Navigating Market Trends: CrayoNano’s Commitment to UV-C LED Excellence

As the UV-C LED market continues to grow, CrayoNano continues to drive the way with our products and strategic focus in the UV disinfection market. Over the past two years, our design-in activities have provided us with valuable insights into the shifting trends within the UV-C LED market. The trend we see aligns closely with our strategic focus and commitment to delivering high-performance components across our key strategic sectors of water, surface and air disinfection, establishing a strong foundation for future growth and market penetration. Our design-in activities reveal a significant trend in the utilization of UV-C LEDs across various applications, with 79% in water disinfection, 13% in surface disinfection, 1% in air disinfection, and 7% in UV curing, a segment growing faster-than-anticipated growth.

These figures reflect the current landscape of the UV-C LED market as observed through our customers' activities and our extensive market experience. The notable decline in air disinfection applications, particularly post-COVID, contrasts with the steady and anticipated growth in water disinfection—a market where CrayoNano has strategically positioned itself. Our design-in activities in water disinfection have seen a 10% growth from last year, reaffirming our decision to focus on this critical area.

Water disinfection remains the dominant market as we had predicted. The traction and growth we are witnessing in this segment are due to the reliability and performance of our CrayoLED H-series UV-C LED (CLH-N3S) components and our targeted go-to-market approach. The advancements in UV-C LED technology over the past few years - substantial improvements in performance, efficiency, reliability, and commercial-readiness-have made it a viable and attractive option for various disinfection applications, enabling more compact designs and broader market adoption.

The performance and reliability of UV-C LEDs have opened up new markets and applications with more compact designs which are difficult to achieve with traditional lamp systems in water disinfection. UV-C LEDs provide consistent, high-quality UV-C output for efficient disinfection, and our CrayoLED UV-C LEDs are essential components seamlessly integrated into our partners' systems. Notable fast growing key application segments include Point-of-Use (POU) water disinfection systems for water dispensers with flow rates of 1-3 LPM and Point-of-Entry (POE) household water treatment systems >up to 50 LPM. As these applications move toward mass market adoption, our next strategic priority is to extend our LED technology into industrial and municipal water disinfection and treatment systems.

Building on our strong foundation in the water disinfection market, we are also identifying significant opportunities in the surface disinfection (13%) and curing (7%) markets. These segments are increasingly becoming central to our strategic plans as they continue to grow and show substantial potential for market expansion. The steady presence of surface disinfection and the faster-than-expected growth in industrial curing demonstrate the versatility and robustness of our CrayoLED UV-C LED technology. While air disinfection remains a niche market for UV-C LEDs, we believe it has the potential for significant future growth. In the curing market, we are witnessing the beginnings toward larger-scale industrial applications beyond spot and adhesive curing, mirroring the systems seen in surface disinfection. These developments highlight our ability to adapt and innovate across various sectors, from ensuring the safety of food processing and packaging to achieving energy savings in industrial processes and exploring new frontiers in agritech, aquaculture, and horticulture.

The trends we are observing in the market—declining air disinfection, steady surface disinfection, and rising industrial curing—mirror the strategic direction we have taken. CrayoNano remains steadfast in our commitment to water disinfection, which currently represents 79% of our market. Our design-in activities and market data, reinforce our conviction that water disinfection will continue to dominate the UV-C LED landscape. Many of these emerging applications, however, present significant challenges at the system level, particularly in balancing price and performance. Achieving the necessary cost reductions and performance enhancements is critical for accessing these markets, a need consistently voiced by our customers as they seek to reduce operational costs and total cost of ownership.

CrayoNano's strategy for product optimization focuses on delivering higher-performing and cost-effective LEDs for our customers' disinfection solutions through innovations in semiconductor materials, processing techniques, device architecture, and package assembly, resulting in LEDs with more consistent and powerful output. These technological developments are key to meeting the demands of the market and ensuring the continued success of our partners and customers.

We look forward to continuing our journey of growth and innovation, supported by our investors, customers, and partners.