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Happy Thursday! Pete is your writer today.

Tomorrow’s Friday Nooner guest is Ivan Barajas Vargas, the Co-Founder and CEO of Raleigh-based MuukTest, which uses AI to automate software testing. We first wrote about MuukTest in August 2019. Ivan will be fresh off pitching at Venture Connect, so that will be sure to come up. You can watch live at noon on LinkedIn, YouTube or Facebook, or catch afterward on those same platforms or in its podcast form.
 


Venture Connect

We are writing you LIVE from Venture Connect at the Citrix Building in downtown Raleigh. CED’s annual two-day summit wraps up today with the rooftop Summit Celebration, which kicks off at 4:30 p.m. You can buy tickets at the door even if you didn’t attend the conference.
 
Did you miss yesterday’s Day One, or just want to re-live the highlights? We have separate stories about the morning sessions here and the afternoon sessions here. As always, Venture Connect is highlighted by scores of startups (about 120 this year) pitching to attendees that include some 200 investors, most of them from outside the area. The event was kicked off by a keynote speech by Levitate Founder and CEO Jes Lipson, who is the person most responsible that there is such a thing as the “Citrix Building” in Raleigh. (Citrix acquired Jes’ first startup, ShareFile, and he soon convinced Citrix to take over an abandoned warehouse in downtown Raleigh, which helped drive the revitalization of the Warehouse District.) Citrix recently left the space but it’s nice to have the halls humming again for Venture Connect.
 
In addition to our morning and afternoon recaps, here is first-day coverage from WRAL TechWire and Triangle Inno. And here’s a link to our (invaluable!) cheat sheet of 40+ Triangle startups that are pitching.
 
If you’re at the event, please say hi at the GrepBeat table on Level 2, near the registration desk. That’s also where you’ll find an exclusive discount code for 15% off Grep-a-palooza 3 tickets—off our already low Very Early Bird rates of $99 for Startup Founders/Employees and $199 for Everyone Else—for Venture Connect attendees that’s good through midnight tonight.


 


Spreading Out

Seattle-based tax software company Avalara is going to be significantly expanding and renovating its Durham hub, including plans to add 100 positions locally in the next year from its current 480ish. Avalara was bought out two years ago by private equity firm Vista Equity Partners—which has made other Triangle investments, including Automated Insights—and such expansion is a familiar part of the traditional PE playbook.
 
The company is launching what it calls “Avalara University” for customers, partners and employees, especially for entry-level talent to gain broad-based skills to help build their careers. Avalara Chief Revenue Officer Kimberly Deobald was in Durham yesterday for the company’s all-hands meeting, and tells Triangle Inno that they anticipate double-digit growth in their Triangle operation for every year through 2027. Next year, Avalara will also bring its annual convention to the Raleigh Convention Center, the first time it’s ever been held outside Seattle. See Triangle Inno for the full story.


 


Tech Refresh

The last time we mentioned Durham’s Black-owned M&F Bank was when local tech startups Global Data Consortium and Pendo were among several companies that deposited millions in the bank to help keep its balance sheet afloat, an effort inspired by GDC’s then CEO (and Grep-a-palooza 2 keynote speaker) Bill Spruill in the wake of the racial justice protests inspired by the 2020 murder of George Floyd. Yesterday’s N&O had another M&F story that has a tech spin.
 
The nation’s second-oldest Black bank (established in 1907) had begun to lag behind larger competitors in its back-end technology. Last month, it partnered with Wilmington-based nCino, a publicly traded fintech startup that spun out of Live Oak Bank. M&F is now using nCino software to manage its underwriting process.


 


Westward Ho

Apparently once we start talking about banks, we can’t stop. To wit: a year after acquiring tech ecosystem-serving Silicon Valley Bank after its rapid implosion, Raleigh-based First Citizens Bank is putting its name out there in physical form in the Bay Area. SVB Private’s four wealth management offices will be merged with First Citizens Wealth and be rebranded under the parent company’s name, TBJ reports. Silicon Valley Bank will continue to operate under the SVB name for its commercial banking operations geared toward the startup ecosystem, as a unit of First Citizens.


 


Fight Resolved?

The state Court of Appeals has affirmed a winner in a five-year-long dispute over which of two software vendors—eDealer or Vanguard—should receive a software contract from the NC Department of Transportation. The contract was for the DOT’s ELT Solution, an electronic platform that tracks lien and title information. The DOT originally picked Vanguard in 2019, starting a legal back-and-forth that could continue if Vanguard or the DOT appeals this latest decision, which is in favor of eDealer. Please insert your own the-DMV-takes-forever joke here. See TBJ for the full story.


 


Community Cash

We’ve written frequently in this space about the multi-billion-dollar high-tech factories being built in Chatham County by Wolfspeed and VinFast, as well as other in-the-works Triangle expansions from tech giants like Apple and Google. Where are they going to find all the workers, you might ask? NC’s community colleges are seeking $100M more in funding from the state to revamp its workforce training programs to be part of the answer. See WRAL.com for the full story.


 


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