Part 2 of weekly “News & Notes” feature focuses on Nashville area
Part 1 of this week’s “News & Notes” feature focused on East Tennessee. Today, we spotlight tidbits of newsworthy items from the Nashville area.
From Nashville:
- CBS Sports Lead Play-by-Play Announcer Jim Nantz will be the plenary session speaker at the “Governor’s Conference on Economic and Community Development” on Tuesday. The event will be held at the Omni Nashville Hotel.
- Mayor John Cooper has named LaTanya Channel as Director of Economic Growth and Small Business Development, effective October 3. Channel brings nearly 30 years of federal and state public service to her new role, and will implement the mayor’s vision for Nashville and Davidson County’s future economic development. Prior to joining the Mayor’s team, she served as the Small Business Administration’s Tennessee Director for eight years.
- SavvyFi, a fintech platform that makes college savings and student loan repayment plans accessible and a benefit for employees, raised $4.9 million in a Series A funding round led by Aligned Partners. The company intends to use the funds to expand its education financing platform to accommodate interest from global partners in joint partnerships.
- Separately, Rootine has raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Relevance Ventures with participation from Techstars and DSM Venturing. The company helps athletes improve their health and daily performance with precision nutrition, improve cellular nutrition through data science and personalized solutions that support total body health.
- Also, Titan Cloud, a provider of a software platform that offers solutions for convenience stores, fuel carriers, and service providers, received a majority investment of from Charlesbank Technology Opportunities Fund LP, a fund managed by Charlesbank Capital Partners. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its expansion both organically and through mergers and acquisitions. Titan Cloud Software provides solutions for environmental compliance, advanced fuel analytics, wetstock management, and facility maintenance, which enable customers to effectively manage risk and run efficient, profitable businesses.
- Vū Technologies, the creator of disruptive virtual production studios for film and video that opened its second location in January in West Nashville (see teknovation.biz article here), has opened its fourth location in Orlando. The rapidly growing company held a grand opening earlier this month for the 32,000 square foot facility that encompasses three stages.
- Global payment platform Mozaic, co-founded by Marcus Cobb, was recently named as one of 12 participants selected for the latest cohort of the “Google for Startups Accelerator: Black Founders” class of 2022. Formerly called Jammber and initially focused on music professionals, Mozaic now hopes to serve all creators and creatives and is designed to simplify international and split payments. The company provides what it calls “smart contracts” that automate split income among creative teams. In a LinkedIn post, the company wrote, “We’ll be participating in a 10-week digital accelerator alongside other exceptional start-ups focused on growing and scaling our impact.”
From Brentwood:
Brentwood Capital Advisors has announced the hiring of Dan Beuerlein as Managing Director. In his role with the investment bank serving growth-oriented, middle-market healthcare services, healthcare technology, and business services companies, Beuerlein will provide strategic advice and M&A advisory services across several sectors, focusing on autism services, women’s health/fertility, outpatient surgical facilities, and physician practices. He brings 20 years of experience building and scaling mission-driven private equity backed companies in the ambulatory/acute care, women’s health/fertility, and behavioral health/autism industries.
