Cancer-free packaging, non-toxic textiles, safe homes -- these solutions should not be gated behind corporate paywalls. We are building a company that publishes its formulations openly and creates a sustainable business helping industry implement them at scale.
Think Red Hat, but for chemistry. The formulations will be open. The expertise, certification, and enterprise support are what you pay for.
We believe in being honest about our stage. Cage Chemicals is a pre-revenue startup founded in March 2026. Here is what is real and what is planned:
Everything below describes the model we are building. We share it transparently because that is the kind of company we are.
Every year, millions of tonnes of PFAS, formaldehyde, chromium compounds, and other toxic chemicals are used in everyday products -- your food packaging, your children's clothing, the walls of your home. Not because safer alternatives don't exist, but because the alternatives are locked behind corporate IP and priced out of reach.
We believe that is morally wrong. When you discover that food-grade ingredients can replace carcinogenic coatings at the same cost and the same performance, you have an obligation to share that knowledge as widely as possible. Gatekeeping it would be choosing profit over public health.
That is why we are committing -- from day one, before we have a single customer -- to publishing our formulations openly. Every experiment, every result, every breakthrough will be shared with the world through peer-reviewed journals and open-access repositories. We are a pre-revenue startup making this promise now so that it is baked into our DNA, not bolted on later.
Non-toxic chemistry should not be a luxury. Every manufacturer on Earth should have access to safer formulations.
When researchers worldwide can build on our work, breakthroughs happen faster. Thousands of minds are better than one lab.
Open formulations create trust, adoption, and demand -- the business model sustains the mission, not the other way around.
Red Hat proved you can give away the code and build a $34 billion company on expertise, certification, and enterprise support. We're building the same model for chemistry.
This is the model we are building toward. We are currently in Phase 1 -- lab validation and patent filing.
Two provisional patents filed. Non-provisional filings with broad Markush claims planned for 2027.
Peer-reviewed papers will create prior art, blocking competitors from patenting applications.
CAGE Certified will operate like Intel Inside -- a B2B2C trust signal that cannot be cloned.
Upfront license + 1-3% per-unit royalty. Support, formulation optimization, regulatory compliance.
University research network to be funded 3:1 through Canadian government grants (NSERC, Mitacs).
From university labs to Fortune 500 manufacturers -- a licensing structure designed to make non-toxic chemistry accessible to everyone. These tiers will launch as we complete lab validation and scale-up.
Forever free for universities, nonprofits, and government labs.
upfront / 1% royalty on revenue
For companies under $1M annual revenue. No barrier to entry.
upfront / 2% per-unit royalty
For established manufacturers scaling non-toxic production.
negotiated / volume royalty
Multi-division, multi-year agreements for industry leaders.
Open doesn't mean unprotected. Our multi-layer IP strategy is designed to ensure the mission is sustainable and competitors can't close what we open.
We have filed two USPTO provisional patents (March 2026) covering our catalyst system for coatings and recycling. Our non-provisional filings will use broad Markush group claims to cover families of amino acid catalysts -- not just single compounds -- so that obvious substitutions still fall within our patent scope.
Every peer-reviewed paper we publish will create prior art that legally blocks competitors from patenting those applications. By publishing openly, we will make it impossible for anyone to close the door behind us. Our first publications are targeted for late 2026.
CAGE Certified will be a registered trademark and quality mark -- modeled on UL Listed and Energy Star. Even if someone replicates our formulations, they will not be able to use the CAGE Certified badge. The goal is to make that badge the trust signal consumers and procurement teams look for when choosing non-toxic products.
We plan to join the LOT Network (a patent defense coalition with 5,800+ members including Google, Tesla, and Microsoft) to prevent our patents from ever being weaponized by patent trolls. We will also create a formal academic patent pledge giving researchers unconditional free access. The patent wall will protect the open ecosystem -- not the other way around.
Canadian government programs allow us to fund university research at 3:1 leverage. Every dollar we invest will generate three dollars of research value -- and every publication will strengthen the open-science ecosystem. We are actively pursuing our first partnerships.
NSERC Alliance Grants will match our investment 2:1. A $50K contribution from CAGE can fund a $150K research project.
Mitacs Accelerate can place graduate students with us at $7,500 per 4-month internship, matched by government funding.
Canadian small businesses receive a 35% refundable investment tax credit on all eligible R&D expenditures.
A specific industrial application where toxic chemistry needs replacing -- e.g., "formaldehyde-free wood panel binders."
A professor with relevant expertise takes on the project. Graduate students do the bench work as part of their thesis research.
