Soroush Nazarpour immigrated to Canada from his native Iran in 2010, the same year two University of Manchester professors won the Nobel prize in physics for their discovery of graphene. Nazarpour was already something of a serial entrepreneur -- he had already started and sold three businesses, the last one to a multi-billion-dollar Mideast petrochemical company. His fourth business, graphene producer NanoXplore (GRA-V), is shaping up to be his most successful venture yet.
Graphene is a single layer of carbon derived from graphite, and it has unique features. The material is much stronger than steel, conducts heat and electricity better than copper, and is light and flexible. Graphene can also be blended with other materials. One obvious application is vehicle lightweighting, particularly for electric vehicles which are much heavier than conventional automobiles. Until now, graphene has also been something of a science experiment.
00:54: What is graphene?
2:57: Introduction to NanoXplore
3:24: NanoXplore's Montreal plant produces 45% of global capacity
6:00: Who is Soroush Nazarpour?
7:14: Serial entrepreneur: from door-to-door sales in Iran to graphene powerhouse
10:05: The beginning of NanoXplore
12:37: Blue-chip lightweighting clients: Volvo, Paccar (Kenworth, Peterbilt), Daimler, Caterpillar, GE
16:03: Battery technology: the move to silicon anodes and graphene's role
20:36: Tesla's Battery Day: confirmation of NanoXplore's approach
22:23: Building long-term value, no short cuts
23:18: The future: solid-state batteries will be the "holy grail"
26:13: The war on single-use plastics: graphene's role in the circular economy
29:02: Graphene "is more than a material, it's a platform technology"
NanoXplore went public in the fall of 2017. Today, the company's 4,000-tonne/yr Montreal plant is the world's largest producer of graphene, making up about 45% of global capacity. Blue-chip clients including Volvo, Paccar (Kenworth, Peterbilt), Daimler, Caterpillar and GE; in November they announced a deal with auto-parts manufacturer Martinrea for graphene-enhanced fuel and brake lines. In addition to bulk industrial and automotive applications, NanoXplore has patent families covering areas such as reusable plastics (circular economy) and battery technology. NanoXplore has a market capitalization of more than $600M but these remain early days, and the company plays in very large sandboxes.
NanoXplore has been working on graphene battery applications for 5 years, but investors finally took notice in the fall, on the heels of Tesla's Battery Day. The new battery materials mentioned by Elon Musk closely resemble the battery technology that NanoXplore is working on -- a shift to silicon anodes, with graphene as an important additive. As Nazarpour puts it, graphene is "more than a material - it's a platform technology."
I have covered NanoXplore in my newsletter, Resource Opportunities, since it went public and a year ago, visited the Montreal plant and met Soroush for the first time. He is a smart, driven and soft-spoken CEO who is laser-focused on execution, not promotion. Take a deeper dive into the world of graphene and where it will take us in this 30-minute interview with Nazarpour with Nazarpour at my YouTube channel, Resource Opportunities TV.
Part 2 is now live, 13 minutes on the fully automated "copy and paste" graphene plant that can be run remotely from a tablet, U.S. expansion and listing plans and growth vs profitability:
James Kwantes owns shares of NanoXplore and covers the company in his newsletter, but has no business relationship with the company. Kwantes is editor and publisher of Resource Opportunities, a subscriber-supported investment newsletter. CEO.ca users get a discount: use coupon code "102USD" to save that amount on regular subscription prices of US$299 for 1 year or $449 for 2 years.
