Craft fountain drink and sweet treats retailer offering customizable dirty sodas with various syrups and flavors.

Skillmaker.AI is developing a revolutionary AI-as-a-Service platform designed to transform corporate learning and development across various industries. Our solution combines fine-tuned frontier Large Language Models, open-source generative models, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and Extended Reality (XR) to convert domain-specific knowledge into engaging, accessible, and contextually relevant learning experiences. This comprehensive platform seamlessly delivers immersive training through XR headsets, smart glasses, mobile devices & computers making critical knowledge available when and where it's needed most.

Nimble Energy's AI-enabled Empower platform helps building operators streamline energy and utility management, optimize operational costs, and meet sustainability goals.

Aphora Health is a healthcare services and software company that offers a solution to high-cost specialty and traditional pharmaceuticals, transparency, and access to a cost management software (SaaS) platform.

Belongly is a professional community for mental health providers that was founded by Dr. Doug Kaufman. It's a great place to connect with other providers, share resources, and grow your business. If you're a mental health provider, I highly recommend checking it out.

Covid-19 dramatically accelerated e-commerce and thus the need for warehouses. Today's warehouses have a lot of complexity. You have a WMS, a ton of people and frequently some automation in the form of robots. How do you tie all that together and orchestrate it? LogistiVIEW has software that solves this problem.

MapMyCustomers wins the award for the company on and off the list the most number of times. They were on the list in 2019, and then in 2020 moved the HQ to NYC and now they have a new CEO and have returned to the Triangle (Yeah!). Let's say you are a 'boots on the ground' field sales organization and you have a bunch of customers you need to visit on a regular basis. MapMyCustomers helps you understand the geographical layout of your customers and optimize your routes as you visit them.

A very hot area is Internet of Things or IoT and that's where ProAxion lives. I'm a software guy, so bear with me on this one. Let's say you have a factory with all kinds of big machine things. If your factory is down, that is bad, but how can you know one of the machines is going to fail? Turns out that the vibrations change over time as bearings wear down, cogs de-cog and sprockets, you get the idea. Simply throw a Proaxion device on there and it will monitor those cogs, sprockets and bearings and alert you via the cloud when it thinks a machine is getting close to a failure. It's like being able to see the future, but with a cloud.

Sani is an apparel brand inspired by South Asian culture.

ValueCore is a value selling platform that helps companies quantify the value of their solutions and communicate that value to customers. Founded by Mike Genstil, ValueCore is a powerful tool that can help companies close more deals and increase revenue.

Viably is a financial technology company that provides a suite of tools to help small businesses manage their finances. They are focused on the e-commerce vertical. Founded by Doron Gordon, Viably is on a mission to empower small businesses to succeed.

B2B SaaS platform providing cross-border shipping and logistics solutions for e-commerce SMBs, particularly focused on Latin America.

AI-powered financial operations platform providing bookkeeping, forecasting, and cap table management for startups.

Child welfare platform that improves communication and legal representation in foster care cases.

The Ooga NDT collaboration platform is an internet-based platform connecting NDT professionals to clients and technology all over the world. It connects you to help solve problems, provide training, experience simulation, virtual inspection, remote imaging and much more.

Empowering a robotic workforce that’s perceptive, adaptive, and effortlessly programmable. Founded in August 2023, Blue Sky Robotics is dedicated to leading the global robotics software industry. We specialize in custom automation solutions to meet specific business needs, leveraging the latest in robotics, AI, and computer vision technology to optimize operations and improve efficiency​.

KingsCrowd aims to empower everyone to invest in startups confidently through a suite of products including research, ratings, data analytics, founder interviews, and financial products. KingsCrowd collects hundreds of data points on every startup that raises money online, and our patent-pending algorithm provides a quantitative assessment of the startup's investment potential. We believe in the power of data-driven investment decisions.

As you've probably already realized from all the HealthTech companies on the Tweener list, our healthcare system generates a ton of data. Enter Quinsite - their platform ingests all that data and makes it actionable. Want to compare wait-times across hospitals? Want to compare physicians? What to do hospital capacity planning and more? Quinsite is your co!

There's an information disparity in the sales rep world. Reps want very specific parameters for their next gig (deal size, bonus dynamics, etc). RepVue has built a vertical sales-rep/hiring marketplace where companies looking for great reps can meet them. Full disclosure

Building bridges to reach further and empower more physicians and patients to take part in clinical research and improve health outcomes in the communities that need them the most.

Wander is the one-app, no-code, interactive mapping replacement for paper maps. Ski resorts, shopping malls, college campuses, you name it, build it with a wander map. Online or offline, indoor or outdoor, build your map with wander.

CPG company offering flash-frozen locally-grown produce available year-round, distributed through 6,000+ retail locations.

