Our Funding Sources
Activate Fellowship
In June 2024, ExciPlex’s Founder and CEO, Daryl Staveness, Ph.D., was selected for a prestigious Activate Fellowship. This program is specifically designed to develop technical founders into leaders in the business of translational science and innovation, supporting each founder in their journey to create and commercialize highly innovative products in science and engineering fields. The fellowship comes with financial support as well as an unparalleled mentorship network. ExciPlex is also now woven into an amazing community of world-class startups and founders, and we are extremely grateful for the opportunity to amplify our progress and impact through the Activate program!
National Science Foundation (NSF)
In December 2021, ExciPlex was awarded a Phase I SBIR grant from NSF to support the development of the novel photochemical techniques at the heart of the company. The SBIR program is built to fund high-risk early-stage research programs rooted in science and engineering. These exceptionally competitive grants are awarded to companies with the greatest potential for impact, thus the ExciPlex team is extremely grateful to be given the opportunity and the resources to pursue this technology.
Hatch
In 2020, ExciPlex was selected to Cohort 4.0 of the Hatch accelerator program. Hatch is a venture fund focused on building a sustainable and highly productive aquaculture ecosystem. Aquatic animals are susceptible to mycotoxin poisoning not unlike terrestrial animals (and for certain toxins/species, the susceptibility is much higher), so Hatch and the aquaculture community have an acute interest in improving mycotoxin management. Offering extraordinary corporate connections and invaluable domain/market insights, Hatch’s program greatly facilitated the formulation of ExciPlex’s business model and value proposition, while also providing a highly-enabling pre-seed investment. Check our Demo Day, and all the other exciting innovations from the Hatch portfolio!
Local Support
ExciPlex has received enormous amounts of support (not just financial) from the Michigan entrepreneurial and business development communities. ExciPlex participated in the 2020 Entrepreneurial Boot Camp through Ann Arbor SPARK, taking home the People’s Choice Award in the pitch day competition. ExciPlex has also received funds for early prototyping efforts through the Business Accelerator Fund, as sponsored by SPARK. The successful NSF SBIR proposal made ExciPlex eligible for the Emerging Technologies Fund, which provides matching funds to SBIR awardees to accelerate technological developments. These funding mechanisms are made possible through the Michigan SBDC and Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC).
Prizes and Awards
Most recently, ExciPlex was selected as a Top 10 Semi-Finalist for the 2022 American Farm Bureau Ag Innovation Challenge; our CEO was able to travel to Atlanta for the pitch competition at the national convention, receiving $10,000 for the Top 10 finish. ExciPlex was also a finalist in the 2021 Bayer Crop Science Startup Competition and was selected as a 2021 Hello Tomorrow Deep Tech Pioneer.
Our Incubators
ExciPlex was founded in Ann Arbor, MI as an idea-stage company, so our R&D progression has only been possible through the unique opportunities provided by our incubator spaces.
For much of 2020-2021, ExciPlex was located at Michigan Innovation Headquarters (MI-HQ) in Ann Arbor, a common launching pad for some of Michigan’s most disruptive companies (biotech and beyond!). Much of the foundational proof-of-concept data for our diagnostic technology and portable spectrometer were developed at MI-HQ.
ExciPlex shifted its laboratory footprint to the state of Maryland at the beginning of 2022, setting up shop at the David W. Fletcher Incubator on the Hagerstown Community College Campus. This newly renovated space was built to help propel early-stage companies into growth-phase, providing an excellent setting to facilitate ExciPlex’s R&D progression. ExciPlex’s first revenue were a direct result of the facilities and resources at the Incubator!
As of mid-2024, ExciPlex is currently shifting lab operations back to the state of Michigan (Grand Rapids location to be announced soon!). ExciPlex retains its head-quarters in Traverse City, MI at 20Fathoms, a phenomenal resource for early-stage tech-centric business in Northern Michigan.