StartVirginia: Heard around Virginia

Activation Capital, a Richmond-based innovation incubator, will redevelop a 102,000-square-foot innovation center in the Bio+Tech Park in downtown Richmond. The 34-acre Bio+Tech Park is a commercial life sciences hub adjacent to VCU Medical Center and has more than 70 companies, research institutes and state/federal laboratories on its campus. Announced June 2, the $53 million center will feature about 35,000 square feet of class lab and creative office space. Another 45,000 square feet will be dedicated to an incubator operated by Activation Capital and will have shared labs, private offices and community gathering spaces. The new building is expected to be completed in late 2025. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Charlottesville-based Luminoah won over the judges and claimed the people’s choice award at Lighthouse Labs’ Demo Day pitch competition, held May 23 in Richmond. The company is behind a mobile feeding tube device that collects data. It was one of eight companies to compete; each had just completed Lighthouse Labs’ accelerator program. Luminoah founder and CEO Neal Piper started the company after his son was diagnosed with cancer. The treatment required him to be fed through a tube and to be constrained by a medical pole and a pump. Luminoah was awarded $1,000 for winning the people’s choice award and $2,000 for winning over the judges. (Richmond Inno)

Alexandria-based fintech venture capital firm QED Investors raised $925 million for two new funds, the company announced May 23. The funding comes from two capital commitments: a $650 million oversubscribed early-stage fund and a $275 million early-growth stage fund. The funds will allow the firm to continue to invest in disruptive fintech companies in the U.S., the U.K., Europe, Latin America, India, Southeast Asia and Africa. QED is a key investor in San Francisco-based personal finance company Credit Karma and Brazilian banking company Nubank. With the two new funds, QED will have more than $4 billion under management. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The River District Association awarded $52,000 in RDA IGNITE Pitch Grants — money to expand or open new brick-and-mortar businesses in Danville’s River District — to two new businesses and one existing one, RDA announced May 22. Five businesses made pitches in April following completion of RDA’s Dream Launch Bootcamp. The three winners were: River District Auto Spa, owned by Von Wellington, which received $15,000 to expand on-site services; Rae Barnes snagged $11,000 for 2 Earthy Mamas; and Amy Pruitt was awarded $28,000 for The Happy Little Fox Toy Shop. Movement Bank attended the pitch competition and awarded two $1,000 grants to Wellington and Barnes. (Danville Register & Bee)

Blacksburg-based Rendyr Inc. received the inaugural Hart of Entrepreneurship Award during the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council’s May 18 TechNite awards. Founded and led by Virginia Tech alum Martin Angst, the startup is developing a portable laser cutter that improves access to rapid prototyping and digital fabrication. The new award is named for Bonz Hart, a local entrepreneur who served as RBTC’s first tech entrepreneur president. (News release)

Rosslyn-based Shift5 Inc. raised $33 million in an extension of its Series B that initially closed in February of last year. That funding tranche of roughly $50 million came just four months after Shift5 raised $20 million in a Series A round in October 2021. The latest raise brings the company’s lifetime funding to $108 million. Moore Strategic Ventures in New York led the extension; Booz Allen Hamilton Ventures, the venture capital arm of McLean-based Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp., also took part, as did Teamworthy Ventures and JetBlue Ventures. Shift5, whose software protects transportation and military systems from cyberattacks, in April announced a partnership with JetBlue Airways to develop systems for commercial airlines. (Washington Business Journal)