HealthTech platform that matches patients with affordable prescription options and provides transparent pricing to reduce medication costs.

AI-powered phone agent solution that helps restaurants take orders and handle customer inquiries automatically.

Spidr offers emerging fintechs a platform to access top processors regardless of their financial limits, while preserving choice in selecting other vital partners. By facilitating collaboration with industry-leading processors through standardized APIs, Spidr enables an affordable and streamlined onboarding process for Fintech startups.

Druid provides modern IOT solutions for farmers- they won our Tweener Madness contest!

Amissa is building the clinical data layer for women's midlife and menopausal health. It structures fragmented symptom data, wearable signals, and validated clinical scoring (the Menopause Rating Scale) into visit-ready clinical briefs and billing-ready documentation that reach clinicians before appointments via fax or an EHR iframe, with no new platform to learn and no Epic integration required. It matters because only about 14.7% of women experiencing menopause symptoms ever receive a diagnosis, only 7% of OB/GYNs report feeling comfortable managing menopausal care, and there are roughly 4,000 certified menopause specialists in the U.S. for 55 million women in menopause or perimenopause — the data needed to improve care already exists but is fragmented, unstructured, and invisible at the point of care.

They are a fintech that help complex family situations deal with their banking and joint custody, divorced, aging parent type situations that require 'family banking'.

A huge challenge facing animal farms is sustainability and waste. Phinite has a proprietary process and robotic system that turns animal waste into regnerative fertilizer.

A local/vertical ad:tech (advertising technology) company that in early 2015 spun out of ReverbNation. In 2022 the company had a bit of reboot when long-time CEO Jed Carlson, left due to health reasons, and a new CEO, Michael Collins was brought in to take Adwerx to the next level.

Agilix Health is a digital nutrition management and counseling service that's driven by real-time data and personalized, dietitian-led support. It's the perfect solution for patients who want to improve their health through diet and nutrition, but don't have the time or resources to do it on their own.

When you go to college and want a roommate, there are tons of mechanisms to do that. Then you get a job in another city where you know nobody, what can you do? Enter Alcove -Alcove is a two-sided marketplace. On one side you have renters looking for great rooms. On the other side, you have people that have extra rooms either in their house or in an apartment they are renting and they want to rent out that extra room. Alcove was founded to solve this problem. Another PropTech co in the Triangle!

Modern medical science is learning that the human gut plays a very large role in our overall health. Altis Biosystems provides a platform for drug makers to simulate their pre-trial drugs and how it interacts with the human gut.

The programmable intelligence platform.

Arpio is the third company to spin out from Bandwidth (Republic, ArenaCX are the other 2). While at Bandwidth, Doug built some DevOps infrastructure to help with AWS disaster recovery and Arpio is a spin out of that idea. If you are building a company on AWS, there are different zones and being 'multi-zone' is expensive. If your AWS zone goes down, it can be very hard to recover. Arpio provides a cost-effective way to add disaster recovery to your AWS infrastructure and increase your up-time.

BotBuilt is a construction technology company that uses robots to build houses. Specifically the panels used by large home builders. Founded by Brent Wadas, BotBuilt's mission is to revolutionize the construction industry by making it more efficient, safe, and sustainable. BotBuilt's robots can build a house in a fraction of the time it takes traditional construction methods, and they do it with less waste and fewer injuries."

Bristles AI is your virtual design playground for mocking up design ideas step by step. All you need are photos to create realistic mock-ups to test and share creative designs. Our most popular design use cases are furniture makeovers, interior design, home exterior painting, a

As dentists/dental organizations scale up, they need a centralized supplies procurement platform to control and analyze costs. That's where Durham-based CureMint comes in. Their software gives the staff at dental offices a simple to use, intuitive shopping experience. At the same time, the administrators can measure and manage spend like a much larger company.

Let's say you operate a clinical lab, you need a Laboratory Information System (LIS) to manage everything. It's 2022 so you'd want a modern platform that's cloud based, integrates with everything and enables your lab to be super nimble in today's ever changing world. Boom, Dendi to the rescue! Dendi is a bootstrapped Triangle Tweener that quietly built a great product using the best capital possible - customer capital - congrats Jihoon!

eBoxchain is your trusted delivery partner, dedicated to offering flexible and cost-effective logistics solutions tailored for pharmacies. Our Full Service (FS), Admin Service (AS), and Software-as-a-service (SS) models are designed to streamline pharmacy operations. Our fully compliant services ensure secure and timely deliveries, backed by real-time tracking and proof of delivery through our proprietary HIPAA-audited software. Choose eBoxchain to enhance service quality and expand your reach, all while freeing your staff to focus on patient care without the logistical burdens.

