startup

Arlington Event Will Celebrate Local and D.C. Area ‘Red Hot’ Startups

By Jo DeVoe

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1515 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn. 

Fifteen Arlington startups will be recognized this Wednesday during an event highlighting “red hot” startups in the D.C. area.

Event company DCA Live selected more than 40 companies to recognize, including Courthouse-based data privacy startup Wire Wheel and Ballston-based GoTab, which facilitates to-go and in-person, contactless ordering.

“Red Hot Companies,” which will be held in Rosslyn, is the first large-scale, in-person event that DCA Live has been able to host since D.C. and Virginia reopened, according to company founder Doug Anderson. After 16 months of virtual offerings, he expects a big crowd — upwards of 400 people — for the sixth annual event.

“I didn’t move into the shallow end with a 100-person event,” Anderson said. “There was an opportunity for us to be first mover in returning to live events.”

Forty-four startups will be recognized, and the ceremony and networking opportunity at Sands Capital Management (1000 Wilson Blvd) will celebrate how the D.C. area tech sector survived the pandemic, he said.

“I think we’ve come out of this pandemic much stronger than we entered it,” Anderson said. “About half-way through the pandemic, it became clear one of the big winners would be tech businesses. They had the infrastructure, and they enabled the world to continue.”

These companies also found ways to use the pandemic to accelerate their business plans and the demand for their products, he said.

“They had to really focus on what their true value proposition was, who their true customer was and how to serve them,” he said.

A previous DCA Live ‘Red Hot Companies’ event (courtesy of Doug Anderson)

Anderson is recognizing a number of new companies as well as a few established ones. Most are smaller cybersecurity and financial technology companies, but a few are unicorns: privately held startups valued at more than $1 billion.

He picked the companies after soliciting nominations, evaluating them and consulting with people who have a pulse on the D.C. tech startup scene.

“I try to do a fresh look every year,” he said.

The event will draw out strong Arlington startups, including Brazen, Ostendio, CareJourney and C3, he said. Arlington Economic Development and property owner/developer Monday Properties are sponsors.

“It’s got a big Arlington angle to it,” Anderson said. “Arlington is a great place to start a company and host an event.”

This Arlington Woman is Using Her Heart Condition to Help Others Live Longer

By Anuj Khemka

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1515 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn. 

In 2017, while a graduate student at Georgetown University, Shavini Fernando’s heart suddenly stopped beating.

“I was working, and my friend started to scream that my entire face was blue,” said Fernando, who now lives in Arlington. “It didn’t even take one minute. I couldn’t breathe and my heart stopped.” 

Fernando managed to revive herself by self-administering CPR before the oxygen supply to her brain cut out, but the incident frightened everyone around her. Fernando’s doctor at The Johns Hopkins Hospital suggested that it was no longer safe to live on her own.

But Fernando, who was unwilling to let the condition control her life, refused. Instead, she decided to develop a wearable device that continuously monitors her flow of oxygen with the help of her graduate school program director and fellow students. Whenever Fernando’s blood oxygen levels fell below a normal threshold, the ear-worn device sends an emergency alert to her doctor.

“I’m sort of a rebel. When people tell me ‘you can’t do this,’ I want to show them that I can,” Fernando said.

OxiWear founder Shavini Fernando (courtesy of Shavini Fernando)

She channeled that fighting spirit two years prior, when a cardiologist told Fernando — who was 33 at the time — that she had just two years left to live. She flew from her home country of Sri Lanka to The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for a second opinion and treatment. There, she received medicine and equipment to help manage severe pulmonary hypertension, a condition in which the heart has trouble pumping blood through the lungs. The condition leaves people vulnerable to sudden and undetected drops in oxygen, known as silent hypoxia.

This condition makes it dangerous to live in high altitudes, so rather than return home to Sri Lanka, she settled in the D.C. area to keep receiving medical treatment and start her master’s degree at Georgetown. That decision ultimately set her up to establish OxiWear so that she could share the product that she wears to survive with others.

