The Tiny Cargo Company Opens Exosome Manufacturing Facility in Roanoke, Creating High-Skill Jobs

The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. (VIPC) celebrated alongside community partners the grand opening of The Tiny Cargo Company's new $1.5 million state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Roanoke, Virginia. With over 2,000 square feet of specialized clean room space, the new plant will be among the first dedicated exosome advanced manufacturing sites in the world and will create six new high-paying jobs across research and development, cleanroom manufacturing, and regulatory operations, according to the company.

VIPC, through collaborative partnership with Virginia Tech and the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, has supported the founding and advancement of Tiny Cargo, helping to catalyze early-stage funding and resource development via research lab faculty recruitment, R&D and intellectual property commercialization, and private sector investor capital attraction.VIPC serves as Virginia's designated statewide economic development leader for fueling entrepreneur ecosystems that grow, attract, and retain innovation, talent, and capital across the Commonwealth.

"Tiny Cargo Company's grand opening of a new scale-up advanced manufacturing facility in Roanoke is a testament to both the opportunity and impact that can come to life in local communities when you combine talent and capital to unlock innovation, commercialization, and entrepreneurship," said Joe Benevento, President and CEO of VIPC. "VIPC is proud to be a close partner with Virginia Tech, the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, and the regional Roanoke-Blacksburg innovation ecosystem."

"What we've built at Virginia Tech and in Roanoke allows us to turn something that was once only in research labs into a reliable, safe, and scalable production, making real products possible, ranging from oral medicines and nutritional supplements to advanced skincare," said Alan Gourdie, CEO of The Tiny Cargo Company.

"Tiny Cargo's growth reflects exactly what the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute was built to do," said Dr. Michael Friedlander, Executive Director at FBRI. "We create a space for discovery and innovation that allows researchers to move promising ideas out of the lab and into the marketplace. Seeing a company scale its operations here in Roanoke is a powerful example of research turning into real-world impact."