Sign In
Free Newsletter
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, […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 [...]
StartVirginia: Heard Around Virginia August 2024
Blacksburg is moving forward with the renovation of a former dry-cleaning business into a retail business incubator. Slated to open by the end of 2025, the Blacksburg Retail Incubator is planned at 414 N. Main St., a 5,000-square-foot building owned by the town. After the building has been improved, Downtown Blacksburg Inc. will locate there […]
Fairfax tech firm Antithesis exits stealth mode with $47M
It‘s appropriate that Vienna software startup Antithesis is housed in the former headquarters of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus’ parent company. After all, Antithesis emerged from stealth mode in February to announce it had raised a Jumbo-sized $47 million in seed funding. Founded in 2018, Antithesis is an AI-powered cloud platform for autonomously […]
Briggman leaving post as CEO of Activation Capital
Chandra Briggman is leaving her position as president and CEO of Activation Capital, the Richmond tech incubator announced Monday. Her last day is Friday. Briggman joined Activation Capital, an accelerator arm of the Virginia Biotechnology Research Partnership Authority, in May 2020; the organization includes a biotech park, startup development and cluster accelerator for pharmaceutical research [[...]
VIPC partners with VC funds to invest $100 million in 100 startups
The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. is partnering with seven venture capital fund managers to invest $100 million in 100 Virginia-based startups. Through the partnership, announced May 20 by Gov. Glenn Youngkin and named Virginia Invests, VIPC will commit $40 million to the seven funds using previously awarded funding from the U.S. Treasury Department’s State Small […]
StartVirginia: Heard Around Virginia July 2024
Auterion, a software maker for computing platforms that support drones and autonomous robotics systems, has relocated its headquarters to Arlington County from Moorpark, California, as it seeks to be closer to its defense-related customers. The company already had some of its 112 employees based in the Washington, D.C., metro area for several years, but Auterion’s […]
McLean AI health care startup raises $111 million
A McLean-based health care tech startup wants to provide more targeted medical treatments for people with cancer, heart disease and other common diseases. Zephyr AI, founded in 2020, is a precision medicine company on a mission to democratize personalized medicine and is doing it by developing artificial intelligence-powered algorithms that can glean insights from health […]
StartVirginia: Heard Around Virginia
Bricklayer AI announced a pre-seed investment of $2.5 million to advance product development of its autonomous AI security analyst solution on May 2. The pre-seed round had participation from Sovereign’s Capital; Dreamit Ventures; Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp.‘s Virginia Venture Partners fund; BlueWing Ventures; and Blu Ventures, as well as cybersecurity industry leaders[...]
From salutes to startups
When Navy veteran Leland Remias was preparing to launch his Newport News real estate startup, VroomBrick, he looked for every resource possible to help him learn about business and scaling up. First, he completed an MBA from William & Mary in May. And in 2022, he participated in the Veteran Startup Challenge, a five-week intensive […]
