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Heard Around Virginia: December 2024

Fixify, an Arlington County-based AI-powered IT help desk solution provider founded in 2023, announced Oct. 23 that it has closed on a $25 million Series A funding round co-led by Costanoa Ventures, Decibel Partners and Paladin Capital Group with participation from Scale Venture Partners. The funds will be used to scale its workforce and accelerate product development. Fixify also announced that Mourad Yesayan, Managing Director at Paladin Capital Group, will be joining Fixify’s board to provide strategic counsel on AI and cybersecurity. (News release)

Richmond-based employee benefits startup Fringe has raised a little more than $6 million in new equity funding, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The com-pany recorded its first sale in the venture round on Sept. 9 and a total of nine investors participated, according to the filing. Led by CEO Jordan Peace, who co-founded it in 2018, Fringe has now raised a total of $27 million to date, according to Crunchbase, including a $17 million funding round in 2022 led by Chicago’s Origin Ventures and Charlottesville’s Felton Group. (Richmond Inno)

Lingo, an Arlington edtech startup founded in 2020 by rocket scientist and astronaut Aisha Bowe, has raised $2.3 million in a seed round of funding, which included participation by D.C.-based 1863 Ventures. Pinnacle Private Ventures also participated in the round, which the company will use to expand its hands-on, project-based coding kits and curriculum for kids in fields such as artificial intelligence, space systems and environmental monitoring. Lingo’s programs are implemented by partners such as General Dynamics Information Technology, Siemens Healthineers, Leidos and Howard University. (Potomac Tech Wire)

Interos, an Arlington tech firm that helps companies monitor and respond to supply chain threats, has obtained $40 million in new funding to expand product capabilities following several executive leadership appointments. The growth capital investment from Blue Owl Capital, a New York alternative investment asset management firm, brings Interos’ total outside funding to about $175 million, according to Crunchbase. Other investors that have backed the tech unicorn previously include Menlo Park, California, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, San Francisco venture capital firm NightDragon and New York investment firm Venrock. (DC Inno)

Qnovia, a Richmond startup focused on smoking cessation technology, has received investigational new drug clearance from the Food and Drug Administration for its nicotine inhaler product. The five-person company, led by CEO Brian Quigley, developed the RespiRx nicotine inhaler to get nicotine into patients’ systems quicker than established offerings like patches and lozenges. Last year, it received positive results in its first round of human trials. The new clearance gets the company into clinical trials in the U.S., and it’s preparing a phase 1 study in the months ahead. (Richmond Inno)

Ashburn-based RiPSIM Technologies, makers of a software platform for generating and delivering mobile network authentication credentials on demand, in late October announced raising $5 million in a seed funding round, led by cybersecurity-focused Ten Eleven Ventures. This investment will fuel the expansion of RiPSIM’s eSIM-as-a-Service management platform, a solution modernizing the eSIM generation and delivery process. Using RiPSIM’s platform, carriers and network operators gain custody and control over the entire credentialing process, so they can more securely authenticate subscribers to their networks on demand. (News release)

STARTVIRGINIA: HEARD AROUND VIRGINIA

Afton Scientific, a manufacturer of sterile injectable pharmaceuticals, plans to invest over $200 million to expand its manufacturing facility in Albemarle County, creating more than 200 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Oct. 2. In January, Arlington Capital Partners, a private investment firm specializing in government regulated industries and closing gaps in sectors like health care, announced it had made a majority investment in Afton Scientific, which was founded in Charlottesville in 1991. At its facility at Avon Court, Afton Scientific offers a range of services including sterile manufacturing, packaging and labeling, analytical and micro lab and pharmaceutical support services. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

