About Neptune Nanotechnologies

Neptune is an innovative Ontario-based startup that transforms organic fishing waste—crab, shrimp, and lobster shells—into high-performance, biodegradable nanomaterials. These nanomaterials are stronger than steel, lighter than plastic, and fully bio-based, offering enhanced performance and sustainability across various industries while reducing toxic chemical additives.

Led by founder and CEO Aaron Guan, Neptune focuses on two primary areas:

• Industrial resins and epoxies: Adding just 0.25% of their nanomaterial can more than double the strength of these materials while replacing harmful solvents and chemical additives.
• Paper packaging: Their technology makes paper products stronger, more water and oil resistant, and even antimicrobial—solving common issues like soggy paper straws while maintaining biodegradability.

To hear more from Aaron on working with the Funding Catalyst team, watch these videos.

The Challenge

As a deep tech startup with limited resources, Neptune faced several challenges:

• A small team with limited funding and energy
• The need to focus on core business operations and technology development
• Lack of expertise in navigating the complex non-dilutive funding landscape
• Insufficient bandwidth to research and pursue grant opportunities

"As a founder, we try to understand the technology, try to understand the market, but the whole funding landscape, the availability, the grants out there, you cannot be, simply cannot be experts in everything," explains Aaron Guan.‍

The Solution

Neptune partnered with Thin Air Labs' Funding Catalyst team on a subscription model to:

• Identify and pursue relevant non-dilutive funding opportunities
• Leverage Thin Air's technical expertise to effectively communicate complex, deep tech concepts
• Establish a long-term relationship with funding experts who truly understand their business
• Access specialized knowledge without the burden of hiring full-time grant specialists

"One, we had to acknowledge that non-dilutive funding opportunities are extremely important for a startup company to really leverage those investing dollars to the maximum effect. And the second is to acknowledge that you're not the expert, and we had to find expertise," says Aaron.

The Impact

With Thin Air Labs' initial support, Neptune successfully secured $250,000 in funding from Natural Products Canada (NPC), with numerous additional opportunities in the pipeline.

"The $250,000 dollars is not an insignificant amount of money. It really is supporting a lot of our scaling and commercialization of our product. That's just one opportunity that has been successful, but there's so many more that we're engaged in in the pipeline," Aaron shares.

Beyond the financial impact, the partnership provided:

• Technical validation from industry experts, strengthening investor confidence
• Reduced founder stress and mental load
• Ability to focus on core business growth
• Efficient capital deployment and reduced dilution‍

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‍Why It Worked

The success of this partnership stemmed from several key factors explains Aaron:

• Technical expertise alignment: "The Thin Air team has a really strong technical background as well. A lot of the team members wear PhD hats from engineering and natural sciences. This is what's super attractive for us from the initial perspective." 
  

• Effective communication: "From a deep science, deep tech perspective, to communicate that and also having the person on the receiving end really understand what you guys are about, that is highly important."
  

• Flexible engagement model: "With the subscription model, it's effectively like you have your expert team. You can treat them as your own team member, but they have the expertise, and it's not a huge capital drag from a cash flow perspective."
  

• Peace of mind: "It's a big rock lifted off my chest. As a founder, we have so many pieces you have to worry about, and having the non-dilutive piece taken care of, from a practical execution perspective is fantastic, but really from a psychological perspective, I don't have to worry about it at night."

What’s Next 

For Neptune, partnering with Thin Air Labs has been transformative, enabling them to continue to focus on building their business. 

"As a founder, we know we have the right pieces together, and we can really just focus on growth and leverage the Funding Catalyst team's expertise to really help accelerate and leverage that growth for us," concludes Aaron.

When asked if he would recommend Thin Air Labs to other startups, Aaron's response was simple: "Single word is, absolutely."

Let’s talk about how Funding Catalyst can help you unlock your next non-dilutive funding opportunity. Get in touch today!