INTERVIEW: ENTREPRENEURSHIP


Seizing every opportunity


EPIC’s Carlos Lee speaks with Markus Nicht, CEO of InnoLas Solutions, about his young start as CEO and growing a team of eight employees to 130


Tell us about your company InnoLas Solutions is based in Krailling, Germany and was founded in 1995 as InnoLas Systems, or what we call ‘old InnoLas’. There have been several business areas in the company focusing on specific industries. These include the photovoltaic (PV) unit, the printed circuit boards (PCB) unit, and the glass industry unit, which focuses on laser processing of technical glasses, such as displays for use in mobile phones and laptops. For the glass industry unit, InnoLas


developed a laser system to cut chemically strengthened material, which was a disruptive technology at the time of development. We introduced this glass- cutting technology in 2012 at the glasstec trade show in Düsseldorf. Although we felt that it was a bit early to introduce this kind of technology, we decided to go through with its production. During the show, someone from Corning stopped by our booth, who expressed interest in applying this new technology to their facilities. After a couple of months of sampling, Corning then offered to acquire old InnoLas in 2013. However, we figured out that they had less interest with the remaining


Sponsored by


InnoLas Solutions’ customer application and R&D centre in Gilching, Germany


business units. So, we sold the glass unit on its own, and moved the other units to a new building in the same area. With eight people (including myself) from old InnoLas, in 2013 we launched a new company called InnoLas Solutions, which combined the InnoLas PV and PCB units. We called the new company InnoLas Solutions because of its similarity to the known brand of InnoLas Systems. Following the completion of the sale of InnoLas Systems in January 2014, our team of eight started operating InnoLas Solutions in an empty building, with no tables, no chairs, no computers, no phones, and with thousands of parts on the shop floor. One of the first things we did was to put the company service hotline into operation within two weeks. Two months later, we were back up and running with additional employees and we received our first order from the PV industry in March 2014. We started the business slowly in the


first quarter, but in year one of InnoLas Solutions we reached €10m in turnover. From there, the custom from the PV industry caused this to increase to €18m. Eventually we had to come up with


Markus Nicht (right) with Carlos Lee 12 Electro Optics August/September 2019


other strategies to further develop the company, particularly on internationalising the business. And that is how we ended


up in discussions of being acquired by CGS, a Swiss industrial investment and management firm with a clear focus on technology companies. InnoLas Solutions was then acquired by CGS in 2018 and we became the enabling platform investment of the Photonics Systems Group.


How is InnoLas Solutions doing at the moment? InnoLas is performing well. We have had an annual growth rate of 20 to 25 per cent since we began, and we are expecting to maintain this growth. InnoLas Solutions now has a global presence with people in Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, China, and Taiwan, as well as the USA. We just acquired a company that we have moved into a new building in Krailling, and there are more to come. When InnoLas Solutions started in 2014, we were eight people, but now our group already has 130 people.


What is your background, and how did you get involved with InnoLas? I joined InnoLas about 12 years ago. I was 25 years old at that time and I started as a mechanical design engineer. Then, after a few projects, I was promoted to project manager because the company at the time was loaded with projects. The company


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InnoLas Solutions


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