Every year, we introduce you to the D.C. region’s Inno on Fire: The people, companies, initiatives and organizations driving innovation across the local ecosystem.
Today, we’re unveiling the 2020 roster.
This year’s honorees range in size, industry, age and stage. They’re all having their moments, in different ways. They’re sizzling with new funding and rising revenue, on the heels of entries and exits, and pivots — during a particularly difficult period.
Covid-19 challenged these ventures, threatened their futures and made growth that much harder. For some, the pandemic created opportunity. For others, it issued a major test that these players have passed.
The finalists are sourced from nominations and editorial coverage, and selected by the DC Inno team. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be spotlighting some on our site and in our newsletter, the Beat. And we look forward to celebrating them all with you, virtually, at our event in August.
Here are DC Inno’s 2020 Inno on Fire winners:
B2B Technology
The D.C. cognitive technology company raised $3.5 million this June, about two years after it went live with an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot for employees. It came to the market as a service for life sciences companies, designed to expand into other industries beyond health care. Kolkata, India-native Dipanwita Das started Sorcero in August 2017 and invested her own money to get the product to market until raising $1.2 million in her first round. Sorcero has grown revenue more than 500% in the first half of this year. Das has a background in international development and on the product side of other startups like social impact consulting firm 42 Strategies, which she founded in 2014 and led for four years. She’s also part of the Mindshare class of 2019 — and made DC Inno’s 50 on Fire of 2018.
The small D.C. tech startup, which licenses its desktop and mobile platform to players in the boutique fitness space, sold to a global private equity firm in November. And it wasn’t looking for a buyer; rather, Advent International approached Mariana Tek co-founder and CEO Stacey Seldin about acquiring the company. The transaction combined Mariana Tek with Advent portfolio company Transaction Services Group, an international software and payments provider in the health and wellness space — giving TSG access to Mariana Tek’s existing domestic markets and helping Mariana Tek establish a global footprint. The deal also provided a cash infusion, the first outside investment for the 4-year-old bootstrapped Mariana Tek, though terms were not disclosed. Seldin, the mind behind the business management platform for Flywheel Sports, sold her control of that company in 2014 and launched Mariana Tek the following year.
D.C. workers compensation startup Pie Insurance recently raised $127 million to grow its special brand of online insurance policies for small businesses, on top of $60.33 million raised since its 2017 debut. The investment came as the nation slowly begins to reopen amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which has forced millions of small businesses into total or near shutdowns. And it lit the company “on fire” again, after making the cut in 2018 — the year Pie launched in several states, closed an $11 million Series A round and doubled its headcount before hiring more. This year, that momentum continues: Pie Insurance saw its written premium grow 150% to nearly $19 million in Q1 under CEO and co-founder John Swigart’s leadership.
The Rockville customer communications startup came out of the gate strong this year. Its customer portfolio is growing exponentially, the company reports, with 125% revenue growth year over year. The cloud contact company also raised $9 million in Series B funding in the first quarter, bringing its total capital to $25 million to date — and slated to expand sales, marketing and customer success areas of the business. Around the same time, 3CLogic launched the Covid-19 Rapid Response Program for ServiceNow’s IT workflow products, created to facilitate communication for employees working from home. CEO Denis Seynhaeve is former chief of luggage manufacturing giant Delsey.
Herndon’s Expel landed $50 million in May, in a Series D round that enables the Northern Virginia firm to expand its sales and marketing operations, pursue potential growth opportunities beyond the U.S. and bolster its cloud security offerings. The 4-year-old company, which provides a security operations center as a service for other companies, has raised $117.5 million in financing to date. The raise follows the launch in January of a $1.4 million headquarters expansion that would add 164 new jobs — in engineering, customer experience, IT, sales and marketing — over the next three years. The cybersecurity startup, led by CEO Dave Merkel, plans to more than double the footprint of its Fairfax County HQ, adding another 30,000 square feet to its 24,000-square-foot site.
