Southeast Shoutouts | Regionalism drives 10 North Alabama counties
The leader of NCInnovation plans to leave after the end of the year.
From Decatur, AL:
Online news site 256 Today reports that leaders from across North Alabama discussed initiatives last Thursday to foster collaboration and growth. The publication described the plan as “intentional regionalism.”
Spearheaded by the University of North Alabama, the plan included data from 10 counties in the Launch Regional Partnership, a regional development initiative committed to strengthening the Tennessee Valley footprint. Those counties are: Colbert, DeKalb, Franklin, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marshall, and Morgan. Huntsville is the region’s largest city.
“This plan represents a new era of intentional regionalism in North Alabama,” said Launch Chairman Jim Page. “By promoting collaboration across sectors and jurisdictions, we’re building the foundation for a stronger, more resilient region together.”
The strategic plan laid out a vision for regional growth, calling for bold coordination and shared problem-solving throughout communities.
From Savannah, GA:
The Savannah Morning News reports that the City of Savannah will soon graduate the second cohort from its business accelerator program for small and minority entrepreneurs next month.
LAUNCH Savannah is a 12-week intensive, in-person course built to support up to 15 local entrepreneurs in developing early-stage businesses. It was created in response to a 2020 recommendation by the City’s Racial Equity and Leadership Task Force.
“About 10 percent of our businesses (in Savannah) are owned by minorities, so this program seeks to support small, local minority owned businesses, but it’s not exclusive to all,” said MarRonde Lotson, the City of Savannah’s Senior Director of Economic Development. “We do not have a local economy just built on one sector, so that is something that we want to continue to foster, cultivate and promote, and this is an element of that.”
Using curriculum from the Kauffman Fast Track, chosen business owners are taught pricing research, financial planning, marketing, and the ability to identify access to capital needs.
From Research Triangle Park, NC:
The leader of NCInnovation plans to leave after the end of the year, he told Raleigh, NC television station WRAL in an exclusive interview.
The group is an ambitious public-private partnership aimed at helping university scientists turn their research into job-creating private ventures. Research Triangle Park has been a key driver of the state’s economy for decades, based on that same general principle, and NCInnovation aims to build on that model in other parts of the state.
Chief Executive Officer Bennet Waters has led NCInnovation through its effort to secure support from the private sector as well as the state government. He helped land tens of millions of dollars in private donations as well as a far heftier $500 million contribution from state taxpayers in 2023.
But now some Republican legislators are eyeing that $500 million with regret. They might require it to be given back — to help pay for further tax cuts, for Hurricane Helene relief or to help address unexpected budget shortfalls in state programs that rely on federal funding, following recent cuts.
From Huntsville, AL:
Veil Genomics is a start-up company specializing in genetic testing and informatics, founded by three HudsonAlpha geneticists: Alex Harkess, Josh Clevenger, and Kendall Lee.
Veil provides end-to-end services for long-read, low-pass sequencing to empower users in fields across human health, plant and animal breeding, biodiversity genomics, and defense. Veil joins more than 50 other independent companies located on HudsonAlpha’s Biotech campus.
The idea to launch Veil emerged from a collaborative laboratory innovation between the three founders. Each has a deep understanding of long-read DNA sequencing, which empowered them to explore ways to speed up the process with high accuracy and scalability.
“We’ve redefined what it means to do long-read genome sequencing at scale,” said Harkess, one of the Veil Co-Founders. “Our mission at Veil is to democratize the ability for anyone to create rapid impact in their field by harnessing the power of long-read PacBio HiFi sequencing to identify meaningful genetic variation faster than ever.”
Veil Genomics also represents a commercialization success story for HudsonAlpha. One of the Institute’s founding missions has been to translate discoveries out of the academic lab setting into applications that can be used by the people and organizations that need them most. Veil is the latest example of the innovation cultivated on HudsonAlpha’s campus that has broadened its reach to make a deeper impact.
“I’m thrilled to see Alex, Josh, and Kendall driving genomic innovation forward through the launch of Veil Genomics,” said Dillon Fritz, HudsonAlpha’s Vice President for Economic Development and Commercialization. “Their work is a testament to the groundbreaking science happening here at HudsonAlpha. As both a launchpad for translational research and a landing spot for life science ventures, HudsonAlpha provides the ecosystem and support needed to turn discovery into real-world impact. We are excited to welcome Veil as they build on their scientific excellence and contribute to the continued growth of our innovation community.”
A day before Tim Draper of Draper Associates and his daughter, Jesse Draper of Halogen Ventures, are stopping for a couple of days in Tuscaloosa, they have announced another stop, this one in Huntsville. It will be held from 12:30 to 4:15 p.m. CDT on September 22 at the University of Alabama in Huntsville Invention to Innovation (I2C) facility.
Described as the first-ever Huntsville Start-up Pitch Event, it will feature start-ups from I2C, gener8tor Huntsville, and the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology.
From Tampa, FL:
Tampa Bay Wave, in partnership with the University of South Florida’s Muma College of Business, has launched the latest cohort of its FinTech|X Accelerator, a nationally recognized program that supports high-growth fintech start-ups from across the U.S. and beyond.
Now in its fourth year, the FinTech|X Accelerator has become a premier launchpad for high-potential, early-stage fintech companies. Start-ups that have participated in the program have collectively raised more than $300 million in funding and generated more than $60 million in revenue.
Ten companies comprise the latest cohort, and the names of those participants can be found here.
CLEAR, the secure identity company, and Tampa General Hospital (TGH) have announced a partnership that integrates CLEAR1, CLEAR’s identity platform for businesses and healthcare organizations, into TGH’s identity access management platform, PingOne DaVinci. This security-focused integration automates password reset for TGH team members, replacing manual help desk calls with a higher-assurance, lower-friction solution.
Through this partnership with CLEAR, TGH is positioning itself as a leader in healthcare security innovation, taking a proactive stance against sophisticated social engineering tactics, deepfake-enabled impersonation, and credential theft that target IT help desks.
“Partnering with CLEAR marks a pivotal step in our commitment to enhancing our team member digital experience and delivering the identity assurance needed in the current cyber threat landscape,” said Scott Arnold, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at Tampa General. “Together, we’re reducing friction and ensuring privacy is protected at every turn.”
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