AgroSpheres, a Charlottesville biotech developing targeted, nontoxic crop-protection products, has closed a $37 million Series B round. The funding was led by Swiss VC firm Zebra Impact Ventures and included participation from St. Louis-based Lewis and Clark AgriFood; Rye, New York’s Ospraie Ag Science Ventures; Philadelphia’s FMC Ventures; as well as Bidra Ventures and Cavallo Ventures, both of San Francisco. Founded in 2016, AgroSpheres plans to use the new funding to support product development, invest in biomanufacturing facilities and expand into new markets. The company’s key product is its AgriCell platform, which utilizes encapsulated biomolecules as an alternative to pesticides. (Richmond Inno)

Herndon-based geospatial intelligence company BlackSky Technology received total gross proceeds of approximately $46 million from the Sept. 26 closing of its previously announced underwritten public offering of 10 million shares of its Class A common stock at $4 per share. In addition, on Sept. 27, the underwriters fully exercised their option to purchase an additional 1.5 million shares of common stock. Oppenheimer & Co. and Lake Street Capital Markets acted as joint book-running managers for the offering. Founded in 2014, BlackSky provides real-time high-frequency imagery, analytics, and high-frequency monitoring from its low Earth orbit satellite constellation. (News release)

Dandelion Energy has raised $40 million in fresh funding for the national rollout of its geothermal systems that heat and cool single-family homes and multifamily housing. The new funding brings Dandelion’s total outside investment to more than $130 million since its founding by President Kathy Hannun in 2017. It also comes following the relocation of Dandelion’s headquarters from Mount Kisco, New York, to Arlington County in September. Google Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of Alphabet Inc., led the Series C round. (DC Inno)

Optimum Technologies is preparing to double its workforce to about 100 people over the next two years as it expands into more space near its Sterling headquarters to keep up with demand. The satellite maker and space flight hardware design and analysis provider signed a 10-year lease to take on 5,300 square feet in the building next to its 5,700-square-foot satellite manufacturing site on Carpenter Drive, both of which are owned by Potomac Development Group. Founded in 2015, Optimum has seen strong demand for its satellites from the Space Development Agency, which is launching more low Earth orbit satellite networks to strengthen U.S. space-based warfare capabilities. (DC Inno)

Plenty Unlimited, which started as a student project at the University of Wyoming a decade ago, held a grand opening Sept. 24 for the world’s first indoor vertical berry farm in Chesterfield County. The California-based company selected Chesterfield for its first East Coast facility and massive-scale berry farm in 2022, investing $300 million in the Meadowville Technology Park space. The farm will grow around 4 million pounds of Driscoll’s strawberries a year in a roughly 40,000-square-foot space, all on 30-foot-tall towers. The berry farm should bring around 60 jobs to Chesterfield initially, and ultimately more than 300. (Axios Richmond)

Defense tech startups close major funding rounds

Venture capital firms are betting big on two Northern Virginia-based defense contracting startups that are promising high-tech solutions to military challenges. In August, McLean-based Defcon AI announced it had raised $44 million in seed funding led by San Francisco investment firm Bessemer Venture Partners. The same month, Parry Labs in Alexandria raised $80 million in its first institutional funding round, led by Capitol Meridian Partners.

That both are headquartered in NoVa should come as no surprise, says Defcon AI CEO Yisroel Brumer, a quantum physicist who spent 15 years at the Pentagon before becoming a founding partner of Defcon AI’s parent tech incubator, Red Cell Partners. “The quality of senior leaders in the area is outstanding,” he says. 

Red Cell launched Defcon AI in 2022 to address the Department of Defense’s need to field operational artificial intelligence at scale to maintain advantages on the battlefield. Defcon’s first product is Artiv, an operational mission planner for contested logistics environments.

“There is a challenge integrating real operational defense expertise with real revolutionary software engineering. There’s a lot of organizations that have one of those two things. Very few organizations have both of them,” Brumer says. “And that’s what Defcon was really stood up to do: to bring in four-star generals, operators, people who deeply understand defense operations and the kind of revolutionary software engineering you see in Silicon Valley and create a culture where the two could talk to each other, which is actually the hard part and where the pain is.”

