Genomic testing startup GenoPalate Inc. is moving into new digs at the Technology Innovation Center at the Milwaukee County Research Park in Wauwatosa.
The company, which was based in a dedicated office and shared workspace at the Work Lofts micro coworking space on Milwaukee’s East Side, has outgrown that location, said Sherry Zhang, founder and chief executive officer of GenoPalate.
Beginning next month, GenoPalate will occupy about 1,600 square feet on the fifth floor of the Technology Innovation Center, 10437 W. Innovation Drive, which houses mainly early-stage startups, as well as anchor tenants and service providers, said Guy Mascari, executive director of the TIC.
“They have several good exits of successful companies build their ideas from MCW and whatnot,” Zhang said of the TIC, which previously housed Agro Biosciences. “It’s a pretty good hub I think for biotech companies of our nature. And it’s a huge building so we could literally grow and take more room as we grow.”
In addition, since the TIC has lab space, GenoPalate could do some nutritional and food science research there in the future, said Zhang, who has a doctorate in molecular biology and was formerly an assistant professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. The company currently outsources its lab work and then conducts computational analysis on the results in-house.
Founded in 2016, GenoPalate offers personalized nutrition recommendations based on a DNA analysis, as well as one-on-one health coaching. As of December, it had grown to about 900 customers. GenoPalate now has seven full-time and five part-time employees. In December, it raised $1.35 million from investors.
“I think we’re hard to beat from the standpoint of value and location,” Mascari said of the TIC.
The 85,000-square-foot TIC has about 60 tenants.
