Davis-based wave-amplifier communications hardware company Elve Inc. is in the running for up to $15 million in California Competes Tax Credits.
To get the credits, Elve is projecting it will make more than $55 million in investments into its own business and hire an additional 310 employees over five years.
A June 2022 startup, Elve has 26 employees currently, and expects to have 58 by the end of next year and a total of 325 by the end of 2028 tax year, according to its application for the Cal Competes credit.
Elve makes high-efficiency lightweight millimeter-wave power amplifiers, primarily for supplying connectivity for space applications and high-bandwidth earth communications.
Elve is now preparing its manufacturing operation in 7,000 square feet of space in University Research Park in Davis.
In February, Elve raised $15 million from investors. The company said the funding will be used to grow its customer base and to increase manufacturing capabilities.
Founder and CEO Diana Gamzina said she chose Davis because Elve started in the college town, and it has collaborations with the University of California Davis and access to university labs.
The company will employ a broad spectrum of manufacturing workers along with engineers and scientists with doctorates, she said.
The millimeter wave communications technology that Elve is building has been around for decades, but most of the devices built were one-off units that cost millions of dollars apiece because they were built by scientists for space missions. Elve has about 12 patents for its power amplifiers and processes for manufacturing the devices in larger volumes, Gamzina said. What Elve brings to the table are processes that remove some of the need for extreme expertise in manufacturing.
Gamzina previously worked at UC Davis, where she earned her bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering. She also currently works as a staff scientist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park.
The state does not pay companies under the California Competes Tax Credit program. Rather, the state forgives taxes to the specified amount if the companies meet hiring and investment goals over time. California Competes is one of the state’s few monetary economic incentive programs. It's administered by the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, or GO-Biz.
Other local operations that have sought Cal Competes credits include Bosch for its chip manufacturing plant under construction in Roseville and technology consulting firm HCL Technologies Ltd.
The California Competes Committee will meet April 25 in Sacramento to approve eight new California Competes Tax Credit agreements. Elve is the only local company up for an award at the meeting.
Investors in Elve included TomEnterprise Private AB, a Sweden-based family office private investment vehicle; San Francisco-based boutique private equity investment firm Green Sands Equity; Palo Alto private equity and venture capital firm Yu Galaxy, San Francisco-based investment firm Cambium Capital; and Lockheed Martin Ventures, the investment arm of Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT).
