2025 Small Manufacturer of the Year
Award Winner
Making Ordinary Surfaces Extraordinary since 2016
There have been 1M published papers, 200k granted patents, and more than $1B in research expenditures related to nanomaterials. With applications in fields like cancer treatments, solar energy, and advanced building materials, the use of nanomaterials should be as ubiquitous as plastic. While these applications work well in the lab, less than 500 products have been manufactured at the commercial scale.
Swift Coat is unlocking the potential of nanomaterials with its proprietary spray coating technology, Aerosol Impact Driven Assembly (AIDA). AIDA is a flexible, scalable, and precise method for integrating nanomaterials into large-area and high-volume manufacturing processes that will serve as a platform to transition a half-century of R&D on nanomaterials into commercial products.
Our Impact
Emerging Technologies
Solar Energy
Swift Coat’s AIDA process produces coatings with unique structures and compositions that increase the efficiency of solar modules by helping them stay cleaner and cooler.
Space Solutions
Swift Coat’s coatings help spacecraft components perform better and last longer in demanding environments: maximizing the power of solar arrays, protecting sensitive materials from atomic oxygen degradation, and enabling next-generation spacesuit technology.
Peter Firth
Co-Founder, CEO
Firth is the co-founder and the CEO of Swift Coat and one of the inventors of its coating technology. Firth was an Arizona State University Dean’s and ARCS Fellow in the Holman Research Group. Before joining Holman’s research group, Firth spent four years as an applications engineer for Trion Technology. During his time at Trion, Firth designed, built, and automated plasma etch and deposition tools for the semiconductor industry, many of which are on the production lines at companies such as Intel, Microchip, and Global Foundries. Firth founded Swift Coat after winning $150k from pitch competitions (including a 4th place finish at the Rice Business Plan Competition) and led the effort raising the company’s seed round.
Zachary Holman
Co-Founder, CTO
Holman is a co-founder and the CTO of Swift Coat, and he is one of the inventors of its coating technology. He is also a Professor and Vice Dean within ASU’s Fulton Schools of Engineering. Holman has previous experience with technology commercialization, having successfully completed I-Corps customer-discovery programs and started three companies. He was the key player in securing Swift Coat’s first paid contracts and is the primary customer-facing technical representative of the company.
Watch Us On Elevator Pitch
In 2021, Swift Coat gained national recognition on Entrepreneur Media’s hit television series, Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch.
Selected to present its business before a panel of experienced investors, Swift Coat successfully demonstrated the value of its coating solutions, earning an investment of $50,000.
The pitch offers a firsthand look at the innovation and expertise behind Swift Coat’s coating solutions.