STARTVIRGINIA: HEARD AROUND VIRGINIA December 2023

A consortium of Hampton Roads startup business programs, 757 ScaleUp Alliance, received a $1.2 million federal grant to promote job growth in emerging industries. The U.S. Department of Commerce awarded the grant as part of $53 million in funding through its Build to Scale program, which aims to provide financial resources to entrepreneurs and startups. Norfolk-based 757 Collab plans to work other area startup programs, including Innovate Hampton Roads, Black Brand and the Hampton Roads Small Business Development Center, under the new umbrella organization 757 Scaleup Alliance. The grant, to be matched by $1.2 million in local funds, will help 757 Collabfund programming for 30 founders in industries like health care, advanced manufacturing, clean energy, logistics and robotics. (The Virginian-Pilot)

Qnovia, a Richmond startup focused on smoking cessation technology, has entered a drug-development partnership with the University of  Virginia to advance new inhaled-drug candidates for treating bacterial infections of the lungs. Under the collaboration agreement, U.Va. School of Medicine doctors will combine Qnovia’s RespiRX drug-delivery platform with the university’s proprietary portfolio of antimicrobial peptides to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria. RespiRx is a handheld aerosol medical device that delivers drugs quickly. Its first aim was to deliver nicotine to help people quit smoking, but this deal expands its application. Qnovia said the deal adds two assets to its development pipeline: QN-05 for the treatment of pneumonia and QN-06 for the treatment of pulmonary infection for individuals exposed to the causative agent in anthrax. (Richmond Inno)

On Nov. 6, Arlington County health-tech company Surescripts announced it has acquired Minneapolis-based analytics startup ActiveRadar in a deal Surescripts says adds an important dimension to its electronic prescription service for health systems and pharmacies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Surescripts facilitates the sharing of health information to improve care and cut down costs. Surescripts counts about 700 employees across three offices in Arlington, Oregon and North Carolina. (DC Inno)

Charlottesville’s Vali Cyber announced Sept. 26 it had raised $15 million in seed funding to expand its operations. The round was led by Arlington’s Grotech Ventures and Pittsburgh’s 412 Venture Fund and included participation from Pittsburgh’s Riverfront Ventures, Tampa’s Florida Funders and other unnamed strategic investors. Founded in 2020, Vali Cyber is focused on cybersecurity related to Linux operating systems. It offers a security platform called ZeroLock that provides a lockdown capability, threat detection and automated recovery features while consuming fewer resources than other Linux security tools. (Richmond Inno)

Arlington-based VerticalApps, which uses automation technologies such as artificial intelligence to streamline how federal agencies operate, has been acquired by a Vienna-based government contractor. Effective Nov. 1, VerticalApps became a wholly owned subsidiary of MindPetal. The companies say they will accelerate the modernization of federal agencies through the use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive analytics and data science. Founded in 2010, the startup develops software and data management solutions and specializes in intelligent automation, which applies automation technologies to making decisions and predictions and analyzing data. (ARL Now)

New York-based food delivery company Wonder Group has gotten a cash infusion from Nestlé, which has its U.S. headquarters in Arlington County, as the startup looks to sell high-tech kitchen equipment and prepared ingredients to businesses such as hotels, hospitals and sports arenas. The deal includes a $100 million investment from Nestlé, along with a strategic partnership, according to sources familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because financial terms of the deal are not public. The startup, which was valued at about $3.5 billion when it closed a $350 million funding round in June, was founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneur and former Walmart e-commerce chief Marc Lore. (CNBC)