Gore Innovation Center in Silicon Valley

Innovative companies have the hunger, momentum and ideas necessary to disrupt their industries. What they may lack is the materials and material expertise to carry them out. That’s where Gore comes in.

The Gore Innovation Center team works with early to mid-stage startups, innovators, academia, corporations and customers. Our process helps innovators accelerate the discovery of new capabilities and paths to successful commercialization of advanced material technology, medical products and other emerging tech.

The center also serves as a meeting space that brings together Silicon Valley’s thought leaders, innovators, academics, engineers and more to discuss today’s most pressing industry, product and technical challenges.

From ideation to creation, our Innovation Center provides an environment for meaningful partnerships: a place that not only sparks ideas but can bring them to life.

The Gore Innovation Center leverages Gore’s 60 years of engineering expertise to help startups pursue new concepts and ideas, build prototypes, test material sets and explore a world of possibilities.

Silicon Valley startups working on breakthroughs in sustainable technologies and advanced materials are encouraged to apply for workspace at the Innovation Center. Technology focus areas for 2020/2021 include, but aren't limited to:

• Advanced materials
• Clean technology
• Neurostimulation and bioelectronics
• Sustainable fabrics

When you work with Gore at the Innovation Center, you are tapping into the world-class materials science and testing expertise of the entire company, learned and refined over six decades of exploring and implementing successful applications of ePTFE.

Gore’s current product lines include laminated fabrics that are windproof, durably waterproof and breathable, giving outdoor adventurers comfort and protection; textiles woven from ePTFE fiber for space exploration; vents that protect audio quality in smartphones filters; vents and other solutions to contain liquids, solids and fine particles; and medical devices including stent-grafts now totaling more than 40 million implants worldwide.

Innovative companies have the hunger, momentum and ideas necessary to disrupt their industries. What they often lack is the space, materials and equipment to carry them out.

That’s where Gore comes in.

So much value is gained when partners can work together in the same place at the same time. The prototyping lab at the 11,000-square-foot Gore Innovation Center in Silicon Valley provides 2,500 square feet of collaborative lab space in which partners can work side-by-side with Gore scientists and engineers to create and test technology with its materials.

Working in a shared space allows partners to learn from each other quickly and can even fast track the process from idea to evaluation. The space also serves as a venue for events to identify new applications for Gore materials, such as hack-a-thons and make-a-thons.

Prototyping lab offerings:

• Gore's unparalleled technical expertise in engineering materials to meet demanding product performance requirements
• Unmatched access to a vast array of advanced materials with support for customized solutions
• Capabilities enabling integration of Gore materials with your technology or product
• Comprehensive maker equipment (e.g. CO₂ laser cutter/engraver, 3D printing, desktop CNC milling, bench-top shop equipment, electronics workstation)
• Wet-chemistry (e.g. lab hood, solvent-rated oven and UV-curing station for chemical and coatings work)
• Flexible bench top space and infrastructure (e.g. electrical, ventilation) to support your equipment
• Characterization capabilities (e.g. advanced light microscopy and image analysis supported by a Keyence VHX-6000, mechanical characterization equipment)

The Innovation Center team identifies and welcomes select startups, innovators, academia, corporations and customers to its co-innovation space and prototyping lab to tap into Gore’s far-reaching expertise, capabilities and leadership.

Checkerspot

The Gore Innovation Center in Silicon Valley and Checkerspot teamed up to combine Checkerspot’s expertise in bio-based polymers and biotechnology with Gore's decades of experience in high performance apparel. Together, we explored innovative performance materials development with the goal of delivering high performance textile coatings with improved environmental profiles.

Space Foundry

Space Foundry worked closely with Gore's material science experts and engineers at the Innovation Center for over six months.

Moray Medical

The Gore Innovation Center collaboration with Moray Medical was aimed at fundamentally improving the control and accuracy of minimally invasive interventional medical procedures.

Moray Medical leveraged the Gore Innovation Center’s prototyping lab to deliver transformative breakthroughs at scale. The lab offers broad ideation, testing and manufacturing capabilities — including additive and subtractive manufacturing, wet chemistry, analytical tools, and more.

Combining our materials science expertise with market insights, we deliver solutions that improve lives — from medical devices that heal patients, to fabrics that protect first responders in the line of duty.

Synthetic Biology

The Gore Innovation Center in Silicon Valley is a place where innovators are looking to biotechnology for ways of making products that are not only better, but also better for the environment. Synthetic biology is changing the way we make food, clothes, personal products, and even how we design cities.

Sustainability

Gore’s respect for the environment is a natural outgrowth of our legacy of responsible innovation. As manufacturers and industries rethink and change their practices for the better of our planet, we at Gore extend our partnership as innovators who also consider ourselves environmental protectors. Our five initial fields of exploration include:

• Controlled agriculture and seaweed
• Building materials
• Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS)
• Solar
• Energy storage

If you're interested in collaborating, curious about the Innovation Center's capabilities or would like to schedule a tour, please contact us.