Startup, funding, and innovation news from Virginia

Members of the Charlottesville Angel Network, which marked its 10-year anniversary in April, have invested more than $20 million in nearly 80 startups. The group of accredited investors supports early-stage ventures and has realized returns from several successful exits, including from Palvella Therapeutics, a company developing therapies for rare genetic skin diseases that merged with Pieris Pharmaceuticals in December 2024. Early investors realized returns of up to 20 times, while investors in later funding rounds have had returns averaging about 8 times. The network also invested in Dive Technologies, an autonomous underwater vehicle company acquired by Anduril Industries in February 2022. Its combined investments resulted in a return of approximately 6 times. (News release)

Alexandria data management startup pgEdge announced in mid-March it had raised another $4 million from four investors, including Massachusetts-based cloud computing giant Akamai Technologies and London investment management firm Qube Research & Technologies. The new funding brings the 3-year-old startup’s total raise from a seed round that previously closed in August 2024 to $14 million and total lifetime funding to $23 million. Co-founded by local entrepreneur Phillip Merrick, the startup has an open-source software platform that can improve the speed and efficiency of websites and applications. (DC Inno)

Richmond National Group and its affiliates raised $55 million in an oversubscribed equity capital raise. Based in Glen Allen, the holding company for Richmond National Insurance — a specialty excess and surplus lines insurance company that focuses on small and mid-sized businesses — announced the raise had closed in late March. Richmond National raised the common equity capital from existing shareholders, including HF Capital, Bonhill Capital, WT Holdings and employees, bringing its total common equity capital raised since its founding in 2021 to more than $210 million. (News release)

Runtime Ventures, a new venture capital firm based in Arlington and Austin, Texas, launched a debut fund of $32 million to invest in early-stage cybersecurity startups, it announced in early April. Co-founded by managing partners Michael Sutton and David Endler, the firm plans to make 32 investments over the next three years, ranging from $250,000 to $2 million per investment, Sutton said. Runtime Ventures has already made 11 investments. Sutton and Endler met in 2001 while working at Reston-based iDefense Security Intelligence Services, which VeriSign acquired for $40 million in 2001. (DC Inno; News release)

Verge, a collective of organizations dedicated to tech-based economic development in the Roanoke and New River valleys, announced March 18 a rebrand, an effort that includes a new website, logo and a new name: the Roanoke Blacksburg Innovation Alliance (RBIA). Previously, Verge, which has roots dating back to 2013, used “Roanoke Blacksburg Innovation Alliance” as its tagline. Organizations under the RBIA umbrella include Regional Accelerator and Mentoring Program (RAMP), a public/private business accelerator serving startups in STEM-H fields; RBTC, a member association of technology professionals, businesses and organizations; and CommonWealth Angels, a Roanoke-based private capital investment organization. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Where Ya Bin, an Ohio-based chain of stores that resell Amazon returns, opened its first Richmond-area location on March 14. The 18,000-square-foot store is located in the Quioccasin Station Shopping Center in Henrico County. Products are stocked for each Friday, with prices starting at $14 on Fridays and lowering throughout the week. On Thursdays, prices drop to 25 cents, and once bins are emptied, they’re restocked with fresh products to restart the cycle on the following Friday morning. Founded in 2022, Where Ya Bin has eight locations nationwide. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)