currently landfilled or incinerated.
At the yields that Refinity believes its fluidized bed process will convert plastic waste to drop-in chemicals, 240 million tonnes per year of plastic waste could be converted to hydrocarbon liquids and olefin gases valued at $150-200 billion annually. Further, with increasing consumer demand for more sustainable packaging; regulatory focus on restricting plastic waste exports, landfill, and incineration; and minimum recycled plastic content requirements, all of which could enable premiums for sustainable plastics (including sustainable feedstocks, such as naphtha or light olefins, for polymer and plastic production), the market for plastic recycling is strengthening. The global recycled plastics market size was valued at $51 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow to $107 billion by 2032. Current market prices for naphtha substitutes (e.g., hydrotreated pyrolysis oils and sustainable/circular naphtha) frequently indicate a significant premium over fossil naphtha.
Sustainability Benefits
Superior sustainability benefits are integral to AeroFlexx’s package design and overall value proposition. Refinity aims to divert plastic waste that is currently mishandled, landfilled, or incinerated and convert that waste to sustainable, drop-in chemicals for use in the existing petrochemical supply chain. We believe that the following sustainability benefits are potential targets:
•Package Circularity: AeroFlexx packaging can incorporate up to 50% recycled content without compromise.
•Life Cycle Analysis: By considering source reduction, recycled content, recyclability and eliminating excess packaging material in e-commerce, AeroFlexx can deliver up to 83% less waste to landfills, 69% greenhouse gas (“GHG”) reduction, and 73% less water use.
•UN Sustainable Goals Alignment: AeroFlexx can contribute to meeting several of the sustainable development goals (“SDGs”) outlined by the United Nations, including industry, innovation, and infrastructure; responsible consumption and production; climate action; and life below water.
•GHG emissions reduction relative to plastic waste incineration or pyrolysis: Internal LCA analysis indicated about -400 kg CO2-eq/tonne plastic waste for the Refinity fluidized bed conversion process compared to 1777 kg CO2-eq/tonne plastic waste for incineration and 739 kg CO2-eq/tonne plastic waste for pyrolysis, so Refinity believes that its process will reduce GHG emissions.
•Fossil source reduction: If all plastic waste from landfill and incineration (240 million tonnes per year) were converted to hydrocarbon liquids (e.g., naphtha substitute) at yields consistent with what Refinity believes are possible in the fluidized bed process, those hydrocarbon liquids could replace up to 80% of fossil naphtha; saving roughly 96 million tonnes per year of CO2-eq emissions.
Value to Clients
AeroFlexx can help drive growth and overall profitability through significant supply chain savings. This is accomplished through several supply chain benefits of the AeroFlexx pak:
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•Reduces Complexity of Sourcing: AeroFlexx ships as a flat pak and replaces the bottle, cap and label that customers must procure from multiple sources and destinations.
•Reduced Transportation Cost and Footprint: prior to filling the package, shipping as a flat pak creates a form factor that takes up less than 10% of the space in shipping of an equivalent pre-formed empty rigid bottle, in addition to eliminating the need for cap and label supply chains. This reduces cost and environmental footprint by taking trucks off the road.
•Lowers Warehouse Requirements and Inventory Cost: with the AeroFlexx flat pak replacing pre-formed empty bottles, caps and labels, there is an overall reduction in the need for inventory space and overall cost associated with labor and working capital.
•ISTA-6 Amazon Approved: for shipping liquids via the e-commerce channel, reductions in damages from breakage, leakage and handling can generate significant savings through lower returns or refund rates and reduced overall package and labor costs.
•Omni-Channel Ready: the pak is omni-channel ready as soon as it is filled with liquid product from the AeroFlexx filling machine, which we expect to eliminate stock keeping unit proliferation based on desired sales distribution channel.
•New Size/Shape Development Efficiency: flexible manufacturing eliminates the need for capital intensive molds and tooling costs, which may enable rapid adoption at a much lower cost.
•Product Safety: designed with hygiene in mind with tamper proof packaging that eliminates the use of a discrete closure with AeroFlexx proprietary integrated valve (e.g., no need for a separate cap, pump or package sealing and dispensing device) to help keep products safe and prevent product losses.
Currently, the limitations for Refinity’s clients to fully embrace and scale plastic circularity is economic viability and plastic waste sourcing. Refinity believes that its fluidized bed process provides unique benefits that:
•Enable higher yield conversion of plastic waste to olefin gases and hydrocarbon liquids. VTT has demonstrated that the fluidized bed process converts plastic waste to olefin gases at higher yield than conventional pyrolysis processes, potentially enabling two to three times higher productivity when the fluidized bed process feeds olefin gases directly to petrochemical steam cracker operations.
•Allow use of low cost, mixed plastic wastes. Unlike incumbent recycling processes which typically require more sorting and pre-cleaning of plastic wastes, Refinity believes that the fluidized bed process will be more robust to minimally-sorted, mixed plastic waste streams.
•Enable plant site flexibility. We believe that the Refinity fluidized bed operating conditions can be tuned to allow for production of either olefin (ethylene and propylene) gases and hydrocarbon liquids. We believe the flexibility to site and build a liquids plant close to low-cost plastic waste feedstock sources will allow Refinity to minimize transportation costs for plastic waste and reduce operating costs. Refinity expects to site an olefin gas plant adjacent to petrochemical steam cracker operations to take advantage of existing site infrastructure and product purification while also minimizing cost for transporting the olefin product.
History
AeroFlexx was launched in February 2018 as our second Innventure Company. The technology was acquired from P&G, who conducted extensive R&D and customer testing using iconic brands such as Dawn, Old Spice and Olay as part of a multi-year consumer research plan. AeroFlexx acquired sole exclusive rights to commercialize the technology globally, across all categories and with any partner, including any P&G direct competitors without restriction.
The fluidized bed conversion technology underpinning Refinity was developed at VTT from 2014 to 2024. Innventure developed a collaboration with VTT and Dow during 2024 and formed Refinity in December 2024. Refinity and VTT executed a definitive agreement on December 11, 2024, and exclusively licensed a portfolio of
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advanced conversion of mixed plastic waste patents and patent applications from VTT. Innventure and Dow executed a collaboration agreement on December 13, 2024, for the companies to work together, including through Refinity, to scale and commercialize technologies aimed at converting mixed waste, including hard-to-recycle plastic waste, to petrochemical feedstocks.
Current Status
AeroFlexx is in the early stages of operations and is beginning to ramp up commercial production capabilities. AeroFlexx’s first commercial line has been installed with a design nameplate capacity of up to 50 million units per year. AeroFlexx is currently in the process of securing off-take agreements with partners wanting to harness first mover advantage with a superior packaging format.
In late 2023, AeroFlexx installed and commissioned its second converter, and the first to utilize recyclable film, in West Chester, Ohio. AeroFlexx’s next converter has been installed and is expected to be fully commissioned by the end of the second quarter of 2025. The converting capacity at the facility in West Chester, Ohio (the “West Chester Facility”) is expected to provide a total manufacturing capacity of approximately 100 million packages per year, which is designed to demonstrate the minimum viable manufacturing footprint to achieve a cash flow break-even run rate for the West Chester Facility. The current manufacturing footprint installed and on order is projected to be sufficient to meet projected demand through mid-2025, with additional capacity expansions being staged to meet customer needs as offtake agreements and customer traction warrants.