“Most of the deaths happen in the pulmonary hypertension and cardiovascular patient community because they don’t get the help in time,” Fernando said. “If they have an alert and a way of calling for help, these deaths can be prevented.”

By the end of this year, Fernando and OxiWear plan to launch a product to be used by the public for fitness. A medical device for those with heart conditions will come later, once it gets approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

Both devices connect to a smartphone to show users their oxygen levels and enable them to contact emergency services during sudden drops.

A prototype of a forthcoming device from OxiWear (courtesy of Shavini Fernando)

OxiWear is now closing in on $1 million in funding since its launch in the spring of 2019. Most recently, after securing patents in the U.S, China and Japan, the company received investments from CIT Gap Funds and Tie DC. Before that, Fernando obtained funding through her connections at Georgetown and a crowdfunding campaign.

“Currently, there is no other device available to continuously monitor oxygen levels. OxiWear is a game changer for those affected by the complications of pulmonary hypertension, and could be the difference between safety and danger,” Tom Weithman, Managing Director of CIT GAP Funds, said in a press release.

Fernando says that investors and potential consumers initially expressed doubt about the importance of the product. As COVID-19 raised awareness of the dangers of silent hypoxia, however, OxiWear gained traction.

“Because of COVID-19, fundraising became really slow. At the same time, a lot of people started contacting us, asking, ‘Is there a way we can purchase this device?’ I’m like ‘I wish I could get it out fast, but we don’t have enough money,'” Fernando said.

In the early stages of the company, as funding dried up, Fernando and her employees went months without pay. Still, the OxiWear founder carried on.

“Even if it kills me, I will get this done. That’s why, even without funds, we’ve managed to get so far in such little time,” said Fernando. “For me, this is not about making money. It’s about helping those like me. Once you get silent hypoxia, even if you are recovered, you will end up with life-long after effects.”

Fernando and her OxiWear employees work remotely. The company’s address is publicly listed as a condo in Rosslyn.

Rosslyn Startup Ostendio Completes Major Round of Funding

By Anuj Khemka

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1515 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn. 

Ostendio, an information security management company, has completed its first significant round of venture capital funding since its founding in 2014.

Company leaders said they hope the funding will help them further develop, market and provide customer service for Ostendio’s leading product: the MyVCM Trust Network. The software platform lets small and mid-size companies securely share information with third-party sellers and security auditors and demonstrate their compliance with security regulations — or find the help they need to get on track.

“Our main goals are to increase awareness of the Ostendio MyVCM platform and to grow the MyVCM Trust Network, [which] connects organizations with their vendors to help them safely share security information,” company spokeswoman Miranda Elliott said. “The funding will be used to expand the network of auditor partners, as part of the MyVCM Auditor Connect feature, and to expand our vendor risk management solution, MyVCM Vendor Connect.”

The amount of the funding was not disclosed.

Ostendio co-founders Grant Elliott and Marc Bandini (courtesy of Ostendio)

Since launching in Rosslyn in 2014, Ostendio has grown to 30 employees and more than 100,000 user activities per month on the MyVCM Trust Network platform. Elliott said that Ostendio aims to have 50 employees by the end of the year. In 2019, the company moved into a larger office in Arlington Tower (1300 17th Street N.) to accommodate its growing team. Ostendio aims to have 50 employees by the end of the year.

“With this investment we will help many more companies move away from the arcane and episodic security audit process, helping them to transition to an always on, always auditable, always secure alternative,” Ostendio CEO and Chairman Grant Elliott said in a press release.

The financing round, led by Philadelphia-based Osage Venture Partners, began in early 2020 but had to be put on hold until the fall of 2020 due to the pandemic.

“We were impressed by both the magnitude and simplicity of Ostendio’s vision in a very large market where innovation is long overdue, particularly as security and compliance requirements proliferate,” said OVP Partner Sean Dowling, who will join Ostendio’s Board of Directors.

New Company Charters Cozy Cruises of Potomac River, Chesapeake Bay

By Jo DeVoe

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1812 N. Moore Street in Rosslyn.

