Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

From Atlanta, GA:

Three Tennessee-based companies have been selected for next month’s Venture Atlanta 2025 event in Atlanta. Scheduled for October 15-16, this year’s event is the 18^th edition and is expected to bring 1,600 attendees, including 450 investors, to The Woodruff Arts Center and Atlanta Symphony Hall.

Two of the Tennessee companies are from Chattanooga, while the third calls Memphis home. They are:

1. MergerAI, located in Chattanooga, describes itself as “your central hub for M&A integrations, featuring an intelligent dashboard to track progress, manage deliverables, and maximize synergy realization.”
2. StratusGrid, also from Chattanooga, provides a dashboard to help companies reduce their costs for cloud computing on Amazon Web Services.
3. Visalaw.ai from Memphis helps immigration lawyers move cases forward more quickly and effectively through its first-of-its-kind, end-to-end case management and drafting workflow.

The Volunteer State seems woefully underrepresented in the event that has start-ups at three stages of development: growth-stage, seed-stage, and pre-seed stage.

Not surprisingly, Georgia leads with the most state entries at 26, nearly one-third of the companies selected. Florida accounts for another 17, North Carolina adds 12, and South Carolina comes in with eight.

From Baton Rouge, LA:

Is tailgating at the top of your list? If so, Nexus Louisiana and LA.IO invite you to experience tailgating like never before — networking, innovation, and energy all in one place.

From Birmingham, AL:

Southern Research is celebrating the grand opening of its state-of-the-art biotechnology center, a major milestone that doubles the organization’s lab capacity and significantly expands its ability to combat chronic illnesses, cancer, and infectious diseases.

The $98 million facility reinforces Southern Research’s commitment to advancing human health and addressing some of the most pressing biomedical threats of our time.

“Southern Research and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) continue to partner in groundbreaking discoveries that impact lives throughout Alabama and beyond,” said UAB President Ray L. Watts, who is serving as interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Southern Research. “This new, world-class facility will accelerate those efforts dramatically, as we work together to become the biotech commercialization leader in the Southeast. We could not make this progress without local, state, and federal support and appreciate their continued efforts to grow the biotech industry in Birmingham.”

Southern Research broke ground on the 150,000-square-foot building in 2022, and has received financial support from the state of Alabama, the City of Birmingham, and Jefferson County, as well as a grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. The Alabama Legislature included $45 million for the Southern Research building in the 2023 state budget, marking the state government’s first-ever investment in the 80-year-old campus.

From Richmond, VA:

The Virginia Biotechnology Research Partnership Authority, doing business as Activation Capital, has announced that it has appointed Michael Steele as President and CEO. Steele succeeds Robert Ward, who has served as interim CEO since July 2024 during a period of rapid growth for the life sciences ecosystem development organization.

Steele comes to Activation Capital with more than two decades of leadership experience in therapeutic, diagnostic, and research verticals across global markets. He has built and led high-performing teams, driven corporate strategy, and delivered growth through business development, mergers and acquisitions, licensing, investor relations, and strategic partnerships. Over his career, Steele has held senior leadership positions at fast-paced organizations, including Biocartis, Chembio Diagnostics, SeraCare Life Sciences, and Serologicals.

He also served in general management, corporate development, commercial, and operational roles, where he executed transactions generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and investment. He has led global partnering initiatives to advance therapeutic, diagnostic, and precision medicine innovations, negotiated agreements with top biopharma and life science companies, and directed strategies for large, growing organizations.

From Tampa, FL:

CancerX, the pioneering public-private partnership dedicated to accelerating innovation in the fight against cancer, has announced that applications are now open for its highly competitive 2026 Accelerator Cohort.

The 2026 cohort will focus on four critical themes, derived from Champion-led workshops to prioritize the most in-demand areas of innovation:

1. Clinical Trials Reimagined: Access & Research Innovation;
2. Bringing Excellence In Cancer Care Closer To Communities;
3. Smarter Cancer Care Decisions and Operational Excellence; and
4. Aligning Payors and Providers to Address Patient Financial Toxicity.

“Innovation thrives when start-ups have the right champions in their corner,” said Nainesh Parikh, M.D., Chair of the Accelerator Selection Committee for CancerX. “Through the CancerX Accelerator, these champions serve as mentors, partners, and force multipliers, helping start-ups move faster and scale farther than they could alone. Building on our incredible success from previous cohorts, we’re excited to continue supporting companies with meaningful opportunities through our incredible champion organizations.”

The application window closes on October 28.

---