Southeast Shoutouts | The Carolinas and Florida dominate the news
Near Asheville, Ideal Medical Technologies is developing an innovative technology for controlling blood sugar (or glucose levels) of patients in intensive care units.
From Asheville, NC:
Leon DeJournett, Chief Medical Officer and founder of Ideal Medical Technologies in this Western North Carolina city, has been leading the development of an innovative technology for controlling blood sugar (or glucose levels) of patients in intensive care units (ICUs). The company’s FUSION system has already demonstrated exciting positive results in its first clinical trial.
“By offering safe and effective glucose control, we think our hospital-based system could save up to 200,000 lives per year in the ICU setting,” said DeJournett. “It could also potentially decrease healthcare costs by $5 to $10 billion a year in the U.S. alone.”
The company has been awarded loan funding from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center (NCBiotech) to support system development, laboratory testing, and clinical testing. This loan supplements a two-year $1.9 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant the company received from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in 2022.
To learn more, read this article from the NCBiotech website.
From Boca Raton, FL:
The state’s largest single-office complex is now reportedly 91 percent occupied after the Boca Raton Innovation Campus (BRiC) announced four new tenants were added and two renewed their leases. The 1.7-million-square-foot technology and life sciences hub has historically attracted companies with large footprints, but has pivoted its strategy to attract start-ups and growing companies seeking modern amenities and a holistic workplace ecosystem in the technology and life science spaces.
The former IBM research and development facility is undergoing a $100 million capital improvement program to transform the facility into an amenity-rich campus. BRiC completed many of these amenities last year, including an on-site wellness center run by Boca Raton Regional Hospital, coffee shop Java, an autonomous grab-and-go store called Bits, a revitalized dining hall, and flex space for events and presentations for up to 1,000 people; two fitness studios; on-site bike storage; and a parking garage with 1,300 spaces and a covered top deck with the flexibility to add solar panels.
From Durham, NC:
Elo Life Systems, which was created in 2021 after being spun off from Durham’s Precision BioSciences, has raised $20.5 million in what was described as an oversubscribed Series A2 round.
According to a news release from the company, Elo is a next-generation ingredient company reimagining the future of food. The latest round was jointly led by DCVC Bio and Novo Holdings who were joined by Hanwha Next Generation Opportunity Fund, AccelR8, and Alexandria Venture Investments. Elo has raised a total of $45 million to date.
This latest round of funding will help the company further scale and commercialize its sweetener product; increase its molecular-farming pipeline of healthy and sustainable ingredients; and expand its crop protection and productivity efforts, including work to save the banana from extinction.
From Miami, FL:
eMerge Americas has announced that Girls Who Code Founder Reshma Saujani will headline the global technology event, taking place April 18-19 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Saujani is also Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Moms First, an organization that champions women’s economic equality in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other confirmed speakers include Strangeworks Founder and CEO William Hurley, Xprize Foundation Founder Peter Diamandis, and Grammy-award winning rapper and entrepreneur Armando “Pitbull” Perez.
The conference draws more than 20,000 attendees from more than 50 countries.
As previously reported, eMerge Americas is partnering with Jackson Health System and the University of Miami Health System to debut a “Healthtech Innovation Hub” at the 2024 event.
From Greenville, SC:
6AM City, the locally focused media company that includes Chattanooga and Nashville among its 27 properties, has completed a Series A funding round led by Tegna Inc., another media company based in Tysons Corner, VA.
According to an article in the Upstate Business Journal, the funding round was also supported by follow-on investments from existing stakeholders including American Investment Holdings, VentureSouth and Harbright Ventures. The new funding, reported by Axios at more than $10 million, will support:
- Collaboration between both companies to launch newsletters in additional markets;
- The addition of news and weather from TEGNA’s local broadcast stations to 6AM’s daily newsletters in overlapping markets; and
- Promotion of morning newscasts and integrating local sports headlines from Locked On, TEGNA’s network for local sports.
6AM City’s Tennessee outlets are NOOGA Today (Chattanooga) and NASH Today (Nashville).
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