Southeast Startup News From The Week Of August 25-29, 2025
We take the week's top stories, from fundraising deals in North Carolina to new startups forming in Georgia, and put them in any easily-digestible format.
Our Friday "Fund" Day series is a way to get your news from across the Southeast's innovation ecosystem in one place. We take the week's top stories, from fundraising deals in North Carolina to new startups forming in Georgia, and put them in any easily-digestible format.
These are the stories you need to know from this week:
Funding News
- Louisiana-based Nest Health, a HealthTech platform, raised $12 million Series A, per Crunchbase.
- Atlanta-based InsurTech startup Sola, which got its start at Georgia Tech, raised a $8 million Series A to build out its first vertically-integrated insurance company.
- Tampa-based Heave, an equipment sourcing platform launched in 2020, raised a $7 million Series A. Lead investor was New York-based Outsiders Fund, according to Crunchbase.
- Miami-based Kira, a FinTech API, raised a $6.7 million seed round from New York-based lead investor Blockchange Ventures.
- Mobile, Alabama-based OPē Technologies, raised a $6.3 million venture round, according to Crunchbase.
- Huntsville, Alabama-based iXpressGenes (iXG), a Huntsville-based biotech company recently backed by Innovate Alabama through its InvestAL program. The investment brings the InvestAL fund portfolio to a total of $10 million.
- Wilmington, North Carolina-based Skillmaker AI brought in a $2.5 million pre-seed round.
Investor News
North Carolina-based life science company Hatteras Venture Partners secured more than $200 million between two funds — $177 million for its seventh VC fund and $30 million for its opportunity fund, according to the Wall Street Journal. The firm also announced several key promotions, with Lauren Flickinger and Ben Scruggs, Ph.D. being boosted to Partners.
Accelerator News
Create-X, Georgia Tech's program for launching student startups over the summer, held its annual Demo Day on campus. Meet the startups here. We'll have a longer breakdown of all the startups in the room next week!
Top Hypepotamus Story
For our Get To Know The CEO series this week, we caught up with Sal Rehmetullah from Worth AI. Rehmetullah, alongside his sister, scaled Stax Payments into a billion dollar FinTech. But this time around, he's looking to build a lasting legacy. More here.
In Other News
- Falaya, a Louisiana startup Hypepotamus highlighted in 2023, announced its Real Estate Tech company is expanding into the Florida market. With full licensure now secured, Falaya brings its flat-fee MLS listing service to homeowners across the Sunshine State, according to a press release.
- Atlanta-based Rimidi, a market-leading digital health company that supports healthcare providers with EHR-integrated software, services, and connected devices, has announced its participation in the a Health Care by Food Trial, managed by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a program funded by The American Heart Association.
People To Know
We met Yamil Quispe, a Georgia Tech senior, who just unveiled a new 'Hacker House' on campus. We'll have more details next week!
