City Garage, Port Covington’s hub for innovation and entrepreneurship, is home to many local startups representing a range of industries. The goal of City Garage is to provide these companies with a connected community that can help foster their growth. Check out this spotlight on four of City Garage’s original tenant companies that are continuing to grow.
Magma Build Studios Are Expanding
The craftsmen at Magma Build Studios work with glass, metal, wood, and many other materials to create unique pieces of art and furniture. Their focus areas include glass water faucets, lighting, furniture, specialized hospitality/commercial constructions, glass art, stemware, and art sculpture fabrication.
To accommodate the increasing demand for their products, Magma Build Studios will be relocating their design, manufacturing and specialized fabrication operations to 325 East Oliver Street in Station North. The company will maintain a presence in City Garage as their glassblowing operations will relocate to The Foundery, supporting the need for training and hands-on demonstration for Foundery members.
Ready Robotics Ramping Up For More Production
Ready Robotics, a startup spun out of Johns Hopkins University specializing in industrial robots, is also preparing to expand. Benjamin Gibbs and Kelleher Guerin founded Ready Robotics in 2015, designing robots that are used by manufacturing companies to make their operations more efficient.
Over the past year, Ready Robotics has experienced significant growth, increasing their team from nine employees to 15. Now, the company is doubling its current 3,000-square-foot production space in Main Street of City Garage, taking over the space next door to their existing site. The added space will allow the company to quadruple their production capacity, increasing output from four to five systems per month to over 15 robots per month.
Workbench Raises $1.7 Million In Funding
Workbench, an education technology startup headquartered at City Garage, recently raised $1.7 million to expand their sales and marketing outreach for its hands-on learning tools.
Workbench allows teachers to use the technology platform for developing hands-on lessons that teach subjects such as math interactively. The program is currently used in 10,000 schools around the world, and this funding will allow the company to expand its reach even further.
Founded in 2013 by CEO Christopher Sleat, Workbench currently employs 14 people at its office in City Garage. They hope to add at least four more teammates by the end of the year.
Treason Toting Company Joins Conscious Venture Lab
Treason Toting Company was founded in Baltimore, MD in 2013 by Aaron Jones and Jason Bass.
Jones is trained as a tailor and works on the design and production. Bass has a business and marketing background and is responsible forh putting the product into the hands of customers. The team moved their manufacturing operations to City Garage in 2016.
An investment from Sagamore Ventures allowed Treason Toting Co. to increase distribution channels and improve quality control by bringing previously outsourced operations in-house. After using a 1,680-square-foot space for prototyping and manufacturing at City Garage, and launching a retail experience at the Sagamore Shop on Thames, the Treason Toting team is continuing to take steps towards growing the company. Earlier this month, Treason Toting was selected to join the third cohort of Conscious Venture Lab and relocated to their new location in West Baltimore. Throughout the three-month cohort, the Treason team will join six other startups where they will gain access to mentorship and funding opportunities.