There's an explosion of AI solutions in HealthTech, Gradient provides a complete dataset of medical images ready for feeding into modern LLMs.

Building a house is an overwhelming process and usually designed 'backwards'. You look at plans and find ones you like that may or may not meet your needs. Higharc has software that allows you to 'flip' the process and start with your needs and then generate 3D plans from there. With the 3D plans, you can visualize your plans completely to 'try on' the design of your house. You could even envision this paired with virtual reality to take home design to the next level.

Keebler Health is an AI-first risk adjustment platform for providers and payers that are at risk for Medicare & Medicaid lives. Through a custom-built, transformer AI model, Keebler Health quickly uncovers risk adjustment opportunities with minimal encounter data.

There are a variety of ad servers out there, but large publishers have very specific needs. They could build their own ad servers, but the costs are prohibitive. Enter Adzerk, an AdTech (advertising technology) company. Adzerk gives publishers a set of APIs that allow them to build their own custom servers and then Adzerk takes care of the complexity on the back end. This creates the best of both worlds.

Another exciting new tweener in the FinTech Space! Loanwell provides banks and credit unions a platform that streamlines the process of processing loans. From the application/intake to origination, underwriting, closing and then servicing, Loanwell is a complete end-to-end solution.

Looma offers the only in-store media platform where merchandise and media are co-located and the content seeks to authentically educate and inspire

Durham-based Pattern health has built a combined healthcare software system and marketplace. Pattern Health allows health innovators to distribute their applications across many health systems. The result is faster innovation in the health-care field which is good for all of us. HealthTech (Health Technology) is another big area of innovation for the Triangle and it's going to be interesting to watch Pattern Health scale-up.

Peoplelogic is an AI-powered engagement platform that helps companies understand and improve employee engagement. Founded by Matthew Schmidt, Peoplelogic uses machine learning to analyze employee data and provide actionable insights that can help companies retain top talent and improve employee productivity.

Solid state electronics have revolutionized computing, lighting (Cree) and now Phononic has figured out how to apply it to refrigeration. From cooling CPUs to residential and commercial applications, Phononic is revolutionizing the 100yr+ old stagnant cooling market with a green solution that eliminates the need for energy hungry compressors, heat sinks and other traditional refrigeration mechanisms.

Pluto Health gives patients a portal delivered through partners like drug stores that gives them comprehensive access to their prescriptions and electronic health records.

There are certain things that all websites have that are low value add to create over and over again. One of them is user on-boarding (create login, password, yada yada) and authentication (what's your cell, here's a code, yada yada). Rownd puts all this into a widget that anyone can add to their website with a couple lines of code, thus taking all the friction out of user authentication.

I first met Jud Bowman when he was like 18 and started a mobile search engine called Pinpoint. They merged with another company and became Motricity which was one of the biggest exits in the Triangle. Jud knows a ton about the mobile world and his new company, Sift uses advanced big data analysis to understand and target cell phone users. Sift has built a profile of 1.2b app installation footprints and uses that to better target app downloads. For example, if a user has 4 travel apps, then they are more likely to download another travel app.

Unplex is helping craft a world where money is without borders. We are making sending money to over 180 countries as cheap and easy as sending a text. No more lengthy bank account numbers, no more juggling between apps. Tap a contact, enter the amount and send.

Upswing provides a platform for universities and colleges to reduce churn in under-represented populations via tutoring and mental health services and communities.

Validic gives developers of healthcare apps and insurance companies and healthcare systems one common interface to support all the different wearables and medical devices out there. Based in Durham, it was founded in 2010.

What's cooler than drones? Drones that generate electricity! Windlift has built 'airborne power generators. Imagine a drone type thing you get super high in the air (with a tether), then that puppy has fans and the winds up there generate power that comes down to earth through the tether. Sound like Sci-fi? Nope, it's here in the Triangle now!

Wrangle is a no-code workflow builder that helps teams automate their business processes and tickets via Slack. Founded by Adam Smith, Wrangle is a powerful tool that can help teams save time and money, while also improving efficiency.

Fractional real estate platform that makes vacation home co-ownership accessible and easy, allowing groups to purchase and manage vacation properties together.

Stashpad Docs cuts through the clutter of collaboration tools like Google Docs. It offers instant team collaboration with no account signup required. Markdown support lets you ditch formatting headaches and focus on getting your ideas down.

Innovations in machine learning have made vision systems in industrial categories a hot category. Local RTI spun out SWIR Vision Systems. SWIR has developed a family of cameras that can cost effectively see a very wide set of spectrums (including Short-wave IR). SWIR can be used to get x-ray like images. For example, on their site, they show a use case in agriculture where the cameras look at apples and can see bruises that aren't visible to the human eye, but SWIR can see them. Applications include agriculture, product manufacturing and security.

