RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Every week, the exclusive WRAL TechWire Triangle Startup Guide is updated. Here are some of the latest updates and additions through December 4. These weekly updates are part of our Startup Monday lineup.
The latest:
Here’s startup financing news from Wolfpack Investor Network and Harbright Ventures:
The Wolfpack Investor Network has partnered with Cary-based Harbright Ventures
The Durham Success Summit recently opened applications for the Summit Scholars and Founder programs. The Summit Founders program to the “Accelerators/Mentorship Programs” section, as it relates to local entrepreneurs.
Hosted by the Durham Success Summit, the Summit Founders Program is a free, six-month incubator that offers training, mentoring and seed funding for businesses founded by Black men ages 16 to 24. Groups meet weekly in person and gain access to the Success Network, an online networking community. Separate from the Founders Summit, the Durham Success Summit also hosts a three-month Summit Scholars Program for professionals to improve their networking and leadership skills.
Previous update:
Duke Angel Network recently changed its name to Duke Capital Partners. The current listing on the “Venture Capital & Angel Groups” page has been modified to include the new name, along with some new information about general investment and portfolio statistics. The updated list is below:
Duke Capital Partners (formerly known as the Duke Angel Network) funds startups led by students and faculty, as long as the businesses have a founder, executive/board member or major investor who is a student, alum, employee or parent. The group invests in early-stage companies, with average contributions ranging from $500,000 to $2 million. As of November 2022, Duke Capital Partners’ portfolio has more than 40 companies that have gone on to raise more than $900 million.
Due to the opening of the NC Department of Commerce’s latest round of One NC applications, I have updated the “One North Carolina Small Business Program” list to include more information about reimbursements, such as even the number of recipients (more than 340 companies) 2022. I also added the new logo. The updated list is below:
Administered by the North Carolina Department of Commerce, this state program offers grant-matching to NC-based startups that receive Phase I awards from Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) federal programs. It also reimburses businesses for a portion of the costs of preparing and submitting SBIR or STTR proposals. Since 2006, One NC grants have supported more than 340 companies (by November 2022). Read more TechWire coverage here.
Recently, Allstacks announced it closed a $12.3 million fundraising round, NC IDEA announced five individual winners of its annual awards, and the Greensboro-based fractional jet ownership company revealed that it has raised $16 million in new funding.
Dismissal: Fractional ownership firm Jet It takes off with $16M in new funding
Week of Oct. 24:
Recent updates include the addition of 2ndF to the VC section and angel groups.
2ndF: With a focus on bringing inclusive development in the Triangle to the national stage, 2ndF aims to establish minority education programs, drive further development in the technology sector, and invest in early stage startups at angel and venture level. The organization was founded in 2022 by Raleigh entrepreneur Bill Spruill, co-founder of the now released Global Data Consortium. Read more TechWire coverage here.
We’ve also added NC TECH’s latest Tech Innovation Index report:
Through its Tech Innovation Index, the North Carolina Technology Association (NC TECH) provides a detailed snapshot of how the state’s metro areas compare to other top regions across the country. Launched in December 2021, the annual report measures tech innovation in three categories: tech talent supply, tech talent demand and innovation. The latest edition ranked two Triangle hubs—Durham-Chapel Hill and Raleigh-Cary—in the top 10 metro areas. Find the 2022 report here and more TechWire coverage here.
Durham, Raleigh crack top 10 meters of new tech innovation study
October 10 updates
We added the “Startup Hubs” feature last week to the “Inspiration, Advice and More Resources” section:
Recently, we made two new additions:
The Equity Raise Podcast: Produced by American Underground and hosted by entrepreneur Naya Fela Powell, the Equity Raise Podcast features various startup founders sharing their experiences, how they overcame obstacles, the lessons that they learned along the way and much more.
Coworker and daycare? Yes – that’s what makes Blush Cowork in Cary so unique
From previous updates:
Bull City Summit Podcast: Bull City Summit launches in 2022 as a multi-day festival to connect entrepreneurs, musicians, artists and creatives in the region. As an extension of the event, the Bull City Summit podcast features interviews with local and national entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors and more.