Refinity is an early-stage company that is just beginning operations. In the first quarter of 2025, Refinity is building internal staff and developing capabilities to commercialize the fluidized bed technology licensed from VTT. Refinity is advancing its plastic waste sourcing strategy and has commissioned experimental work at VTT for bench and pilot scale optimization of the fluidized bed process to convert available plastic wastes, sourced from the U.S. and European markets, to drop-in chemicals, including olefin (ethylene and propylene) gases and hydrocarbon liquids. That work is expected to continue through 2025. Refinity is working both independently and with Dow to identify candidate sites for first commercial demonstration plant and is engaging Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) firms to begin design work for the first plant.
Customer Landscape and Growth Strategy
AeroFlexx is currently targeting CPG companies that utilize either rigid bottle with caps, pumps, or pouch packaging to deliver their liquid products to consumers. AeroFlexx is leveraging the increasing global demand for more sustainable packaging and offering a package format that offers many features and benefits for branded consumer products, with a new and simplified liquid packaging manufacturing platform. AeroFlexx intends to deploy this platform by having centralized converting operations that are owned and operated by AeroFlexx with strategically located filling machines that are sold and located at or near where liquid products are formulated. We are targeting brands of large, medium, and small consumer products companies. AeroFlexx plans to sell filling equipment directly to branded manufacturers or to their co-manufacturing partners that formulate the liquid. We produce the flat paks via our converting machines and intend to either partner with co-manufacturers to deliver filled and final packages to brands or sell the flat paks directly to the CPG companies to be filled on the AeroFlexx filling equipment. R&D continues to innovate additional pak shapes and sizes along with enhancements to filling equipment and converting machines.
Refinity will sell drop-in liquid and gas phase chemicals to petrochemical company customers, including Dow. Other prospective customers include multinationals such as BASF, CP Chem, SABIC, LyondellBasell, and Shell.To establish a market which does not exist at a global scale today, Refinity envisions playing a bigger role to create and enable the end-to-end plastic waste supply chain. Refinity’s overarching strategy is (1) to build expertise and competitive advantage in affordable plastic waste feedstock sourcing and (2) to develop and deploy robust fluidized bed conversion technologies which can use affordable wastes without much sorting or pretreatment to assure economical, globally scalable solutions. In addition, a market for liquid hydrocarbon products, including hydrotreated pyrolysis oil and sustainable/circular naphtha, already exists. Petrochemical companies currently purchase various sustainable liquid products as supplements or replacements for fossil naphtha, so Refinity’s entrance into that market is expected to be straightforward.
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Competition
AeroFlexx competes directly with different package format options that CPG companies can choose for their specific liquid product that is sold to consumers. These package formats include, but may not be limited to, rigid, stand cap, or pouch packaging. Some of these package formats may also incorporate some type of air chamber as an added feature.
While many options exist for advanced recycling of plastic waste, few processes have achieved meaningful global success in the market. Mechanical recycling is the incumbent technology that accounts for most of the 9% of plastics recycling today. However, Refinity primarily considers players with thermal depolymerization and pyrolysis recycling technologies as potential competitors. Firms such as Alterra, Brightmark, Plastic Energy, Mura/Licella, Eastman Chemical, and ExxonMobil use thermochemical conversion processes to convert plastic waste to hydrocarbon liquids.
Materials from mechanical recycling can only be used in niche applications and as such have limited market potential, while producing hydrocarbon liquids and gases as raw materials for the petrochemical industry which can be directly or indirectly used into virgin polymer supply chains have greater market potential. Refinity believes that its fluidized bed processing technology can utilize mixed plastic waste with minimal sorting and pretreatment, so Refinity expects to enable better economic viability than competing processes. The resulting hydrocarbon liquid (e.g., naphtha substitute) and gas (e.g., olefins including ethylene and propylene) products can be fed directly into the existing olefins supply chain, providing access to large end markets. Refinity believes that the greatest competitive advantage of our fluidized bed technology versus other competing thermochemical conversion technologies and companies is higher yield of plastic waste to drop-in chemical products. Compared to pyrolysis conversion of plastic waste to pyrolysis oil, Refinity believes that its fluidized bed process yield to hydrocarbon liquids will be 30-50% higher.
Intellectual Property
AeroFlexx is commercializing a liquid packaging technology that was initially developed by P&G. P&G granted AeroFlexx a worldwide license under an Amended and Restated Patent and Know-How License Agreement dated October 25, 2021, between P&G and AeroFlexx for a proprietary flexible package using an air frame and an integrated valve or closure, along with methods of manufacturing. AeroFlexx has developed and owns IP for trademarks and in improvements solely developed by AeroFlexx to the package around materials and recyclability, and those improvements are in the form of AeroFlexx trade secrets and issued and pending patents.
Refinity is in the process of developing a comprehensive IP strategy that will build upon the portfolio of advanced recycling of mixed plastic waste patents and patent applications exclusively licensed from VTT.
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Item 1A. Risk Factors.
You should carefully consider the following risk factors, together with all of the other information included in this Form 10-K. The market price of the Company’s common stock, par value $0.0001 per share (“Common Stock”) could decline due to any of these risks, in which case you could lose all or part of your investment. In assessing these risks, you should also refer to the other information included in this Form 10-K, including the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto and the section entitled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” The Company’s business, financial condition or results of operations could be affected materially and adversely by any of the risks discussed below. We cannot assure you that any of the events discussed below will not occur.
Summary of Risk Factors
Our business is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Some of these principal risks include the following:
•Innventure may not be able to obtain additional financing to fund the operations and growth of the business.
•There is uncertainty regarding Innventure’s ability to maintain liquidity sufficient to operate its business effectively, which raises substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.
•Innventure’s principal revenues are expected to be earned in the future through its Operating Companies, including through AeroFlexx, Accelsius and Refinity, and Innventure depends on its Operating Companies for cash.
•Innventure may not be successful in finding future opportunities to license or acquire breakthrough technology solutions from Technology Solutions Providers.
•The Innventure Companies are currently early commercial stage companies that may never achieve or sustain profitability.
•If Innventure or the Innventure Companies are not able to satisfy the requirements imposed by technology providers or have disagreements with those technology providers, their relationships with these partners could deteriorate, which could have a material adverse effect on the business of Innventure and the Innventure Companies.
•The WTI Facility may impair Innventure LLC’s, Innventure’s and the Operating Companies’ financial and operating flexibility.
•It is not possible to predict the extent to which Innventure will, intends to, or may rely on Yorkville and the SEPA and the Convertible Debentures as a source of funding.
•It is not possible to predict the actual number of shares Innventure will sell under the SEPA or under the Convertible Debentures to Yorkville, or the actual gross proceeds resulting from those sales.
•Innventure’s pursuit of new business strategies and acquisitions could disrupt its ongoing business, present risks not originally contemplated and materially adversely affect its business, reputation, results of operations and financial condition.
•The market price of our Common Stock is likely to be highly volatile, and you may lose some or all of your investment.
•Volatility in Innventure’s share price could subject Innventure to securities class action litigation.
•Future sales of shares of our Common Stock or other equity may depress its stock price.
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•Provisions in our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation (the “A&R Certificate of Incorporation”) and under Delaware law could discourage a takeover that stockholders may consider favorable and may lead to entrenchment of management.
•Innventure is an emerging growth company and smaller reporting company, and Innventure cannot be certain if the reduced reporting requirements applicable to emerging growth companies and smaller reporting companies will make its shares less attractive to investors.
•Future offerings of debt or offerings or issuances of equity securities by the Innventure may adversely affect the market price of the Common Stock or otherwise dilute all other stockholders.
•If Innventure’s estimates or judgments relating to its critical accounting estimates prove to be incorrect or financial reporting standards or interpretations change, Innventure’s results of operations could be adversely affected.