Fintech platform providing financial planning and wealth management services designed for tech startup professionals with complex equity compensation.

Vegan pet food company producing plant-based kibble made from koji, a fungus-based protein source for dogs and cats.

AI-native SaaS platform that automates proof-of-concept processes by tracking customer context and applying intelligent playbooks for enterprise software.

HealthTech company developing smart toilet technology that uses AI and sensors for non-invasive stool analysis to detect gastrointestinal disease.

EdTech/Consumer app providing snackable learning breaks to manage children's screen time with grade-appropriate educational challenges.

Marketplace platform using AI agents to optimize healthcare staffing by matching healthcare professionals with facilities.

Consumer electronics brand offering high quality, affordable electronics with a Trader Joe's-like business model.

Finished materials procurement platform that increases cash flow predictability for mechanical contractors through inventory management.

Uses quantum computing and AI to revolutionize drug discovery, compressing pre-clinical drug candidate timelines from 5 years to 4 months.

AI-powered analytics platform for automotive aftermarket suppliers, turning sales and customer data into actionable insights.

AI-powered marketing compliance platform that automates compliance review and approval of marketing materials for regulated industries.

Open-source observability and APM tool with AI-powered root cause analysis combining metrics, logs, traces, and profiling.

3D-printed custom braces and orthotics leveraging smartphone scanning to deliver personalized protective devices for athletes.

Conversational AI care coordination platform for musculoskeletal health providing virtual triage, documentation, and patient engagement.

Satellite imaging company developing patented metasurface technology for high-volume, all-weather satellite imagery.

RoundUp applies the familiar "round up for charity" cashier prompt to everyday spending: it securely connects to a user's credit or debit card, rounds each purchase up to the nearest dollar, and aggregates those amounts into recurring donations for the nonprofit the donor chooses. Donors complete signup in about 37 seconds and can support virtually any U.S. nonprofit because the platform includes the entire IRS database. Americans give over $350 billion annually to nonprofits but only ~3% of giving is automatic and recurring; moving that figure to 10% would unlock roughly $40 billion in additional annual nonprofit funding.

TrackX Technology, Inc. is devoted to creating profound procedurally driven imaging solutions that provide priceless benefits to the surgeon, hospital and entire operating room. From pedicle screw placement to single position surgery and ortho trauma, we believe in innovating and implementing simple, efficient and accurate technologies.

Trio Labs has proprietary 3D printing technology that works on micro metal parts critical for many medical applications.

Manage your youth sports organization without having to switch apps, juggle databases, wrestle clunky tools, or waste hours searching for answers. Trusted by the most forward-thinking leaders in youth sports, PlayMetrics equips directors, coaches, admins, and player families to become shockingly efficient with unified financial, operational, coaching, and communication tools.

DART is in a similar space to Looma Project - helping consumer product goods get their messages out in stores. Looma focuses more on Grocery (GroceryTech) and DART more dept store. (RetailTech). Basically they help brands tell their story with a digital experience via an in-store display of some kind. For example, imagine you are in BestBuy and see this wicked-cool drone. Instead of parking a sales rep there all day, what if there was an interactive display you could touch to watch a video, see features and also learn more. That's what DART does.

PlantD has created a carbon negative building material that instead of generating a ton of carbon is built from a proprietary plant that captures carbon, thus they have the first carbon positive building material that sequesters carbon.

As we explore new ways to grow food more cheaply (and someday on Mars of course), indoor growing is increasingly important. AgEye has developed an indoor growth platform. What's that you ask? Well several parts - first is hardware including set of IoT (Internet of Things) sensors that monitors things like soil moisture plus cameras. The second part is software that used advanced ML (Machine Learning). Together they help the indoor farmer optimize their crop.

Today's engineering teams use a complex set of tools to hit peak performance. The challenge for a manager and other leaders in the business is that they lose visibility into what's going on with various projects because all of the data is spread around. AllStacks pulls in all of your engineering data into one place and then analyzes the data to detect and avoid any problems.

Alubri is a personal care line for vaginal wellness. Co-created with a female OB/GYN and skincare experts, we bring the science, innovation, attention, and accessibility to vaginal health that it has always deserved.

We are a fully-integrated, turnkey behavioral health solution that partners with primary care providers to improve patient outcomes, reduce provider burden, and generate new revenue streams for your practice. Through a combination of human led support and 24/7 access to our AI digital therapeutic, our care leads to best in class patient engagement and outcomes.

If you recall Bandwidth developed a consumer wireless solution called Republic Wireless. Inside of their to provide top-notch customer service at the best prices possible, they developed some amazing customer service marketplace and management technology. It was so popular other wireless carriers and other industries wanted to use it, so they spun it out as ArenaCX.

