About Diamond Hard Surfaces

Diamond Hard Surfaces (DHS) is a UK materials technology company with the technology to coat high-performance engineering components with a unique, patented amorphous carbon-based material, trade-marked under the name Adamant.

The diamond coating provides extended life in high temperature, chemically aggressive and abrasive environments and has applications in aerospace, oil and gas, electronics and alternative energy. In April 2022, the company was recognised with the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise for excellence in international trade.

The challenge

To drive further growth, management recognised the need to raise additional funding. Its core patent was still valid, but it had also developed new technologies and processes, many created to answer specific client needs. DHS decided it needed to be able to catalogue and clearly show its full range of knowledge-based assets, to demonstrate the true value of the company.

The solution

Diamond Hard Surfaces has used Inngot’s tools to value its IP and intangibles twice – in 2015 and then again in 2020.

Chris H Walker, CEO of DHS, says that, after first using Goldseam and Sollomon, and reviewing its full range of intangible assets, “we made the decision not to keep developing our original core patent. Instead, we decided to focus on our proprietary know-how and trade secrets, and we implemented a number of management and process changes aimed at strengthening the protection of our IP and intangible assets, including reviewing our trademarks and copyrights and ensuring our very strict controls on who had access to process details and trade secrets were maintained.”

The result

After completing the first Sollomon valuation the business was able to prioritise developmental milestones in terms of their intangible value to the business, eventually doubling turnover in just one year. The company has diversified its business into diamond related thermal management solutions filing new patents and this has resulted in a significant increase in export trade (which led to the recent Queen’s Award).

The business was initially seed funded by Oxford Technology 4 VCT and has followed it investment through various funding rounds led by the CEO and other angel investors until the company was able to further expand, reach profitability and has now been self-funding for more than 5 years.

Inngot’s tools forced us to think about the intangible things in a business that can be of value, in addition to our tangible assets.

We had an idea of what our patented technology might be worth, but we needed to get a better understanding of what the other intangibles could be worth.

Goldseam and Sollomon provide a really good, structured process to identify and then value IP and intangibles. I would thoroughly recommend them to early-stage businesses.

Chris Walker - CEO