Investor Outlook | What emerging industries in Tennessee are catching the eye of investors this year?
This is the fourth story in our Investor Outlook series. This feature focuses on emerging technologies and innovation in legacy industry.
Since the inception of Teknovation in 2012, the publication has featured an annual investor outlook series in January to paint a picture of deal flow, investor appetites, and predictions for the upcoming year.
This week’s question operates as a launch point for candid conversation about which emerging industries are drawing attention in Tennessee.
Grady Vanderhoofven, Three Roots Capital
“We’re looking at companies where AI as a tool is enhancing the productivity and efficiency of a company in ways that maybe weren’t possible previously. But we’re also looking at healthcare innovation, logistics, and supply chain. We’re also looking at advanced manufacturing. Because of where we are, we’re paying attention to new nuclear. I think there’s a lot of energy right now in this region around nuclear, and so we’re looking at potential opportunities to deploy capital. Maybe it’s in the supply chain, or maybe it’s in other places of the nuclear industry.”
Eric Dobson, Community Equity Partners
“We’re paying close attention to women’s health –femtech, we’re watching artificial intelligence, of course. We still feel strongly that that’s a good market, if you’re smart about it. We’re watching aerospace, medical technologies, medical devices, and Web3. Those are our focus areas right now.”
Travis Monasco, Solas Bioventures
“I’m a neurocritical care doctor. I take care of these patients with stroke, with intracranial hemorrhage, and then with seizures. And I’m really excited about the progression of neuroscience and how that’s kind of becoming an exciting field of innovation. Of course, GLP-1s and weight loss innovations have been a big part of the conversation the past year. But, my team is very excited about healthcare AI and how you can use this kind of mountain of data we have to benefit the doctors and patients.”
Brandon Bruce, Market Square Ventures
“AI is quickly becoming table stakes, and at the same time, it’s transforming everything. And so it creates an opportunity, we think, for great founders who can execute to use that new tech and be disruptive in marketplaces, and we hope to be there to back them.”
Eller Kelliher, Invest Tennessee
“Going forward, advanced energy is one we’re watching. I think the state is focused on that. Between advanced energy and mobility, there are a lot of opportunities for us to invest. New industries that we’re excited about – and that I personallyam excited about are advanced energy, mobility and transportation, and then certainly great founding teams and founders that know how to leverage AI.”
Haley ‘Zap’ Zapolski, Lighthouse
“I love people building technology for construction and home services, manufacturing, and logistics. I think that those customers are in Tennessee, and so it makes sense to build and win with those technology companies here as well. And then I’ll add my random fourth, but I have a bunch of investments in insurance as well. And I think just insurance is big, and it’s not really geographically centralized. And so you can build businesses that sell into that industry, wherever. But those are kind of my four.
Cam Doody & Matt Patterson, Brickyard
“We are getting a lot more interested in companies that are moving atoms in the real world, like real physical things, and not just pure software plays. We’re more and more excited about companies that are doing real things like mining rare earth materials out of mining waste streams. That’s an example of a company that we recently backed. We know software is not going to replace them anytime soon.”
Jay Shaffer, Atlanta Tech Angels, and Venture South
“There’s a big AI wave now, of course. We joke that it’s illegal not to include AI in your deck in some way. Some people call this an AI bubble. What I’m interested in is that to support AI, we need these data centers. Every city is trying to build or buy a big data center. And now, everybody wants to go to space, because that could be the ideal place for data centers. So, we’re watching all those things… We’re seeing a lot of healthcare companies adopt AI workflows.”
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