Atlas gives you the power to own monetization internally. We’re the only platform that fuses product analytics with billing data for a full, real-time view of your revenue potential. Forget juggling multiple vendors or blowing half a million on a big consultancy. With Atlas, you roll out modern revenue models, track performance instantly, and stop letting pricing & packaging be an afterthought—turn it into your strongest growth engine.

Axil Health distinguishes itself in the healthcare industry not only through its comprehensive range of clinical services but also through its strategic emphasis on technology and a unique approach to care delivery by placing actual pharmacists inside clinics or health systems. This integrated model ensures that patients receive the highest level of care, combining innovative technology solutions with personalized, expert care coordination.

Betr Health seeks to solve chronic disease through nutrition science and gut health

Coworking meets warehouses - that's it.

BlueRecruit is a job search platform for people in the trades. Founded by Rich Camacho, BlueRecruit helps workers find jobs in the trades by matching them with employers who are looking for their skills. BlueRecruit is the perfect solution for workers who are looking for a better job, and employers who are looking for the best talent.

Helping home builders with modern, customer-centric construction management software, BuilderPad transforms projects using intuitive scheduling, selection, and communication tools to provide a competitive advantage.

I have a confession to make. I love checklists. One of my favorite books is the Checklist manifesto. ChekHub is near and dear to my heart because it is software that allows you to share checklists with coworkers and break down complex tasks into, well checklists. There's a bunch of other great productivity features, but they had me at checklists!

CivicReach is a voice AI platform that provides governments with highly affordable, accessible, and centralized phone-based resident customer service.

CN-Seamless, Inc. designs and manufactures portable CNC machines that makes robotic precision as adaptable as manual torch operation. We expand the universe of designs that fabricators can complete in the field and improve the overall efficiency and safety of shops that work with materials that are difficult to maneuver. Rather than bringing the material to the CNC table, our customers can bring their CNC to the material.

Do you want to be Earth-friendly but don't have room or time to compost? CompostNow to the rescue! You simply place your compostable waste into a bin provided by CompostNow and they pick it up on a regular schedule and take it to their mega compost facility. They also bring the fertile composted soil back to you immediately so you don't have to wait for Mother Nature to take her time.

Coworking space is the new way to rent space. It offers both flexibility and affordability, so it's no wonder companies from startups to Fortune 500 love it. If you're WeWork, you can afford to build your own software to manage your coworking space and community, but what if you're not? That's where Raleigh-based Coworks come in. NCSU grad, DeShawn Brown founded Coworks and incubated the idea at Techstars ATL in 2019 and is back in the Triangle scaling it up.

QA and Testing is hard to do and requires a lot of investment. Frequently it's skipped or people do double-duty. Cycle Labs provides test automation solutions that will automatically test your apps before they deploy so you avoid evil 'escaped bugs' that cause bad customer experiences.

DaVinci Lock is a cutting-edge company revolutionizing the self-storage industry with innovative, automated access solutions. By providing secure, cloud-based access control, DaVinci Lock simplifies operations, reduces costs, and enhances security for property owners and managers. Learn more at davincisolutions.com today!

Epic Hire is an app that lets recent college grads present a more complete picture for recruiters than a resume. Think instagram meets recruiting.

Cofounded by Will Duckett and Tom Gordon, Equity Shift is a FinTech helping companies digitally automate their corporate activities. Equity Shift is a new Triangle startup that has planted a flag in this exciting space by combining critical software functions.

Flytes is transforming airport dining at Raleigh-Durham International Airport with 13 national and local brands crafted in a single scratch kitchen. Our innovative ghost kitchen model ensures fresh, diverse meals with quick, seamless digital ordering. Backed by strategic partnerships and FAA ACDBE compliance, Flytes is poised for rapid expansion, offering unmatched quality and convenience to travelers. Flytes offers a simplified and efficient dining experience at airports through our scalable and cost-effective model. We leverage underutilized airport kitchen spaces, we significantly reduce the capital investment typically required to establish a dining presence in airports, ensuring a swift path to profitability.

Greenlight gives patients the ability to aggregate and get access to their electronic health records that are spread across a variety of sources. This technology was incubated at Medfusion that was started and sold twice (I like this model too) by local tech startup and soccer entrepreneur Steve Malik.

One of our most awesome 'move back to Triangle during Covid' folks is Alex Lassiter. Alex is a UNC grad who moved to ATL, co-founded Gather (software for restaurants), sold that for 9 figs and then moved back to the Triangle. The urban legend is that over dinner, Alex and Jess Lipson (see Levitate) were having dinner and dreamed up the idea for Green Places. I got an early pitch and because we had this challenge at Spiffy gave it two thumbs up.