Meanwhile, Parry Labs was co-founded in 2015 by defense sector veteran-turned-entrepreneur John “JD” Parkes, who previously worked as airborne mission lead in the DOD’s Office of Strategic Capabilities.

“We wanted to make integrating and installing and implementing new software and systems on military applications significantly cheaper and faster. Today we call that or call ourselves a digital system integrator,” Parkes says. “What we’re focused on is delivering zero-trust cybersecurity environments over-the-air updates, really good standardization of data, and then easy accessibility to these environments for mission and safety critical environments.” 

The two companies are contributing to a record-breaking year in which defense tech startups in the U.S. raised $2.5 billion by August, according to data from Crunchbase.com. That figure surpasses the 2023 total of $2.1 billion and is on track to surpass 2022’s record high of $2.6 billion.

SEC, Hampton managing partner of BFM Fund settle charges

The Securities and Exchange Commission settled charges in early October against a Hampton-based managing partner of The BFM Fund and a limited liability company for allegedly breaching their fiduciary duties and misleading investors.

Himalaya Rao-Potlapally of Hampton is a managing partner of Portland, Oregon-based BFM Fund, a seed-stage private venture capital fund focused on founders who are Black, Indigenous and people of color. It was founded in September 2020 as the Black Founders Matter Fund I.

“Traditional venture capital … [is] a pretty small, closed system,” Rao-Potlapally told Virginia Business in May. “It’s really difficult for different types of founders to be able to access capital when there’s not a broader understanding of different lived experiences that then shape how different people articulate problems, think about solutions, all of that.”

Rao-Potlapally is the sole member and manager of LDP Partners, an unregistered investment adviser organized in May 2021 in Oregon but with its primary place of business in Hampton. Since July 2022, LDP Partners has managed one client, BFM Fund I, according to the SEC.

The SEC’s Oct. 7 order alleged that LDP Partners and Rao-Potlapally willfully violated anti-fraud provisions of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. It issued cease-and-desist orders and censures to LDP Partners and Rao-Potlapally and ordered Rao-Potlapally to pay a $10,000 civil penalty. The company and Rao-Potlapally agreed to the cease-and-desist orders and sanctions without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings.

As of August, the BFM Fund had sold about $4.6 million worth of securities to 53 investors in multiple states, according to the SEC order.

The BFM Fund is one of seven venture capital fund managers that the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. is partnering with to invest $100 million in 100 Virginia-based startups. Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced the partnership, Virginia Invests, in May.

In its order, the SEC alleged LDP Partners and Rao-Potlapally breached their fiduciary duties to the BFM Fund and misled the fund’s investors in three ways:

First, in March 2023, according to the SEC order, LDP Partners and Rao-Potlapally, without notifying all BFM Fund investors, allegedly transferred $600,000 in cash out of the BFM Fund bank account to three different non-BFM bank accounts, including a personal checking account Rao-Potlapally shared with her spouse.

The investment adviser and Rao-Potlapally initiated the transfers after telling the BFM Fund’s advisory committee about concerns that the BFM Fund’s bank account would not be fully protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., according to the SEC order. In April 2023, a representative from the bank told LDP Partners and Rao-Potlapally that the funds could be returned to the BFM bank account and be fully protected by FDIC insurance, according to the SEC. In August and September 2023, LDP Partners and Rao-Potlapally returned the money, according to the SEC order.

Second, the SEC alleged that in July 2023, LDP Partners and Rao-Potlapally misled BFM Fund investors by providing a financial statement that misrepresented the $600,000 as still in the fund’s control. In November 2023, they distributed a financial statement disclosing the March 2023 transfers.

Third, the SEC alleged, LDP Partners took approximately $55,000 total in improper advance management fees from the BFM Fund in February 2023 and September 2023.

