With the approval of a new type of creative grant, the City of Fort Worth is looking to create a hub for the future of “energy 2.0.”
Since founding the startup with his father, Brad Hunstable has wanted to bring electric motor systems company Linear Labs back to where it first started in 2014. And over the past year has been working with city council members to make it happen. Now, with approval of a nearly $70 million grant, Linear Labs is planning to create a manufacturing, as well as research and development center.
“We would be making a strategic mistake if we did not embrace this,” said Council member Dennis Shingleton in a working session of the Fort Worth City Council earlier this month.
Capped at $68.9 million, the grant will help Linear Labs move its overseas operations – much of which takes place in Mexico currently – to the city. Linear already operates an 11,000 square-foot facility in the city. And Hunstable said the company is ready to hit the ground running, following the approval.
“I think what it does is it puts us on the map, and one of the things I’ve learned is gravity builds upon gravity, builds upon gravity,” he told NTX inno.
"if we pull this off, we can change the world."
As part of the stipulations, Linear Labs will be required to invest $4 million in facility improvements at its planned site in the Alliance Texas Mobility Innovation District, as well as invest $614 million in R&D. The R&D credits from the grant are transferable, allowing Linear to partner with others to improve and build on its technology.
And, of course, with a heavy investment in research and production, that means jobs. As part of the deal, Linear must have a minimum of 1,200 full-time employees at the facility with an average salary of $70,000. R&D positions must have an average salary of $90,000. However, the company plans to create an estimated 3,170 full-time jobs by 2027.
“This next wave [of energy 2.0], I could see Fort Worth having a very real and frankly global opportunity and that will build on other opportunities,” Hunstable said. “This company has the potential to fundamentally reshape global energy, and that’s why the city is so excited about it.”
Hunstable said the grant is needed to help Linear continue its growth, as VC funding at the company’s stage can be hard to come by. However, he added that once the project is completed, he expects a number of different funding avenues to open up.
Being a TechFW-incubated company, Hunstable said he has always wanted to make Fort Worth the hub of Linear and the hub of new energy and mobility technologies. He said that its history of past tech giants, the number of Tier I universities and credentialed technical schools will help with attracting talent. In addition, Fort Worth is quickly becoming a hub for new technologies in the industry, with companies like Bell, Uber and Amazon testing robotics and autonomous solutions – all of which could benefit from Linear’s electric motors.
“We have all the makings of an incredible place and then combine that with a city… who are thinking innovative, you have the opportunity to make it into something special,” Hunstable said. “We viewed it as there’s so much happening here… where you have this much density of electrification happening, it was natural place to be.”
The move also comes as the company is seeing increased demand for its product. Last March, the company landed a $4.5 million funding round led by Science Inc. and Kindred Venture. Earlier this year, the company launched a new line of smaller, personal motors for innovators to tinker with. And, Hunstable said the company looking at a number of OEM agreements with global players in the industry.
“I wanted to go after these moonshot ideas… if we pull this off, we can change the world,” Hunstable said. “I think the world needs it and we need it fast.”
Check out NTX Inno's 2019 profile of Linear Labs here.
