When G2V Optics was born in 2015, it seemed destined for indoor farming – after all, what better use of “projected sunlight” than to grow things?
As it turns out, the better use case for the company’s technology is in areas like photovoltaic research and space. So earned over $1 million in business from NASA, including a contract to provide solar simulators for spacecraft testing. And that’s what’s fueled the company’s rapid and continued growth, increasing its workforce by about 50% in the past year.
“The beautiful thing…is that when you reach that point of attraction, your customers start to be your main source of funding. So it’s been a really dramatic change for us over the last 18 months,” CEO Ryan Tucker said on Episode 21 of Bloom, Taproot’s Edmonton Innovation Podcast. “We’re actually in a really great position right now … where we don’t have to go and raise capital right away.”
That doesn’t mean the company won’t seek investment to help it take advantage of the opportunities that come along now that it has found the right market. “It becomes the more exciting reason to go and raise more capital,” Tucker said.
Tucker is proud to grow this company in Edmonton and has no plans to leave. But G2V Optics is very much an international company.
“For us, we hardly have any customers in Edmonton,” he said. “So it was really an exercise in how to reach the world from here?”
Learn more about what G2V Optics sells to the world and helps ship out of this world in the July 7th episode.
In our sponsor slot, you’ll hear Darrell Petras, director of business and community development at Innovate Edmonton, in conversation with Taproot co-founder Mac Male.
Bloom is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you get your podcasts.
Photo: This light array from G2V Optics will allow researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to test a spacecraft under the light conditions it will encounter in orbit. (Delivered)
Add Comment