LDP Partners and Rao-Potlapally received approval from BFM Fund advisory committee members to take the fees in advance rather than on a monthly basis, but the fund’s controlling documents did not allow that and the advisory committee wasn’t authorized to allow advance fees, the SEC stated in its order.

Rao-Potlapally could not be reached for comment.

Boones Mill store plays Trump card

The red, white and blue Trump Town sign hanging high upon a former Boones Mill church is as prominent as a sign can be without being lit by neon. But in case drivers passing through town somehow miss it, there’s also a 15-foot cutout of a smiling Donald J. Trump leaning up against the building, which once was home to Boones Mill Christian Church and, later, Freemasons before transforming in 2020 into a retail store packed with merchandise celebrating the 45th president.

It’s a spectacle so grand, locals bring their out-of-town friends and relatives, brags Trump Town owner Donald “Whitey” Taylor. On a Friday in August, Susan Whitaker of Rocky Mount and her friend Louie Carbaugh, who was visiting from California, came to marvel at the shop at U.S. 220 and Bethlehem Road. “I’ve never seen a Trump store around L.A.,” Carbaugh says. 

Boones Mill Town Manager B.T. Fitzpatrick doesn’t believe Trump Town has made a significant impact on tourism in the area. “It’s pretty much been the same, other than the fact that some people just come by just to see it,” he says.

However, there have been some complaints about the dozens of Trump signs found on the lawn of  Trump Town. Not long after the Trump-themed store opened, town officials sent Taylor a letter noting that he was violating the town’s sign ordinance.

“We have not taken any code enforcement action on [Taylor] because, and this is where it gets kind of complex, his signs are his merchandise,” explains Fitzpatrick. “So, if I make him take all his signs down and put them inside his building, then I have to go to all the other businesses that have outdoor merchandise and tell them to do the same thing.”

Taylor, 74, also owns Franklin County Speedway, where he built a reputation for boosting racing attendance by staging pig races, mud wrestling matches and wet T-shirt contests. To increase foot traffic at Trump Town, Taylor set up a pen outside the store for three donkeys (dubbed Kamala, Hillary and Pelosi) but later rehomed them after deciding the smell might drive away customers.

Even without burros, business is good, says Taylor, who won’t disclose revenue. “I’m eating really good out of this,” he says. “I eat steak, even though … [the price is] so high with Biden in office.” 

Trump Town’s four part-time employees have sold dozens of pairs of $199 gold Trump sneakers, but hats and flags remain the store’s bread-and-butter, notes Taylor, who says the store saw between 60 to 90 customers an hour immediately following the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump. 

A proud attendee of more than 50 Trump rallies, Taylor claims to have spoken with the former president on three occasions.

Trump, Taylor tells customers, sent his helicopter pilot to scope the store, but the U.S. Secret Service vetoed the visit. (Asked for comment, a Secret Service spokesperson states that the agency “has no record of a request for former President Trump to visit Boones Mill.”)

Regardless of the presidential election’s outcome, Taylor, who is currently running for mayor in Boones Mill, thinks demand for Make America Great Again ballcaps won’t be diminishing anytime soon.

“This store will still sell merchandise 20 years from now,” he says.  

StartVirginia: Heard Around Virginia October 2024

Fairfax County announced Sept. 13 that it has awarded eight companies grants as part of the second cohort of the Fairfax Founders Fund (FFF). The fund, which supports the growth of the county’s startup ecosystem, provides technical assistance and $50,000 grants to startups developing innovative technology solutions and demonstrating business growth opportunities. The second FFF cohort includes agriculture tech company KAPPA AgTech; software company Karambit.AI; biotech company Magna Labs; rechargeable battery developer NanoNiFe; data science firm Pluribus; IT services company NIOSolutions; plasmonics wireless communications company Saltenna; and ZipID, which produces Form I-9 compliance software. (News release)

