Redbud Labs, Inc.

Redbud Labs, Inc., a for-profit microfluidic chip manufacturer based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, operates as a prime recipient on federal research grants and research contracts, with no subcontractor footprint. The company competes exclusively under small-business set-asides, anchored by Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Redbud Labs designs and manufactures microfluidic automation platforms for nucleic acid extraction, amplification, and library preparation workflows, with applications in infectious disease surveillance, clinical genomic sequencing, and diagnostic testing. The company's core products include the NAXTRACT platform—an automated, cartridge-based sample preparation system for low-resource and field-forward environments—and REDBUD NA1, an ultra-compact nucleic acid extraction platform designed for disease surveillance requiring qPCR and sequencing. Recent prime work includes a $1.8 million Small Business set-aside SBIR Phase I contract awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in September 2023 to implement extraction compatibility with whole blood and tissue lysates, with ultimate completion in September 2025; a $956 thousand grant from NIAID in July 2026 supporting transfer of REDBUD NA1 into manufacturing under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) with completion through June 2029; and a $45 thousand grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September 2026 under the Protecting and Improving Health Globally program (CFDA 93.318) to develop an automated sample-to-sequencer-ready system for extensively and multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis detection through September 2027.

Customer concentration is heavily skewed toward biomedical research agencies. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences together account for 18 of 22 named awards (88% of award count), with NIAID capturing $1.8 million in combined potential value. The National Science Foundation and the CDC round out active relationships; the source shows 25 total awards spanning 2012 to October 2026, with activity notably sparse in 2023 (one award) and showing a recent uptick in 2026 (two awards). Four awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing moderate recompete exposure. The vendor operates exclusively as a prime on federal grants and contracts with zero subcontractor engagement, controlling all delivery internally. Across SCI-reportable service contracts in FY2023–FY2024, Redbud Labs invoiced $1.2 million in combined federal revenue with 3.0 FTEs in FY2024 and 0.8 FTEs in FY2023; median government-paid hourly rates on these contracts ran around $143/hr, with senior labor pricing through $151/hr. The SCI dataset captures only a partial view of the vendor's federal activity and excludes goods, research products, and micro-purchases, which form the majority of Redbud Labs' federal footprint as an SBIR recipient.