•The Company has identified material weaknesses in its internal controls over financial reporting that could, if not remediated, result in material misstatements in its financial statements and which may have an impact on Innventure’s ability to timely or accurately report its financial condition or results of operations following the consummation of the Business Combination.
•If Innventure is deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, it may be required to institute burdensome compliance requirements and its activities may be restricted, which may make it difficult to operate or to execute its growth plans.
•AFX, Accelsius and Refinity are early-stage companies, and their limited operating histories makes it difficult to evaluate their future prospects and the risks and challenges they may encounter.
•Accelsius’ cooling products may be subject to increased regulatory scrutiny due to their use of working fluid refrigerants that contain fluorine.
•The market, including customers and potential investors, may be skeptical of the viability and benefits of Accelsius’ cooling products and Refinity’s plastic waste recycling process because they are based on relatively novel and complex technology.
•The failure of AFX’s suppliers to continue to deliver necessary raw materials or other components of its products in a timely manner and to specification could prevent it from delivering products within required time frames and could cause production delays, cancellations, penalty payments and damage to its brand and reputation.
•AFX may not be able to meet applicable regulatory requirements for the use of AFX’s products in food grade applications, and, even if the requirements are met, complying on an ongoing basis with the numerous regulatory requirements applicable to AFX’s products and AFX’s facilities will be time-consuming and costly.
•Innventure may be unable to sufficiently protect the IP rights of itself and the Innventure Companies and may encounter disputes from time to time relating to its use of the IP of third parties.
•Innventure, the Innventure Companies, and Innventure’s MNC partners may be negatively impacted by volatility in the political and economic environment, such geopolitical unrest, economic downturns and increases in interest rates, and a period of sustained inflation, which could have an adverse impact on Innventure’s and the Innventure Companies’ business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
•Changes in U.S. or foreign trade policies, including additional tariffs or global trade conflicts, may adversely impact our business and operating results.
•Cyber-attacks or a failure in Innventure’s information technology and data security infrastructure could adversely affect Innventure’s business and operations.
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Risks Related to Innventure’s Business
Innventure may not be able to obtain additional financing to fund the operations and growth of the business.
Innventure and the Innventure Companies expect to require additional financing to fund their operations or growth. The failure to secure additional financing could have a material adverse effect on the continued development or growth of Innventure and the Innventure Companies. Such financings may result in dilution to stockholders, issuance of securities with priority as to liquidation and dividend and other rights more favorable than Common Stock, imposition of debt covenants and repayment obligations, or other restrictions that may adversely affect their business. In addition, Innventure may seek additional capital due to favorable market conditions or strategic considerations even if it believes that it has sufficient funds for current or future operating plans. There can be no assurance that financing will be available to Innventure on favorable terms, or at all. The inability to obtain financing when needed may make it more difficult for Innventure and the Innventure Companies to operate their businesses or implement their growth plans.
There is uncertainty regarding Innventure’s ability to maintain liquidity sufficient to operate its business effectively, which raises substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.
Innventure LLC’s historical financial statements have each been prepared under the assumption that the Company will continue as a going concern. The independent registered public accounting firm for Innventure LLC issued a report on the audited financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023 for Innventure LLC that includes an explanatory paragraph expressing substantial doubt in Innventure LLC’s ability to continue as a going concern for one year from the date of such report. The ability of Innventure to continue as a going concern is dependent on the Company’s ability to obtain additional equity or debt financing or to generate cash flow from operations. Its financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty. The substantial doubt regarding the potential ability of Innventure to continue as a going concern may adversely affect its ability to obtain such debt or equity financing on reasonable terms or at all, or to secure new customers or relationships, including relationships with Technology Solutions Providers. Additionally, if Innventure is unable to continue as a going concern, investors, including holders of Common Stock, may lose some or all of their investment.
Innventure’s principal revenues are expected to be earned in the future through its Operating Companies, including through AeroFlexx, Accelsius and Refinity, and Innventure depends on its Operating Companies for cash.
Innventure’s principal operation is to partner with Technology Solutions Providers to acquire new IP through newly-created entities where Innventure supports the initial funding and management of the company. Innventure also conducts operations through its subsidiaries, including the investment management services provided to the ESG Fund. Innventure’s ability to generate cash to meet its obligations or to pay dividends will be highly dependent on the earnings of, and receipt of funds from, these investment management services and its equity ownership interests in the Innventure Companies. The ability of the Innventure Companies to generate sufficient revenue from future operations to allow Innventure and them to make scheduled payments on their obligations will depend on their future financial performance, which will be affected by a range of economic, competitive and business factors, many of which will be outside of Innventure’s control. Innventure cannot assure you that the cash flow and future earnings of the Innventure Companies will be adequate for the Innventure Companies to service any corporate obligations or operating needs. If the Innventure Companies do not generate sufficient cash flow from future operations to satisfy corporate obligations and operating needs, Innventure may have to: undertake alternative financing plans (such as refinancing), restructure debt, sell assets, reduce or delay capital investments, or seek to raise additional capital. Innventure cannot assure you that any such alternative refinancing would be possible, that any assets could be sold, or, if sold, of the timing of the sales and the amount of proceeds realized from those sales, that additional financing could be obtained on acceptable terms, if at all, or that additional financing would be permitted under the terms of Innventure’s various debt instruments then in effect. Innventure’s inability to generate sufficient cash flow from the Innventure Companies to satisfy its obligations, or to refinance its obligations on commercially reasonable terms, would have an adverse effect on its business, financial condition and results of operations. Furthermore, Innventure and the Innventure Companies may incur substantial additional indebtedness in the future that may severely restrict or prohibit the Innventure Companies and other Operating Companies from making distributions, paying dividends or making loans to Innventure.
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Innventure’s business model is to launch Operating Companies, which are not guaranteed to succeed and could be very costly.
There can be no assurance that the Operating Companies that Innventure has launched and may launch in the future will succeed, and the Operating Companies’ future financial performance is uncertain. The Operating Companies could be very costly for Innventure and could distract Innventure’s management from its other operations.
Innventure may not be successful in finding future opportunities to license or acquire breakthrough technology solutions from Technology Solutions Providers.
Innventure relies on its ability to identify and acquire breakthrough technology solutions from Technology Solutions Providers to create and operate new entities that generate future revenues. If Innventure is unable to reach agreements with Technology Solutions Providers on acceptable terms for license or acquisition of IP related to certain technology solutions, Innventure may have to curtail the founding and operating of Operating Companies. If Innventure fails to identify and acquire further technology solutions to form the basis of new Operating Companies and does not have sufficient funds or expertise to undertake the necessary development and commercialization activities required to make those companies and the acquired technology solutions commercially viable, Innventure’s business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be materially and adversely affected.
The Innventure Companies are currently early commercial stage companies that may never achieve or sustain profitability.
Innventure is in the process of commercializing the technology solutions around which the Innventure Companies are built. The Innventure Companies rely principally on the commercialization of these technology solutions to generate future revenue growth. These product offerings and partnering revenues are in their very early stages. The Innventure Companies are early commercial stage companies that evaluate various strategies to achieve their financial goals and commercialization objectives on an ongoing basis. If demand for products and services offered by the Innventure Companies does not increase as quickly as planned, Innventure and the Innventure Companies may be unable to generate material revenue or increase revenue levels as expected.
Innventure and the Innventure Companies are not currently profitable. Even if the Innventure Companies succeed in increasing adoption of their products and services by target markets, maintaining and creating relationships with existing and new suppliers and customers, market conditions, particularly related to supply and customer acquisition costs, including costs associated with tariffs, may result in the Innventure Companies not generating sufficient revenue to achieve or sustain profitability. Should the Innventure Companies fail to generate sufficient revenue to meet their operational needs or achieve profitability, Innventure may be required to make additional investments in them that could adversely impact its own operations and growth plans.