Coworking company Gather Workspaces announced plans in September to open its Gather West End location in Henrico County’s Innsbrook area in Spring 2025. Gather’s first post-COVID addition will expand its footprint to eight locations statewide, with five in the Richmond area and three in Hampton Roads. Gather West End will occupy 19,452 square feet at 4101 Cox Road. Designed to accommodate more than 300 people, the location will feature 92 private offices of varying sizes, with amenities including a video recording and podcast room, eight conference rooms and a 30-person training room. (News release)

NeoSwap AI, a Richmond company that offers an AI-powered multiperson exchange marketplace for nonfungible tokens, is now called Tulle. The company said the rebrand is meant to reflect its sharpened focus on liquidity solutions for low-volume cryptocurrency markets like Solana and Bitcoin. Tulle operates a technology stack, called TulleKit, that combines intent capture, prediction models and advanced trade-finding algorithms to facilitate multiparty swaps. The company says its approach boosts trading volumes in low-liquidity environments, significantly improving market efficiency. Founded in March 2022, Tulle had raised more than $3 million in its pre-seed round as of early September. (Richmond Inno)

No Limbits, a Richmond adaptive clothing company led by CEO Erica Cole, has landed a $50,000 grant from Progressive Insurance to be used toward the purchase of a new commercial van for the business. The company was one of 20 small businesses from across the country to score grants from the Mayfield Village, Ohio, insurance giant through its Driving Small Business Forward program. No Limbits makes clothing for amputees and wheelchair users and has expanded to other garments for specific disabilities. (Richmond Inno)

The Regional Accelerator and Mentoring Program (RAMP) in Roanoke has accepted
nine startups into its fall RAMP cohort and inaugural On RAMP pre-accelerator program. The programs will run concurrently, with RAMP-in-Residence participants moving through 12 weeks of business acceleration and On-RAMP cohort developing early-stage businesses. RAMP-In-Residence cohort members are: Drivingo (Blacksburg); DentAI (Richmond); N-Factor (Blacksburg); and Portcullis Research (Blacksburg). On RAMP participants entrepreneurs are Rufus Pasley (Roanoke); Edward Gaines II of Eudaemonia.ai (Stafford); Amethyst Edmond (Roanoke); Douglas Pitzer of Stroke of Genius (Roanoke); and Toni Sperry of Pod Farms (Pulaski). (News release)

PEOPLE

Manassas aviation startup Electra.aero has named former Boeing executive B. Marc Allen its new CEO, succeeding founder John S. Langford, who will remain chairman of the Manassas-based aviation startup. Allen spent the bulk of his career, nearly two decades, at Boeing, which has been headquartered in Arlington County since 2022. Most recently, he served as the Fortune Global 500 aerospace and defense contractor’s chief strategy officer and senior vice president for strategy and corporate development. Founded by Langford in 2020, Electra has about 45 employees. Langford previously co-founded Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences. Electra conducted the first successful test flight of its prototype hybrid electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) commercial aircraft in November 2023. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

County grants boost early-stage entrepreneurs

As an early-stage startup founder, Ray Magee grew accustomed to hearing ‘no.’

In the eight years since he founded Centreville-based BloomCatch, a plant recognition app, Magee reckons he’s applied for seven or eight grants. So, when BloomCatch landed a $50,000 grant from Fairfax County in November 2023, he admits to some initial disbelief.

“I thought, ‘There’s no way,’” Magee recalls.

BloomCatch was among five early-stage technology startups to receive $50,000 grants in an inaugural round from the Fairfax-based Fairfax Founders Fund, which supports early-stage, high-growth startups based in the county.

The company is among a growing number of startups taking advantage of a variety of programs launched by Northern Virginia counties seeking to boost entrepreneurship, particularly among underrepresented founders.

Fairfax, already an established home for government contractors and tech companies, recognized a “need for there to be a stronger innovation ecosystem, a stronger support system and network for startup companies here,” says founders fund manager Eta Nahapetian.

Arlington County recognized a similar need to generate local activity, says Michael Stiefvater, Arlington Economic Development’s business investment group director.

