Tampa Bay's tech scene made plenty of moves last month.
We've gathered up the new C-levels, partnerships, acquisitions and new transplants to town below.
Partnerships
- The University of Tampa tapped a local startup to help all 2,500 of its freshman class get a little more connected beyond the classroom. UT has partnered with Krew Social, which offers a decentralized way to build your “crew" through its platform. It's just the start for the company, which is hoping to work with apartment complexes, large workplaces like Citi or Raymond James, and organizations like churches or sports stadiums. We've got the full story.
- Tampa-based ReliaQuest partnered with innovation hub Embarc Collective on its Glaring Gap Summit, which will bring 50 women — from college-aged to accredited investors — under one roof to further boost the female-led investment space.
- Tampa startup Verséa donated more than $1 million worth of Covid tests it created to the University of South Florida. The tests will be deployed to students across all three campuses for at-home testing. This isn't the first major partnership for the healthtech company — they initially got their start with Covid testing during March Madness. Get the details.
New moves
Inpeco, a Switzerland-based health care company, tapped Tampa for its regional headquarters. The company will move into a 2,600-square-foot space in the University of South Florida Health's CAMLS building in downtown Tampa and expects to hire 25 locals in the next few years. The region beat out five other states and six other Floridian counties — see why Tampa won.
Chicago-based CoinFlip officially opened its Tampa office, which features its first-ever "crypto experience center" at Sparkman Wharf. The center will host educational workshops, an NFT art gallery and, of course, its signature crypto ATMs. You can check out the space here and our Q&A with CoinFlip's CEO Ben Weiss here.
Tampa-based Vu Technologies Corp. has opened its largest studio yet — a 32,000-square-foot virtual production studio in Orlando. It follows two other locations the company opened this year after closing a $17 million seed round in March.
Florida-based company Chetu opened its second Tampa Bay location. The software development company opened a 2,000-square-foot facility in Brandon. It houses 20 employees and is the company’s 10th location, which also has a spot in Clearwater.
Acquisitions
- Tampa-based ConnectWise acquired Wise-Sync, an Australian software company, for an undisclosed amount.
- Tampa-based Accusoft bought Massachusetts-based Snowbound in its largest acquisition deal yet. The Business Journal has the story.
Promotions
- Clearwater-based KnowBe4 hired Ani Banerjee as its new chief human resources officer. Banerjee will oversee the company’s HR operations across 11 countries, enhancing the company’s culture, recruitment strategies and DEI initiatives. He previously worked at Dell, AOL and Yahoo.
- Tampa-based Transflo, a cloud-based platform to help automate the supply chain, hired Cameron Eastman as its chief financial officer. Eastman previously served as a divisional CFO at Deloitte and most recently hails from California-based Kantata, where he served as VP of finance.
- St. Pete transplant Ark Invest is bolstering its research department. It has tapped Brett Winton for its chief futurist role, promoted four senior research analysts to director roles and hired five research associates. The move was made partly to “strengthen communication” between the research and portfolio management teams. You can read our original story about Ark moving to town and check out renderings of its new center here.
