Despite a general slowdown in Venture Capital checks being written, the first quarter of 2024 still saw plenty of big tech headlines. In the Southeast, these are the headlines that caught our attention in January, February, and March:
TOP SOUTHEAST VC STORIES
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Fearless Fund, the Atlanta-based venture firm focused on Black women entrepreneurs, was back in federal appeals court in February. The fund is fighting a case trying to shut down the organization’s efforts to support Black women business owners and entrepreneurs. Lawyers for the firm, run by co-founders Ayana Parsons and Arian Simone, fielded questions in a Miami courthouse Wednesday about their grant program. The American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) claims their programs are discriminatory because they focus on supporting minority women.
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Atlanta-based Fulcrum Equity Partners set out to raise $300 to $350 million for its Fund V. But it turns out that a lot of new and returning investors wanted into the limited partner (LP) pool…and Fulcrum announced it closed the round at an impressive $372 million in March. We got the details on the new fund from Fulcrum’s partner Philip Lewis.
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InvestTN started deploying capital from its new $70 million fund. The first check went into Personality Pool, an HRTech startup that is flipping the script on how people land job interviews. Since then, InvestTN has gone on to invest in twelve startups across The Volunteer State.
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Long-time Principal at Tech Square Ventures Scott Lopano was promoted to Partner of the early-stage VC firm based out of Atlanta.
TOP STARTUP STORIES
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Atlanta-based SaaS startup LeaseQuery officially rebranded as FinQuery. The new name more accurately represents where the venture-backed company is moving next.
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From her home base in Tampa, Celeste Grupman is ready to change the way we learn the most in-demand skills. Grupman was recently named the CEO of Dataquest, a California-based EdTech company providing project-based courses in AI and data science skills. She is stepping up after serving as the startup’s Director of Operations since 2018.
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AI continued to be a driving theme in the start of 2024, with startups across different industries looking to find ways to leverage the technology. For CareYaya, a North Carolina-based HealthTech startup, that means using AI to create personalized art projects for those in elder care.
ECOSYSTEM STORIES
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ICBA (Independent Community Bankers of America) opened its new Center for Innovation in Midtown Atlanta in February. This will house the organization’s growing fintech and payments accelerator programs.
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Atlanta’s Office of Technology & Innovation, spearheaded by Sr. Tech Advisor Donnie Beamer, rolled out an aggressive vision to turn Atlanta into a Top 5 Tech Hub in the United States
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Late last year Atlanta Ventures, the team behind the nationally-recognized startup hub Atlanta Tech Village, announced it has purchased a large portion of the South Downtown neighborhood previously owned by German real estate developer Newport. Over the course of the last three months, the team has been bringing the new startup hub and coworking in the area, Atlanta Tech Village – Mason’s, online. More on the vision for the project here.