Lifestyle & Consumer Tech
The D.C. tech platform — the “Instagram for prison” that turns digital messages into postcards for incarcerated family members — has only seen traction increase as prisons restrict visitors in the age of coronavirus. Flikshop went live in 2012 after its founder, Marcus Bullock, served eight years himself and wanted to connect people in his former position to the outside world through mail. His idea grew and gained attention, landing the company a slot in an accelerator backed by Grammy-winning artist John Legend, Techstars Anywhere and, most recently, Georgetown’s Halcyon incubator. The company has also spun out the Flikshop School of Business, a training program with a series of classes that teaches skills — from coding to communication — to inmates to narrow the employment gap. Bullock’s also one of the Washington Business Journal’s 2020 40 Under 40 honorees.
The documentary-based streaming service hit 13 million subscribers in January, and it’s seeing a massive jump in viewers watching from home, thanks to people sheltering-in-place in the face of Covid-19. Silver Spring-based CuriosityStream is also producing a series of short documentaries on the topic, including “The Coronavirus Epidemic” and “Coronavirus: Combatting the Outbreak,” made available for free. The platform launched in 2015 by Discovery Communications founder John Hendricks. Clint Stinchcomb, the company’s current president and CEO, was appointed to the top slot a few years later.
The D.C. startup’s tech platform, which functions as a personal assistant to help users manage their errands and chores, won multiple pitch competitions in the last year: HERImpact’s pitch event and Vinetta Project’s 2018 final venture challenge, totaling $45,000 in prize money. Please Assist Me is now going through Halcyon’s new opportunity zone incubator, which zeroes in on companies located in opportunity zones — federally designated areas where investment is incentivized because they are traditionally under-resourced. The startup also partners with apartment complexes to serve its residents. CEO and co-founder Stephanie Cummings launched the company in 2018.
The Arlington catering startup raised $20 million at the start of March from actor Kevin Hart, former Whole Foods co-CEO Walter Robb and others, to feed a 23-city expansion amid major revenue growth into the tens of millions of dollars. Then the pandemic hit, and everything stopped, because Hungry’s platform relies on chefs to sell prepared meals to customers — often offices, businesses and events that, in the age of coronavirus, paused everything. So CEO Jeff Grass hunted for innovative ways around it: pivoting from a B2B business to a B2C home delivery service to instead feed families at home, keeping chefs employed, and donating hundreds of meals to D.C. health care workers, first responders and residents in need.
The D.C. e-commerce tech firm has seen business explode during Covid-19 — because Americans have less to spend and brick-and-mortar store owners need help keeping customers coming through the doors. So GetUpside, whose mobile platform connects users with commerce, took steps to preserve its cash and redirect funds to its users and merchant partners. That meant investing $5.8 million of earnings from previous periods in offer subsidies across the country, while hiring up to 170 staff to meet demand. Co-founder and CEO Alex Kinnier expects the company to bring on 100 new employees in 2020. The company is also pushing out new product features, training its account management team on digital platforms and helping local restaurants in its markets with a $2.5 million stimulus package. The company saw revenue balloon 300% in 2019, with growth on both sides of its marketplace.
Biotech
When Viela Bio went public in October 2019, the Gaithersburg biotech was, remarkably, less than 2 years old. The IPO raked in about $172.6 million in gross proceeds, on top of its $189 million in cash at that time — after launching with hundreds of millions in venture dollars as a spinout of MedImmune, the former R&D arm of global drug giant AstraZeneca. But trading on the Nasdaq was only one recent milestone worthy of mention; this June, Viela received Food and Drug Administration approval for its treatment for a rare and life-threatening autoimmune disease called neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder. That product would be Viela’s first to market, under the leadership of MedImmune alum Bing Yao.
