Ypsilanti-born ShadePlex starts to grow up with investment

The important thing to keep in mind isn’t that ShadePlex now calls Toledo its home. It’s that the idea for the start-up was born and nurtured in Ypsilanti.Concentrate first reported on ShadePlex a year ago when it was just a start-up started among friends with an idea of putting solar cells on things like tents, struggling to get it off the ground. They’re doing that now, however, from the University of Toledo’s Energy Incubator.The company made the move because it received a $50,000 product development grant from Toledo-based Rocket Ventures. Start-ups usually go where the venture capital firms that invest in them tell them to go. One of the company’s co-founders, Brian Tell, still lives in Ypsilanti. The other co-founders live in Downriver and northern Ohio. The company hopes to hire 20-25 people in the next three years and hit $30 million by 2013. ShadePlex is developing solar cells fabrics that can generate electricity. The idea is that putting them on something like a tent will allow a business or homeowner to generate more electricity somewhere that before only helped create a heat island.Source: Brian Tell, president and co-founder of ShadePlexWriter: Jon Zemke