Startup profile: Radicle Development Center
- Founded by: Ravikant Barot
- Year founded: 2006 as OxiCool; rebranded in 2022
- Headquarters: Malvern, PA
- Sector: B2B
- Funding and valuation: ~$20 million (per Pitchbook)
- Key ecosystem partners: Ben Franklin Technology Partners
A hardware startup in the Philadelphia suburbs hit the kind of wall that usually ends the story. Instead, it kept on building.
Malvern-based Radicle Development Center made a big pivot three years ago, after its proprietary air cooling technology failed to commercialize. Rather than walk away, the team repurposed its 50,000-sq.-ft. facility and rebranded as a service provider for early-stage startups trying to move from rough hardware prototype to field-ready system.
“The specific technology wasn’t ready for prime time, but our team became really good at applications engineering.”
Gary Ezekian, Radicle
“The specific technology wasn’t ready for prime time, but our team became really good at applications engineering,” Radicle CEO Gary Ezekian told Technical.ly. “There are a lot of other startups working on new technologies that we could help from our facility.”
Instead of liquidating assets, the team convinced a close-knit group of long-term private investors to fund a transition. The bet shifted from one proprietary product to the team’s broader engineering expertise.
Since then, Radicle has worked with “a dozen or two” startups and researchers, Ezekian said, helping transform what he described as “cardboard and duct tape prototypes” into pilot-scale systems.
From proprietary tech to shared infrastructure
Radicle’s roots stretch back nearly 20 years to when it was known as OxiCool, a cooling technology startup that previously received support from Ben Franklin Technology Partners as it worked to commercialize energy-efficient air conditioning systems.
OxiCool signed a long-term lease on the Malvern warehouse in 2017 and 2018 while preparing for launch. When commercialization hurdles mounted, leadership reassessed what they had built.
“A lot of it is sheet metal equipment — laser cutter, laser welding station,” Ezekian said. “It’s pretty generic tooling that can support other projects.”
Today, Radicle employs 15 people, mostly engineers, he said, who operate the equipment. The company handles everything from built-to-print sheet metal work for aerospace platforms to serving as “basically the entire product development arm” for a one-person startup licensing technology from a national lab.
“Nothing about us is by the book,” Ezekian said.
The shift also meant moving from a single-exit startup model to a services business focused on revenue and customer growth.
‘What comes after the makerspace’
Ezekian sees Radicle as addressing a gap in the hardware ecosystem.
“We’re trying to fill a missing piece in the marketplace of what comes after the makerspace,” he said.
Makerspaces and university labs can help founders reach proof of concept, but commercializing competitive hardware often requires a different level of engineering support.
“If you’re a hard-tech startup going to a makerspace, there’s a lot of DIY,” Ezekian said. “If you’re trying to commercialize really competitive technology, your best path as a PhD is probably not, ‘Let me learn how to operate a band saw.’”
Radicle positions itself as a collaborative development partner.
“Usually, if we’re building a complex hardware system, it’s not the traditional ‘somebody feeds us requirements and comes back in six months.’” Ezekian said.
Early projects and national ambition
One early client, based in New York, was developing an energy-efficient building retrofit system. The company arrived with what Ezekian described as “basically a napkin sketch.” Radicle helped engineer the enclosure, source components, complete testing and conduct installation studies. The work contributed to the startup securing a $3 million deployment grant, he said.
Radicle’s portfolio also includes climate-focused startups such as Philadelphia-based Carbon Reform. In one case, Radicle received $400,000 in Department of Energy funding to collaborate on carbon capture technology, advancing early prototypes toward field trials.
It goes beyond climate tech, though. “We’re really positioning ourselves as generalists,” Ezekian said.
Although some clients are regional, the company is recruiting nationally. The long-term goal is to build a reputation that draws founders to the company regardless of geography.
“Our goal is really to develop a nationwide reputation,” he said. “There are not a lot of firms that really serve early-stage technology.”
It stands out in Greater Philadelphia, which doesn’t have the density of hardware incubators found in Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago or even Pittsburgh.
For founders navigating the uncertain stretch between prototype and production, there’s a simple pitch: “Bring it to us,” Ezekian said, “and we will work together on it.”
