State of the City: Mayor announces new large-scale manufacturing facility in Fort Worth

Mayor Betsy Price

Mayor Betsy Price at State of the City 2020 

Linear Labs, the electric motor company reinventing electrification, is expanding with a new large-scale facility in Fort Worth.

The Fort Worth-based company has chosen its hometown as the site to build a long-term manufacturing plant, which is expected to create more than 3,000 high-tech jobs in the region in the next ten years.

The new plant will be built in the masterplan development AllianceTexas, which has the one-of-kind “Mobility Innovation Zone” that focuses on commercializing technology and mobility solutions.

Mayor Betsy Price, at the State of the City address on Feb. 28, announced the new manufacturing facility.

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“It’s a successful startup with a major expansion in their corporate headquarters,” she said. “They’re moving an advanced manufacturing facility and corporate offices from Mexico to Fort Worth. That’s reshoring.”

Founded in 2014, Linear Labs has developed an entire new family of electric motors, the Hunstable Electric Turbine (HET). The company’s patented technology promises to produce twice the torque density and output per given motor size, three times the power density, and a minimum 10 percent more range, as compared to the standard motor currently in the market.

Father and son duo Fred and Brad Hunstable stumbled upon the invention of the HET while working on a separate “garage project.”

“This will be seen as an inflection point in the company’s history, and for innovation, job creation and business in Fort Worth and Texas,” said CEO Brad Hunstable. “We are leading the charge for a next wave of companies redefining the power electrification space globally in America’s backyard.”

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Price said the announcement of Linear Labs plans is key to future job growth and education for the area.

“When you think manufacturing demands, this is the next generation of electric motor,” she said. “This is isn’t [just] manufacturing, this is tech jobs. This is high-skilled, high-paid jobs [coming here]. It’s an exciting move for us to have that many coming in at one time. It’ll help move that curve forward.

“As we begin to focus on the education piece and to try to move more of our kids into two-year certifications and into four-year certifications, that’ll build the workforce for companies like that”

The fact that Linear Labs started here and will keep their manufacturing here as they grow is key to Fort Worth’s strategy for growing startups and supporting small businesses, she said.

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“That’s one of the things that we have to really do a better job with, is our startup companies,” she said after the State of the City address. “How do we make that gap? When they get too big for the Business Assistance Center or Tech Fort Worth and so forth, what do we have that will move them into the next level? Some of them have stayed with us, some of them have moved on. We want them all to stay.”

Linear Labs has successfully closed over $4.5 million in seed capital, led by Science Inc. and Kindred Ventures with participation from investors Chris and Crystal Sacca, Saltwater Ventures, Dynamic Signal CEO Russ Fradin, former Masergy CEO Chris MacFarland, Ozone Ventures, and Ustream co-founder Dr. Gyula Feher..

To read more about Linear Labs, click here for a story about the company published in the Business Press last fall.

http://www.fortworthbusiness.com/news/fort-worth-company-making-technological-strides-with-electric-motors/article_ea5180cc-04d1-11ea-8253-1388dfa0bde1.html