Fairfax Founders Fund started with an initial $1 million allocation from the county and plans to announce its second cohort in coming weeks, with a third application round planned for early 2025.

The Arlington Innovation Fund, which focuses on early-stage tech companies, also received a $1 million initial infusion from its local government, $400,000 of which was distributed via the county’s Catalyst Grant program, which awards $25,000 to $50,000 grants to Arlington-based startups. A separate Arlington Innovation Fund program is devoted to building the tech ecosystem through programming and partnerships.

Arlington has announced two cohorts of Catalyst grantees — five companies in February and four in June. Applicants are vetted to ensure companies have completed business licensing requirements, customer discovery and more, and grantees are also reviewed along the way to see how they are faring.

Arlington and Fairfax will review their grant programs before deciding whether either will continue.

The Fairfax grant has helped BloomCatch blossom by providing funding for participating in trade shows, fine-tuning its app and adding four part-time staffers, including a salesperson. Since its founding, BloomCatch has raised about $480,000 and is on track to bring in six figures in annual revenue for the first time this year.

“We are growing,” Magee says.  

StartVirginia: Heard Around Virginia September 2024

Blue Delta Capital Partners, a Tysons-based venture capital firm, is preparing to make more equity investments in regional growth-stage tech firms serving the federal government following the close of a $250 million fund. The firm plans to offer noncontrolling ownership investments of between $15 million and $50 million from its Blue Delta Capital Fund IV. Blue Delta Capital boasts more than $665 million in assets under management across several funds it’s launched since its 2009 founding. General Partner Mark Frantz expects to cut two to three checks per year out of this fund and envisions having it fully deployed in the next three years. (DC Inno)

The CEO of Virginia’s technology authority, Chandra Briggman abruptly left Activation Capital in July amid an employment dispute, but state officials won’t discuss the cause for the dispute or how much she was paid to leave. A state delegate said members of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration were dissatisfied with her performance.  Activation Capital, a state authority, is charged with growing technology and entrepreneurism in the state. It also oversees the VA Bio+Tech Park, a 34-acre science and technology campus in downtown Richmond. Robert Ward, previously a senior adviser to Gov. Glenn Youngkin, was named Activation Capital’s interim leader. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

More than 10,000 high-growth and high-wage startup companies were created in Virginia during 2022 and 2023, according to research conducted by Richmond’s Chmura Economics & Analytics for the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. To be included, a company had to offer above-average wages for Virginia and had to have an above-average forecasted employment growth rate. Chmura found 10,337 such Virginia-based startups that launched in 2022 and 2023. Virginia ranked No. 8 in the country for highest venture capital investment activity during 2023 and was ranked 13th in 2022, according to data from the National Venture Capital Association. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Richmond-based travel insurance startup Faye said in July it had closed a $31 million Series B round that will be used toward hiring and scaling the company. The new funding was led by Toronto investment firm Portage and included participation from Melbourne VC firm Lumir Ventures. Existing investors F2 Venture Capital and Viola Ventures — both of Israel — and San Francisco’s Munich Re Ventures also participated. Faye, which launched its app for American travelers about two years ago, has raised $49 million since its founding in 2019. (Richmond Inno)

This year, 265 Virginia companies made the Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s 5,000 fastest-growing privately held companies, released in August by Inc. magazine. Ranking at No. 53 overall, Ashburn IT services firm Blu Omega, a woman-owned small business founded in 2020, was the highest-ranking Virginia company on the list. Two other Virginia companies ranked among the top 100 companies on the 2024 Inc. 5000: Fortreum, a Lansdowne cybersecurity and cloud firm founded in 2020, ranked No. 78; and Servos, a 5-year-old Richmond technology consulting company, ranked No. 99. It was all three companies’ first time on the list. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Now in its twelfth year, Lighthouse Labs has announced the seven companies selected to participate in its Batch 17 Accelerator program, which kicked off in August: Canopie (Falls Church, founder Anne Wanlund); EmpathixAI (Arlington County, co-founders Ashley Sherry and Jacob Tucker); Gateway (McLean, co-founders Mai Linh Ho and Hanh Linh Ho); Liquet (Glen Allen, founder John Schindler); Myles Comfort Foods (Fairfax, founder Myles Powell); Parrots (founder David Hojah); and VerbaAI (Great Falls, co-founders Aaraj Vij and Jeremy Swack). All companies receive $20,000 in equity-free funding, participate in weekly educational programming and receive mentorship. (RVAHub)