There is a new skipper offering cruises of the Potomac River that launch from Gravelly Point in Arlington.

Jerry Lee is a South Korean immigrant and a lawyer-turned-captain who started chartering boat tours this spring through his new company, Reflections DC. He offers two-hour powerboat cruises of the Potomac from Gravelly Point and three-and-a-half to five-hour sailing excursions of the Chesapeake Bay from Shadyside, Maryland.

His launch coincided with cherry blossom season and he was fully booked during that time.

“That was really encouraging,” said Lee, who lived for a number of years in Clarendon.

Bookings continue to fill up: His weekends are almost fully booked and he takes tourists on the water about two to three times a week. Many find out about his company through his Airbnb experiences page, which drives up to 40% of his bookings. His most popular offering is the powerboat cruise but he is working to promote his sailing excursions, which range from trips for pleasure to instructional courses.

“It’s very quickly been enough to earn a living,” he said. “It’s going faster than I expected. As the weather gets warmer, people are booking more and more.”

He got the idea for Reflections DC from a friend who owns a charter business in Baltimore. He started the company last year and then set out to obtain the necessary business licenses and build up the online presence needed to get started.

Lee is trying to carve out a niche for Reflections DC as a private, small boating company offering “engaging, conversation-driven and personalized experiences” — with complimentary beer, seltzers and sodas — amid big competitors running dinner cruises.

“I really do want to get people inspired to learn to sail and to buy a boat, to do all that stuff safely,” he said.

The skipper, who came to the U.S. when he was 16, discovered sailing in college while teaching martial arts to support himself. One of his students became a good friend and took him sailing for the first time. Throughout the rest of college and during law school, Lee rented little dinghies and kept improving his sailing skills. He finished law school in 2011, did corporate litigation for two years and started taking on cases as a private-practice attorney in 2013.

While he has kept his day job for now, one day Lee hopes to make Reflections DC a full-time pursuit.

“When people see me as a lawyer, they have a problem they want me to solve, and that’s fulfilling, but people are upset when people see me,” he said. “On the boat, people are happy, and if they aren’t, they will be when they’re done.”

Lee aims to expand and run more than one boat at a time but he doesn’t want it to get so big that Reflections DC loses its essential offering — “a more pure experience” of the river and the sights surrounding it.

“I feel like I shouldn’t be able to make a living doing something so much fun,” he said.

Ballston Events Company Wins Award for Pandemic-Era Online Talk Show

By Jo DeVoe

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1812 N. Moore Street in Rosslyn.

A web-based news show hosted by Modev, a Ballston-based company exploring the future of voice controls, recently won one of “the internet’s highest honors,” a Webby.

The award for the show, named VOICE Talks, “caps off a crazy year,” said Modev CEO and founder Pete Erickson.

Pre-pandemic, the startup organized large events that connected developers and large companies interested in the latest industry developments in voice control technology (think: Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant). As the vaccine rollout continues and case numbers drop, the startup is beginning to return to its original purpose and aims to host a conference in 2022 in Arlington

But over the last year, Modev had to figure out something virtual to sustain the company and the conversations around voice control technologies. Erickson said the company came up with the idea for a multi-segment talk show, which is now sponsored by Google Assistant.

“Our business largely got canceled when the pandemic hit. Right away, we started this program called VOICE Talks,” he said. “We just thought that doing a virtual conference wasn’t going to be good enough. We needed something more creative — something that people would enjoy doing.”

Humans are not wired for virtual conferences, which are not great business drivers and are frustrating for conference sponsors, Erickson said. The talk show, meanwhile, presents the same kind of information that would be learned at a conference in a more compelling format, he said.

The show is streamed live with a host in New York City who adds introductions, transitions and conclusions to pre-recorded segments that feature guests from companies ranging from tech startups to blue chip corporations like Nike and Dunkin’. During the show, the host takes questions, runs polls and gives out awards.

“We built up a super loyal audience that tunes in and is always growing,” Erickson said.

