Sponsored by

Lifting Voices

The 2020 closing of the 93-year-old Carolina Times, a Black-owned newspaper in Durham, after the death of its publisher Kenneth Edmonds was part of what motivated Cary Wheelous to launch Hayti. Hayti is the first Black-owned, all-in-one app for news, podcasts and videos that highlights Black publishers from around the world. In October, the startup received a $10K MICRO grant from NC IDEA. As you might have guessed, Hayti is named for the historic African-American community in Durham that was arguably the first fully self-sufficient Black community in America.
 
Read our full story on Hayti here.

In The Soup

On this week’s episode of “In The Soup”—sponsored by Liles Law—host Jenn Summe of Primordial and her sidekick Melissa Crosby explore the difference between angel groups and traditional VC firms. They are joined by guests John Hagy, Managing Director at Carolina Angel Network; and Abby Phillips, Assistant Director for Member Services at NC State's Wolfpack Investor Network. You can listen (and subscribe!) to the episode here.

Bitcoin Boosters

Bitcoin rewards app Lolli—which is based in both Durham and New York—has raised an $8M Series B led Denver-based BITKRAFT Ventures. Lolli is a platform that allows people to shop both online and in-store at 25,000+ top stores and receive rewards in the form of Bitcoin, as well as more traditional cashback options. Consider it an easy entry point to Bitcoin and the world of cybercurrencies. CEO Alex Adelman (a UNC grad) announced the deal on X/Twitter, and you can read more about it on Lolli’s blog.

Fresh VC Money

Raleigh-based VC Oval Park Capital has raised $7.4M of a new fund (OPC Opportunity Fund I) that it hopes to hit $20M. Fund Founder Justin Wright-Eakes—he’s a former Friday Nooner guest and Download Q&A subject—spoke to Triangle Inno about the latest fund. He said it’s been a challenging fundraising environment, which will be no surprise to any regular GrepBeat reader. Though new-ish VCs like OPC (it made its first investments in 2018) have the added challenge of not having much of a track record of returning funds to its own investors given how long it can take even successful startups to achieve an exit, a time lag that has been exacerbated the past two years by many of the same macro forces that make the current fundraising environment so challenging for VCs and startups alike.
 
OPC’s fund will be deployed in part in follow-on investments into its current portfolio of “deep tech” startups that include Triangle names (and GrepBeat story subjects) Nala Membranes, Natrx and Phinite.

Growing Unicorn

Raleigh-based, PE-backed software unicorn Prometheus Group has added to its offerings by acquiring the MobilOps product suite from Louisiana-based Turner Industries. MobilOps will beef up Prometheus’ suite in the industrial maintenance software space. See TechWire for more info, though alas the financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

RTP 3.0

The Research Triangle Foundation is looking to turbocharge the changing face of RTP with the plans for what it dubs “RTP 3.0,” which it recently presented to the Durham County Board of Commissioners. The under-construction Hub RTP is essentially the blueprint, with its mix of offices, housing, restaurants and shops. The goal is to create a true live-work-play neighborhood, moving away from the longtime RTP model of separate corporate campuses surrounded by big parking lots and separated by woodlands. That model has fallen even more out of favor with the rise of hybrid and remote work. See TBJ for more info.

Loose Lips

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney is taking his long-in-the-making victory lap after the Cary gaming powerhouse smoked Google in court this week. Tim’s one-on-one with CNN also laid out why he thinks Epic Games had a much better result in its case against Google than against Apple, though the arguments—Epic alleged that the tech giants’ app stores break antitrust rules—are broadly similar.
 
In short: Google execs wrote lots of emails to each other, while Apple is famously tight-lipped about its deliberations, including internally. Therefore jurors got to see plenty of Google internal emails that seemed to contradict the story its execs told on the stand, while Apple’s in-court narrative (albeit to a judge alone, not a jury) wasn’t nearly as waylaid by old internal emails.

Hey, maybe “this meeting could have been an email!” isn’t great legal advice, though perhaps make sure there are no recording devices in the meeting room. Also, don’t upset Tim Sweeney because he’s willing to spend years and tens of millions (hundreds of millions?) battling you in court.

In Flux

Former Greppy Award-winning startup Flux Hybrids has raised $467K as part of a round that could end up being $1.3M, according to an SEC filing noted by WRAL TechWire. Flux Hybrids—which makes kits to convert gas-powered cars into hybrids—was founded by three engineers from NC State’s Class of 2019: CEO Micah Ulrich and co-founders Cody Biederman and Clay Dowdy. Flux Hybrids won the Greppy for Best On-Campus in 2021 (the Greppys were a precursor to our Startups To Watch awards), though it now lists its corporate HQ as Troutman, which is 35 miles north of Charlotte.

Build Great Software

Founded by serial entrepreneurs, Dualboot is a software and business development company. Their clients include tech and non-tech founders as well as Fortune 500 companies, so they can start small or scale fast depending on what you need. Every client is assigned a U.S.-based Product Director with years of experience bringing products to market, and they can manage the entire development process. They focus on how the software fits into your company to drive revenue and build the business. At Dualboot, they don’t just write your software—they help you grow your business. Intrigued? Email them here.

Extra Bit

As promised above, here are our past holiday videos. From 2021: the short movie It’s A Wonderful GrepBeat; the song 12 Days of GrepMas; and a dramatic reading of ‘Twas The Night Before GrepMas. From 2022: the holiday classic songs Walking In A GrepBeat Wonderland and O GrepBeat Mug. We are currently hard at work on two soon-to-be classics for 2023: a short movie (The Making Of: A GrepMas Carol) and a new song (Grep The Halls) that will be premiered live on the Dec. 22 holiday edition of The Friday Nooner. Enjoy

Because too much news is never enough.

• Startups will be crippled by ‘short-sightedness’ of new tax rule, says Triangle small business advocate (WRAL TechWire on Section 174)

Here's some helpful content from our partners.

	NC startup offering hybrid electric vehicle conversion kits is raising funding Published Yesterday by NC IDEA
	Podcast: Extraordinary Entrepreneurship With Andy Albright Published Tuesday by NC State I&E
	Virtually limitless: How can you work smarter with AR/VR technology? Published Monday by Innovate Carolina
	Primordial Launches Fund for Angel Investors Published December 4, 2023 by Primordial

You can find all our Partner Feeds here.