KOROYD Wins Monaco Innovation Award

Are you the founder of KOROYD, and what are your connections to Monaco?

I relocated to Monaco in 2007, and very quickly it felt like home.
I found it to be a thriving environment that supports entrepreneurship and innovation, so it made complete sense to establish the company here.

I founded KOROYD in Monaco in 2010 and served as the proud Founding Director for 14 years.

In 2024, we made some strategic changes to support our growth.
I moved into the CEO role, whilst Piers Storey became Managing Director, and Graham Sours became Commercial Director.

This sets the trajectory for our 10-year innovation roadmap.

How many people work for KOROYD? Are you all based in Monaco?

We now have 25 team members, plus many more brand partners with whom we become an extension of their team and vice versa.

Monaco will always be the hub where our team innovates, but we also deploy people geographically close to our brand partners and vendors in order to provide the best possible customer experience.

We also have team members in the USA, China, Spain, France, the UK, and beyond – all of whom visit Monaco on a regular basis.

We’re very privileged to be part of the Monaco community and to share this special place with our team and customers.

What is KOROYD, and where did it all start?

KOROYD technology was born from an aerospace safety research project, which identified that cylindrical seat tube structures absorb the most amount of energy for a given distance. KOROYD was developed after being inspired by this research.

Our flagship technology is predominantly designed to improve the performance of helmets.

It’s a series of welded tubes that crumple upon impact, absorbing energy and protecting the head and brain from life-affecting injuries.

KOROYD tubes are highly efficient at absorbing energy and up to 42% more efficient than traditional and emerging materials.

This material is 95% air, allowing heat and humidity to escape, reducing heat stress. It is also ultralight.

Thanks to the material’s innovative properties, we can design lighter, smaller, more breathable helmets that look and feel great at the same time as providing more protection.

We call this ‘protection without compromise’.

Fifteen years of innovation have led us from our flagship head protection to an evolved suite of intelligent materials driven by human-centric design.

KOROYD is now a multi-technology platform of advanced materials, serving a diverse range of industries and applications from head to toe.

We recently launched new products with optimised body protection that moves with you. Many users reported ‘forgetting they were wearing them’, which encompasses exactly what we were aiming for.

Our next stage of growth will hinge heavily on our body protection and back-of-hand protection – helping the world’s best brands to protect their people with comfort-first innovative solutions.

No other ingredient brand offers this holistic approach from head to toe.

Can you walk me through the process of manufacturing your technology?

We have a number of patents that protect our materials and processes. The manufacturing processes are unique to the point that we cannot share everything.

I can tell you that the tube structure is created by extruding individual tubes, which have two different layers. The tubes are batched together in a special machine, which uses thermal welding to bond the outer walls of each tube together in a uniform manner. The benefit of this is that we have no adhesives, no weak points, and have very consistent performance across the material.

The KOROYD core can then be cut and thermoformed into the correct shapes for engineered installation into various products.

Our other materials are the creation of our in-house material scientists, whose job is to find the most innovative materials that perform the best in a wide range of applications, impact velocities, temperatures, and end-of-life scenarios.

KOROYD’s intelligent foams open new doors for head-to-toe impact protection

They are also in charge of seeking different ingredients that allow us to reduce the environmental impact of our materials.
A constant striving for excellence.

In which fields is KOROYD used?

We partner with ambitious brands in five key verticals:

Action sports, motorsports, industrial, family, and defence.
Who our end customers are depends on the vertical – both business professionals and the general public.
All share the common desire of protecting life in motion.

The brands we partner with share our growth mindset and commitment to deliver premium products that their customers love and trust.

Built around a collaborative approach and end-to-end product design and development process, our enduring partnerships across multiple categories result in revolutionary products that redefine the standard and give them a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

What differentiates this technology?

The four different technologies perform in different ways depending on the application. We have an engineering toolkit that allows us to adapt performance based on very specific needs, such as impact velocity, environment, or comfort needs.

We focus on two key pillars. We offer solutions that reduce the chance of a life-changing injury and also enhance the user experience. Offering an experience they cannot get with other materials.

Typically, that means lighter, sleeker, more breathable products that don’t hinder movement or comfort.

What are the next steps for KOROYD? What are your next projects?

We are currently in the process of constructing a new custom-built premises with a world-class testing facility, which is 1600 square metres in total space. Right in the heart of Monaco.

This enhanced space allows us to move faster with R&D and new product development, handling much more testing and prototyping in-house.

The move powers our ten-year innovation roadmap with ambitious plans to diversify our technology portfolio, value chain position, and geographical spread.

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