If Innventure or the Innventure Companies are not able to satisfy the requirements imposed by technology providers or have disagreements with those technology providers, their relationships with these partners could deteriorate, which could have a material adverse effect on the business of Innventure and the Innventure Companies.
Under the terms of Innventure and the Innventure Companies’ agreements with P&G, Nokia, and VTT and any agreements they may enter with future technology providers, they may be required to obtain or provide certain permits, licenses or other authorizations, provide certain fiscal indemnification to their technology providers and meet various other terms and conditions. If Innventure and the Innventure Companies fail to comply with the terms and conditions of the applicable MNC agreement, they may incur liabilities to their technology providers under the applicable MNC agreement. In that situation, the damages Innventure and the Innventure Companies would be subject to would be quantified either by the applicable courts or by third-party valuation firms. If one or more of these MNC agreements is terminated, Innventure’s ability to license other technologies from existing or future technology providers could be impeded and the underlying value of Innventure’s business could decline significantly.
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The WTI Facility may impair Innventure LLC’s, the Company’s and the Operating Companies’ financial and operating flexibility.
The WTI Facility provides for a term loan facility in an aggregate principal amount of up to $50 million, of which (i) the First Tranche (as defined below) was made available after October 22, 2024 and through November 15, 2024; (ii) the Second Tranche (as defined below) was made available after November 1, 2024 and through November 30, 2024; and (iii) the Third Tranche (as defined below) was made available after December 31, 2024 and through January 31, 2025 (provided that up to $7.5 million of the Third Tranche will be made available until March 31, 2025).
On November 15, 2024, Innventure made an initial draw under the WTI Facility in the amount of $20 million. The receipt of any additional funds under the WTI Facility was subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions by certain deadlines, including, without limitation, with respect to the Third Tranche, satisfaction of certain financial conditions and WTI Fund X, Inc.’s and WTI Fund XI, Inc.’s (collectively, the “WTI Lenders”) satisfaction with the Company’s forward-looking plan at such time. As of the date of this report, the funds under each of the Second Tranche and the Third Tranche are no longer available to Innventure.
Furthermore, the Loan Documents impose various representations, warranties, covenants and events of default on Innventure LLC, the Company and the Operating Companies, including, without limitation, on their ability to incur indebtedness, grant liens, transfer assets, make investments, make dividends and other distributions and make certain payments of other indebtedness. Obligations under the Loan Documents are secured by a lien on substantially all of the assets of Innventure LLC and the Company. These restrictions could limit Innventure LLC’s, the Company’s and the Operating Companies’ financial and operational flexibility and may require Innventure LLC, the Company and the Operating Companies to seek consents from the WTI Lenders prior to taking certain actions. Such consents may not be provided by the WTI Lenders on a timely basis, or at all.
The restrictions imposed by the WTI Facility on Innventure LLC, the Company and the Operating Companies may make it more difficult for them to operate their businesses or implement their growth plans going forward. Even if deemed necessary, we may not be able to raise additional indebtedness in the future on terms acceptable to us or at all because of the restrictions imposed by the WTI Facility. As a result, we would be more vulnerable to general adverse economic, industry and capital markets conditions in addition to the risks associated with indebtedness described above.
It is not possible to predict the extent to which the Company will, intends to, or may rely on Yorkville and the SEPA and the Convertible Debentures as a source of funding.
As of February 28, 2025, Innventure has drawn $2.67 million under the SEPA. Subject to the terms and conditions of the SEPA, Innventure may, at its discretion, issue and sell to Yorkville up to $75.0 million of shares of Common Stock under the SEPA from time to time. The purchase price per share for the shares of Common Stock that Innventure may elect to sell to Yorkville under the SEPA will fluctuate based on the market prices of Common Stock for each purchase made pursuant to the SEPA, if any. Accordingly, it is not currently possible to predict the number of shares that will be issued and sold to Yorkville, the actual purchase price per share to be paid by Yorkville for those shares, if any, or the actual gross proceeds to be raised in connection with those sales.
The extent to which Innventure will rely on Yorkville as a source of funding will depend on a number of factors, including the prevailing market price of Common Stock and the extent to which Innventure is able to secure working and other capital from other sources. If obtaining sufficient funding from Yorkville were to prove unavailable or prohibitively dilutive, Innventure may need to secure additional sources of funding beyond its current expectations in order to satisfy its working and other capital needs. Even if Innventure were to sell to Yorkville all of the shares of Common Stock available for sale to Yorkville under the SEPA, Innventure may still need additional capital to fully implement its business, operating and development plans. Should the financing Innventure requires to sustain its working capital needs be unavailable or prohibitively expensive when Innventure requires it, the consequences may be a material adverse effect on Innventure’s business, operating results, financial condition and prospects.
The extent to which Innventure will rely on the Convertible Debentures to be issued to Yorkville pursuant to the Securities Purchase Agreement (as defined below) as a source of funding will depend on certain conditions, restrictions, and limitations set forth therein, which could impact the aggregate principal amount of Convertible
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Debentures issued by Innventure and purchased by Yorkville, whether the Convertible Debentures will bear interest, and the portion of Convertible Debentures that is convertible into Common Stock.
It is not possible to predict the actual number of shares Innventure will sell under the SEPA or the Convertible Debentures to Yorkville, or the actual gross proceeds resulting from those sales.
Subject to certain conditions and limitations in the SEPA and compliance with applicable law, Innventurehas the discretion to deliver notices to Yorkville at any time throughout the term of the SEPA. The actual number of shares of Common Stock that are issued and sold to Yorkville depends on a number of factors, including the market price of Common Stock during the sales period. Actual gross proceeds may be less than $75.0 million, which may impact Innventure’s future liquidity. Because the price per share of each share sold to Yorkville will fluctuate during the sales period, it is not currently possible to predict the number of shares that will be sold or the actual gross proceeds to be raised in connection with those sales. Additionally, the Conversion Price applicable to the Convertible Debentures will be adjusted on the six-month anniversary of the First Closing Date (as defined below) and the nine-month anniversary of the First Closing Date, and, accordingly, it is not currently possible to predict how many shares will be sold in total under the Convertible Debentures.
As of February 28, 2025, Innventure has drawn $2.67 million under the SEPA. Moreover, although the SEPA provides that Innventure may sell up to an aggregate of $75.0 million of its Common Stock to Yorkville, Innventure registered the resale by Yorkville of up to 4,418,307 shares of Common Stock that may be issued without exceeding the 9.99% prong of the exchange cap set forth in the SEPA. If Innventure elects to issue and sell to Yorkville all of the shares registered for resale to Yorkville, depending on the market prices of its Common Stock for each purchase made pursuant to the SEPA, the actual gross proceeds from the sale of the shares may be substantially less than the $75.0 million total commitment available to Innventure under the SEPA. If it becomes (i) necessary for Innventure to issue and sell to Yorkville under the SEPA more shares than the shares registered for resale by Yorkville in order to receive the aggregate gross proceeds equal to $75.0 million under the SEPA and (ii) if Innventure is able to sell more shares than the shares registered for resale by Yorkville while still complying with the exchange cap, then Innventure will need to file with the SEC one or more additional registration statements to register under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) the resale by Yorkville of any such additional shares of Common Stock over the shares registered for resale by Yorkville and such registration statements would need to be declared effective by the SEC, in each case before Innventure may elect to sell any additional shares of Common Stock to Yorkville under the SEPA, a process which will take time and incur additional expense.
Any issuance and sale by Innventure under the SEPA or the Convertible Debentures of a substantial amount of shares of Common Stock in addition to the shares already registered for resale by Yorkville could cause additional substantial dilution to Innventure’s stockholders. The number of shares of Common Stock ultimately offered for resale by Yorkville is dependent upon the number of shares of Common Stock, if any, Innventure ultimately sells to Yorkville under the SEPA and the Convertible Debentures.
Innventure’s success will depend on its ability to attract and retain personnel and manage human capital both for itself and the Innventure Companies, while controlling labor costs.
Innventure’s future success depends on its ability to attract, recruit, train, retain, motivate and integrate key personnel for itself and the Innventure Companies, including its management team, key executives, and other key talent, and the management team and key R&D, manufacturing, engineering and sales and marketing personnel for the Innventure Companies. Competition for qualified personnel is intense. The loss or incapacity of existing members of Innventure’s executive management team could adversely affect its operations if it experiences difficulties in hiring qualified successors. The service of Innventure’s executive officers is at will and may end at any point in time. In addition, all of Innventure and the Innventure Companies’ employees are at will, which means that either they or the employee may terminate their employment at any time.
Innventure believes that its management team must be able to act decisively to apply and adapt its business model in the rapidly changing markets in which it and the Innventure Companies will compete. In addition, the Innventure Companies rely upon technical and scientific employees or third-party contractors to effectively establish, manage and grow their businesses. Consequently, Innventure believes that its future viability and the future viability of the Innventure Companies will depend largely on their ability to attract and retain highly skilled managerial, sales, scientific and technical personnel. In order to do so, in the future it may need to pay higher compensation or fees to its employees or consultants than currently expected, and such higher compensation
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payments may have a negative effect on its operating results. Competition for experienced, high-quality personnel is intense, and there is no assurance that Innventure or the Innventure Companies will be able to recruit and retain such personnel. Because of the technical nature of the technologies and products offered by the Innventure Companies, any failure of the Innventure Companies to attract, recruit, train, retain, motivate and integrate qualified personnel could also materially harm Innventure’s operating results and growth prospects.
Innventure’s pursuit of new business strategies and acquisitions could disrupt its ongoing business, present risks not originally contemplated and materially adversely affect its business, reputation, results of operations and financial condition.
Innventure’s growth strategy involves new business strategies and the acquisition of new technologies. These new strategies or future technology acquisitions could disrupt Innventure’s ongoing businesses, which may frustrate Innventure’s MNC partners, the Innventure Companies, and their customers, harming Innventure’s business relationships and causing a loss of revenue and business opportunities. Innventure’s ability to effectively manage its anticipated acquisitions and resulting expansion of operations will also require it to enhance its operational, financial and management controls and infrastructure, human resources policies and reporting systems. These enhancements and improvements will require significant capital expenditures, investments in additional headcount and other operating expenditures and allocation of valuable management and employee resources, which may divert Innventure’s resources from its ongoing businesses. Innventure’s future financial performance and ability to execute on its business plan will depend, in part, on its ability to effectively manage any future technology acquisitions. There are no guarantees Innventure will be able to do so in an efficient or timely manner, or at all.
Risks Related to the Innventure Companies’ Operations
The Innventure Companies are early-stage companies, and their limited operating history makes it difficult to evaluate their future prospects and the risks and challenges they may encounter.
The Innventure Companies are early in the development of their commercial production capacity. Their limited operating history makes it difficult to evaluate the Innventure Companies’ future prospects and the risks and challenges they may encounter. Risks and challenges the Innventure Companies have faced or expect to face include, but are not limited to, their ability to:
•develop and commercialize their products and processes;
•design and deliver products and processes of acceptable performance that function as anticipated;
•increase sales revenue;
•forecast their revenue and budget for and manage their expenses;
•attract new customers and commercial relationships;
•compete successfully in the industry in which they operate;
•plan for and manage capital expenditures for their current and future products and manage their supply chain and supplier relationships related to their current and future products;
•scale quickly enough due to capital and other resource constraints;
•find, contract with, and retain reliable and commercially reasonable materials, components, manufacturers and inventory vendors;
•comply with existing and new or modified laws and regulations applicable to their business in and outside the United States, including compliance requirements of U.S. customs and export regulations;
•anticipate and respond to macroeconomic changes and changes in the markets in which they operate;
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•anticipate and respond to regulatory and/or environmental policies that impact the Innventure Companies’ plant operations;
•maintain and enhance the value of their reputation and brand;
•develop and protect IP;
•hire, integrate and retain talented people at all levels of their organizations;
•successfully defend themselves in any legal proceeding that may arise and enforce their rights in any legal proceedings they may initiate; and
•manage and mitigate the adverse effects on their business of any public health emergencies, natural disasters, widespread travel disruptions, security risks including IT security, data privacy, cyber risks, international conflicts, geopolitical tension and other events beyond their control.
If the Innventure Companies fail to address the risks and difficulties that they face, including those associated with the challenges listed above, their business, financial condition, results of operations, prospects and that of Innventure, could be adversely affected. Further, because the Innventure Companies have limited historical financial data and operate in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive market, any predictions about their future revenue and expenses may not be as accurate as they would be if the Innventure Companies had a longer operating history or operated in a more predictable market. The Innventure Companies have encountered in the past, and will encounter in the future, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies with limited operating histories in rapidly changing industries. If the Innventure Companies’ assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which they use to plan and operate their business, are incorrect or change, or if they do not address these risks successfully, their results of operations could differ materially from their expectations and their business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.
Accelsius’ cooling products may be subject to increased regulatory scrutiny due to their use of working fluid refrigerants that contain fluorine.
The market and/or regulatory agencies inside and outside the United States may elect to curtail the use of polyfluoroalkyl substances, including hydrofluoroolefins and hydrochlorofluoroolefins, due to their persistence in the environment, their global warming potential, or their ozone depletion potential. While Accelsius believes it follows industry best practices in respect of its use of these commonly available refrigerants as working fluids in Accelsius’ cooling products, unforeseen regulatory changes that limit availability or manufacturing capacity or increase material prices would adversely affect Accelsius business.
The market, including customers and potential investors, may be skeptical of the viability and benefits of Accelsius’ and Refinity’s products and processes because they are based on relatively novel and complex technology.
The market, including customers and potential investors, may be skeptical of the viability and benefits of Accelsius’ and Refinity’s products and processes because they are based on relatively novel and complex technology. There can be no assurance that Accelsius’ and Refinity’s products and processes will be understood, approved, or accepted by customers and potential investors or that Accelsius or Refinity will be able to sell its products profitably at competitive prices and with features sufficient to establish demand or to design and build a plastic waste to drop-in chemicals plant on budget or profitably operate such a plant, respectively. If Accelsius and Refinity are unable to convince these potential customers of the utility and value of their products and processes or that their solutions are superior to those they currently use, they will not be successful in entering those markets and their business and results of operations will be adversely affected. If potential investors are skeptical of the success of Accelsius’ and Refinity’s products and processes, their ability to raise capital and the value of Innventure stock may be adversely affected.
The failure of AFX’s suppliers to continue to deliver necessary raw materials or other components of its products in a timely manner and to specification could prevent it from delivering products within required time frames and could cause production delays, cancellations, penalty payments and damage to its brand and reputation.
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AFX is early in the development of its commercial production capacity and has not yet fully diversified suppliers for critical raw materials, specifically its film.
