Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

From the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:

GrepBeat casts its spotlight on a start-up founded by a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumnus. It’s named Roam, and it is the first online platform that “unifies social discovery and seamless shopping across every brand.”

Roam was founded by Cole Vita, a Chapel Hill graduate with a B.S. in Computer Science and a minor in Data Science, who didn’t always care much about personal style. His nature was just to wear whatever was in front of him.

“My mom would find me an Abercrombie T-shirt and buy me one in five different colors,” Vita told GrepBeat. “And I’d say, ‘sounds good, cool, I’m rocking this for the rest of my life,’ and I think that’s because I didn’t know what I liked.”

There are two key aspects Roam prioritizes.

1. The first is discovery, with an emphasis on social curation that addresses the difficulty many face when they aren’t initially certain of their style preferences. Vita noted that this uncertainty is partially responsible for online clothing sites having a 70 percent cart abandonment rate.
2. The other key focus is personalization, which Vita recognized is difficult to bring about when a user’s data is “fragmented” across multiple platforms. To solve for this, Roam serves as a single destination for users to curate their preferences without navigating back and forth between company sites.

The platform utilizes artificial intelligence-powered algorithms to recognize a given user’s style across multiple brands they may browse, and uses that data to inform what might best complement that user’s wardrobe. It can group items into broader categories (like business casual, sporty, etc.) or more specific bundles according to the user’s style.

Click here to read the full article in GrepBeat.

From the University of South Florida:

The University of South Florida (USF) has achieved a new milestone in research funding, reaching a record $750 million during fiscal year 2025 – an $11.6 million increase over last year and a 37 percent jump since 2022.

The growth in funding expands opportunities for the university to address critical challenges – discovering breakthroughs and creating new technologies that lead to better health care, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity solutions, a deeper understanding of the environment to prepare for hurricanes, and much more.

“The University of South Florida is committed to solving real-world challenges, and our record research funding – bringing us closer to our goal of $1 billion in funding by 2030 – provides more opportunities for our faculty, staff and students to turn bold ideas into innovation and impact,” USF President Rhea Law said. “Our world-class researchers remain at the forefront of discoveries that are improving lives and shaping a better future for our region, state, and nation.”

USF received research funding from a wide range of sources with an all-time high $284 million from 733 private and industry partners – a 17 percent increase over last year. Among the notable corporate investments, the USF Institute of Applied Engineering partnered with astrophysics start-up company Rhea Space Activity, headquartered in Washington, DC, to provide flight safety qualification testing services for a sensor designed to fly in space.

From Lakeland, FL:

The Center for Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship (CFEE) at Florida Southern College has been named the 2025 Outstanding Emerging Entrepreneurship Center by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC), recognizing its innovative programs and rapid growth.

CFEE received this prestigious recognition in acknowledgment of its novel and impactful programming under the leadership of Executive Director Justin Heacock. Through his vision and commitment, the CFEE has significantly expanded its reach and influence. In addition, the CFEE’s Seed-to-Scale Program was ranked #1 as the largest incubation program in the state of Florida in 2025.

“We won this award because we’re reimagining entrepreneurial education at scale for the first time. With over 400 students, or 11 percent of the student body, in our Seed-to-Scale Program, our Center is the most efficient entrepreneurship center globally,” said Heacock. “My hope is that this award allows Florida Southern to be an industry leader in entrepreneurship and show other schools that entrepreneurship can and should impact more students than just 1 percent of a campus body.”

Since the launch of the incubation initiative, which includes a partnership with Kanu, an entrepreneurial learning platform, the program has grown from 30 to over 420 students in just nine months. Kanu enhances the program by offering experiential micro-learning content and venture creation tools, expanding access to entrepreneurship education.

From Greenville, SC:

Greenville’s newest slate of founders had their moment in the spotlight recently at the GVL Starts Venture Showcase, with three finalists each winning a $5,000 start-up grant from Furman University’s Hill Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

GVL Starts is a nine-week program that takes entrepreneurs’ ideas and supports their development with training, connections, and access to the capital needed to successfully launch. It’s a bridge between Furman and Greenville’s robust business community, and since 2021 has helped support the launch and growth of more than 100 ventures.

The three winners of $5,000 start-up grantw were:

1. Karly Cunningham pitched Good Dogs of Greenville, a mobile app where users can explore dog-friendly businesses and attractions in Greenville.
2. Jared Arter, Founder of HOWDY!, who stitched together his own custom handmade bag business and is teaching classes on how to make crossbody and tote bags.
3. Oratia’s Chad Hensel offers workplaces a way to onboard new employees through AI role-play to train the team on customer profiles, products, services, and more.

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