Heard Around Virginia, July 2025

Richmond accelerator Lighthouse Labs announced in May it’s expanding its services and rebranding itself as Lighthouse Network. Since its founding in 2012, Lighthouse has supported 149 companies, raised over $350 million in capital, helped founders raise an average of $1.8 million each and created over 1,500 jobs. The accelerator’s 11-week program, which provides founders with support from mentors, industry experts and investors, and free office space, will shift to one cohort a year instead of two as part of the change. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

LNC Partners, an Arlington County-based private equity firm investing in professional services companies, announced in May that it closed on its third fund, with $325 million in total commitments. The fund, LNC Partners III, will operate as a licensed small business investment company. “The Fund was oversubscribed and received strong support from both existing and new investors, including a diverse group of financial institutions, fund of funds, university endowments, family offices and high-net-worth individuals,” LNC Partners said. “With the closing of Fund III, LNC Partners has now managed over $1 billion of capital across six investment funds since its founding in 2012.” (Potomac Tech Wire)

Meibel, a startup founded in 2024 that’s developing tools to help companies adopt artificial intelligence technology across enterprises, is moving into its first office space in Tysons after raising $7 million from investors. CEO and co-founder Kevin McGrath said the company will start with about 10 people at a built-out 3,000-square-foot office, which has room to expand, at 7925 Jones Branch Drive. The seed round was led by San Francisco’s Mosaic General Partnership and included participation from Array Ventures, Cofounders Capital, Service Provider Capital and Denver Ventures. (DC Inno)

Nooks, a Crystal City-based provider of classified workspaces, said in June that it had raised $25 million in its first round of funding. Participants included Zigg Capital, Upper90, SAIC and Lockheed Martin. The company, which operates in Arlington County, Colorado Springs, and El Segundo, California, focuses on creating secure and affordable access to classified facilities for government agencies, contractors and entrepreneurs.
(Potomac Tech Wire)

Tysons startup pWin.ai, which developed an AI proposals writing tool, has raised $10 million in a seed funding round. MicroStrategy co-founder Sanju Bansal, members of the Blue Delta Capital Partners team and “other government contracting industry leaders” led the round, according to a June news release. The startup developed its generative AI tool in partnership with Shipley Associates, a business development training and consulting company based in Utah. pWin.ai said in a news release its product can improve win rates by up to 20%. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Shenandoah Community Capital Fund (SCCF) and the Shenandoah Valley Technology Council (SVTC) announced in June the two organizations would merge in a partnership, joining under the SCCF banner to expand “our shared commitment to building a thriving, inclusive, and innovative entrepreneurial ecosystem, while furthering the mission to support established innovators throughout the Shenandoah Valley.” Founded in 2008 and based in Staunton, SCCF is a nonprofit regional hub for entrepreneurial innovation, dedicated to helping entrepreneurs start, sustain, and grow valley businesses. SVTC was established in 1996 and supports the regional technology ecosystem. (News release)

SpecterOps, an Alexandria-based provider of adversary-focused cybersecurity solutions with targeted insights of advanced threat actor tradecraft, announced in March it had raised a $75 million Series B funding round led by global software investor Insight Partners, with participation from Ansa Capital, M12, Ballistic Ventures, Decibel and Cisco Investments. The funding will support SpecterOps’ rapid scaling of BloodHound Enterprise (BHE), a platform for comprehensively removing identity-based attack paths. (News release)