We spoke to Daniel Rutz, Chief Development Officer of TAU, on how the company is advancing the electrification of vehicles.
With the rise of E-mobility and the mass creation of E-cars, comes the challenge of making vehicles more efficient. The question of efficiency has long concerned manufacturers as they try to better their offering to make their products more appealing to customers. In the creation phase, car developers play with variables like higher voltages, greater filling factors and SiC-based frequency modulating inverters. There is a need for better insulation all-round and higher resistance to prevent degradation from occurring.
TAU Group is a disruptive startup revolutionising the future of electric cars wire by wire. Based in the heart of Turin and Berlin, TAU uses the concept of ‘creative engineering’ to fine-tune its products to reach maximum productivity and sustainability. One of their key products, the DryCycle® wire, doubles a motor’s power and replaces the standard magnet wire with up to 5 times higher resistance, all with unparalleled insulation technology.
Daniel Rutz, Chief Development Officer, describes himself as a hands-on entrepreneur and venture capitalist, with a passion for building a future for the next generation. He has nearly 3 decades of experience managing, investing and building steadfast strategy within teams. He spends his free time looking after his 3 children and hiking in the hills of Switzerland.
We meet Daniel in the TAU offices which are spacious and cleverly designed. They separate working offices and production offices with a thin glass door. This slight separation could only be possible with the conditions that TAU upkeeps: clean, very quiet, with not one fume or smell coming from the machines. At the back, there are packaged orders in organised boxes, delivering to the likes of Mercedes, Tesla, and BMW. They have a team of around 50 employees, but there is enough space for 100.
Daniel Rutz has been working with TAU since 2018. He says "we simply show them how much better driving could be. There’s a lot of demand for this, and an important problem has been solved. A lot of heat is lost within the motor of an electric car, which affects efficiency’’. Even though it’s a simple product - a wire that is wrapped in copper- car companies need this in their search for efficiency. TAU ensures that everything is produced in the cleanest way possible. There are no solvents or primers, and their production space is kept organised and fume-less. This in itself differentiates TAU from other manufacturers, and looks good in the eyes of investors.
The biggest challenge that TAU faced was building their product and company up to the industrial level that allowed them to have visibility, enough to be accessible to everyone. Daniel emphasises ‘‘it took a lot of time and money to get to the end of that process. Also, the technological process took longer than what we initially thought, and developing the prototype and team until it reaches mass production was difficult. The first 80% of the process is easier but the last 20% is the most challenging part. That’s where the most of our energy goes. Everything takes a lot longer because everything must be perfect. Especially when its niche technology.’’
TAU concluded an impressive €10.25m Series A funding round in the summer and is now considering raising a Series B round. Their first strategic investor, was via the corporate venture arm of ATLANA, a German industrial group, who is a global market leader in specialty chemicals. ATLANA are involved in the same chemistry that was used for TAU's wire. They are also owned by the same family that owns BMW, which further connects the two in the Car-tech space. Daniel went on to describe how they first reacted to the wire, ‘At first they dismissed us, assuming us to be another company in a saturated market. Of course, they were unsure. However, we offered that they test the TAU wire some time later, and they were impressed’’.
The other capital came from Finindus, a venture group between the Flemish government and an Indian/UK steel company. Daniel commented "they are interested in this type of exposure. This was a great opportunity for them to break into this industry more, so both them and us benefited’’.
We asked Daniel to learn more about how he built his team. Having coached founders and helped them build up teams in the past, he mentioned that “company culture must be built over time, it doesn’t just appear. This comes from the vision of the founder. It is important to formulate what you want to achieve, and have people who work in and around that. They must want to invest their time and expertise into your vision, and become a part of it.’’ This reasoning is one that seems to works with many successful companies.
Data suggests that just 1/4 employees actually understand the vision the company. Daniel continues: "without a vision, you’ll have a team, but not a cohesive one. You must adjust to them as individuals and accept that you have diverse people, with different personalities and working styles. They are not you, and they do not think like you. However, this is exactly what makes them valuable, and listening to each opinion is important. The goal is finding a way to adjust and motivate all those different people. Find out exactly what motivates each individual.”
According to the US-based employee recognition company, OCTanner, 37% of employees prioritise recognition as their preferred way of encouragement and support. Indeed, other reports show that 43% of employees prefer to receive recognition privately, 1-on-1 with the manager. A further 10% stated that they prefer to receive recognition publicly. It is therefore vital to ask your employees for their opinion and study how they work and what reward systems they prefer.
Finally, when asked what advice Daniel would give to entrepreneurs, Daniel shared his 3 main pointers for someone starting up in the e-mobility space“own the technology as fast as possible. Protect it from copycats. Patent it. Before you do that though, solve a real problem that people need. For TAU, the problem we solve is that cars need more insulation for more efficiency. Do not pay too much attention to already existing technology and competitors because your company should have its own process and values. There are definitely competitors, but we offer something that they can’t. A very clean process. No fumes. Better wire. And cheaper”.
-- If you would like to learn more about TAU and how they are shaping the future of electric cars, follow their journey on LinkedIn.
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