According to the CEO, the show has more than 100,000 email list subscribers and averages 25,000 views per month.

“In the age of YouTube, those aren’t large views, but we aren’t a consumer show: this is a business-to-business show in a niche industry,” he said.

Erickson intends to keep the show running monthly even after the pandemic ends and Modev can return to planning live events.

“It’s a nice new way to connect the community globally,” he said.

Erickson said voice control technology space is rapidly changing, but the market is still in its early days.

“What a lot of people have experienced with Google Assistant, Alexa or Siri is the first iteration of voice,” he said. “You’re going to see it start to gain more ubiquity as time goes on.”

These changes will be at the center of the 2022 conference in Arlington, slated for Oct. 10-15, 2022, and headquartered at a hotel in Crystal City. The conference will use indoor and outdoor spaces and tents to “create a really fun, interactive and safe environment for a lot of people to meet,” he said.

“With 22 hotels and lots of restaurants and space, National Landing is a space where you can have a pretty large event and link it all together and have a compelling experience,” he said. “It lacks a large conference center or trade show floor, but I think those things are overcome-able with a creative use of space.”

Photo via VOICE Talks/Youtube

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Winning Lottery Ticket Sold in Crystal City — “A Maryland man walked away with the top prize in the Virginia Lottery’s Double Dollar Crossword, after the ticket from ann Arlington convenience store turned out to be a winner.
Silver Spring resident Elvis Umana Hernandez works in construction and carpentry. He recently bought the winning ticket worth $250,000 during a visit to the 7-Eleven at 1500 S. Fern St.” [Patch]

‘Walking Marine’ Walks Through Arlington — “Terry ‘The Walking Marine’ Sharpe has been walking through Arlington today and giving out toy soldiers to raise awareness of veteran suicide.” [Twitter]

Goldman Sachs Investing in Local Startup — “Arlington startup MotoRefi, whose platform aims to make refinancing car loans easier for consumers, is closing in on an eight-figure round involving a blue-chip investor. The company is poised to raise about $45 million in new funding, the lion’s share of which comes from Goldman Sachs, according to sources familiar with the deal.” [Washington Business Journal]

Catholic Diocese Lifts Restrictions — “The Catholic diocese in Arlington, Virginia, has lifted COVID-19 restrictions for masses and other activities. Bishop Michael Francis Burbidge said in a video message released Tuesday, ‘We can once again celebrate as a community, without the need for social distancing or capacity limits.’ People who are not vaccinated are ‘encouraged to wear a mask for the time being,’ the bishop said.” [WTOP]

ACFD Helps Battle Fairfax House Fire — “The Fairfax County and Arlington fire departments also responded to a house fire in the 7700 block of Virginia Lane in Falls Church last night. A cause and estimate of damages have not been announced yet, but the blaze did not result in any reported injuries.” [Tysons Reporter]

Affordable Housing Bill Takes Effect July 1 — “Thanks to HB 2046 from Del. Jeff Bourne, D-Richmond, beginning on July 1 localities across Virginia will no longer be allowed to deny building permits to projects ‘because the housing development contains or is expected to contain affordable housing units occupied or intended for occupancy by families or individuals with incomes at or below 80% of the median income of the area.'” [GGWash]

Reminder: We’re Taking The Day Off — ARLnow’s staff has been working hard during the pandemic and we’re getting the day off to enjoy a four-day Memorial Day weekend. As such, except in the event of breaking news, we will not be publishing today.

Flickr pool photo by Kevin Wolf

Higher Logic in Rosslyn Acquires Canadian Software Company

By Jo DeVoe

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1812 N. Moore Street in Rosslyn.

Online community builder Higher Logic recently announced its acquisition of Vanilla, a Canadian cloud-based community software company.

Headquartered in Rosslyn at 1919 N. Lynn Street, Higher Logic creates online forums for companies, nonprofits and member-based organizations. By acquiring Vanilla — which helps brands engage customers and increase their loyalty while reducing costs — the company said it will be able to serve more customers than any other community solution of its kind.

