Another week, another round of startup headlines. Here are the big stories you need to know going into the Memorial Day Weekend:
The Big Stories On Hype
What if you could immerse yourself in a medical image? Would it help you better understand what you are looking at? Students and recent graduates at Emory and Georgia Tech believe that is the case. They’ve joined forces to build Quency, an immersive ultrasound imaging startup.
One of Sam Altman’s latest startups is putting down roots in Atlanta with a new flagship store in Ponce City Market. Hypepotamus got an early look at what to expect from the identification-focused company here.
If you spend your day toggling between multiple apps like Slack, email, Notion, LinkedIn, and Zoom, you understand why Kiksasa is building a “Super App” for the startup world. We have details on their pivot here.
Accelerator News
In Alabama, gBETA Gulf Coast in Mobile and the HudsonAlpha AgTech Accelerator in Huntsville both announced their Spring 2025 cohorts. gBETA Gulf Coast, powered by gener8tor in partnership with Innovation Portal and Innovate Alabama, welcomes five startups: Mappica, RigLots, Neural Wave, Home Tours Pro and DocuLegis. The fifth cohort of the HudsonAlpha AgTech Accelerator, which focused on sustainable farming and biotech innovation, welcomed four more companies to the program: Downland, Ecobrew, Oceanfarmr and Tylmen Tech.
Friday “Fund” Day News
- In a full Atlanta story, Atlanta-based Stord has acquired Ware2Go, an on-demand warehousing and fulfillment network, from UPS.
- Atlanta-based Greenzie raised a $2.5 million round, per Crunchbase
- Birmingham’s Landing, a membership-based apartment rental platform, raised $180 million in debt financing, according to Crunchbase.
In Other News
- Mercedes-Benz will establish Atlanta as Mercedes-Benz’s headquarters in North America. The company will move up to 500 jobs to the existing Mercedes-Benz facility, known as “1MB,” in Fulton County, and make a multi-million dollar investment in a future state-of-the-art Research & Development (R&D) facility to also be located nearby, according to a press release from Governor Brian P. Kemp.
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Atlanta-based Rimidi, a leading digital health company, announced a new partnership with Salina Family Healthcare Center (SFHC) and its affiliated pharmacist-led hypertension clinic to improve hypertension management with remote patient monitoring (RPM).
- Florida Funders, a venture capital firm, is going through a name refresh, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal
- NC IDEA, a private foundation committed to supporting entrepreneurial ambition and economic empowerment in North Carolina, announced it has elected Spencer Disher of Charlotte as Board Chair and elected three new directors; Heather McWhorter of Wilmington, David Morris of Durham, and Tom Snyder of Raleigh.
- Relay Payments, the fintech company modernizing payments for the trucking and logistics industries, has launched Relay Pulse, an interactive solution leveraging a strong integration with a carrier’s ELD to prevent fraud by giving carriers greater visibility and control over driver fueling. Fuel fraud remains a costly challenge for fleets, especially first-party fuel fraud, where carriers struggle to track driver fueling behavior and prevent unauthorized transactions from drivers committing fraud. Relay Pulse integrates directly with electronic logging devices (ELDs) to automate fraud prevention, eliminate manual processes and reduce operational risk.