Newark based W. L. Gore & Associates , continues to contribute its more than 60 years of material science expertise to Silicon Valley’s startup community through its Santa Clara based Innovation Center. To further its mission of accelerating innovation, it has formally opened its new prototyping lab and welcomes their initial startup in residence: Space Foundry.
Opened in 2017, the 11,000-square-foot Gore Innovation Center and Prototyping Lab is dedicated to creating and accelerating new growth opportunities for Gore and its partners. Designed to support the formation of strategic collaborations, co-working residencies, and distinct industry events, the Innovation Center features a state-of-the-art prototyping lab housing a broad set of capabilities for product and materials prototyping (including additive and subtractive manufacturing, wet chemistry, electronics, and analytical tools) to equip startups in finding visionary solutions to material challenges.
With the opening of the lab, The Gore Innovation Center is proud to announce its first lab resident, Space Foundry, focused on developing unique printing technology to enable the next generation of printed, flexible and integrated electronic products. Space Foundry has had the opportunity to work closely with Gore’s material science experts and engineers at the Innovation Center for three months, and will be extending its contract for an additional three. “The Gore Innovation Center provides our team with the necessary expertise and equipment to bring our products to life,” said Space Foundry CEO and founder Dr. Ram Prasad Gandhiraman.
“Partnering with startups allows us to explore new areas and applications for our materials and to explore new materials that could potentially expand Gore’s portfolio,” said co-leader of the Gore Innovation Center, Paul Campbell. “The collaborative process lends itself to overcoming challenges, leveraging new thinking and developing novel solutions,” said Campbell. “Having the ability to take ideas from concept to prototypes makes the Gore Innovation Center a powerful ally in Silicon Valley,” added Gore Innovation Center co-leader, Linda Elkins.
Startup collaborations with the Gore Innovation Center originate from any number of sources including startup pitch contests, industry events, universities, and internal referrals from the Gore enterprise. Targeting startups within the aerospace, automotive, digital health, consumer electronics, fabrics, industrial and medical industries, the Innovation Center brings together diverse talents to deliver transformative solutions. Most recently, the Silicon Valley Innovation Center began offering the use of its collaboration space and state-of-the-art-lab for industry award events. Recent award recipients include:
- Strados Labs – Winner of MedTech Innovator’s 2018 Gore Innovation Center prize
- Biobeat– Winner of Wearable Technology World Cup 2018/9
To further enrich the startup community, Gore hosts industry events that convene scientists, engineers, academics and venture capitalists, opening up the discussion around viable solutions for today’s pressing issues. The Innovation Center’s most recent event, Advanced Materials Innovation Day, showcased live materials demonstrations and a startup pitch contest focused on sustainability. After reviewing each submission, the Gore Innovation Center invited the top five startups to present during Advanced Materials Innovation Day. Tandem Repeat Technologies, focused on sustainable manufacturing for creating programmable textiles was selected as the winner and offered the opportunity to collaborate with Gore. “As we aim to develop the future of sustainable textiles, we are very happy to be recognized by this award and looking forward to impacting circular fashion with our products,” said Tandem Repeat Technologies’ President and co-founder Dr. Gozde Senel-Ayaz. The Gore Innovation Center plans to host numerous upcoming events to continue contributing to the startup innovation ecosystem.
SOURCE W.L. Gore & Associates
