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)