For the Gaithersburg biotech, 2020 is the year of a new narrative. After a rocky 2019 — including a devastating late-stage clinical trial failure, a delisting threat from the Nasdaq and the sale of its manufacturing business — the company jumped into the Covid-19 arena in January with plans to develop a vaccine candidate. Novavax needed partners, which it found in Emergent BioSolutions, and Swedish companies AGC Biologics and PolyPetide Group. It also needed funding, which it secured: $388 million from the Norway-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, $60 million in the form of a Department of Defense contract, and more than $200 million from selling its own stock. And it reached clinical trials, making it one of only 10 to enter that stage, though there’s still a long way to go. The vaccine maker, led by CEO Stanley Erck, saw its share price climb, then skyrocket as high as nearly $90 at the end of June. And it all comes as the business advances seasonal flu vaccine NanoFlu, with a successful phase 3 clinical trial that positions it to now seek regulatory approval in hopes of getting it to patients next year.
The Montgomery County company has only stepped up its activity in the emergency preparedness space, with no signs of slowing down. It’s now supporting multiple coronavirus vaccine programs as a contract development and manufacturing organization, including those of Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Novavax and Vaxart — which it’s advancing alongside its own Covid-19 treatment candidates under CEO Bob Kramer’s leadership. Emergent also locked in a $628 million contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to manufacture several other vaccine candidates, and it’s investing $75 million to expand its manufacturing capacity and footprint beyond Maryland. That’s in addition to the Gaithersburg biotech’s work with neighbor, Novavax, on its flu vaccine.
The young Bethesda biotech, which licenses its drug delivery system to other companies, pivoted this year to make its own Covid-19 immunotherapy and vaccine. That led it to hit the pause button on its breast cancer candidate, because of limited resources and funding, and to search for funds to get its novel coronavirus programs moving. PepVax also opened 2020 raising a $4 million Series A round, for a few growth areas: to hire business development and research staff to double the size of its four-person team by the end of next year; to move to a larger lab space to accommodate more work; and to develop the next generation of its platform technology, which it licenses to universities and biotechs. Mahesh Narayanan — PepVax’s co-founder, president and CEO — started the business with a crowdfunding campaign in 2013 after working as a researcher for GlaxoSmithKline.
The Rockville vaccine maker raised $61.3 million in April, beating its $50 million target. The company is using that capital to advance its therapy for glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, and expand its team within the next year. Immunomic is now eyeing an initial public offering for the first quarter of next year, while opening a brain cancer research and treatment center in South Korea with Korean investment group HLB, which led its funding round. And if that’s not enough, it’s working with Rhode Island pharmaceutical company EpiVax and Colorado medical device firm PharmaJet to build a Covid-19 vaccine. The company’s founder and CEO, Bill Hearl, is an entrepreneur with a doctorate in biochemistry.
The Gaithersburg biotech developing tumor-fighting therapies raised $85 million in the fall, a Series B round that put the relatively quiet company on the industry’s radar. Arcellx earmarked that capital to advance its cell therapy technology and support programs for acute myeloid leukemia and multiple myeloma, among others. Its president and CEO, David Hilbert, came from Human Genome Sciences, where he guided preclinical development of genomics-based therapeutics for eight years before that Rockville biotech giant sold to GlaxoSmithKline in a $3 billion deal in 2012.
Health Care
The McLean kidney care startup raised $64 million in Series C financing, bringing the 4-year-old company’s total funding to more than $105 million. Somatus said that capital will help to scale its model across the U.S. and invest in its technology, fueling its larger plan to expand its comprehensive care model for patients with chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease, to meet them where they are, prevent hospital visits and readmissions. Those steps would help ensure a foothold in the fast-growing dialysis market for Somatus, led by co-founder and CEO Ikenna Okezie. The startup now serves more than 20,000 kidney disease patients across six states.
The Arlington women’s health group has had no shortage of activity. It’s building a flagship practice in the District. It’s integrating into its network Reiter, Hill, Johnson, and Nevin — a four-decade-old obstetrics and gynecology practice with three Greater Washington locations that it acquired in June. And it’s moving forward with two other players now under its umbrella, following its 2019 acquisitions of Illinois OB-GYN practice Heartland Women’s Healthcare and D.C. telehealth startup Pacify Health. The company, founded in 2014 and led by founder and CEO Sean Glass, also landed a $45 million investment to kick off 2020, bringing its total capital raised to more than $110 million.
The fast-growing health tech startup, which helps physician practices cut costs and build accountable care organizations, raked in a whopping $64 million in Series C financing in April, after kicking off 2019 with $56 million in then-new investments. The latest infusion means more expansion of the Bethesda company’s national network of doctor-led ACOs, and support for more value-based contracts with Medicare, Medicaid and commercial health plans. Aledade is now seeing annual revenue grow 60% and projects it will surpass $150 million within the next year — now working with more than 550 independent physician practices and 7,300 health care providers across 27 states, as independent doctors struggle for their own survival through the pandemic. Its CEO, Dr. Farzad Mostashari, served in the top health technology role at the Office of the National Coordinator before co-founding the business in 2014 to help small practices navigate the changing market under the Affordable Care Act.
The Reston telemedicine provider set out to serve more patients and reach more health systems in 2020, armed with $15 million in fresh funding for a potential acquisition or as cash on-hand. Then coronavirus marked a turning point for the telehealth industry, leading health care providers to lean more heavily on virtual care in managing capacity and caring for dangerously contagious patients. So SOC hustled to meet that demand, both with its own specialists and its platform that hospitals can use. By mid-March, SOC had a growing list of 600 health systems wanting to implement emergency medicine programs on quick turnarounds, so the company began hiring to bulk up its team. And the demand for its services continues. SOC, founded in 2004 as Specialists on Call, is led by interim CEO Paul Ricci, also chairman of the company’s board since the fall of 2019. An executive search is underway for a permanent chief; former CEO Hammad Shah recently left after five years with SOC.
The D.C. analytics startup opened the year closing an $11.1 million Series A round, positioning it for more growth. Socially Determined, which helps organizations better understand the health and social risks of the people they care for, is now hiring to double its 25-person team over the next several months. In April, the 3-year-old health tech firm began developing tools for health systems, government and other responders to identify populations that are most vulnerable to the effects of Covid-19. Dr. Trenor Williams, the company’s co-founder and CEO, has a background as a family doctor and health system executive, and as an entrepreneur: He started D.C.-based health care consulting firm Clinovations and later sold it to the Advisory Board.
Cannabis
The pandemic brought some good news for the legal medical cannabis industry, deeming it “essential” and, therefore, keeping doors open. Anacostia Organics, the first medical marijuana dispensary east of the Anacostia River, felt that benefit, but still needed help. So owner Linda Mercado Greene, appointed to city’s ReOpen DC Committee and chair of the D.C. Medical Cannabis Trade Association, sought help from Mayor Muriel Bowser and the department of health to protect patients and staff — implementing online ordering, door and curbside pickups, and home deliveries. Greene’s business has doubled, if not tripled, with a spike in out-of-state patients, she said. And she’s hiring to accommodate the increase. Then her storefront was vandalized during the first weekend of protests by an unrelated group, forcing her and her team to board up the site with plywood in the middle of the night, she said. So after learning about the local paint the storefronts movement, Greene commissioned artist Luther Wright to create a mural on the boards, she said, now a tourist attraction “for families and people of all ages and races.”
D.C.-based Holistic Industries raised $55 million in October to further accelerate its rapid expansion, surpassing an initial $50 million ceiling in a move that catapulted the business both into new regions and deeper into existing markets. Holistic, which opened Prince George’s County’s first medical marijuana plant in 2017, already has a foothold in a handful of states with licenses pending in others, as both lists grow to meet growing patient and customer demand. It’s also bought a dispensary in Michigan with eyes on more mergers going forward, and opening more retail locations of its dispensary, Liberty Cannabis. Holistic, led by founder and CEO Josh Genderson, has raised more than $100 million to date.
The D.C. company earned an operating license in January, giving it the green light to venture beyond the District and open Maryland’s newest medical cannabis growing facility, in Hagerstown. It’s the first step in an expansion that would more than double its footprint in the state, with plans to hire up to 30 employees this year and a 36,000-square-foot manufacturing facility District Cannabis bought for $3.1 million. The project is supported by more than $9 million in funding, which President Eric Ross said came largely from friends, family and supporters.
Software
The Arlington risk management platform raised $17.5 million in March, aiming to expand its workforce and boost sales. It already tripled its headcount and increased annual recurring revenue by 700% in 2019, the company has said, aiming to double its more than 60-person headcount in 2020. Interos uses machine learning to develop complex databases of supplier relationships, to track companies’ supply chains and assess risk factors, per its website. It’s led by founder and CEO Jennifer Bisceglie, formerly chief of North Carolina-based Quantum Leaps and McLean consulting firm Vigillence.
The D.C. corporate transparency and financial intelligence startup closed a $9 million Series B round in January, to advance its financial intelligence capabilities. That round builds on the $3.2 million Sayari raised in 2018, and a total of $11.72 million since its founding in 2015. The company also doubled its employee count by the end of last year, from 18 people in 2017 to 38 in December 2019. And it’s eyeing further expansion as global commerce increases. CEO Farley Mesko leads Sayari, after serving as chief operating officer for D.C.-based C4ADS, a nonprofit focused on data analysis in conflict zones and fragile states.
The Arlington data privacy management startup landed $10.6 million in February. That raise brought WireWheel’s total funding to more than $23 million, since it was founded in 2016. The company focuses on how organizations should protect their users’ data, with a software-as-a-service platform for customers and processes to ensure it stays compliant with local laws. Justin Antonipillai leads WireWheel, after heading up the Economic and Statistics Administration during Barack Obama’s presidency.
The College Park email security startup is charging ahead with $20 million in Series B financing secured this June, bringing its total funding to date to more than $31 million. The latest investment will fuel its global expansion, after hitting the scene in 2008 as an email improvement service and pivoting in 2018 to its anti-phishing cloud-based tech. Founder and CEO Dave Baggett was formerly co-founder and board member of ITA Software, responsible for the software that powers airfare search sites like Orbitz. That company sold to Google in 2011 for $700 million.
College Park’s IonQ closed an $84 million round this June, including the $55 million in Series C venture funding it raised in the fall. The company is using that fresh capital to both hire and continue expanding its technology, as it works toward rolling out the world’s most powerful quantum computers. Those products would solve problems beyond the capacity of conventional devices, with major applications in fields such as medicine and chemistry. The business was founded in 2015 by Christopher Monroe, a University of Maryland physics professor, and Jungsang Kim, an electrical engineering and physics professor at Duke University. It’s now led by Peter Chapman as president and CEO.
D.C. clean energy startup Arcadia Power raised $30 million in December — and dropped the latter half of its name, rebranding to Arcadia. That’s also when it signaled plans to expand its services to four new states and launch a program to incentivize home energy reduction via smart devices. The round brought Arcadia’s total funding to $66 million since its founding in 2014, to get its data billing platform to more consumers as a tool to manage their utility accounts.
Yes, DivvyCloud was one of DC Inno’s 2019 50 on Fire, and for good reason: The Arlington cloud management startup had doubled its customer base, recorded annual revenue growth of 200% and raised $19 million last May. But the company raised its own bar this year, with an exit: DivvyCloud sold in April to Boston’s Rapid7 for $145 million. DivvyCloud — founded in 2013 by former Electronic Arts employees Brian Johnson, its CEO, and Chris DeRamus, its chief technology officer — raised about $27.5 million over its lifetime.
Inno Picks
The District-based carpooling startup had a tough start to the year, with revenue screeching to a halt as schools closed amid the pandemic. But co-founder and CEO Kimberly Moore has other plans, looking to launch a new version of its platform, broaden its customer base by adding school districts to her customer list alongside individual private and charter schools, and raise new funding — which, she said, has been difficult as an older African American woman. But she hopes that may start changing as issues of systemic racism become more widely discussed, she said in a recent interview, because “there are investors and ecosystems that want to talk to Black female founders in a way that they didn’t want to before, necessarily.”
The small Reston DNA technology company has quietly made news for cracking cold cases across the country — and, this year, it got its own TV docuseries on ABC. “The Genetic Detective” follows Parabon’s genetic genealogy division and head of the unit, CeCe Moore, as her team dominates what’s become a rapidly growing intersection with law enforcement. Parabon, founded by husband-wife team Steven and Paula Armentrout in 1999 as a computing software provider, gradually transitioned into DNA technology before that niche really even existed. Then two years ago, the company recruited Moore to build out its genetic genealogy division, around the time West Coast authorities caught one of the most prolific serial killers in history. Since then, Parabon has been involved in nearly 500 police cases and generated leads resulting in 109 positive identifications of suspects, including 18 just this year. And those numbers continue to rise.
The Bethesda ed-tech startup kicked of 2020 with the intention of helping health care providers more easily stay on top of the industry as it evolves and help hospitals improve continuity of care. That started with a $3.7 million raise, $2 million of which came from British educational publishing company Pearson’s venture fund — to enable K2P to develop its own curriculum, and tap leaders from top academic centers and medical institutions across the country to contribute to its coursework. Then coronavirus changed the road map, and founder and CEO Mary Ellen Beliveau led her team on its new path: to design a curriculum to support workers on the front lines of the pandemic, called CurrentMD Covid, built in two months and at half of the cost of what it took for its core curriculum. To get it out, K2P teamed up with Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, the South Carolina State Medical Society and the South Carolina Hospital Association to roll out the program to 25,000 providers across the state in July, a model the company plans to replicate in the 24 U.S. states with Covid-19 cases on the rise. And that’s while locking in two other enterprise deals with large health systems, building an advisory board, hiring new employees and developing its curriculum for hospitals’ acute, inpatient and outpatient care teams. Oh, and Beliveau is preparing to open K2P’s next funding round in August.
The Arlington startup’s claim to fame came from a successful pitch on ABC’s “Shark Tank” in 2017, when founder Sharmi Albrechtsen presented SmartGurlz, whose dolls ride robotic scooters when kids practice coding through an app. But the past year has brought growth beyond that initial boost and, of course, in the face of Covid-19. That’s when schools closed, stopped purchase orders and its deal with Pitsco Education fell short of its $1.5 million goal to launch Smart Buddies Education — an expansion into social-emotional learning with a curriculum featuring kids with diverse backgrounds and experiences, from those with physical disabilities to learning disabilities, and all with an interest in science, tech, engineering, arts and math. But SmartGurlz has found a new business model, with online camps and remote learning classes that have put it back on track, albeit a different one. Its $179, two-week virtual camp dubbed Camp-in-a-Box will train about 1,000 kids in STEM subjects, Albrechtsen said. And after raising nearly $3 million via the Wefunder crowdfunding platform at the end of 2019, she’s shooting for a second seed round this fall.
District student loan startup MPower Financing raised $9 million this June, building on about $20.5 million raised to date. The company also received a $100 million credit facility in 2018 that enabled it to provide student loans in the U.S. after focusing primarily on the international market since its founding in 2014. But the latest capital means an expansion — including a new program for international student loan refinancing. CEO and co-founder Manu Smadja is leading that effort, as MPower pushes a new type of lending system based on the borrower’s future salary, so it ties loan amount to the amount of money students expect to earn after college. Its model is gaining popularity; the company now works with more than 350 colleges and universities to provide loans to students from more than 200 countries, amounting to about $2 billion in loan applications on its platform.
The auto refinancing platform raised $8.6 million in February, a few years after local fintech venture firm QED Investors incubated the company, and less than a year after completing its $4.7 million seed round. MotoRefi, based in Arlington, allows customers to receive offers for auto refinancing — and claims it can save car owners an average of $100 per month. The company’s CEO, Kevin Bennett, is a former exec of D.C.-area startups including Homezen, LiveSafe and Opower.