265 Va. companies make 2024 Inc. 5000 list

This year, 265 Virginia companies made the Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s 5,000 fastest-growing privately held companies, released Tuesday by Inc. magazine.

Ranking at No. 53 overall, Ashburn IT services firm Blu Omega, a woman-owned small business founded in 2020, was the highest-ranking Virginia company on the list. Blu Omega’s clients include federal agencies as well as small and medium-size businesses. This was the first year Blu Omega made the list. 

Two other Virginia companies ranked among the top 100 companies on the 2024 Inc. 5000 list: Fortreum, a Lansdowne firm providing cybersecurity and cloud assessment services, ranked No. 78; and Servos, a Richmond technology consulting company, ranked No. 99. This was the first year on the list for both companies. 

Last year, 275 Virginia companies made the list and Leesburg’s Goldschmitt and Associates, an information technology company, was Virginia’s top-ranked company, coming in at No. 34. Three other Virginia companies ranked within the top 100 in 2023. 

Virginia companies on the 2024 list had a median three-year growth rate of 194% and added a total of 32,868 jobs. Of the Virginia companies that made the list, 186 are repeat winners. 

North Carolina had 126 companies on the list, and Maryland had 116.

To apply to make the list, companies had to be privately held, for profit and not a subsidiary or division of another company. They also had to generate a minimum of $100,000 in revenue in 2020 and a minimum of $2 million in 2023. 

Companies from every state and Puerto Rico made the 2024 Inc. 5000. They range in size from one employee up to 262,079 employees and had made from about $2 million revenue in 2023 to $15.5 billion. Reston’s Carahsoft Technology made that whopping sum. The company, which provides IT services, ranked No. 4,650 on the list. It’s the 17th time Carahsoft has made the Inc. 5000. 

Ranked by three-year average growth, these are the top 25 Virginia companies on the 2024 Inc. 5000 list:

53) Blu Omega, 5,218%, IT services, Ashburn

78) Fortreum, 3,831%, IT services, Lansdowne

99) Servos, 3,249%, IT services, Richmond

119) Cynet Health, 2,848%, human resources, Sterling

123) National Consulting Partners, 2,797%, government services, Woodbridge

138) Black Canyon Consulting, 2,479%, IT services, Fairfax

145) KlariVis, 2,395%, software, Roanoke

202) Melone Hatley, 1,998%, legal, Virginia Beach

221) Agile Rebuilt, 1,825%, construction, Round Hill

232) Bespoke Technology, 1,765%, business products and services, Aldie

240) BarTrack, 1,704%, food and beverage, Ashburn

245) Piedmont Global Language Solutions, 1,667%, business products and services, Arlington

246) ThinkTek, 1,656%, government services, Fairfax

288) Andworx, 1,490%, software, Falls Church

294) Aalis Management Consulting, 1,439%, government services, Woodbridge

381) DNA Logistix Management, 1,156%, logistics and transportation, Ashburn

495) Zen Strategics, 892%, government services, Vienna

536) Summit Human Capital, 829%, business products and services, Richmond

589) OneZero Solutions, 771%, government services, Alexandria

591) Business GPS, 765%, business products and services, Warrenton

600) Solvere Technical Group, 754%, business products and services, Virginia Beach

607) Top Line Growth Partners, 749%, business products and services, Richmond

615) MovementX, 741%, health services, Alexandria

674) Integrated Management Strategies, 699%, business products and services, Vienna

680) Dedrone, 695%, security, Sterling

Youngkin: Va. spawned 10,000+ startups in 2022-23

More than 10,000 high-growth and high-wage startup companies were created in Virginia during 2022 and 2023, according to research conducted by Richmond’s Chmura Economics & Analytics for the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. 

