Tech Square Ventures

🚨 Funding alert! 🚨 Huge congrats to Jesse Kallman and the Danti team on their new $5M fundraise! Danti has grown to over 20 people since Jesse and Martice Nicks III started the company a year ago, landed the US Space Force as a customer, and will use this capital to roll out the product to the commercial industry as well. Anyone using large amounts of geospatial data (e.g., real estate, insurance, manufacturing) reach out to the Danti team to learn more! Read more here: https://tcrn.ch/4bhLyvm

‘The years go fast, the days go slow’ – they say I’ve always heard this phrase to describe parenting, but it also nails how I feel about the last 7 years at TSV. I suppose my wife and I have had 3 kids in that time too :) … but who’s counting anymore, the hours or the kids. Today is a big deal for me and my family, to announce that I get to join Blake Patton and Bill Nussey as Partner at Tech Square Ventures, the firm I have been honored to help build since 2017. It’s also given me space to recount the years. In doing so, I am filled with gratitude for this city that has adopted me, and conviction for the opportunity that lies ahead in the Southeast and Atlanta, it’s beating heart. Gratitude - Moving down here from NYC was a huge leap of faith, knowing no one, very confused by all the Peachtree Streets, and rabid Georgia Bulldog … fans. But the city opened it's arms. Chad (one of many) opened their door to me with no expectation in return. Once I landed in Atlanta and TSV, I was welcomed into the Tech Square community, meeting passionate founders like Seth. Mentors like Charlie poured into me, and the early TSV Engage team was like iron sharpening iron. Exposure to corporate innovators like David and Jim and founders like Allison Robinson completely changed my trajectory. This firm and this team have been my journey. We’ve pushed through COVID lockdowns, market upheavals and failing banks, to build something from nothing. We remain laser-focused on providing access to capital and customers. Maddie, Taylor, David, Junior, Joelle, Jason, Jordan, and Matthew... I love coming to work each day, and I get better every day, because of you all. I don't take that for granted. I am grateful to those who have entrusted me with much (where much is expected). It has been instrumental to my growth. Most of all, Blake who took the chance on me early, seeing my potential as he so masterfully does with founders. The CEOs I’ve had the privilege to back and Investors I’ve had the benefit of working alongside and Bill, a bastion of humility and thoughtfulness. I have much to learn from you and Blake. Conviction -   Which leaves me looking forward. This adopted hometown is in a critical juncture in my opinion. We’re standing on the shoulders of giants, from tech successes in the 90s, ‘00s, and 10’s, that is culminating in our richest talent pool, most diversified capital base, and nationalized reach (just look at Venture Atlanta). We’ve weathered the market reset well, and I believe we can be aggressive in this next cycle (right Donnie?). Lastly, I realize it’s in my genes to be a community driven guy, and I believe that’s our strength in Atlanta. I’ve seen it first hand with how our F500s have come together in an unprecedented way with Engage. I’m excited to double down on these relationships and dig in for the long haul. https://lnkd.in/danS2UwR

🥁 Drumroll please… 🥁 Join us in congratulating our very own Scott Lopano on his well deserved promotion to Partner at Tech Square Ventures! Since joining Tech Square Ventures as the first hire 7 years ago, Scott has made an immeasurable impact on our firm and the Southeast tech community, and his unwavering commitment to service and stewardship has been instrumental to the success of our firm and the city of Atlanta. Scott has worked tirelessly with our portfolio companies to ensure our founders succeed, was a key contributor to launching the Engage Network, is actively involved as a mentor at Atlanta Tech Village and is a board member of the Venture Atlanta Conference. Read more about his announcement here: https://lnkd.in/g4nCyyQG

We are excited to announce David Malloy joining Tech Square Ventures as an Investment Associate! His background as a founder, working with early stage startups, and investing in his community will be immensely valuable to our firm and portfolio companies. He'll be focused on Engage, investing in the future of Enterprise Tech, and connecting companies to customers during their key stage of scaling and Go-to-Market. Please join us in welcoming him back to Atlanta, and to TSV/Engage!

We are excited to announce Jordan Greenberg joining Tech Square Ventures as an Associate and Chief of Staff! His background in applying advanced technologies to venture firms and startups will be immensely helpful as our firm and our portfolio company entrepreneurs continue to scale.

"Graduates, your superpower is your vision - the superpower of successful entrepreneurs is their vision, and that's what we look for in our investments." If there's any superpower to highlight for the 7 ATDC graduates celebrated Tuesday night, it's the ability for them to transform their ideas into sustainable businesses, local jobs, and a rising entrepreneurial hub centered around Tech Square. Eletype, FilmHedge, Medxoom, Mitivate, OXOS Medical, Stackfolio (acquired by $JKHY), and Transitiv are role models for those who wish to build enduring companies in the Southeast. Thank you ATDC for a phenomenal event. ATDC has played a large role in TSV's growth. Blake Patton was excited and honored to be part of celebrating these amazing startups!

What do intuitive searches for geospatial data and seamless embedded SaaS payments have in common? They're the core value propositions of Danti and Rainforest, and both were covered last week in the Southeast's leading innovation news publication Hypepotamus after receiving funding from Tech Square Ventures. Read the articles here: https://lnkd.in/eqQm5TMj https://lnkd.in/gtm3n8Gy Jesse Kallman, well-equipped with his experience creating Airbus's geospatial data and analytics business, founded Danti to create a powerful natural language search engine for exploring the extensive collections of Earth observation data. Earlier this year, they raised a $2.75M Pre-Seed round led by Tech Square Ventures to speed up the development and deployment of their search engine for US government agencies and commercial partners in infrastructure, insurance, and real estate verticals. View their open roles here: https://danti.ai/careers/ After over a decade facilitating $2BN+ in healthcare payments while running Patientco, Joshua Silver decided to expand his payment infrastructure strategy to target all vertical software companies and founded Rainforest. After coming out of stealth earlier this year, they've quickly acquired a core customer base that will bring several hundred million dollars worth of payment volume to the platform. They raised $11.75M in Seed funding earlier this month to fuel their mission of out-of-the-box payment processing. View their open roles here: https://lnkd.in/gabQ3Gd9

We are excited to announce Steve George joining Tech Square Ventures as an Entrepreneur in Residence. His many years of operating experience and as a business coach and advisor, particularly in the Supply Chain sector, will be extremely helpful to our portfolio company entrepreneurs!

Congratulations to Cloverly, a Tech Square Ventures portfolio company, for winning the Growth Stage Company Award at last night's Atlanta Startup Awards! We're very proud of the company Jason Rubottom and his team are building!

Congratulations to Rainforest for their $12M raise with Accel, Infinity Ventures and Tech Square Ventures! We are excited to support them on their journey to bring software companies and financial services together - embedded payments in a very unique way.