Shane Bivens, one of the co-founders of ArcticRX, poses with an ArcticRX shipping container. The company’s containers can maintain an internal temperature for 27 days with no external power. Photo by City of Fishers.

News Release

FISHERS — ArcticRX, a Fishers-based startup, has begun producing coolers that keep medical material like vaccines cool.

Founded by entrepreneurs Shane Bivens and Stuart Lowry, ArcticRX began when the pair worked on multi-compartment refrigeration systems. When COVID-19 struck, their original project was put on ice, but Bivens and Lowry soon realized their misfortune also revealed an opportunity.

The two found out refrigerated shipments are often lost in transit due to delays — which can be a problem for temperature-sensitive items, especially items relying on an outside power source.

ArcticRX, Bivens and Lowry’s response to this issue, acts as a dishwasher-sized cooler that keeps its contents insulated for about a month. Instead of power, ArcticRX uses water ice, dry ice or gel packs. This simplicity allows organizations to integrate the product into existing supply chains.

Though the company started in Indianapolis and moved to Anderson, the pair chose Fishers because of its quality of life and its Indiana Internet of Things Lab. The lab, a space for startups such as ArcticRX, gave the team support to develop the tech over a number of years.

“I’ve lived in a lot of places,” said Bivens. “Places like the IoT Lab don’t exist anywhere else. That’s why we knew we had to set up shop in Fishers.”

While the company has just begun producing its containers, ArcticRX has a soft goal of 100 made in its first year. Its target markets are shipments of vital data such as cell biopsies and petri dishes.

To learn more, go to ArcticRX’s website.