On Thursday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced this achievement at an event at Zebox America, an Arlington County-based startup accelerator and innovation hub run by shipping giant CMA CGM Group. Representatives from Chmura and VIPC, a state-affiliated nonprofit that provides strategic commercialization and funding support to Virginia-based tech startups, were able to show the work behind that 10,000 startups number Friday afternoon. 

To be considered a startup by Chmura Economics analysts, a company had to offer above-average wages for Virginia and had to have an above-average forecasted employment growth rate. Using that criteria, the firm found 10,337 Virginia-based startup companies that launched in 2022 and 2023. 

“At the beginning of my administration, I pledged to reinvigorate job growth and foster an environment for 10,000 new startups in Virginia, and we’ve achieved it in record time,” Youngkin stated in a Thursday news release. In that release, the governor’s office claimed that the administration had “achieved this 10,000 new startup milestone faster than any previous Virginia governor’s administration in the last 15 years.”  

VIPC and Chmura Economics representatives provided a chart to Virginia Business listing the number of startups launched in Virginia in the first two years of the tenure of each Virginia governor since 2010. In 2010 and 2011 under Gov. Bob McDonnell, Virginia created 5,802 startup companies meeting the criteria. In 2014 and 2015 under Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Virginia created 6,684 startups. In 2018 and 2019, under Gov. Ralph Northam, 6,149 eligible startups were created. 

Creating 10,337 new startups in 2022 and 2023 is a rate 66% higher than the historical average of those figures, according to VIPC CEO Joe Benevento. 

VIPC plans to distribute more information about the research during the week of Aug. 5. 

For 2022 and 2023, nearly 500 more startups were created on average each quarter in Virginia than were created during the 2012-2021 quarterly average, according to VIPC and Chmura. 

“The other thing that was really nice to see from the data that Chmura crunched … was [that] this increase was really broad, based across all the regions of the commonwealth,” Benevento said. 

All regions of Virginia saw an increase in the average quarterly number of startups created in 2022 and 2023 over the average quarterly number of startups created during the 2012-2021 period, according to Chmura’s data. The average quarterly number of startups during these two years was an increase compared to the average quarterly number of startups created between 2012-2021, according to the data. 

GO Virginia, the state economic development initiative to foster job creation, divides the state into nine regions. Go Virginia Region 1 in Southwest Virginia saw the smallest increase, at 5%. Go Virginia Region 3 in Southern Virginia saw the greatest increase at 41%, according to the data provided by Chmura Economics. 

Youngkin also noted in Thursday’s release that Virginia ranked No. 8 in the country for highest venture capital investment activity during 2023 and was ranked 13th in 2022, according to data assembled by Chmura Economics from the National Venture Capital Association.  

“We’ve reached this incredible milestone by driving innovation, fostering entrepreneurship, bolstering our talent pipeline, providing needed tax relief and truly creating an environment where startups and businesses can thrive,” Youngkin stated Thursday. 

In May, VIPC announced a program called Virginia Invests, with VIPC partnering with seven venture capital fund managers to invest $100 million in 100 Virginia-based high-growth startups.

“VIPC’s most recent new statewide initiative for example, Virginia Invests, is going to attract and catalyze over $250 million of outside venture capital from private market investment partners that will be invested directly in Virginia startups and help support the next wave of 10,000 new startups in Virginia,” Benevento said in statement sent Friday. 

In July, Virginia ranked as CNBC’s Top State for Business, marking the record sixth time the business news network has rated Virginia No. 1 in the nation.