Even as communications technology company Elve Inc. just opened its first site in Davis, the 2022 startup company is already planning an expansion in University Research Park.
Davis-based Elve in the spring built out a manufacturing operation in 7,000 square feet of space in the office park, and it has now signed a letter of intent to take about 3,000 square feet of office space in a neighboring building.
Elve founder Diana Gamzina said she chose Davis not only because University of California Davis is her alma mater, but also because the city has always had a warm place in her heart.
Also, UC Davis is one of the places in the country with a millimeter-wave specialty.
Elve makes high-efficiency lightweight millimeter-wave power amplifiers, primarily for supplying connectivity for space applications and high-bandwidth earth communications.
Until it built out its own manufacturing space, Elve had been producing its products as a customer of the Davis Millimeter-Wave Research Center on campus.
Gamzina said when Elve expands manufacturing again, she hopes it can be in Davis.
Elve Chief Operations Office John Collman declined to disclose the company's revenue numbers, the cost to build out its Davis factory or to identify any of its customers.
He said the company is hiring. Elve has about 30 employees now and it is hiring about eight more, mostly engineers.
Last month, Elve was awarded 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.
Collman said the current factory should get the company through its existing orders for the next 18 months, and the factory has the ability to ramp up employees a bit, but to meet its five-year goal, Elve will need more space.
Tha tax credit followed Elve raising $15 million from investors in February, and then signing the lease for its factory space in March.
Elve’s advanced materials manufacturing included quite a few major tenant improvements in the building, Collman said, including piping for gases, a near-clean room and sophisticated electrical systems.
The millimeter-wave products that Elve manufactures require it to create components that have a nearly perfect vacuum. Under those extreme conditions, the amplifier can in very little space generate a lot of power. Elve’s final product itself is a red metal box the size of a cigar box but with a substantial fan built into it. It plugs into its client’s antenna or substations.
Millimeter-wave technology has been around for decades. Elve’s technology advancement is a repeatable production method to make its amplifiers able to be produced more quickly. Even after being built, the amplifier components must be tested, retested and cured over time to be optimized for delivery, Collman said.
Last year, Gamzina went through FourthWave, a business accelerator program for female entrepreneurs.
In the office deal, leasing brokers Jim Gray and Nahz Anvary with Kidder Mathews represented University Research Park.
