Local Defense Companies Receive Grants
The Partnership for Defense Innovation awarded a total of $65,000 to two North Carolina companies that competed for Fusion Grants to help develop technology for defense and security.
Appealing Products, a Raleigh-based research and development company, won first place. Appealing Products develops products that detect toxic gas, liquids, trace explosives, and poisons in food. The company received $37,000 in grant money and a $13,000 client services package from the PDI Defense & Security Technology Accelerator, an 86-step program that prepares young companies for the military marketplace.
Plexigen, a Cary-based diagnostic company, placed second. The company has created an instrument called the PlexStation, which clinically tests for biomarkers, antibodies, antigens, genes, and proteins. Plexigen was awarded $10,000 and a $5,000 PDI Defense & Security Technology Accelerator package.
The grants are funded by the state and designed to improve the success rate of early-stage defense and security technology companies. The winners had to submit a business plan as well as make a presentation to the panel of judges. The winners were announced during the N.C. Defense Business Association Symposium and Expo in Pinehurst April 20.
PDI offered the grants to promote economic development, there were 24 applicants, and five finalists.
