Main Street at the University of Cincinnati. Photo Credit: jmkh, Getty Images
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January has come to an end, and to celebrate, we're recaping some of the biggest tech and startup happenings in Cincinnati. To get this info weekly (every Wednesday, to be exact), sign up for the Cincy Inno Beat newsletter.
Let’s take a look.
- Indianapolis-based VC firm Allos Ventures raised $52 million for its new Allos III fund. Forbes reports that this investment will be a catalyst for high-growth tech companies in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The firm has offices in Cincinnati and Indianapolis, and is led by VC and SaaS industry leaders Don Aquilano, John McIlwraith and David Kerr.
- Local startup Homebuyer.ai was announced as one of 10 startups selected to join Austin’s 2020 accelerator program. Homebuyer.ai, the brainchild of Cincinnati’s Dan Green, is a lead-nurture system designed to help mortgage lenders reduce customer acquisition costs while increasing per-loan profits. The Austin accelerator is a three-month program that concludes with an investor week starting March 9.
- Cintrifuse brought CES to the Cincinnati community this January with a Virtual CES event at Union Hall. The event saw about a dozen startups at the Cintrifuse headquarters, where they had the chance to demonstrate their products while discussing the future of technology. Participating companies included Yost Labs, a motion sensor tech brand, and AI Imports, a timekeeping system that manages employees with the press of a finger.
- Procter & Gamble announced plans for a $310 million plant expansion, according to the Business Courier. This expansion will take place at the P&G manufacturing plant for baby and family care products in Bear River City, Utah. The expansion could add up to 221 jobs.
- Kroger is going all-in on plant-based meat, as the store unveiled its list of 50 plant-based meatless products under the Simple Truth Emerge umbrella this January. These products will be available at Kroger stores across the U.S.
- Some more Procter & Gamble news: P&G is planning to acquire New York-based subscription service Billie Inc., which makes women’s razors, grooming and beauty products. The deal adds to P&G’s female grooming mix, which includes popular brands like Venus and Braun.
- Airway Therapeutics, a local biopharmaceutical company, has closed an oversubscribed $15.5 million Series C round. The company is “developing a new class of biologics to break the injury cycle of inflammation for patients with respiratory and inflammatory diseases,” according to a press release. This is the sixth funding round for the company; its most recent was a $10.9 million Series B in 2018.
- In response to an influx of gunshots in the Price Hill and Avondale neighborhoods this New Year’s, Cincinnati’s police department is going to triple the size of its ShotSpotter program this year. According to WCPO, the department plans to bring ShotSpotter, which uses a network of microphones to determine shooting locations, to six more neighborhoods by late 2020.
- J.D. Vance launched a new $93 million fund named Narya Capital to invest in startups outside Silicon Valley, with support focused on budding regions like the Midwest. The fund, headquartered in Cincinnati, has a target of $125 million.
- Cincinnati’s full of emerging entrepreneurs with impressive ideas, but to kick off the year, we named 12 startups we’re paying special attention to in 2020. Check out our picks, and read on to find out what goes in to curating this annual list.