And here’s a look at the new hub listings added recently in Chapel Hill and Pittsboro:
blurb: This coworking space opens in summer 2022 near UNC-Chapel Hill’s east campus and US Highway 15/501. It features private offices for small teams, network memberships for hybrid workers and virtual addresses for businesses and individuals. The space is owned and operated by Industrious, a New York-based coworking company that first expanded to the Triangle in 2015.
picture (attached below)
Caption/photo credit: hardworking
Title: 79°West Innovation Hub
address: 367 Freedom Pkwy Suite 130, Pittsboro, NC 27312
blurb: The 79°West Innovation Hub opened in August 2022 to provide office suites, conference rooms, coworking and programming for Chatham County’s growing entrepreneurial community. The space is located within MOSAIC, a 44-acre mixed-use development in Chatham Park.
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79 West Innovation Hub
Other new additions:
A look at what the Innovate Carolina hub will offer: Sheryl Waddell, UNC’s director of economic development and innovation hubs, offers a preview of the upcoming coworking space that aims to anchor the campus in thriving innovation district in Downtown Chapel Hill.
Bunker Labs, a national organization focused on veteran entrepreneurship, launched the Veterans in Residence program in 2019 to provide space, services, mentorship and community resources to help veterans and military spouses in build and develop their businesses. The six-month program runs through WeWork’s nationwide network of coworking spaces, which includes Charlotte and Raleigh/Durham. North Carolina is generally well-represented in Veterans in Residence cohorts, with 18 local entrepreneurs participating in the latest round (class 2022-B).
More: Watch this video from Bunker Labs:
Updates from Sept. 5
Top: Sarah Glova’s latest startup hub feature about Frontier RTP;
More recent updates:
SixThirty Ventures has been added to the “VC & Angel Groups” section:
SixThirty Ventures invests in early-stage startups across the fintech, insurtech, privacy and digital health markets. The St. Louis-based venture capital firm has more than 75 startups and a dozen exits in its portfolio. In August 2022, the company opened an operation in the Triangle led by Joe Darcy, a former principal at Durham-based IDEA Fund Partners.
Here are the latest additions:
More in the “Competitions, Grants and Other Funding” section: Administered by Duke University’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE)the annual Fred Morgan Kirby Prize for Scaling Social Impact provides $100,000 in unrestricted funds to nonprofit and for-profit organizations working on social impact projects. The program launched in 2020 with support from the FM Kirby Foundation, a fund endowed by five-and-dime store entrepreneur Fred Morgan Kirby. The award targets businesses that can present strong evidence of their impact over the past three years, along with a plan to scale up over the next three to five years.
There is also a dedicated listing for The Wright Village in the “Incubators & Coworking Spaces” section of the Triangle Startup Guide – just scroll the map to find it in Raleigh. All other profile topics are also listed in this section, including Loading Dock, Raleigh Founded, First Flight Venture Centetr, American Underground – with more to come.
A LOT OF CHANGES
Changes have been made to the section with competitions, grants and other funding sources. Summaries and relevant news/related items follow:
The Launch Space recently announced its Big Launch Challenge event will return this fall. On its website, the organization added an updated total for the amount of money awarded in the competition: $174,000 to 16 companies.
Here is the updated version: The annual Big Launch Challenge is an opportunity for startups to offer $15,000 in prize money, as well as additional capital opportunities. The event was hosted by The Launch Site, an investor based in Danville, Virginia. The organization has expanded its presence in the Triangle market with an office in RTP and several local startups in its portfolio. In nearly a decade of hosting the competition, The Launch Place has awarded $174,000 to 16 companies (by 2022). Winners often attract later investments from The Launch Place, as well.
Hospitality: The 2022 Big Launch Challenge will be held on Nov. 17 in RTP. The application deadline is October 3. Here are the calendar listings:
Cleantech Cluster
There is a new list for the Research Triangle Cleantech Cluster’s annual Cleantech Innovation Awards. The RTCC is now accepting nominations for this year’s program, which is scheduled for November. (Links to dates and calendar below.) Here’s a blurb guide to getting started: the Research Triangle Cleantech ClusterThe annual Cleantech Innovation Awards launched in 2019 to celebrate the top individuals, organizations and projects driving the Triangle’s clean energy technology sector. The award categories cover areas such as entrepreneurship, research, equity and diversity, talent development, and impact on transportation, energy, water and local government.
Hospitality: The 2022 Cleantech Innovation Awards will be held on Nov. 9 in Cary. The submission deadline is Sept. 9. Here are the calendar listings:
