Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

From Knoxville and Oak Ridge:

Two deadlines are looming in a little more than a week. There’s the November 29 deadline for those interested in the “Techstars Industries of the Future Accelerator.” Then, the next day is the deadline for the 2024 cohort of the “Innovation Crossroads” program operated by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

From Cookeville:

The winners of the “Start Here Pitch Competition” have been announced. They are:

• 1^st Place and $10,000: Harmacy Hot Sauce;
• 2^nd Place and $5,000: Building Shooters Technology LLC;
• 3^rd Place and $2,500: Digid Inc.;
• Crowd Favorite: Harmacy Hot Sauce; and
• Honorable Mention: Red Oak Roasters and Happy Healthy Organic.

The event was organized by The Biz Foundry in partnership with Home Caregivers and the TN Center for Rural Innovation at Tennessee Tech University

From Across the State:

The curtain will come down on the latest Scipreneur Challenge from the BioTN Foundation in a pitch event on November 30 from 6 to 8 p.m. CST. The 10-week entrepreneurship education program uses real intellectual property (IP) from Tennessee-based research and academic institutions to foster commercialization. The program encourages participants from university students to learn how to create a viable business based on unused IP.

There will be in-person options for attendance in Memphis and Nashville and virtual options for others. More information can be found here.

From Knoxville:

Allosense Inc., a member of Cohort 2 of the “Techstars Industries of the Future Accelerator,” has crossed the $1 million fundraising mark, thanks to a commitment from the City of San Antonio and the SAMMI fund. In an email update, Roman Sandoval, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, reported that the start-up recently “engaged with numerous innovative clients in the electric vehicle and defense-technology sectors. We have successfully entered into several partnerships, boasting a robust pipeline of prospective companies ($55 million deal pipeline).” As noted in this spotlight in teknovation.biz, Allosense, which was launched in 2020, is an Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) company that makes next-generation sensors and measurement solutions for electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing and equipment monitoring.

From Chattanooga:

The American Public Power Association (APPA) has named EPB a Smart Energy Provider (SEP) for demonstrating a commitment to and proficiency in energy efficiency, distributed generation, and environmental initiatives that support the goal of providing safe, reliable, low-cost, and sustainable electric service. It’s the third time EPB earned SEP designation, achieving its highest score to date: 94 out of 100. The utility also scored 100 points in two categories: Communication and Customer Education and Environmental and Sustainability. The SEP designation, which lasts for two years (December 1, 2023 to November 30, 2025), recognized 90 public power utilities for demonstrating leading practices in four key disciplines: smart energy program structure; energy efficiency and distributed energy resources programs; environmental and sustainability initiatives; and customer experience.

From Nashville:

• The final session in the Launch Tennessee and Pinnacle Financial Partners “Capital Conversations” series will occur from 4 to 6 p.m. CST on November 30 at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. Launch Tennessee’s Chief Investment Officer Eller Kelliher and Pinnacle Financial Partners’ Senior Vice President Kevin Roddey will offer advice and answer questions. To register, click here.
• Ingenious.Build, a technology company specializing in project management software for real estate development and construction, raised $37 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Morpheus Ventures and Navitas Capital alongside Koch Real Estate Investments, with participation from American Family Ventures, JLL Spark Global Ventures and Crow Holdings. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its growth trajectory focusing on advancing product features, further expanding market reach and enhancing client support infrastructure.

From Memphis:

Dr. Colleen Jonsson, Director of the Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL) at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) in Memphis, has been awarded $11.9 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to expand and improve the RBL infrastructure. Dr. Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Biochemistry and RBL’s Assistant Director, is a co-investigator on the award which will fund the creation of three new cores (centralized, shared resources that provide access to advanced instruments and specialized services to scientific and clinical investigators) in the RBL. These cores will enhance RBL management and operations, and facilitate medical countermeasure research for biodefense, emerging infectious diseases, and pandemic preparedness and response.

The funding will go toward:

• A Facilities Core, which will integrate preventive maintenance of mechanical and vivarium infrastructure and scientific/biosafety equipment necessary for biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) and animal biosafety level 3 (ABSL-3) containment.
• A Biological Safety Level (BSL)-3 Practices Core, which will integrate the management of operations and training for BSL-3 pathogens, some of which are select agents. This core will promote communication and harmonize compliance, security, individual competency, and practices across RBL staff and users.
• A Biocontainment Research Support Service Core, which will facilitate and advance research under the umbrella of the “Antiviral & Antimicrobial Countermeasures Discovery and Development Core.” This core is unique in the RBL network in its focus on providing liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry studies for infected, treated animal tissues in BSL-3 and providing drug pharmacodynamics.

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