Yasin was a NYC to RDU COVID transplant and I had the pleasure to be one of the first folks to meet him when they moved. Some entrepreneurs just radiate a 'startup gamma-ray energy' that's hard to describe until you experience it. Yasin has SGRE to spare. When he moved, he was CEO of a Fantasy sports startup that then they sold. Now he's started Convoy. Convoy is a B2B marketplace for group buying that saves SMBs big $$ on everyday purchases. Keep an eye on this one.

Mega e-commerce sites like eBay and Amazon are so big they don't provide great vertical shopping experiences. Hip Ecommerce's CEO Mark Rosenberg is a stamp and comic collector. He grew frustrated with this fact and decided to change it. Hip Commerce builds vertical marketplaces (comics, postcards and stamps so far) that are heavily customized for the collector. Want that near-mint condition, CGC graded, Amazing Spider-Man number 300? Go to Hipcomic.com and find that puppy faster than you can anywhere else.

Turn key mobile and web app for clubs, event directors, and college coaches in amateur sports.

A big area of innovation in developing software is devops - the stuff that happens with your code when you 'ship' it to production and also make sure your site stays up. Splunk, DataDog and New Relic are all examples of very big public co's in this space. InsightFinder has put together a stellar team and married it with technology that has 15yrs of research behind it. The result - they are able to use modern AI to look at your production data and predict when problems are going to happen. Try this pitch out at your next cocktail party-> InsightFinder uses patented anomaly detection algorithms to detect true anomalies and reduce spurious alerts.

He's back! Jesse Lipson knocked it out of the park when he sold Sharefile to Citrix. Then he convinced Citrix to bring a bazillion jobs to the Triangle and build a fancy building in the Raleigh warehouse area (he's crazy everyone said, nobody will want to work in the warehouse area!). Bam- that became the hottest area in Raleigh. I mention all this, because the data clearly says when Jesse does something, he has a 100 batting average (that's good for my fellow nerds), so you should take notice. With his second startup outing, Real Magic whose product is Levitate, Jesse is bringing enterprise CRM features to the small/micro business. Levitate integrates with your email program and helps you remember to build your relationships. "Hey, you haven't talked to Tony in 2wks" "Remember that Joe told you his daughter is graduating in early June!" stuff like that. In today's hyper-noisy and connected World, relationships matter even more than later.

At Lumata, we believe that proactive management of eye health is more important than ever. Our team transforms lives by preventing vision loss from chronic eye conditions like glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and macular degeneration. Our unique and innovative ophthalmology care management platform addresses complex barriers to treatment adherence, ensuring better clinical outcomes for thousands of patients—and we’re just getting started.

This group of NCSU grads came up with a way to transfer large files in a peer-to-peer way rapidly, without lossage and securely. The first market they are using the technology for is patient data in radiology and they are growing like a weed.

Murphy’s Naturals is an innovative outdoor products and lifestyle brand based in Raleigh, NC. We create highly-effective products from responsibly sourced, plant-based ingredients, consistent with our mission to celebrate nature and inspire good through quality natural products. Our products are sold nationally at retail locations as well as online. We believe firmly that health and wellness come from the environment. Founded by Philip Freeman and named after his best buddy Murphy, Murphy's Naturals leaves out all of the ingredients that you don’t want and instead focuses on providing amazing earth-friendly products that will help others through their purchase.

MuukTest is in the DevTech category - it helps improve software developer productivity by leveraging AI to build and automate QA tests. You can build the tests using their zero code (super hot/buzzy right now) solution.

Natrx is a company that uses technology to create nature-based solutions to coastal erosion and flooding. Founded by Leonard Nelson, Natrx's mission is to help communities protect their coastlines and waterways while also restoring and improving the natural environment.

ndustrial is a company building IoT solutions for industrial applications. Tomorrow's factory will be totally outfitted with sensors - ndustrial is working on a solution for that future reality in Durham.

Next Century Spirits is a technology-driven spirits company that uses innovative methods to create high-quality spirits at scale. Founded by Rob Mason, Next Century Spirits is disrupting the spirits industry by providing brands with the tools they need to succeed.

Nomad is reimagining modern living through thoughtfully designed co-living communities that combine private residences with shared amenities and flexible leasing. Based in Raleigh, the company creates spaces for remote workers, entrepreneurs, and travelers.

David Shaner graduated from NC State and had an itch to start a company. He started Offline in Raleigh in in 2012 to help people reconnect with their local communities. Offline curates activities and places for your city. This creates an indispensable resource if you move or travel. Simply fire up Offline and you have an insider's view to what is going on and where to go.

