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This year holds a significant hurdle for AGT, an early-stage, publicly traded technology company that so far has raised relatively small, incremental funding and has not yet ventured beyond government contracts into the wider marketplace. However, with a determined management team in place and viable product applications expected to generate early returns, AGT hopes to attract investors who hold the company’s ticket to commercial success.

AGT’s plasma-sterilization technology can eliminate viruses, mold and biological attack agents such as anthrax, according to Reddoch, chairman and chief executive of AGT. The technology also filters dust and pollen, and its initial commercial applications likely will come in the form of stand-alone indoor air quality products and centralized air filters.

The plasma technology originated in U.T.’s electrical engineering department, which then disclosed it to what is now called the U.T. Research Foundation, an independent, nonprofit organization affiliated with U.T. to support spin-off companies based on U.T. technology. John Hopkins, director of technology transfer at the Foundation, says only a handful of about 60 disclosures each year end up going into the hands of startup companies like AGT. “It’s a tough row to hoe,” Hopkins says of companies working to bring raw technology to market. But he believes AGT’s model serves as a template for other companies working with the Foundation.

AGT has an exclusive license on six patents held by the Foundation. But it’s a long way from patent to product. “What people don’t realize,” Reddoch says, “is that the technology in a university most of the time is very primitive—a long way from commercialization.” A company has to mature it, stabilize it and sometimes simplify it, he adds.

To fund these activities, AGT has received $6.5 million in government contracts, along with the $5 million raised by the company through small, private placements. However, the company so far has spent about $9 million maturing this raw technology from the university. “I view all that government money as an equity-saving measure, from the business side,” Reddoch says. “We are constantly searching for federal dollars.”

On the equity side, the ongoing effort to conduct incremental fundraising, primarily with investors in East Tennessee, has been a “steady distraction,” he says, because the AGT staff—also led by Kimberly Kelly-Wintenberg, the company’s president and lead founder—has constantly been courting investors. AGT also tapped The Lanrick Group in Knoxville to help secure these investments. “They’ve been able to slay the dragon, one investor at a time,” Reddoch says, adding that the Lanrick Group likely will stay on board only until AGT secures the large block of funding.

In recent months, AGT said in an SEC filing it has begun its quest for another $5 million. With that funding in its pocket, AGT could be on its way for the next two years, Reddoch says.

With the necessary money in hand, AGT is apt to find success with its plasma technology because of multiple applications, including air filtration, decontamination and biotechnology uses. Furthermore, products that are not used directly on humans can reap earlier returns, according to Chris McKinney, director of the office of technology transfer and enterprise development at Vanderbilt University. McKinney previously worked with U.T. when AGT licensed the plasma technology from the university. He says that the strength of AGT’s platform technology and its hard-working management team, combined with an improving investment climate in the devise sector, lead him to believe in AGT’s potential for success. “These people have stayed the course—they could out-work anyone,” McKinney says. “If this technology can flourish, these folks can do it.”

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