SSR - November 17, 2023

Written By Claire Tilmont

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I know we are all thinking about Native Americans. You thought I would say turkey didn’t you? Regardless of your gluttonous inclinations, I have good news from the South to share. Nashville-based Relevance Ventures, one of the only Native American owned and operated VC firms, has partnered with Sante Fe-based Skoden Ventures to launch the first Native American Capital and Investment Alliance (NACIA), designed to bridge the gap between Native American founders and providers of equity and debt capital. With over $115M under management, Relevance Ventures is dedicated to “delivering larger capital infusions to opportunities that make people well by bringing balance to imbalances in life, the body, and society, delivering above-market returns to its investors, giving Native people and underprivileged groups a louder voice, and doing so with urgency and conviction to change the world in which we live for the better and for all.” Now that’s a great mission statement! Happy Thanksgiving friends!


Louisiana

Thank you to Anthony Mcauley at NOLA.com for drawing attention to the massively frustrating delay in releasing $113M in federal SSBCI funding to Louisiana businesses. Despite securing the funding more than a year ago, LED has only approved one $287K equity investment and $4.7M in loans. Boot64 is the only VC fund in the state that has successfully invested in early-stage startups using SSBCI dollars. To correct the article, Boot64 has already selected its first six investments and funded the first three.
 
Now for better news. Hot off the press today, Inclusively, a remote startup with a co-founder and other employees based in New Orleans, just announced that it raised $13M in Series A funding led by Firework Ventures with participation from Benson Capital. According to Chaffe & Associates M&A report, local startup MobileQubes was successfully acquired by Fuze Technology out of Los Angeles for an undisclosed amount. MobileQubes is an early pioneer in portable charger vending solutions.

In ESO news, New Orleans BioInnovation Center in conjunction with Xavier University is receiving $495K in grant funding from JPMorgan Chase & Co. The investment will be used to launch the Advancing Diversity in Life-Sciences Entrepreneurship project, aimed at increasing access to capital for underrepresented founders in the biosciences industry. The US Economic Development Administration awarded LSU a $600K grant to boost technology entrepreneurship through the Baton Rouge Initiative for Development, Growth and Entrepreneurship (BRIDGE) program. BRIDGE provides startups with technical support and mentorship. LSU will match the grant funding, so the BRIDGE program will receive $1.2M in total over three years. Apply here to be one of 30 participating startups chosen this year. Also in Baton Rouge, b1Bank Foundation opened a small business center designed to boost economic development and entrepreneurship for “common everyday blue collar business.” The b1 Foundation launched just 2 years ago and has helped more than 400 small businesses with counseling, financial education, and more than $22M in capital. Last, but not least, congratulations to H20 Halo for taking home the top prize at the Privateer Pitch held by StartupUNO.


Alabama

Southern Research has several exciting developments to announce this week. First, the Birmingham entity received a $748K Build to Scale grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce to catalyze innovation and fuel economic growth. Innovate Alabama also awarded the group close to $3M in tax credits for a new Therapeutics Development Fund at Station 41, Southern Research’s biotech commercialization hub. The fund is projected to create 139 biotech jobs, support almost 700 other jobs, and create $9M in economic impact. Innovate Alabama announced the inaugural designees of the Innovate Alabama Network, a comprehensive resource to connect communities, nonprofits, and higher education institutions across Alabama. More than $9.3M will flow to 51 designees to drive innovation, encourage collaboration, and provide seed funding. Applications for the second round funding are open through January 5, 2024. In more economic development news, Mobile is gaining a new gBETA Gulf Coast Accelerator at Innovation Portal. In partnership with gener8tor, the accelerator will focus on growing trends towards automation and data exchange in the manufacturing industry and advanced manufacturing.


Arkansas

The U.S. Department of Commerce granted nearly $3M to BioVentures at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to support entrepreneurs from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds who are looking to develop health technology and health care businesses. UAMS is providing $750K in matching funds, bringing total funding to $3.75M. The first Agri Food Innovation Summit took place Nov. 2-3 in Fayetteville. More than 200 participants from industry, government, and academia convened to discuss innovation in the agriculture and food industry. Coming up... mark your calendar for the first-ever Conductor Holiday Market on Small Business Saturday, November 25 at the Arnold Innovation Center in Downtown Conway.


Florida

Forward Therapeutics, an 18-month-old Palm Beach-based biopharmaceutical company, raised $50M in Series A funding led by BVF Partners with participation from other life sciences investors RA Capital Management and OrbiMed. Forward Therapeutics is dedicated to advancing the treatment of chronic inflammatory disorders via a pipeline of novel, next-gen small molecule immune therapies. Miami-based CAST AI closed a $35M Series B funding round led by Vintage Investment Partners alongside existing investors Creandum and Uncorrelated Ventures. The investment, closely following a $20M round in March, brings CAST AI’s total raised funds to $73M. Its platform helps companies optimize cloud spending.

Georgia

M&A news has been relatively quiet over the last year, but Atlanta has seen some activity lately. Last week Makeswift, an Atlanta-based website startup, was acquired by BigCommerce Holdings (NasdaqGM:BIGC) for $9M. This week, Punchlist, a SaaS startup that graduated from Techstars Atlanta in 2021, was acquired by Atlanta-based digital marketing agency Marketwake. The no-code, Grammarly-style platform allows collaborators across teams and organizations to provide visual, streamlined, and real-time feedback. Since its founding in 2018, Punchlist raised over $2M in venture capital, with its largest seed round coming from lead investor Overline VC in 2021. In ESO news, the Technology Association of Georgia held its first Invest Connect Pitch Competition as part of its Bridge Builders Initiative last week in Buckhead. Congratulations to Untapped Solutions for taking home the $5K prize and to Lavni for winning the $10K top prize.

Mississippi

The Accelerate Conference in Jackson was a big success! On Wednesday, 9 startups participating in the 2023 Cobuilders Program pitched to a packed room at the MS Museum of Art. Each received an investment of $22,500. On Thursday, around 400 innovation and entrepreneurial stakeholders from around the state and region gathered for breakout sessions, keynote presentations, and networking. The event’s Innovation Alley featured 23 exhibitors, an AI experience lab, a VR experience booth, a live podcast, and much more.

 North Carolina

At the conclusion of the 2023 Ecosystem Summit last week, NC IDEA announced awards totaling $300K to 6 North Carolina startups. Read about the recipients here. In Chapel Hill, TrueBridge Capital is raising a new $150M investment fund. According to SEC filings, the fund has already secured $125M from 50 investors. Fresh off a $2M fund raise, higher ed firm Element451 will acquire Enrollify, a media resource for the higher ed industry. Founded in 2019, Enrollify offers podcasts, e-courses, and other assets to support education marketers and admissions professionals. In Wilmington, Apiture, a leading provider of digital banking solutions, announced a $10M fundraising round, which brings the total funding raised by Apiture to $79M since its inception in 2017. Apiture delivers digital banking solutions by integrating with best-of-breed fintechs.

Tennessee

Launch Tennessee released its Q3 TN Deal Report. Deal volume dropped by 30% QoQ, but funding increased by 38% QoQ. Read about the top notable deals and trends here. In Franklin, Kythera Labs raised $20M in funding led by BIP Ventures and CIBC. Kythera Labs enables healthcare and life sciences organizations to integrate, access, and analyze healthcare data with scale and speed using the Wayfinder data science platform. In Nashville, Ingenious.Build raised $37M in Series A funding for its real estate project management software. The round was led by Morpheus Ventures and Navitas Capital. Finally, a warm welcome to Community Equity Partners, a new TN angel investment group. Drawing from Nashville and Knoxville investors, CEP is described as an angel investment group focused on the best science and technology startups in the region.


Recent Rounds

Charlotte, NC / Javara - $9.4M

Franklin, TN / Kythera Labs - $20M

Miami, FL / Cast.AI - $35M Series B

Miami, FL / Aesthetic Partners - N/A

Miami, FL / Gemini Sports Analytics - $3.25M Seed

Nashville, TN / Ingenious.Build - $37M Series A

Palm Beach, FL / Forward Therapeutics - $50M Series A

RTP, NC / Basking Biosciences - $27.5M

Sarasota, FL / Parkview Dental - N/A

Wilmington, NC / Apiture -$10M

 
Events Calendar

Pitch Deck Competition & Accelerator Application Deadline

Open/ Rolling Applications:

Claire Tilmont
Previous

SSR - December 1, 2023