Lending Help
It’s been well-documented that there have been plenty of hiccups—to be kind—with the federal government’s PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) loans. (Though last night the Senate passed a bill with some much-needed tweaks that now awaits the President’s signature.) In North Carolina, an extensive public/private effort led by the Golden LEAF Foundation, the NC Rural Center and seven nonprofit lenders has stepped up to make loans to businesses in the state that have fallen through the federal effort’s cracks. It turns out that all the loans are being executed on a white-labelled solution from Durham-based startup LoanWell.
When we wrote about LoanWell last February, it was focused on connecting would-be borrowers directly with community members who could make them loans. Co-Founders Bernard Worthy and Justin Straight have since pivoted to a B2B platform for community lenders, and were thus perfectly positioned to help execute this ambitious state-wide lending program in a time of unprecedented need. Read our full in-depth story here.
Due Diligence
Many sales professionals meeting with a prospective new client are likely skilled in small talk, but that’s more potentially fraught than ever these days (“hey, so how about the weather/global pandemic/nationwide protests over police brutality and racial inequality, amirite?”). They’re far better off checking with Raleigh startup Vertical IQ to get in-depth intelligence on the would-be client’s industry and local business environment. Read our full feature on Vertical IQ here.
Time To Listen
My usual M.O. in this space is to keep things light, such as the previous item about how it can get a little uncomfortable to discuss the ongoing protests when trying to win business from a client you don’t know well—and you especially don’t know where they sit on the political spectrum. But as the prominent Black members of the Triangle’s tech community featured in today’s TechWire story point out, we all need to confront the issues that have inspired the protests if we’re to make any substantive progress.
While the caught-on-tape killing of George Floyd at the hands (or knee, in this case) of Minneapolis police officers is the most proximate cause of the protests, they are also about the broader, systemic issues of police brutality against people of color and racial inequality. We need to hear the voices of Walk West CEO Donald Thompson, Global Data Consortium CEO Bill Spruill and other Black members of our community, whether they’re tech leaders or not.
Outside Approval
Two as-seen-(read?)-on-GrepBeat startups—Durham-based Courtroom5 and Raleigh’s MuukTest—have been accepted to Techstars Kansas City, which has gone remote due to Covid-19. As someone who in a previous life applied to like five different Techstars accelerators (0-for-5, sadly), I’m both impressed and a little jealous.
Meanwhile Durham’s Rownd, a data ownership platform that data privacy and security for developers and data control for end users, has made the semifinals of the $100,000 Hofstra Veterans Venture Challenge for military veteran entrepreneurs. The 19 semifinalists will be cut to 10 after a virtual business bootcamp in June, with 10 finalists then competing on Aug. 6 for $100K in seed funding and other prizes. (Fun fact: I grew up close enough to Hofstra University to ride my bike there.)
Healing Screens
Telemedicine is definitely having a moment during the pandemic and is one of several trends that figures to stick around permanently, which is why we featured Durham-based RelyMD in late March. Yesterday, RelyMD announced that it has merged with Georgia-based MYidealDOCTOR, which shares a similar telemedicine mission and philosophy on CAPitalizaTION. The RelyMD executive team, led by CEO Dave Levin, will guide the newly combined company. TechWire has some more details.
Capital Corner
Another industry vertical in the pandemic spotlight: video games. All the extra time that gamers are spending at home twiddling their thumbs on controllers certainly hasn’t hurt Cary gaming startup Kronoverse, which on Tuesday announced new investment from Persimmon Limited and tech entrepreneur Calvin Ayre, the billionaire founder of online gambling site Bodog. It was Persimmon’s first investment in Kronoverse and Ayre’s third, though alas the amount(s) were not disclosed. The Kronoverse platform is creating a new world of competitive gaming by combining blockchain technology with online gaming—hence the interest from Ayre.
In other funding news, Raleigh-based Equity Shift has raised $750K from seven investors according to an SEC filing. Equity Shift offers a SaaS platform for private companies and funds to enable automated transfer of their securities.
New/Old Bags
Raleigh’s Reborn Clothing, which was founded in 2017 when founder Emily Neville was a sophomore at NC State (we wrote about Emily and Reborn last summer), has announced a partnership with Burlington-based textile company Sunbrella. Reborn will repurpose the excess material left over from Sunbrella’s manufacturing process into a cool line of tote bags and zipper pouches. That’s squarely in keeping with Reborn’s mission to turn unused clothing and fabric pieces a second life, starting first with the extra T-shirts from universities.
Andrews Accelerator
Speaking of startups launched by NC State students, another summer cohort of the Wolfpack’s Andrews Launch Accelerator is underway. (We wrote about the program last summer.) Five startups are part of this year’s cohort: 321 Coffee, Sani Designs (which we’ve already featured), Simpliworks, Sol and Vetletics. No spoilers, but we’ll likely be profiling some of these startups later this summer.
Extra Bit
Two events you should know about: 1) Momentum Learning is hosting a free job search webinar tomorrow (Friday) at noon led by Katie Dunn, Momentum’s Director of Career Services and a loyal regular at GrepBeat Happy Hours (remember them???). Register here.
2) CED will be releasing its annual Innovators Report next Tuesday; and then on Thursday, June 25, at 10 a.m. will host a free Zoom event called Raising Money. The event will recap the report and also look ahead to the current and near-term fundraising environment with several startups who have recently raised $$ or are looking to raise. You can register now, and even submit a question as you do so that might be answered on the call.
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