PerfectScale is a DevOps software platform for helping

Igor Jablokov sold his last company, Yap, to Amazon and they use it in this niche product called Echo/Alexa, so Igor has a really serious AI/Natural language background. He's now turning that experience to the enterprise and leveraging AI/Voice for new enterprise solutions

Unlocking the value of the secondary goods market. Reduce waste by increasing reuse.

Modern larger sales teams have shown they benefit from a RevOps function that helps automate many of the manual processes like price quoting, quota, quota achievement and more. Revcast is software for RevOps leaders that enables gives them a unified view of the health of the sales org and derisks missing forward plans.

Brian Handly is one of the Triangle's most successful serial entrepreneurs. After Stepleader Digital spun out of Capitol Broadcasting, it built mobile apps for media companies but Handly has helped it pivot to leverage beacon technology and Big Data to help advertisers reach a local audience. Reveal Mobile, born in 2015, gives advertisers insights into what their customers and target customer are doing in the local world.

Sobo is a patent pending, trust-based consulting platform that enables business growth through AI-assisted actionable insights, vetted fractional consultant matching, and engagement assurance.

If you've ever been to a big museum, or theme park or zoo with a pack of kids, you know the biggest fear is losing them in some of that massive real estate and crowds. Enter TraKid! This idea was born out of NCSU and I've been fortunate enough to see them progress from a simple tracker that kids wear to now the product offers an interactive set of games (think treasure hunt type stuff) that keep kids engaged and excited about the park, but also give parents piece of mind that if they lose sight of their kids, they will be able to find them quickly.

Truentity Health is a technology-enabled medication reconciliation platform that helps providers and payers reduce preventable medication errors and improve patient outcomes. Founded by Mike Desai, Truentity Health is on a mission to make healthcare safer and more efficient.

udu is an AI-powered deal sourcing platform that helps companies find and evaluate potential acquisition targets. Founded by Rett Crocker, udu is a powerful tool that can help companies save time and money in the M&A process.

uMETHOD is a precision medicine company that uses AI to help patients with Alzheimer's disease. Founded by Vik Chandra, uMETHOD is on a mission to provide personalized treatment plans that can slow the progression of the disease and improve quality of life for patients and their families.

VitalFlo is a digital health company that uses AI to help patients with asthma and COPD. Founded by Luke Marshall, VitalFlo is on a mission to improve the quality of life for people with chronic respiratory disease.

Voxel is using manufacturing to enable new component designs in aerospace, medical, and energy applications. Through the use of our Pulsed Electrochemical Machining (PECM) process, Voxel can help engineers create the optimal design and avoid compromises due to material, surface finish, or complex shapes. Our team works with OEM or Tier 1 manufacturers and new product engineers to educate them on the capabilities of PECM and demonstrate the advantages on their hardward. Voxel's production facility in Raleigh, NC can produce parts in volumes of 1,000s to 100,000 with the high repeatability and precision inherent in our PECM process.

XComP™ Analytics is an Education Technology company focusing on Higher Ed.

AI company (rebranded as Howso in 2023) focused on explainable and responsible AI, helping enterprises understand AI decision-making.

Digital marketplace connecting physicians, PAs, and nurse practitioners with healthcare jobs, bringing transparency to the clinical staffing market.

Proptech company providing tech-enabled home inspections and intelligent home management platform, digitizing home data and maintenance records.

Fintech platform that rates companies for social and environmental impact, offering tools to help consumers track their sustainable shopping impact.

AI-powered tax filing platform providing bilingual e-filing solutions designed for underserved Hispanic communities. Rebranded to MasRefund.

Social media analytics and martech company providing ML-powered social listening and AI-assisted content generation to predict viral trends.

Consumer food brand producing date-sweetened dark chocolate bars with natural ingredients, distributed through Whole Foods and natural grocery retailers.

EdTech platform providing dynamic LMS for college planning and life-skill building, helping high school students navigate college applications.

Y Combinator-backed SalesTech platform providing Relationship Intelligence to help sales teams identify in-market prospects.

SportsTech platform using AI-driven tools for squad planning and roster management in professional football.

Renamed to Playup.ai, Playup.ai is developing a solution to improve sales prospecting. Our platform uses AI-driven personalization and multi-channel engagement, including digital and analog methods like handwritten notes and personalized gifts, to help businesses connect with prospects. It automates outreach, provides data-driven optimization, and offers human oversight to deliver sales meetings and demos. Playup.ai is currently offering an invitation-only beta program.

LegalTech platform providing conversational intelligence for attorneys during client meetings with real-time prompts and legal issue detection.

AI-powered messaging effectiveness platform that helps go-to-market teams evaluate, optimize, and scale messaging performance.