“At a time when human connection is more important than ever, Higher Logic will expand its offering to customers across new markets and geographies,” the company said in a press release. “Together, Higher Logic and Vanilla will give its customers more choices with purpose-built community engagement solutions that meet the needs of their use case, industry and users.”

Higher Logic CEO Kevin Boyce said he was impressed by how Vanilla served customers including technology company Oracle and electronics company Acer. He said it mirrors Higher Logic’s success with health tech company Change Healthcare and network security company Juniper Networks.

“Our scale, profitability, and accelerating growth will allow us to increase our investment in both the association and corporate markets and continue to build industry-leading engagement solutions that connect people, knowledge, and ideas,” Boyce said in a press release. “We are excited to welcome the Vanilla team into the Higher Logic family.”

Vanilla is the sixth company that Higher Logic has acquired since its founding in 2007. Last year, it acquired Customer Imperative, a South Carolina-based startup that builds conversations between businesses and customers, following up on an acquisition spree of four companies in 2017.

“Higher Logic has a proven track record in building community engagement and facilitating meaningful connections for organizations,” Vanilla CEO Luc Vezina said in a statement. “With more interactions happening digitally, community has become mission-critical for almost every organization. We are thrilled to be joining forces with Higher Logic to create the pre-eminent online community solution.”

The company said it brought on a number of Vanilla employees, giving Higher Logic a total global headcount of 400.

“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, our leaders made decisions that ensured we could run the business without having to furlough or lay off our employees,” Chief People Officer Joanna Luth told ARLnow. “Because of our commitment to our employees, we were focused on putting their needs first. We have continued to grow over the past year and have been actively hiring across all areas of the business.”

Higher Logic helps associations grow while retaining their customers and members. Today, it also serves more than 3,000 clients and has expanded into the corporate business-to-business market. Outside of its headquarters at Waterview Tower in Rosslyn, the company has offices in Portland; Saratoga Springs, New York; Australia and Canada.

Company board member Bob Nye, who is a partner at JMI Equity, said in a press release that Higher Logic has quadrupled its recurring revenue to more than $80 million in the last four years.

“The collective digital engagement expertise positions Higher Logic’s employees and customers well for growth and shared success in this new world,” he said.

Arlington-Based Recurate Helps Fashion Brands Facilitate Secondhand Sales

By Jo DeVoe

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1812 N. Moore Street in Rosslyn.

Online secondhand shopping is taking the U.S. fashion market by storm and one Arlington startup is helping traditional retailers adapt.

Recurate — co-founded by CEO Adam Siegel, who lives and works from home in Rosslyn — allows retail brands to host resale platforms where customers can sell their used items directly from their purchase history.

The company manages the shipment from the seller to the buyer, and the seller is compensated with in-store credit or cash once the product is delivered.

“Every brand has lost revenue and customers to the resale market,” CEO Adam Siegel tells ARLnow. “Sites like Poshmark and ThredUp have made it cool to buy pre-owned products, and brands’ customers are flocking to those sites to buy branded pieces.”

The market for used clothing and accessories is projected to more than triple in value in the next decade, from $28 billion in 2019 to $80 billion in 2029, Fast Company reports. In 2019, it expanded 21 times faster than conventional apparel retail.

“We’re confident that branded ‘recommerce’ will become mainstream in the next couple years, and brands realize that they need to sell both new and pre-loved items in order to address their customers’ desires,” Siegel said.

Many consumers are switching to secondhand clothing to avoid supporting “fast fashion,” the moniker encompassing international retailers such as Zara and H&M, which sell trendy, inexpensive clothing made in sometimes unsafe factories by workers earning a few dollars a day.

Siegel said he and his business partner Chief Operating Officer Wilson Griffin founded Recurate by drawing on their long histories in sustainable retailing.

Griffin worked in The Gap’s sustainability team for the last six years, addressing issues like energy reduction, renewable energy generation, and waste reduction.

Siegel said he built and led the sustainability and ethical production programs for the Retail Industry Leaders Association, the trade association that represents the largest retailers.