The Tysons cyber firm has been chipping away at the fundraising, first closing an initial $6.3 million at the end of 2019 and securing another $3.5 million this spring, while shooting to expand sales efforts and build out its customer base. The 5-year-old RunSafe launched its first product in August 2018. The company works to reduce software vulnerabilities to attacks and protect critical infrastructure. And to keep up with demand, it’s also hiring, aiming to reach about 20 employees from 12 at the end of last year. CEO Joe Saunders founded strategic advisory firm Loud Castle Media in 2007, and has worked with a handful of companies including analytic solutions firm Analyze, artificial intelligence startup Sovereign Intelligence, website visitor conversion company LeadBase and TARGUSinfo, which was acquired by Neustar in 2011 for $650 million.
Individual Innovators
Paola Velez, Bakers Against Racism
Paola Velez, executive pastry chef at Kith/Kin at the Wharf, was furloughed in March amid the pandemic — when she was also named a finalist for a James Beard Award for rising star pastry chef. But with no job, she turned her attention to advocacy for underserved communities, as protests against police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death accelerated. Velez teamed up with chef Rob Rubba and pastry chef Willa Lou Pelini for Bakers Against Racism — a call for professional and recreational bakers to make 150 pastries at $8 each to donate to social justice organizations of their choice. The goal was to reach 80 participants and $96,000 in funds; in one week, it reached 15 countries and 42 states. But Velez didn’t stop there; she and Serenata and Colada Shop founder Daniella Senior started a pop-up donut shop called Doña Doña that’s raised roughly $1,500 to help support laid-off restaurant workers and immigrants. And she’s teaming up with Serenata’s Andra “AJ” Johnson for bartending pop-up Back to Black.
In November, Seth Goldman decided he’d be stepping away from Honest Tea, 22 years after launching the bottled tea company out of his Bethesda kitchen and growing it into a massive global brand. Within a week, the Coca-Cola-owned company said it would relocate to its parent’s Atlanta headquarters. But not only did Goldman leave Honest Tea in a good position; he started cooking up his next venture — to effect climate change, through food. That manifested as Eat the Change, a platform he started with his wife, Julie Farkas, to help people make the connection between their environmental footprints and what they eat. Its for-profit side encompasses businesses that make it easy for consumers to choose foods free of animal products, like PLNT Burger — a vegan fast-casual joint from celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn in which Goldman is now an investor. And through its not-for-profit arm, the husband-wife team has also committed to donating $1 million over the next three years to nonprofits supporting the same mission.
When the pandemic started, Hook Hall owner Anna Valero turned her Park View bar on Georgia Avenue NW into a relief center providing free meals and supplies to D.C.-area hospitality workers. She partnered with the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington and Occasions Caterers, which donated a large, refrigerated truck to store donated perishable products. Queen Vic owner and chef Ryan Gordon took donations to his kitchen and made meals each day. More vendors and businesses also jumped on board, including Hank’s Oyster Bar, PJ Clark’s, Maggiano’s and others. The effort raised more than $550,000.
Editor’s note: This has been updated to clarify how the relief center works, and its funding raised as of July 29, 2020.
Shizu Okusa — the CEO and founder of Wellthy, which owns juice company Jrink and herbal supplement brand Apothekary — has felt the acute economic effects of Covid-19, on both ends of the spectrum. She closed three of her four brick-and-mortar locations and temporarily laid off about 70% of Jrink’s retail and kitchen staff. So she pivoted, growing her e-commerce and delivery revenues to about 80% of the company’s overall sales, with the potential to expand into local grocery stores. She partnered with other local businesses as part of its daily delivery service, to provide customers food, in addition to its drinks. Then, there’s Apothekary, which hasn’t been struggling to run, but struggling to keep up. It’s seen massive spikes in sales, reached profitability and is now tracking to beat its 2020 revenue projection of $1.2M, and double it, for the year.
Erik Bruner-Yang, the Power of 10
As Covid-19 worsened a national food crisis, D.C. restauranteur Erik Bruner-Yang launched The Power of 10 campaign, to donate up to $10,000 a week to fund 10 full-time jobs and 1,000 meals for people in need. The initiative, which went live in D.C. March 26, began with a handful of independent restaurants including the chef’s own establishments. By May, it had expanded nationally, securing support from Capital One to expand to 30 restaurants in eight cities. The program has provided more than 35,000 meals and raised more than $800,000 — and continues to build momentum.
