WILMINGTON — For years, The Innovation Space has fostered early-stage bioscience and technology companies that have secured more than $1 billion in funding in the early stages. Now, The Innovation Space is primed to launch an opportunity to help spring its next act: the Early Stage Growth Grant (EGG).
EGG provides up to two years of private laboratory space at The Innovation Space for early-stage startups, or companies that have secured some funding to get off the ground, as well as loans on scientific equipment and access to mentorship programs and learning seminars.
It’s specifically targeted to companies that are less than five years old and have secured at least $200,000 in funding. EGG itself is supported by $1.42 million from a congressionally directed spending request sought by U.S. Sen. Tom Carper and Chris Coons.
The grant can support start-ups between six months and two years, depending on the company’s needs – and the first seven companies are just the beginning. Provine believes the funding is enough to work with up to 20 companies.
““These days, investors are becoming more conservative and want companies further de-risked. This is a particular challenge for early- stage companies, and in Delaware especially. That’s why support at this pre-seed funding stage is so critical. Then in the next phase, entrepreneurs really need to be aligned on valuation in order to make deals happen with investors,” Innovation Space CEO Bill Provine said.
The EGG grant is focused on funding areas like in life sciences, clean technology and advanced materials, all sectors that build on top of Delaware and DuPont’s legacy of science and innovation. Since The Innovation Space was founded in 2017 out of an old building in the DuPont campus, it’s helped incubate and launch companies like Prelude Therapeutics, NiKang and Napigen and more.
But Provine has seen the struggles up close in recruiting and retaining great ideas to Delaware. Much of it relates to the struggles all biotech and life sciences face in terms of securing capital to fuel development even before a product is ready to debut on the market.
That coupled with the expense of lab space and equipment and talent makes it a large lift for many early stage companies.
“You see some noticeable proof points like Prelude or NiKang, and they were able to go directly to venture capital because they had a long track record of commercialization experience,” Provine said, referencing to the talent behind both companies having distinguished careers at other companies before branching out on their own.
“But others are purely relying on networks, angel investors or their own personal finances. I do think if you get companies with a good team, a good market opportunity, it all comes down to the risk for investors,” he continued. “And for some, if this funding didn’t exist, they may not be able to get that proof of concept to show the idea and how it could work in the market application.”
The Innovation Space worked with its Science Inc. accelerator to run due diligence on the companies, but Provine said that many of these companies had come through the nonprofits’ doors before, either through its 14-week cohort experience or seminar programs. Since EGG was launched in July, it has signed on seven companies, ranging from an advanced materials company focusing on cathodes for lithium ion batteries, a manufacturer for a dissolvable stent, developers for a therapeutic treatment for pain relief, among others.
The EGG grant will start in January to give start-up founders like Unsmudgeable Founder and CEO Swarna Shiv time to relocate to Delaware. Based out of Babson College, Shiv will be moving the start-up out of the Mansfield Bio Incubator and to Delaware to lab space.
“That’s huge in itself, and it’s a pretty big milestone to have our own space. I’m a big believer in that we need to have the right space for the team to do the best work,” Shiv said. “We’re talking to more investors and potential customers, so we need to have our own office for it.”
Unsmudgeable is developing an environmentally-friendly coating that can fade fingerprints from glasses and safety goggles. The coating interacts with oils or sweat from fingers and manipulates it in a way that it reduces surface tension so that you can see through those smudges.
For a young founder like 23-year-old Shiv, the mentorship aspect of the EGG grant will be incredibly helpful.
“We’re going to be doing at least monthly check-ins to make sure we’re hitting our goals, but those mentors will also make sure we get the resources we need,” she said. “It’s really exciting because I already have existing relationships with some of the mentors already like Jonathan Burbaum and Todd Wllach. But to meet them in person for a physical product like ours is going to be huge.”
For others like Neil Butler, who recently earned his Ph.D in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware, the EGG grant will provide the lab space to help independently build the research and processes from the university.
His new company Nitro Biosciences is based off of five years of research at UD, which focused on expanding the capabilities of amino acids to target immune responses to specific disease antigens. The end goal is to turn that technology into vaccines to overcome limitations.
“There’s some diseases where being able to shift where the immune response is focused is very important,” Butler said. “By applying his technology, we’re looking to develop vaccines that we can carry on into clinics.”
In the past, Butler participated in many The Innovation Space programs such as the mentorship program and other virtual programs. But as Nitro Biosciences seeks to validate its work and start developing a product to bring to market, the access to lab space is critical.
“Having the proximity to UD is a value, but having the right set of equipment to perform a whole suite of the different assays that this piece of equipment can be quite expensive in house is also highly valuable as well,” he said.
The EGG funding is awarded on a rolling basis, and now has seven companies enrolled.
Editor’s note: a previous version of this story incorrectly described companies that may receive funding from EGG as well before the funding stage.” Companies must have at least $200,000 in funding to apply.
