The company has completed an additional $16m in funding to expand its intellectual property (IP) portfolio – 13 in total – and has launched CleanTanX custom-engineered technology for coating applications, which can be retrofitted onsite.
Folgers Coffee, Millstone Coffee
“We continue to make significant progress with a number of companies, and we are beginning to get line of sight to launch timelines, which is incredibly exciting,” said Dave Smith, co-founder/CEO, LiquiGlide.
“The good news is we are ready to expand our engagement with CPG manufacturers. We have a stable of coating formulations that we believe will work across a range of products, packages and categories.”
The company has now hired former senior VP and chief marketing officer at The Clorox Company and marketing director, Proctor & Gamble (P&G), Tom Britanik as general manager of the company’s consumer packaged goods (CPG) business.
While at P&G, Britanik’s clients included Folgers Coffee, Millstone Coffee and Jif peanut butter. He implemented marketing and packaging strategies to drive sales and profit growth.
During his time at Clorox, Britanik held several senior executive roles; GM, Pet Products (Fresh Step, Scoop Away, Jonny Cat, EverClean brands), GM of the Automotive (Armor All, STP brands) & Water Filtration (Brita brand) business and VP, marketing for the Specialty Division (Kingsford, Hidden Valley, KC Masterpiece, Fresh Step, Scoop Away, EverClean, Combat).
Independent consultant
He held a sales role as VP of Customer Capability Development that supported all of the Clorox Brands and for the last seven years he was global chief marketing officer for all of Clorox’s brands, which meant he had oversight for all brand strategies and marketing plans for products with $5.8bn in sales.
Smith added, Britanik served as an independent consultant on LiquiGlide’s Advisory Board for almost two years getting detailed experience with the company’s slippery coating technology and providing insight into its CPG applications, customer value and addressable market.
“We brought in Tom because we realized that having his experience, expertise, and innovative mindset integrated into our team will help us to be better partners to CPG manufacturers and maximize the value capture of the LiquiGlide technology for us and for them,” he said.
LiquiGlide was founded in 2012 by Dave Smith and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Kripa Varanasi to commercialize MIT’s patented liquid-impregnated surface technology.
It claims to be the first company to create permanently wet, slippery surfaces, that revolutionizes the way people and businesses move liquids by eliminating friction between liquids and solids.