Community
Natalie Cofield, Walker’s Legacy
Walker’s Legacy, the D.C. collective for businesswomen of color, is laying the groundwork to go international, more than a decade after starting in 2009. This year, that has meant polishing and perfecting its domestic programming — and launching its city director initiative in 20 markets this year, to embed local leaders to spearhead the organization’s work in those communities. The for-profit professional group for minority female entrepreneurs, led by Natalie Cofield, ran entrepreneurship training and programming for 100 women since April, with more coming up. Walker’s Legacy is now developing a research study to understand the impact of Covid-19 on minority women entrepreneurs, set to launch this summer.
The Alexandria venture capital firm raised $350 million for its sixth fund earlier this year. Focused largely on fintech startups, QED is looking to deploy that capital for early-stage and growth-stage companies in North America, South America and the U.K. It comes after some loal activity, recently investing in auto-refinancing startup MotoRefi, which raised $8.6 million, and Arlington content company Storyblocks, which sold this June to a Boston private equity firm. QED has invested in more than 120 companies and reports it has over $1.6 billion in assets under management. It was founded in 2007 by Capital One Financial co-founder Nigel Morris and Frank Rotman, one of the earliest analysts at Capital One.
Under the leadership of new director Dawn Myers, the national nonprofit’s D.C. chapter has stepped up its support of female founders to close the gender funding gap, amid both the pandemic and wider discussions of inequity. The group took its multi-step pitch competition virtual, with the next round set for July — and this year, Vinetta is putting in capital of its own, with one $20,000 cash prize on the line. It’s seen a 23% increase in applicants to its contest, with about half of companies that have come through its programming now generating revenue. The local organization has built a pipeline of more than 100 investors and 267 founders, with $33 million raised since 2016. Myers is also entering the third year as founder and CEO of hair tool startup The Most.
The Darnestown accelerator launched in January for B2B tech companies in the Mid-Atlantic. But when Covid-19 upended those plans, local angel investor Matthew Hanson spun it around — to find and invest in promising startups and, therefore, help speed up the country’s economic recovery. The result? A national accelerator for local startups guided by seasoned entrepreneurs. And Hanson, a principal at Blu Venture Investors and a fixture in the region’s entrepreneurial community, has a track record of his own: successfully exiting satellite communication startup Segovia for $110 million, and leading the first round of investments for roadside assistance startup Urgent.ly and fraud prevention startup NS8.
Last February, former Wall Street banker Allyson Redpath launched Citrine Angels, a D.C. angel investing group focused on bringing more female investors into the fold and boosting support for women founders — filling a major void in our market and the larger ecosystem. Since then, it’s taken off: already making investments totaling more than $200,000 in a handful of companies. Then the Maryland Department of Commerce tapped Redpath for a new role focused on the state’s startup ecosystem, so M3 Advisors founder Stephanie Marshall took over as board president. Now, she said, the processes are in place, and the next year will be focused on building relationships to improve deal flow and educating members about the due diligence process.
The District nonprofit, which runs a Georgetown incubator for social entrepreneurs, has spent the last year introducing new initiatives to support more social impact ventures, led by CEO Kate Goodall. In January, Halcyon rolled out a new program for startups in the city’s opportunity zones. It’s also building an angel investor group, raising a $6 million fund to invest in its fellows and their startups for the first time, and shepherding its latest cohort through the incubator, which started in 2014. Since then, its alumni have raised more than $100 million in investments and created more than 1,000 jobs, per Halcyon’s count.
The Boulder, Colorado-based startup accelerator operator launched a new D.C. accelerator in December focused on care for the elderly. The Future of Longevity accelerator is backed by Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company created by Melinda Gates. Techstars, which runs accelerator programs around the world, said it has invested in more than 1,900 companies with a total value of more than $24.7 billion.
