ThruPore Technologies picks Newark for its expansion

The makers of virus-killing filter product Dr. Filter are expanding, and they’ve chosen Newark as the place to do it.

ThruPore Technologies Inc., the company behind Dr. Filter, is a woman-led company that is expected to see significant growth over the next three to five years. It currently has a location in Alabama, but those jobs will be moved to the expanding Delaware location, along with 55 new full-time jobs by the end of 2024.

“Delawareans joke about knowing everyone in the state, but the key here is that the people in Delaware take the time to get to know each other and keep that personal information at the top of their mind,” said Dr. Franchessa Sayler, ThruPore’s founder, president and CEO, in a statement. “They use this information to make decisions in their daily lives about where they can help others, whether that’s by providing expertise, resources or legislation. It is really a beautiful thing, and I am excited to become a bigger part of the Delaware ecosystem.”

ThruPore’s has received two grants totaling nearly $564,000 from the Delaware Strategic Fund by the state Council on Development Finance, including a Jobs Performance Grant of up to $210,090 and a Lab Space Grant of $353,800.

The Lab Space Grant is the first one distributed by the recently launched $3 million pilot program. It will fund renovation of more than 7,000 feet of space for ThruPore’s research, development and manufacturing.

“Funding ThruPore epitomizes the goal of the Lab Space Grant program to support companies that need larger wet lab spaces so that they can scale up here in Delaware,” said Ariel Gruswitz, Delaware Prosperity Partnership’s director of innovation (recently included on the 2021 RealLIST Connectors list). “Their growth brings high-quality jobs and investment in priority industry and technology markets to Delaware’s economy and significant talent and mentoring to its community of science and technology innovators.”

ThruPore uses a proprietary manufacturing platform to make highly porous synthetic carbon catalyst products, which it sells to large chemical companies. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the company applied its technology to HVAC filters and created Dr. Filter, an antimicrobial application that it says kills 99.99% of airborne viruses. It’s marketed to offices, schools and other institutions to reduce the spread of air-borne viruses.