Thus far, AFX has qualified one incumbent raw material film supplier—a large, foreign third-party supplier with over 22,000 employees and operations in approximately 100 countries—and is working to finalize a raw materials agreement with the same. Currently, AFX relies on individual purchase orders to purchase the film produced by the supplier. AFX is in the process of qualifying a second raw material film supplier—another, similarly large, foreign third-party supplier with a larger global footprint—with negotiations for a raw materials agreement to begin after such qualification. Such qualification, if achieved, is not expected until the end of the second quarter of 2025. AFX intends to continue to work towards further diversifying its supplier base as product demand grows and multiple suppliers are needed to support business continuity, though there is no guaranty that such diversification will be successful.
If AFX’s suppliers provide insufficient inventory to meet customer demand or such inventory is not at the level of quality required to meet its standards or if its suppliers are unable or unwilling to provide AFX with the requested quantities (as AFX has no alternatives for supply), AFX’s results of operations could be materially and negatively impacted. If AFX fails to develop or maintain its relationships with suppliers, or if there is otherwise a shortage or lack of availability of any required raw materials or components, AFX may be unable to manufacture its products or those products may be available only at a higher cost or after a long delay.
Due to increased demand across a range of industries, the global supply chain for certain raw materials and components has experienced significant strain. The global macroeconomic environment and geopolitical instability, as well as the impact of tariffs, have also contributed to and exacerbated this strain. There can be no assurance that the impact of these issues on the supply chain will not continue, or worsen, in the future. Significant delays and shortages could prevent AFX from delivering its products to its customers within required time frames and cause order cancellations, which would adversely impact its cash flows and results of operations.
AFX may not be able to meet applicable regulatory requirements for the use of AFX’s products in food grade applications, and, even if the requirements are met, complying on an ongoing basis with the numerous regulatory requirements applicable to AFX’s products and AFX’s facilities will be time-consuming and costly.
The use of AFX’s products in food grade applications is subject to regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”). The FDA has established certain guidelines for the use of recycled plastics in food packaging, as set forth in the “Guidance for Industry - Use of Recycled Plastics in Food Packaging: Chemistry Considerations (August 2006).” In order for AFX’s products to be used in food grade applications, AFX will be required to partner with customers or third-party co-manufacturers that possess the required food certifications to do the filling of AFX’s package.
The process of obtaining FDA regulatory approval requires the expenditure of substantial time, of up to one year, and significant financial resources. If AFX decides to partner with qualified customers or third-party co-manufacturers to fill AFX’s package, the search for and negotiations required for such relationships would require significant time, effort, and financial resources to complete, and may not result in a successful production relationship. All of the above would have an adverse effect on AFX’s business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Furthermore, changes in regulatory requirements, laws and policies, or evolving interpretations of existing regulatory requirements, laws and policies, may result in increased compliance costs, delays, capital expenditures and other financial obligations that could adversely affect AFX’s business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
AFX expects to encounter regulations in most if not all of the countries in which AFX may seek to expand, and AFX cannot be sure that it will be able to obtain necessary approvals in a timely manner or at all. If AFX’s products do not meet applicable regulatory requirements in a particular country or at all, then AFX may face reduced market demand in those countries and AFX’s business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects will be adversely affected.
The various regulatory schemes applicable to AFX’s products will continue to apply following initial approval. Monitoring regulatory changes and our ongoing compliance with applicable requirements is time-consuming and
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may affect AFX’s business, financial condition, results of operation and prospects. If AFX fails to comply with such requirements on an ongoing basis, AFX may be subject to fines or other penalties, or may be prevented from selling its products, and AFX’s business, financial condition, results of operation and prospects may be harmed.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock
The market price of our Common Stock is likely to be highly volatile, and you may lose some or all of your investment.
The market price of our Common Stock may fluctuate significantly due to a number of factors, some of which may be beyond our control, including those factors discussed in this “Risk Factors” section and many others, such as:
•actual or anticipated fluctuations in Innventure’s financial condition and operating results, including fluctuations in its quarterly and annual results;
•developments involving Innventure’s competitors;
•changes in laws and regulations affecting Innventure’s business;
•variations in Innventure’s operating performance and the performance of its competitors in general;
•the public’s reaction to Innventure’s press releases, its other public announcements and its filings with the SEC;
•additions and departures of key personnel;
•announcements of significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments by Innventure or its competitors;
•Innventure’s failure to meet the estimates and projections of the investment community or that it may otherwise provide to the public;
•publication of research reports about Innventure’s industry, or positive or negative recommendations or withdrawal of research coverage by securities analysts;
•changes in the market valuations of similar companies;
•overall performance of the equity markets;
•sales of the Common Stock or preferred stock by Innventure or its stockholders in the future;
•trading volume of the Common Stock;
•significant lawsuits, including shareholder litigation;
•failure to comply with the requirements of the Nasdaq Global Market (“Nasdaq”);
•general economic, industry and market conditions other events or factors, many of which are beyond Innventure’s control; and
•changes in accounting standards, policies, guidelines, interpretations or principles.
Volatility in Innventure’s share price could subject Innventure to securities class action litigation.
In the past, securities class action litigation has often been brought against a company following a decline in the market price of its securities. If Innventure faces such litigation, it could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources, which could harm its business.
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If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about Innventure, or publish negative reports, then Innventure’s stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our Common Stock will depend, in part, on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about Innventure. Innventure does not have any control over these analysts. If Innventure’s financial performance fails to meet analyst estimates or one or more of the analysts who cover Innventure downgrade its Common Stock or change their opinion, then Innventure’s stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of Innventure or fail to regularly publish reports on Innventure, it could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause Innventure’s stock price or trading volume to decline.
Innventure does not currently intend to pay dividends on its Common Stock, and, consequently, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation, if any, in the price of our Common Stock.
Innventure has no intention to ever declare or pay any cash dividend on its Common Stock. Innventure currently anticipates that it will retain future earnings for the development, operation and expansion of the business and does not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends for the foreseeable future. Any return to stockholders will therefore be limited to the appreciation of their stock. In addition, the terms of any equity or debt instruments that Innventure may issue in the future could contain prohibitions or restrictions on the ability of Innventure to pay dividends on its Common Stock. There is no guarantee that our Common Stock will appreciate in value or even maintain the price at which stockholders have purchased their shares.
Future sales of shares of our Common Stock or other equity may depress its stock price.
In connection with the execution of the Business Combination Agreement, certain insiders of Innventure LLC (each, a “Lock-Up Party”) entered into lock-up agreements (the “Lock-Up Agreements”) with the Company. Subject to certain exceptions, the Lock-Up Agreements provide for certain restrictions on transfer with respect to Common Stock held by certain stockholders of Innventure. Such restriction began upon the Closing Date and will end upon the earlier of (A) the expiration of one year after the completion of the Business Combination and the other transactions contemplated (the “Transactions”) by the Business Combination Agreement (the “Closing”), and (B) subsequent to the Closing, (i) if the closing price of our Common Stock equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share subdivisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after the Closing, or (ii) the date which Innventure completes a merger, liquidation, stock exchange, reorganization or other similar transaction after the Closing that results in all of the public stockholders of the Company having the right to exchange their Common Stock for cash securities or other property. Additionally, certain other shareholders of Innventure, previous Innventure LLC and Learn CW equity holders, are subject to lock-ups which also provide for certain restrictions on transfer with respect to the Common Stock held by such stockholders of Innventure.
Following the expiration of the applicable lock-up periods, such equity holders will not be restricted from selling shares of Common Stock held by them, other than by applicable securities laws. As restrictions on resale end and registration statements (filed after the Closing to provide for the resale of such shares from time to time) are available for use, the sale or possibility of sale of these shares could have the effect of increasing the volatility in Innventure’s share price or the market price of our Common Stock could decline if the holders of currently restricted shares sell them or are perceived by the market as intending to sell them.
