Beltsville clean tech materials startup HighT-Tech Inc. is charting an ambitious growth plan after closing a $3 million funding round.
Earlier this month, HighT-Tech leased 10,000 square feet at Indian Creek Technology Park, which will serve as the home for further research and development efforts as well as early commercialization work. The startup previously occupied incubator space at the University of Maryland, College Park.
But within two years, HighT-Tech aims to begin construction on an even larger facility for the manufacturing of various types of materials for the chemical, heavy industrial and specialty products markets.
Boston-based Taihill Venture led the seed round, with participation from the University System of Maryland's Momentum Fund and Abbott Ventures, an offshoot of Saint Marys, Pennsylvania-based parent company Abbot Furnace Co. It brings the company's total funding to $12 million to date, much of which has included federal grant awards.
The company was spun out of research that began in 2018 by Liangbing Hu and Chao Wang, professors at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University, respectively. By using a process called electrified ultrafast high-temperature sintering (UHS), HighT-Tech is able to sinter metals and ceramics in a fraction of the time and energy that traditional box furnaces or kilns require. This can then allow for the creation of a whole slew of materials that can ultimately go on to serve the aerospace, agriculture and automotive industries, among others.
CEO Bob Gatte told me that HighT-Tech is first looking to commercialize a material called a catalyst, specifically one used to manufacture fertilizers. He said making these catalysts today often requires the use of rare and expensive metals and demands a high level of fossil fuel use, something that HighT-Tech's UHS platform doesn't need. Gatte said CF Industries Holdings Inc., a fertilizing giant based in Northbrook, Illinois, is one of several companies that are keen on following HighT-Tech's development prospects as it relates to this particular catalyst.
"They're very interested in seeing us pursue this," Gatte said during a phone interview. "Our intention is to take this invention and this new product and scale it up to be able to manufacture and deliver our first product for trial and customer location probably by the end of 2025."
Within the next 24 months, Gatte said HighT-Tech will need a production facility that spans up to an acre to meet the expected commercialization demand. He imagines a facility like this would require $25 million to $30 million in capital, and he'd prefer to find somewhere nearby to build such a facility even if the original customer base is located mostly in the Great Plains.
"We got to decide whether we build a plant out there close to the customers and the partners or we build a plant closer to where we are in Maryland, and this will just depend on where we get the financials and returns on the investment that we're going to make," said Gatte, who joined the company in March 2021 to help lead its commercialization efforts. He previously spent three decades at chemical giant W. R. Grace and Co.
HighT-Tech is pre-revenue for now and Gatte said he expects this new seed capital to keep the company floating for over a year. The startup employs three full-time workers and is in the process of hiring more now, and Gatte expects to have about 15 to 20 workers by the end of next year.
"I've been around in the world long enough to know that things never really go exactly the way you planned, and it hasn't gone exactly the way we planned," Gatte said. "But it's all going forward and all going forward in a positive way."