NSERC Alliance, Mitacs, and provincial programs cover 60-75% of costs. Our investment is leveraged 3:1.
Peer-reviewed papers in journals like Green Chemistry and ACS Sustainable Chemistry. Open access. Available to everyone.
The published science becomes the basis for production-ready, CAGE Certified formulations -- the enterprise layer that manufacturers pay for.
Every breakthrough deserves to be rewarded. Researchers who contribute viable formulations will share in the royalties for the life of the patent.
Of net licensing revenue from any formulation you invent. If a manufacturer licenses your bio-based coating and pays CAGE royalties, 25% goes to you -- for the life of the patent.
Goes back to the inventor's university department -- funding more research, more students, and more breakthroughs.
Reinvested into the platform: more research partnerships, more bounties, more enterprise support -- growing the ecosystem that generates the revenue.
Planned: open chemistry challenges with cash prizes for specific breakthroughs. Think "bug bounties" for formulation science.
Optimize an existing formulation parameter
New application or major performance gain
Entirely new industrial vertical enabled
Fundamental platform-level discovery
All prize-winning results are published openly. Winners retain co-inventor rights on any resulting patents and receive ongoing royalty shares.
Every sector below uses toxic chemistry that can be replaced with food-grade alternatives. Each one represents a research opportunity, a university partnership, and a licensing revenue stream.
PFAS-free grease-proof wrappers, pizza boxes, takeout containers, baking paper, produce trays.
Formaldehyde-free wrinkle resistance for cotton shirts, bedsheets, uniforms, and medical scrubs.
PFAS-free DWR for outdoor apparel, activewear, workwear, and technical fabrics.
Compostable barriers for hot/cold drink cups, paper plates, and molded fiber containers.
Amino acid catalyzed depolymerization of PLA back to lactic acid monomers at lower temperatures.
Water-resistant coatings for shipping boxes, pressure-sensitive labels, and industrial packaging.
Formaldehyde-free binders for plywood, MDF, particleboard, and OSB panels.
Chrome-free tanning agents for automotive leather, fashion, and furniture upholstery.
Zero-VOC binders and coalescing agents for architectural paints and industrial coatings.
Non-halogenated flame retardants for curtains, upholstery, children's sleepwear, and industrial workwear.
Biodegradable seed coatings, controlled-release fertilizer encapsulation, and mulch films.
Formaldehyde-free fiberglass and mineral wool insulation binders for residential and commercial buildings.
Biocide-free hull coatings for ships, boats, and marine infrastructure.
Biocompatible coatings for surgical drapes, wound dressings, and implant surfaces.
Bio-based conformal coatings, flame retardants, and solder flux for circuit boards.
Bio-based flocculants, membrane coatings, and pipe linings for municipal water systems.
Bio-based protective coatings for solar panels, wind turbine blades, and battery separators.
Interior trim coatings, underbody protection, and stain-resistant seat treatments.
Combined market size across all sectors where toxic chemistry faces regulatory pressure, consumer backlash, or both. Every application is a research project, a publication, and a licensing opportunity.
A clear path from lab bench to global licensing platform, with each phase funded by the revenue and grants from the previous one.
Months 1-6 (Q2-Q3 2026) | Budget: $15K-$25K
Months 7-18 (Q4 2026 - Q3 2027) | Budget: $50K-$100K
Months 19-36 (Q4 2027 - Q3 2028) | Budget: $200K-$500K
Year 1
Grants + SR&ED credits
Pre-revenue R&D phase
Year 2
First enterprise licenses
+ grants + SR&ED
Year 3
10-20 licensees
Multiple verticals
Year 5
At scale: ARM-style royalties
60-70% margins
These are projections, not guarantees. Based on Red Hat ($34B exit), ARM (1-2% per-unit royalty), and Qualcomm (68% licensing margin) as analogues. Assumes a platform chemistry company capturing 0.01-0.1% of a $400B+ addressable market.
Gave away the code. Sold expertise, certification, and enterprise support. Acquired by IBM for $34 billion. 87% subscription revenue, 84% gross margin.
Patent licensing generates $5.3B/year at 68% profit margins -- only 16% of revenue but 49% of total net income. The most profitable division of the company.
Built a $7B company on certification alone. UL Listed is the trust mark for product safety. The CAGE Certified model follows the same playbook for chemistry.
Whether you're a researcher who wants to make chemistry safer, a manufacturer ready to go non-toxic, or an investor who believes in open science -- we want to hear from you.