AI-powered legislative intelligence platform that helps lobbyists, nonprofits, and advocates track and influence state legislation.

Continuous passive health monitoring platform for hydration and wellness metrics, particularly for sports teams and athletic performance.

Calendar-based marketing platform that sends branded calendar invites instead of emails, achieving higher open and click-through rates.

Agentic Commerce Optimization (ACO) platform that prepares product catalogs for AI-powered shopping experiences.

AI platform that transforms customer photos and videos into short-form video ads for food and beverage franchises.

Investment firm focused on partnering with enterprise software businesses.

Product strategy platform that visually connects strategy, discovery, and execution for product and go-to-market teams.

Shift brings together everything your team needs — trusted data, intelligent workflows, and powerful automation — so technicians, service advisors, and shop owners can focus on what matters: faster fixes, cleaner ROs, and a more profitable shop.

Health literacy platform that modernizes patient education through AI-sourced health content via patients' preferred social media channels.

Process compliance automation platform for service-based businesses to manage inspections, reports, and billing.

AI-powered data intelligence consulting firm that transforms unstructured external data into structured, decision-ready intelligence.

AI-powered retirement analysis and financial planning platform providing personalized wealth management insights.

At SocialEquity, we believe everyone in the world deserves to have a clear and achievable path to homeownership.

AIXI has built a proprietary dataset of aviation repair parts.

Pellucid builds a marketplace of ai solutions for large corps and the government/municipalities.

Second-time entrepreneurs are the most interesting to watch. Mike Schneider and team started First in 2015 and quickly hit the Tweener List. In 2019 they were acquired by RE/MAX. Mike is back and here's the pitch. There are some interesting trends in the real-estate world at the intersection of PropTech and FinTech. For example, fractional ownership is opening up as is institutional ownership (e.g. PE/institutional firms buying up and leasing houses). Acre is at the intersection of these trends. What if you wanted to share your mortgage/home with an institution? That's where Acre comes in. They match you with a financial partner to buy the house, both amplifying your buying power and getting you better economics than a traditional mortgage.

Ari: Your AI work partner and coach. For tech-forward teams to discover the superteam.

BallotReady aggregates election data from across the us and provides it via a friendly web interface and APIs

Live your best life longer. Get personalized preventative medicine delivered by doctors using the latest in modern, longevity medicine.

DeltaGen redefines win-loss analysis—without the pricey consultant overhead. We gather real-time buyer feedback from every deal using the latest AI, delivering deeper insights faster—before your data goes stale. Refine strategy, boost close rates, and keep winning.

Fleas and ticks spread tons of diseases in pets and now humans. Galaxy Diagnostics has developed diagnostics to detect these diseases earlier than previous methods.

Helping CMO's understanding the efficacy of their marketing is big business and the entire category is called MarTech. Keen provides SaaS software for measuring marketing performance and then uses machine learning to formulate a plan to achieve goals.

The Triangle has a rich history of MarTech (Marketing Technology) and the latest startup on the scene is Klearly. Klearly uses data science and machine learning technology to help sales and marketing teams quantify what's working and recommends the optimal actions to drive sales and marketing economically. With Idea Fund Partners as a backer and over $2m raised, Klearly has a lot of momentum heading into 2020.

An on-demand mobile app that allows you to schedule an at-work and at-home car wash or other preventative maintenance within minutes, founded in 2014. All communication and payment is handled through the app making this the most convenient way for you to keep your car Spiffy. The company is based in Durham.

Environmental and supply chain AI platform using IoT sensors and machine learning to help farmers and growers make data-driven decisions.

NextPower360 has built a DC power generator that can eliminate all the conversion from AC->DC->AC. This has particularly strong applications in Datacenters and edge computing.

SalesTech platform serving as a centralized marketplace where software buyers can view product demos without talking to sales reps.

AR-powered smart glasses that provide real-time speech captions for individuals with hearing loss.

NeuroTech Insights is the pioneering force in neurofunctional prehabilitation, performance, and recovery solutions. By integrating advanced medical technology, precise assessments, AI-driven insights, and personalized treatment plans, the company empowers healthcare providers to improve patient outcomes. With a commitment to innovation and research, NeuroTech Insights is revolutionizing neurofunctional health and setting a new standard for care.

Rcoast is solving coastal erosion by building the worlds first database of proprietary data recorded from coastal beachlines using drones and planes. They then track the efficacy of remediation efforts over time and and can use an AI model to find the most effective solutions.

Beam Dynamics is an asset intelligence platform that simplifies and automates asset and license management for the broadcast, live production and professional AV industries. It combines real-time manufacturer data, scheduling, maintenance and ticketing with financial insight to give operators a single, accurate view of everything they own, across every location.