SSR - July 3, 2026

We're playing a little catch-up this issue, and with the Fourth of July weekend right around the corner, it felt fitting to send you off with a full plate. On the national stage, AI infrastructure company Together AI raised an $800 million Series C at an $8.3 billion valuation this week, one of the largest AI infrastructure rounds of the year and a reminder that late-stage capital keeps concentrating hard around a handful of category leaders. Founders across the South spent June closing rounds, launching accelerator cohorts, and picking up national attention, proof that the region doesn't take a summer break. Here's what you missed, and what's still ahead.
Louisiana

A reminder for founders on a deadline: applications for IDEAfuel, The Idea Village's venture accelerator supporting Black founders and founders of color, close Monday. The program, backed by the Regions Foundation, provides $15,000 in non-dilutive funding along with mentorship to help close longstanding gaps in early-stage capital access. Meanwhile in Lafayette, Opportunity Machine welcomed ten companies and eleven founders into its Summer 2026 Builder Program cohort, including Ready For Work, RealSpect, CheerGive, Hacker Tracker, Augm3nt, Novus Jewelry Operating System, Intelligent Home Gadgets, Metvero, Fortela Energy, and Memora. And on the infrastructure side, Louisiana Economic Development announced that the state now leads the nation in REDI Sites participation, with eight sites on the national site-readiness platform, backed by a $200 million FastSites investment fund designed to help communities compete for major projects before they even arrive.

Alabama

Birmingham's Sloss Tech conference brought together more than 1,000 founders, developers, and investors last week, and the energy was unmistakable. The standout moment came from the Innovate Alabama Student Innovation Competition, where student teams from the University of Alabama, Samford, and UAH pitched for $20,000 in non-dilutive funding. Samford students Troup Wallace and Ty Nelson took home the win with HelpHand, an app that connects users with on-demand local help from college students for moving, yard work, and odd jobs, and the pair says they're looking to scale across the Southeast. Alabama Launchpad's Cycle 2 2026 competition is also underway, with an application deadline of August 13.

Arkansas

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock secured a $96,313 National Science Foundation award to expand its Statewide Quantum Computing Working Group, building on a May workshop that brought together more than 25 leaders from higher education, industry, and government, including IBM and Fortinet. Beginning this month, the initiative will formalize curriculum development and workforce training aimed at positioning Arkansas as a player in quantum information science. On the retail side, Bentonville-based Act-II Capital Holdings launched the inaugural cohort of its Ozark Retail Accelerator, bringing together 12 consumer packaged goods companies from across the state to prepare for placement in major retail chains.

Florida

Cybersecurity startup SafeHill, founded by cybersecurity veterans Nicholas Gonzalez, Mike Peña, and Hector Monsegur, is positioning itself at the center of a growing fight: as AI-generated code floods the market, the company helps organizations expose attack paths before hackers find them. And Fort Lauderdale's Upside closed a $20 million Series A led by Aquiline Capital Partners and Flare Capital Partners to scale its AI-powered platform connecting housing instability to healthcare outcomes, a bet that solving where people live can meaningfully cut healthcare costs.

  Georgia

Atlanta added a new player to its investment landscape this month. Sabertooth Capital, a new DeepTech-focused investment firm founded by Justin Ernest, has already deployed close to $500 million into companies spanning AI, defense, robotics, quantum, compute, and space, giving institutional investors and family offices access to high-growth, later-stage technology deals. It's a sign that Atlanta's ambitions in deep tech are attracting serious capital to match.

Mississippi

Innovate Mississippi's statewide pitch season is heading into its final stretch. Five of seven regional competitions have wrapped, spanning Vicksburg, Starkville, Hattiesburg, Jackson, and the Gulf Coast, with events still to come from the Oxford-Lafayette Economic Development Foundation and the Community Development Foundation in Tupelo. Run in partnership with the Mississippi Small Business Development Center Network, the seven-region circuit spans both a High-Growth Innovation & Technology track and a Main Street track, with more than $200,000 in prizes on the line for founders across the state.

North Carolina

Carolina Beach-based Skillmaker closed an oversubscribed $4.5 million seed round to keep building out its AI and XR-based auto technician training program, developed alongside NAPA Auto Care. Founder and CEO Robin Cowie says the platform can cut training time for entry-level auto technicians from two years down to 25 days, a meaningful dent in the 650,000-technician shortage the industry is facing. New investors in the round include Potencia Ventures, FullCircle, the NC Tweener Fund, and NC State's Wolfpack Investor Network.

South Carolina

The South Carolina Research Authority handed out a fresh round of grants and welcomed new member companies this month. Volare Boats, Cuffway, SusMaTech, Memberworks, and PSF R&D Labs all received new grant funding, while Clemson University picked up new academic grants, and LivIQ Health, Land Takeoffs, Oral Pouch Solutions, and Petra Loan Servicing were accepted as SCRA member companies. It's another steady month for SCRA's role as the connective tissue behind South Carolina's early-stage tech formation.

Tennessee

The University of Memphis Venture Studio is hosting a Demo Day on July 8, featuring six spinout companies commercializing university research: UpCycle Farma, ChromatoCare Innovations, Mighty Zebras, CuesHub, P3ARL, and Izalco Tech. The afternoon presentations will be preceded by a morning "Startup School" workshop from AgLaunch, open to founders interested in agtech funding and tech transfer. Over in Knoxville, six companies were named to the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center's WORKS Accelerator 2026 cohort: Raina Ventures, Green Routine, Equipment Locker, VeriQual, DhyanaTech, and VACScore, spanning everything from misinformation detection to precast concrete ERP software.