StartVirginia: Heard Around Virginia – February 2025 edition

Crystal City venture capital firm America’s Frontier Fund is among the nation’s first
VC firms to secure approval for up to $175 million in matching capital under the Small Business Investment Company Critical Technology Initiative, a federal program aimed at boosting investment in tech areas vital to national security. This funding for 2-year-old AFF, whose backers include former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, is expected to double its capacity to support startups doing work in areas like advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, semiconductors and other technologies geared toward defense and national security. (DC Inno)

Arlington County-based Ask Sage, a generative AI platform for government and commercial sectors, announced in December 2024 that it raised $17 million in a Series A funding round. The investment was led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from Mucker Capital. Ask Sage intends to use the funds to expand its generative AI offerings, accelerate growth and strategically expand its workforce. The company’s platform is used by more than 30,000 Department of Defense service members and 14,000 government teams. (News release)

On Jan. 9, Bluesight, an Alexandria-based provider of inventory management, procurement and compliance solutions for health systems and hospital pharmacies, announced the acquisition of Baltimore-based health care compliance analytics platform provider Protenus for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition is aimed at strengthening Bluesight’s drug diversion platform and adding patient privacy monitoring capabilities to better protect health care organizations. Robert W. Baird & Co. served as financial adviser to Protenus. Kirkland & Ellis served as legal counsel for Thoma Bravo and Bluesight and DLA Piper served as legal counsel for Protenus. (News release)

Qnovia, a Richmond pharmaceutical startup developing a smoking cessation medicine delivered via a proprietary inhaler, announced in December 2024 that it raised $16 million in Series B funding. The financing was led by Blue Ledge Capital, Evolution VC Partners, Vice Ventures and Gaingels. In October, Qnovia announced it had received investigational new drug clearance for its prescription nicotine inhaler from the Food and Drug Administration. Since its inception, Qnovia has raised $50 million to advance its inhaled drug delivery platform, the RespiRx. (News release)

Silent Push, a Reston cybersecurity startup, has raised $10 million to support its international expansion. Ten Eleven Ventures, a California-based venture capital firm, and New York financial services firm Stepstone Group LP co-led the Series A round. It brings the company’s total outside investment to $22 million since its founding in 2020 by CEO Ken Bagnall and CTO John Jensen. Silent Push emerged from stealth in June 2023 with a $10 million seed round. The startup, which counts half the Fortune 30 clients among its clients, produces software that scours the internet to map the infrastructure bad actors use to create ransomware attacks, helping to prevent the attacks from happening. (DC Inno)

PEOPLE

Iron Path Capital, a private equity firm with dual headquarters in Charlottesville and Nashville, Tennessee, tapped Ian Thomas as managing director overseeing business development in December 2024. Thomas comes to Iron Path from Aliri Capital, a Richmond private equity firm focused on lower-middle-market industrial businesses. Thomas was a founding partner of Aliri, which launched in 2023. He is based in Richmond, according to his LinkedIn profile. (Richmond Inno)