Provisions in the A&R Certificate of Incorporation and under Delaware law could discourage a takeover that stockholders may consider favorable and may lead to entrenchment of management.
The A&R Certificate of Incorporation and our By-laws (as amended and restated, the “Bylaws”) contain provisions that could significantly reduce the value of the Common Stock to a potential acquirer or delay or prevent changes in control or changes in our management without the consent of the Board. The provisions in Innventure’s charter documents include the following:
•a classified board of directors with three-year staggered terms, which may delay the ability of stockholders to change the membership of a majority of the Board;
•no cumulative voting in the election of directors, which limits the ability of minority stockholders to elect director candidates;
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•the exclusive right of the Board, unless the Board grants such a right to the holders of any series of preferred stock, to elect a director to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of the Board or the resignation, death or removal of a director, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on our Board;
•the prohibition on removal of directors without cause;
•the ability of the Board to authorize the issuance of shares of preferred stock and to determine the price and other terms of those shares, including preferences and voting rights, without stockholder approval, which could be used to significantly dilute the ownership of a hostile acquirer;
•the ability of the Board to alter the Bylaws without obtaining stockholder approval;
•the required approval of at least 2/3 of the shares entitled to vote to amend or repeal the Bylaws or amend, alter or repeal certain provisions of the A&R Certificate of Incorporation;
•a prohibition on stockholder action by written consent, which forces stockholder action to be taken at an annual or special meeting of Innventure’s stockholders;
•an exclusive forum provision providing that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (the “Delaware Court”) will be the exclusive forum for certain actions and proceedings;
•the requirement that a special meeting of stockholders may be called only by the Board, Innventure’s chief executive officer, or the chairman of the Board, which may delay the ability of our stockholders to force consideration of a proposal or to take action, including the removal of directors;
•advance notice procedures that stockholders must comply with in order to nominate candidates to the Board or to propose matters to be acted upon at a stockholders’ meeting, which may discourage or deter a potential acquirer from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquirer’s own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of Innventure; and
•Innventure is subject to the anti-takeover provisions contained in Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which will prevent Innventure from engaging in a business combination with any holder of 15% or more of its capital stock unless the holder has held the stock for three years or, among other exceptions, the Board has approved the transaction.
The exclusive forum clause set forth in the Warrant Agreement may have the effect of limiting an investor’s rights to bring legal action against Innventure and could limit the investor’s ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us.
In connection with the Business Combination, Innventure assumed Learn CW’s warrant agreement, dated as of October 12, 2021, between Learn CW and American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC, a New York limited liability company (the “Warrant Agreement”). By virtue of the assumption of the Warrant Agreement (i) any action, proceeding or claim against Innventure arising out of or relating in any way to the Warrant Agreement will be brought and enforced in the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and (ii) Innventure irrevocably submits to such jurisdiction, which jurisdiction will be exclusive. Innventure has waived or will waive any objection to such exclusive jurisdiction and that such courts represent an inconvenient forum. We note, however, that there is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce these provisions and that investors cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for state and federal courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, these provisions of the Warrant Agreement will not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), or any other claim for which the federal district courts of the United States of America are the sole and exclusive forum. Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. Any person or entity
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purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of the warrants issued pursuant to the Warrant Agreement shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to the forum provisions in the Warrant Agreement. If any action, the subject matter of which is within the scope of the forum provisions of the Warrant Agreement, is filed in a court other than a court of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (a “foreign action”) in the name of any holder of the warrants, such holder shall be deemed to have consented to: (x) the personal jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located within the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in connection with any action brought in any such court to enforce the forum provisions (an “enforcement action”), and (y) having service of process made upon such warrant holder in any such enforcement action by service upon such warrant holder’s counsel in the foreign action as agent for such warrant holder.
This choice-of-forum provision may limit a warrant holder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with Innventure, which may discourage such lawsuits. Alternatively, if a court were to find this provision of the Warrant Agreement inapplicable or unenforceable with respect to one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and result in a diversion of the time and resources of our management and Board.
We are an emerging growth company and smaller reporting company, and we cannot be certain if the reduced reporting requirements applicable to emerging growth companies and smaller reporting companies will make our Common Stock less attractive to investors.
Innventure is an emerging growth company, as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (“JOBS Act”). For as long as Innventure continues to be an emerging growth company, it may take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies,” including exemption from compliance with the auditor attestation requirements under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. Innventure will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) December 31, 2026, (2) the last day of the fiscal year (a) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.235 billion or (b) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of shares of our Common Stock that are held by non-affiliates exceeds $700.0 million as of the prior June 30, and (3) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period.
In addition, under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. Innventure expects to use this extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards and, therefore, Innventure will not be subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies.
Innventure is also a smaller reporting company as defined in the Exchange Act. Even after Innventure no longer qualifies as an emerging growth company, it may still qualify as a “smaller reporting company,” which would allow it to take advantage of many of the same exemptions from disclosure requirements including exemption from compliance with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 and reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in this report and Innventure’s periodic reports and proxy statements.
Innventure will take advantage of the smaller reporting company scaled disclosures, and it will be able to continue to take advantage of the smaller reporting company scaled disclosures for so long as its voting and non-voting Common Stock held by non-affiliates is less than $250.0 million measured on the last business day of its second fiscal quarter, or its annual revenue is less than $100.0 million during the most recently completed fiscal year and its voting and non-voting Common Stock held by non-affiliates is less than $700.0 million measured on the last business day of its second fiscal quarter.
Innventure cannot predict if investors will find its Common Stock less attractive because Innventure may rely on these exemptions. If some investors find the Common Stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for the Common Stock and its market price may be more volatile.
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Future offerings of debt or offerings or issuances of equity securities by Innventure may adversely affect the market price of the Common Stock or otherwise dilute all other stockholders.
In the future, Innventure may attempt to obtain financing or to further increase Innventure’s capital resources by issuing additional shares of Common Stock or offering debt or other equity securities, including commercial paper, medium-term notes, senior or subordinated notes, debt securities convertible into equity or shares of preferred stock. Innventure also expects to grant equity awards to employees, directors, and consultants under Innventure’s stock incentive plans. Future acquisitions could require substantial additional capital in excess of cash from operations. Innventure would expect to obtain the capital required for acquisitions through a combination of additional issuances of equity, corporate indebtedness and/or cash from operations.
Issuing additional shares of Common Stock or other equity securities or securities convertible into equity may dilute the economic and voting rights of Innventure’s existing stockholders or reduce the market price of the Common Stock or both. Upon liquidation, holders of such debt securities, preferred shares, and lenders with respect to other borrowings would receive a distribution of Innventure’s available assets prior to the holders of Common Stock. Debt securities convertible into equity could be subject to adjustments in the conversion ratio pursuant to which certain events may increase the number of equity securities issuable upon conversion. Preferred shares, if issued, could have a preference with respect to liquidating distributions or a preference with respect to dividend payments that could limit Innventure’s ability to pay dividends to the holders of Common Stock. Innventure’s decision to issue securities in any future offering will depend on market conditions and other factors beyond Innventure’s control, which may adversely affect the amount, timing and nature of Innventure’s future offerings.
If Innventure’s estimates or judgments relating to its critical accounting estimates prove to be incorrect or financial reporting standards or interpretations change, Innventure’s results of operations could be adversely affected.
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”) in the United States requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and accompanying notes. Innventure will base its estimates on historical experience, known trends and events, and various other factors that it believes to be reasonable under the circumstances, as provided in the section entitled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Use of Estimates.” The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant assumptions and estimates may be used in preparing Innventure’s financial statements. Innventure’s results of operations may be adversely affected if its assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in its assumptions, which could cause its results of operations to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the trading price of its Common Stock.
