A start-up company with connections to Fresno State just received heavy investment to aid in its work of increasing access to fresh water at a lower cost.

Valley Ventures, an accelerator program of the Water, Energy, and Technology Center (WET Center) at Fresno State, helped raise $6 million in new funding for Membrion Inc., a Seattle company that creates membranes out of silica gel materials to allow for a higher-performing desalination process that can purify pharmaceuticals, wastewater and other types of liquids.

With the new funding, Membrion will be moving its headquarters to Interbay, Washington.

“With this funding, we’re thrilled to move from the lab commercial production, develop a new manufacturing facility and ramp up production for customers,” said Greg Newbloom, CEO of Membrion.

The investors providing the $6 million are from outside the area.

The company completed the Valley Ventures Accelerator program in late 2019 and since then, Membrion has streamlined efforts on focusing and perfecting the “electrodialysis reversal” desalination process.

Newbloom said the company’s membranes are lowering the costs of membrane filtration by 30 percent.

“We are grateful for the help we received while being in the Valley Ventures Accelerator program,” said Newbloom. “The information and assistance we gained throughout the program, as well as the support given by the WET Center even after, allowed us to not only streamline this technology, but grow our company as a whole.”