StartVirginia: Nov. 2022 Heard around Virginia

Virginia Tech’s Apex Center for Entrepreneurs has received a $500,000 donation from Apex Systems co-founder Win Sheridan. A 1994 Tech graduate, Sheridan made the donation to help the Apex Center engage with student entrepreneurs through programming, networking and funding. Launched in 2014, the Apex Center is named in recognition of a $5 million commitment from Sheridan and fellow Virginia Tech alumni and Apex co-founders Brian Callaghan, Ted Hanson and Jeff Veatch. Based in Glen Allen, Apex Systems is a subsidiary of Henrico County Fortune 1000 information technology company ASGN Inc., which acquired Apex in 2012. Sheridan is now a director of ASGN Inc., and together it and Apex form one of the nation’s largest IT staffing services. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Bricks & Minifigs, an aftermarket, Lego-licensed retailer that will buy, sell and trade Lego sets, is coming to Henrico County. Husband-and-wife team Paul and Carrie Indelicato plan to open the 2,500-square-foot shop in December near West Broad Street and Cox Road. The brand opened its original store in 2010 as the first Lego reseller in the country. It has since expanded to include 51 stores across the U.S. and Canada. The Henrico location will be one of Virginia’s first two franchises; the company’s website does not say where in the state the other location will be. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Enabled Intelligence Inc. is investing $1.4 million to expand its Falls Church headquarters, adding 117 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Sept. 21. The company provides data-labeling services to enable artificial intelligence operations. Its expansion will add more than 10,000 square feet of classified and unclassified office space to its location at 6400 Arlington Blvd. Founded in 2020, Enabled Intelligence works with multiple forms of data including satellite imagery, radar, text, speech, audio and video. The company creates training and testing data sets and builds AI technologies for defense, intelligence, law enforcement and other federal government missions including classified programs. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Rivus Pharmaceuticals Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in Charlottesville and focused on cardiometabolic health, recently completed a $132 million Series B financing round. The funding was led by Boston’s RA Capital Management with participation from Boston’s Bain Capital Life Sciences, Switzerland’s BB Biotech AG and existing investors Longitude Capital of Menlo Park, California, as well as Medicxi and RxCapital, both based in the U.K. The new investment brings Rivus’ lifetime funding to $167 million, according to Crunchbase. (Richmond Inno)

PEOPLE

Winchester-based Passage, a platform for creating and connecting metaverse experiences, announced Caleb Applegate as its CEO Sept. 28. Applegate will oversee the company’s go-to-market strategy, build strategic partnerships and define its product roadmap with support from new Passage Chief of Staff Bryana Kortendick. Applegate most recently served as chief operating officer of nonfungible token platform Enjin. He was also co-owner of Mineplex, a Minecraft gaming server, and moonlights as a filmmaker. Kortendick also joins from Enjin, where she served as vice president of operations and communications. (Passage news release)

Rosslyn-based Shift5, an operational technology data and cybersecurity company for planes, trains and tanks, named Robert Sison as the company’s first chief financial officer in early October. Sison held the same role at California-based BigPanda Inc. and helped that company grow to more than $1 billion in market capitalization. He’s also worked as vice president for finance for Washington-based Tanium Inc. and at California-based Electronic Arts, where he worked his way up to vice president of investor relations. In February, Shift5 said it raised $50 million in a Series B Funding round, which followed a $20 million
Series A round in fall 2021.
(Shift5 news release; ARL Now)