Case Study: How a Hardware Startup Unlocked R&D Funding

From prototype to payout — see what great looks like

Innovative hardware startups often face the double challenge of high technical complexity and long development cycles — both expensive and uncertain.

But that’s also where the R&D Tax Incentive shines.

In this post, we walk through a real-world case study of NOA the Brand, a startup powering the future of autonomous electric systems with smarter, more efficient wireless charging, and how they used the R&D Tax Incentive to fuel product development, extend runway, and reinvest in growth — all while staying lean and founder-led.

🚀 The Startup: NOA

Founded by Christel Hadiwibawa and Arvin Bayat, NOA is on a mission to remove the last bottleneck in autonomy: access to power. Their proprietary wireless charging technology delivers up to 95% energy transfer efficiency, enabling drones, robotics and autonomous systems to operate continuously without human intervention.

Originally focused on consumer products, NOA pivoted to industrial applications after identifying strong demand in sectors across agriculture, mining, and construction – environments where using traditional charging methods (cables, pogo pins, and wear-probe connectors) pose costly downtime, safety and efficiency challenges.

When they began developing their Gen-1 prototype, NOA had:

A small technical team (2 FTEs + contractors)
Minimal external capital
High experimentation needs across electronics, firmware, and field performance

They weren’t sure if they qualified for the R&D Tax Incentive — or if it was worth pursuing.

Spoiler: it was.

🧪 The Work: Iteration, Testing, and Engineering Complexity

NOA’s team undertook a series of activities, including:

Designing and testing high-efficiency wireless power modules
Developing custom firmware for power management and safety features
Prototyping modular casing for environmental durability
Evaluating power reliability and charging optimisation under variable conditions

The team ran multiple experimental iterations across six months — logging failures, debugging firmware, and comparing charging outputs across hardware revisions.

Although the product wasn’t market-ready yet, the most of the technical development activities ticked all the boxes for eligible R&D activity:

There was a knowledge gap in the public domain Unknown outcome
The gap can only be bridged by undertaking systematic procession of experimentation
It aimed to generate new knowledge

💰 The Outcome: R&D Tax Refund

Through Noah Connect’s support, NOA:

Identified and structured the eligible activities
Captured documentation substantiating R&D activities
Identified and claimed eligible expenditure including salaries, consumables, and contractor costs

The result? A refundable R&D tax offset, reinvested into:

Accelerating Gen-2 development
Hiring an additional engineer
Building more prototypes for pilot customers

This cash injection extended their runway by 4–5 months — without giving up equity.

🧠 Lessons for Similar Startups

Many founders assume that until they reach mass production or revenue, they’re not eligible. But in reality, the R&D phase is where funding is most powerful.

Here’s what NOA got right:
✅ They documented the R&D activities contemporaneously and tracked eligible expenditure✅ They differentiated technical dev work from routine ops
✅ They engaged early to benchmark against eligibility and maintained records substantiating activities and expenditure throughout the financial year — not post-financial-year
✅ They treated the claim as part of their strategy to commercialisation, not an afterthought

🤝 How Noah Connect Helps

Whether you’re building IoT hardware, robotics, energy systems or embedded electronics — we know the terrain. At Noah Connect, we help many product-focused startups: