Teaching The Test
“Muuk” is a Mayan word that means “empowerment” or “giving power to the people.” Ivan Barajas Vargas and Renan Ugalde Amezcua wanted to pay tribute to their Mexican heritage while helping software developers by creating Raleigh-based MuukTest. The platform uses AI to help developers test applications within minutes, not days. Read our full profile on MuukTest here.
Going To Elevon
It’s apparently a good time to be a software developer looking for a better testing solution. Yesterday was the official launch of the Spotter platform from Raleigh startup Elevon, the brainchild of Thad Parker, a veteran product development exec from multiple Triangle startups including Bronto, UltraLinq and TheraSim. Spotter provides “end-to-end and regression testing” for web apps and websites. The product had seven beta testers including Ben Mackley, the Product Manager for Cary-based Scoutr (a recent GrepBeat feature subject), who had some very nice things to say, including, “Spotter allows us allocate more time to delivering the features our users want.”
Staying Home
RTP’s ImagineOptix is going to remain in RTP after turning down offers to relocate elsewhere, instead moving in to the new BioPoint Innovation Labs in partnership with Longfellow Real Estate, the Boston-based firm that’s also behind the new Durham.ID development. ImagineOptix, which makes optics technologies for virtual and augmented reality devices as well as autonomous vehicles, first emerged from NC State’s labs.
New Neighbors
Xerox is multiplying (get it?) into the Triangle. The company is opening a “Center of Excellence” in Cary, its fourth such facility with the goal of developing new technologies, that will mean some 600 new jobs over five years. Of course Xerox isn’t doing this solely out of the goodness of its corporate heart—state incentives could reach as much as $12M, while Wake County and the Town of Cary are also kicking in some sweeteners. This makes me think I didn’t demand enough when moving to the Triangle last summer. (More Xerox details from TechWire and TBJ.)
Twice Is Nice
Is it just us, or does it seem that once a private equity firm buys its way into a startup, it attracts other PE firms like moths to a flame? The latest example is Raleigh’s insightsoftware, which recently received an equity infusion from San Francisco-based Genstar a year after TA Associates’ cash helped create the company. (TA Associates bought Raleigh’s Global Software and Denver’s insightsoftware last June and merged them; insightsoftware won the name battle, while Global got to stay home in Raleigh.)
The company focuses on enterprise resource planning (ERP) and enterprise performance management (EPM). Wait, doesn’t every company plan its resources and manage its performance? Must be a big market.
Circling The Square
The one-time Durham-based venture bank formerly known as Square 1 is trying to beef up its team. You might recall that Pacific Western Bank bought Square 1 in 2015 and for a few years it seemed that Square 1 was operating fairly unchanged—until early this year. As Square 1 was rebranded to PacWest, several Square 1 bankers hopped to New York’s Signature, and then in July some more Square 1 vets launched a new venture banking group for St. Louis-HQ’d Stifel Financial Corp.
On Tuesday, PacWest announced its revamped venture banking group, though the only Durham-based name mentioned is Jason Kranack, one of the few Square 1 holdovers. However the bank is also hiring in Durham, according to some LinkedIn job postings. (More from TechWire and TBJ.)
Brace Yourself
The inaugural Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship Summer Accelerator concluded last week. Among the teams were just-graduated Duke football players Clark Bulleit and Kevin Gehsmann, the Co-Founders of Protect3d, which uses 3D-printing technology to create anatomically fitted padding to prevent and protect injuries. This came after they successfully created a brace for teammate Daniel Jones when the Duke QB broke his clavicle last fall. (As a Giants fan, I certainly hope that brace helped. But really, No. 6 in the whole draft???) See here for full details on the program.
Flying Food
There’s so much drone news in the Triangle that it seems ripe for a newsletter of its own. (PropBeat, anyone? Feel free to steal.) On Tuesday, the FAA granted approval to a proposal by Morrisville-based Causey Aviation Unmanned and its partner Flytrex to launch food deliveries by drone in Holly Springs. Curious how this will work. Do I need to stand outside to meet my large pizza with sausage, or am I trusting my neighbors, neighbors’ pets and area squirrels not to dive in before I can retrieve it? See, this is why I only go to lunch spots within 300 yards of the office. (Toast is my favorite.)
Extra Bit
We’re a week late on this, but Credible—a San Francisco-based, Australia-listed fintech with a sizable presence in Durham's American Tobacco Campus—was bought by the Murdochs’ Fox Corp in a deal that valued Credible at $397M.
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