Ronawk just landed its first international customer – Professor Ranan Aktas’ team at the Cancer and Stem Cell Research Center at Maltepe University in Turkey.
A.J. Mellott and Heather Decker of Ronawk
“We can distribute anywhere in the U.S. and it’s kind of ‘do they want to buy it or not?’” CEO A. J. Mellott told the 4thEst8, explaining why this is such a big deal for his small company. “When you go to international…it goes through customs so they really have to want the product.”
4thEst8 readers first heard of Ronawk when they pitched at this springs InvestMidwest, something Mellott says got Ronawk some attention.
“We did have two angels that reached out to us,” he said. “We’re continuing to talk to them, but, you know… it’s been a very busy year.”
Spun out of the University of Kansas Medical Center and founded in 2019, the Olathe, KS startup is developing technology that can mass produce a patients own stem cells in the lab. Those stem cells, called ‘biologics’, can be used to treat many diseases, cancer, organ injuries, and burns. Ronawk sells its products to scientists developing vaccines, therapeutics, treatments and diagnostics faster and cheaper by reducing the time and cost of producing those biologics.
The company has two full-time employees (Mellott and CTO Heather Decker). This spring they announced their intention to hire 25 workers in the next 18 months, something Mellott re-affirmed with the 4thEst8 for this interview.
Pandemic and IP
Mellott and Decker used the pandemic to drill down on their technology, for which they have a patent pending, and hopes of a patent being issued later this year.
Mellott says the company is mostly bootstrapped with “a little bit of funding… by a family office” (something CrunchBase calls ‘ Venture – Series Unknown’ from June, 2020) for an undisclosed amount. 4thEst8 readers first heard of Ronawk when they were featured in this spring’s InvestMidwest Forum.
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