Additionally, Innventure will regularly monitor its compliance with applicable financial reporting standards and review new pronouncements and drafts thereof that are relevant to it. As a result of new standards, changes to existing standards and changes in their interpretation, Innventure might be required to change its accounting policies, alter its operational policies, and implement new or enhance existing systems so that they reflect new or amended financial reporting standards, or Innventure may be required to restate its published financial statements. Such changes to existing standards or changes in their interpretation may have an adverse effect on its reputation, business, financial position, and profit.
Exclusive forum provisions in the A&R Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws could limit Innventure’s stockholders’ ability to choose their preferred judicial forum for disputes with Innventure or its directors, officers, or employees.
The Bylaws provide that, unless Innventure consents in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the sole and exclusive forum for specified legal actions is the Delaware Court. Current and former stockholders are deemed to have consented to the personal jurisdiction of the Delaware Court in connection with any action to enforce that exclusive forum provision and to service of process in any such action. These exclusive forum provisions of the Bylaws do not apply to actions arising under federal securities laws including suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Securities Act, the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. To the extent that these provisions of the Bylaws limit a current or former stockholder’s ability to select a judicial forum other than the Delaware Court, they might discourage the specified legal actions,
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might cause current or former stockholders to incur additional litigation-related expenses, and might result in outcomes unfavorable to current or former stockholders. A court might determine that these provisions of the Bylaws are inapplicable or unenforceable in any particular action, in which case we may incur additional litigation related expenses in such action, and the action may result in outcomes unfavorable to us, which could have a materially adverse impact on Innventure’s reputation, its business operations, and its financial position or results of operations.
The Company has identified material weaknesses in its internal controls over financial reporting that could, if not remediated, result in material misstatements in its financial statements and which may have an impact on Innventure’s ability to timely or accurately report its financial condition or results of operations and may adversely affect Innventure’s business and stock price.
In connection with the preparation of the Company’s financial statements, certain material weaknesses were identified in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of Innventure’s interim or annual consolidated financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
If Innventure is unable to successfully remediate the material weaknesses, or if in the future, Innventure identifies further material weaknesses in its internal controls over financial reporting, it may not detect errors on a timely basis, and its financial statements may be materially misstated. Innventure cannot provide any assurance that these material weaknesses will not have an impact on its ability to timely and accurately report its financial condition or results of operations or that any additional material weaknesses will not arise in the future due to a failure to implement and maintain adequate internal control over financial reporting or circumvention of these controls. Innventure may not be able to conclude on an ongoing basis that it has effective internal control over financial reporting, which could harm its operating results, cause investors to lose confidence in its reported financial information and cause the trading price of its stock to fall. In addition, as a public company, Innventure will be required to file accurate and timely quarterly and annual reports with the SEC under the Exchange Act. Any failure to report Innventure’s financial results on an accurate and timely basis could result in sanctions, lawsuits, delisting of our Common Stock from Nasdaq or other adverse consequences that would materially harm its business. In addition, Innventure could become subject to investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC, and other regulatory authorities, and become subject to litigation from investors and stockholders, which could harm its reputation and its financial condition, or divert financial and management resources from its core business.
If Innventure is deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, it may be required to institute burdensome compliance requirements and its activities may be restricted, which may make it difficult to operate or to execute its growth plans.
If Innventure is deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, it will be subject to additional regulatory requirements and its activities may be restricted, including:
•restrictions on the nature of its investments;
•limitations on its ability to borrow;
•prohibitions on transactions with affiliates; and
•restrictions on the issuance of securities.
Each of these may make it difficult for Innventure to run its business. In addition, the law may impose upon Innventure burdensome requirements, including:
•registration as an investment company and subsequent regulation as an investment company;
•adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and
•reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy and disclosure requirements and other rules and regulations.
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Innventure intends to conduct its operations so that it is not required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act. Section 3(a)(1)(A) of the Investment Company Act defines an “investment company” as any issuer that is or holds itself out as being engaged primarily, or proposes to engage primarily, in the business of investing, reinvesting or trading in securities. Section 3(a)(1)(C) of the Investment Company Act defines an investment company as any issuer that is engaged or proposes to engage in the business of investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading in securities and owns or proposes to acquire investment securities having a value exceeding 40% of the value of the issuer’s total assets (exclusive of U.S. Government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. Excluded from the term “investment securities,” among other things, are U.S. Government securities and securities issued by majority-owned subsidiaries that are not themselves investment companies and are not relying on the exemption from the definition of investment company set forth in Section 3(c)(1) or Section 3(c)(7) of the Investment Company Act.
Furthermore, if Innventure were to operate its Operating Companies primarily for the purpose of making a profit in the sale of its Operating Companies’ securities rather than retaining majority (or sole) ownership of such companies, it may increase the likelihood that Innventure could be deemed an investment company.
Though Innventure does not expect exit transactions to be a factor in the business plans for its Operating Companies and does not believe that its principal activities will subject it to the Investment Company Act, if Innventure were deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act, compliance with the additional regulatory burdens discussed above would require additional expense and attention from management for which Innventure has not accounted.
The determination as to whether certain Innventure assets are viewed as securities (i.e., by falling within the definition of an “investment contract”) is made by Innventure and if the SEC were to disagree with Innventure’s determination, Innventure could be deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act.
Section 3(a)(1)(A) of the Investment Company Act defines an “investment company” to include a company that “is or holds itself out as being engaged primarily, or proposes to engage primarily, in the business of investing, reinvesting or trading in securities.” Whether a company is engaged primarily in the business of investing in securities is a question of fact that is determined through the analysis of five factors. No single factor by itself is dispositive. The relevant factors are: (1) the nature of a company’s assets; (2) the source of a company’s income; (3) the company’s historic development; (4) the company’s public representations; and (5) the activities of the company’s officers and directors.
In the context of its Section 3(a)(1)(A) analysis, and specifically Section 3(a)(1)(A)’s asset test, Innventure has determined that neither Innventure’s equity interest in AeroFlexx nor the loans from Innventure to AeroFlexx are a “security.” This determination is based upon Innventure’s conclusion that neither should be viewed as an “investment contract.” Applicable case law has found that an “investment contract” exists when there is the investment of money in a common enterprise with a reasonable expectation of profits to be derived primarily from the efforts of others.
The above determinations were made by Innventure based in large part on case law precedent and no-action letters issued by the SEC staff and other SEC interpretive guidance, and the significant relationship that exists between Innventure and AeroFlexx (e.g., Innventure founded AeroFlexx and the only AeroFlexx director that is not also an Innventure director is the Chief Executive Officer of AeroFlexx who is, himself, an employee of Innventure). Additionally, based in large part on case law precedent and SEC staff no-action letters, Innventure determined that the loans from Innventure to AeroFlexx should not constitute securities that are “evidences of indebtedness” under the Investment Company Act.
Innventure has not requested the SEC to approve this analysis and the SEC has not done so. If the SEC were to disagree with Innventure’s analysis or relevant factual circumstances were to change, Innventure may be required to adjust its analysis and, potentially, its asset composition, in order to support its conclusion that it should not be deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act. If Innventure were required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act, compliance with the additional associated regulatory burdens would require additional expense and attention from management for which Innventure has not accounted and, furthermore, could require Innventure to restructure its operations, sell certain of its assets or abstain from the purchase of certain assets, which could have a material adverse effect on Innventure’s business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
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Additional financing transactions by the Operating Companies could impact your rights as a stockholder of Innventure.