After wrapping up the first half of the year with many positive developments, we expected July to be a more relaxed month. Even though many of our VentureSouth team was traveling throughout the country in July, we were still able to get a lot accomplished!
Portfolio Activity
Spiffy made a huge splash in July! Spiffy opened their newest franchise in Cincinnati, Ohio; this marks their fifth franchise. While their company is growing, their carbon dependency is shrinking! Spiffy was officially labeled as a Certified Carbon Neutral Company. Thanks to a new partnership with fellow Research Triangle Park start-up, Green Places, Spiffy offset its carbon footprint and added carbon neutrality to its sustainability initiatives, which fall under the Spiffy Green umbrella.
Zylö Therapeutics received a $1.7 million NIH Phase II grant to advance their erectile dysfunction program into human trials. Using NIH funds from a Phase I award, Zylö demonstrated compelling results in their research. Capital from the phase II grant will go towards: human trials to test other PDE5 inhibitors, scaling-up the manufacturing process and to overlay a cGMP quality program, conducting toxicity tests, and holding a pre-IND meeting with the FDA to secure feedback critical to the successful development of their program.
Baebies was recognized as a ‘minicorn’ in Tracxn list of top emerging startups of diagnostics technology. A ‘minicorn’ is defined as a high growth early-stage venture that has the potential to be a unicorn in the long term. Baebies joins with other VentureSouth portfolio companies who have been labeled as emerging startups, such as minicorn company Spiffy, and unicorn company Proterra.
Membership
We are excited to welcome five new members to the VentureSouth family! These members grow our chapters in Richmond, Charleston, Midlands, and UCAN. See a list of all our chapters here.
Upcoming
Relaxed and recharged, we are ready to take off in August!
- Venture Carolina, powered by VentureSouth, will be holding six educational workshops in August, including: How to Pitch, Exit Strategies for Startups, and Angel Terminology. Click here to register for upcoming events.
- Two of our market cities, Fayetteville and Piedmont, will be holding an in-person social. While we do not require masks, we still recommend them for any unvaccinated or immune-compromised person who attends.
- VentureSouth partner Furman Innovations and Entrepreneur announced the launch of their new entrepreneurial program GVLStarts. This program, which starts on August 11th, is designed to help aspiring entrepreneurs move from idea to action by connecting them with a community of like-minded entrepreneurs.