It’s GrepBeat Book Club week, folks. We’ll be having our fourth meeting this Friday (the 21st) at 8:30am ET at the GrepBeat HQ. That means you have almost 70 hours left to read Kurt Vonnegut’s “Player Piano.” (And Vonnegut’s a quick and usually awesome and generally ridiculous read!) But before you start reading that, read this newsletter.
Are you a gamer who enjoys an opportunity to find new, creative titles? Are you a game developer who needs help getting to the finish line or selling your game? Are you, perhaps, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, seeking to spread your music to the gaming world?
If you check any of those boxes, Durham startup IX Studio can help. Founded by longtime gaming enthusiast and current North Carolina Central student Jahmir Young, this studio takes a multi-faceted approach to solving video gaming problems—most notably within the virtual universe of Roblox.
Read more in our latest feature. (And if you are Chris Martin, give us a share on your socials, it’s the least you can do.)
Keebler Cash
Big news today for Keebler Health, the Durham-based startup using AI to make effective risk adjustment more feasible for healthcare providers. The startup—which is part of our sister company Primordial’s portfolio and was also a 2024 “Startups To Watch” honoree—announced that it’s raised $6M in seed funding! This brings Keebler Health’s total raise up to $7.8M, with the startup aiming to use funds to “grow its team and accelerate its product roadmap” as it sees growing demand.
Read more about Keebler’s plans and who participated in the round (there are many) here. (And if you like, you can also learn more about the company from CEO Isaac Park’s informative 2024 Friday Nooner appearance.)
AcquireMint
More big news for local startups today as TBJ reports that Durham-based CureMint—which provides dental procurement software and a clever name—has been acquired by California's Dentira (which provides a spend management platform for the dental industry and an ordinary name). Financial terms not disclosed.
GrepBeat first covered CureMint five years ago when the startup raised $1.25M in a seed round let by Cofounders Capital. As founder Brandon McCarty recapped to TBJ, the startup had to battle through the Covid years from there, but now manages over $200M in spend across nearly 2,000 dental offices, and ultimately received multiple buyout offers. Brandon will stay on for a few months before—potentially—exploring a new startup idea.
ICYMI, news recently broke that Social Cascade (another Primordial’s portfolio member) has partnered with Pennsylvania-based Office Practicum (a leader in pediatric tech solutions).
The partnership primarily revolves around the introduction of “SocialSavvy”—a tool powered by Social Cascade that Office Practicum will use to help pediatric practices “effortlessly connect with their communities through social media.”
Congrats to all involved, including the communities that don’t even realize yet how effortlessly they can be connected with. Read more Social Cascade on LinkedIn and in the official press release.
Double-Edged Sword
Another Triangle Tech Night in the books. Last Thursday, the increasingly prominent event series used a double-edged sword (of innovation) to take over Innovate Carolina for discussion on “Bridging Emerging Tech and Health Equity.”
Neal K. Shah of CareYaya, who kind of rhymes with his own startup’s name (and who appeared on the Friday Nooner in 2024), battled a temperamental video connection to deliver a thoughtful keynote on AI in healthcare. Group discussion and an excellent panel (featuring Todd Quartiere, Bethany Darragh, and Jackie Mancini) followed.
Great work by all. Check out TTN’s recap, photos, and even some ongoing discussion about what folks learned right here.
No Union
ICYMI over the weekend, in tech-adjacent-ish news, workers at the gargantuan Amazon fulfillment center in Garner voted against unionizing. An effort to unionize was led by Carolina Amazonians United For Solidarity And Empowerment (CAUSE) and sought to earn workers $30/hr minimum starting wages with 1-hour breaks during shifts.
Had CAUSE succeeded, the Garner warehouse—dubbed “RDU1”—would have become just the second such facility to unionize (after “JFK8” in Staten Island). Yet despite an enthusiastic campaign (there were hamburgers) nearly three quarters of the Wake County warehouse employees opposed unionizing.
Quick reminder that there are two important deadlines approaching for founders. First, the deadline to apply to be part of the ninth cohort of CED's GRO Incubator is this Friday the 21st. (Details and application forms here.)
Second, we are also less than a week away from the deadline to apply for NC IDEA MICRO ($10K) and SEED ($50K) grants, with the window closing next Monday the 24th. (Details and application forms here.)