Those experiences led them to found Recurate and expand resale opportunities to retail outlets.

“It was clear that the secondhand market was growing, and given our collective experience, we knew that buying used is the most sustainable way to shop,” Siegel said.

The company, founded in early 2020, just before the pandemic, announced it recently raised $3.25 million in seed funding. Recurate intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations and its business reach.

This is the second round of funding, following up on a pre-seed round last summer, Siegel said.

The company recently announced it is partnering with La Ligne, Mara Hoffman, and Peak Design. Siegel said brands find Recurate through mutual connections and online events.

“We are fortunate to have so much interest from such wonderful — and industry-leading — brands,” Siegel said.

Photo courtesy Adam Siegel

Rosslyn Startup Launches Lab to Develop a Smarter 5G Network

By Jo DeVoe

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1812 N. Moore Street in Rosslyn.

All eyes — and phones — are trained on the rollout of 5G.

The next generation of mobile internet service promises higher data rates, meaning more people will be able to access the internet simultaneously and enjoy, among other things, higher quality videos and faster download speeds.

Telecommunications companies can either buy new, custom 5G hardware or install 5G servers on existing cell phone infrastructure. Many companies are opting to use servers because they are cheaper and more flexible than buying hardware, according to Jim Shea, the co-founder and CEO of the Rosslyn-based startup DeepSig (1201 Wilson Blvd).

How these servers run, however, could be improved, Shea said.

His startup is looking to make these servers run smarter, not harder, using machine learning, or artificial intelligence (AI). DeepSig is currently testing a solution, which would be a simple software upgrade for these servers, in its Rosslyn lab.

The software could have political and environmental consequences for the rollout of 5G, Shea said. It is a goal DeepSig has been working toward since it was founded four years ago.

“I call this the inflection point,” he said.

DeepSig has been working with a number of government organizations and private companies, trying to raise enough money to launch the lab and hire the staff needed to develop this smart software. It finally launched the lab in March.

“We’ve been building toward this,” Shea said. “It takes a long time, but once you can prove your product is valuable, you can scale rapidly. This lab is key to us getting our tech out there.”

Currently, phones are constantly seeking a good cell connection and telling local wireless network hubs, called “base stations,” when the connection is bad. In that case, the base stations may increase power to improve the signal quality.

Using DeepSig’s software, the 5G servers will repurpose the information coming from cell phones to understand the station’s surroundings and what may impact signal quality.

For example, Shea said near his WeWork office, the cell signal bounces off Rosslyn’s tall buildings. Using AI, the 5G server could learn how the signal interacts with buildings and harness these patterns to improve signal quality without having to resort to ramping up the power.

“That’s what we’re proving out with the AI lab,” Shea said. “We know of large industrial partners who are excited about our tech. By June or July, we’ll be making calls through our labs and inviting people to come and see the tech at work.”

The software improves the 5G server’s performance without ramping up the power, which Shea said is better for the environment.

“Everyone’s worried about global warming,” he said. “Our software reduces energy consumption.”

Ultimately, Shea said the goal is to also get DeepSig’s technology embedded into American-made 5G hardware.

Currently, American mobile providers can choose from three of the four major hardware providers, all outside of the U.S.: Finland’s Nokia, Sweden’s Ericsson or South Korea’s Samsung. (Telecom companies cannot work with the Chinese company Huawei over data privacy concerns.)

Shea said DeepSig’s tech will help make American-produced hardware competitive in the marketplace.

“The problem in the U.S. is that we don’t have a domestic [5G] industry,” he said. “We hope to be part of the group that gets the U.S. to rehome this technology back here. There’s a lot of interest in the government to get that to happen.”

Photo courtesy DeepSig

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Ballston Company’s IPO Soars — “Privia Health Group, which provides technology and services to physician practices, began trading Thursday on the Nasdaq and saw its share price jump in early trading — and stay there. Shares closed at $34.75 per share, up 51 percent from its opening share price of $23, with just over 10 million shares traded.” [Crunchbase]

Ambulance Crash in N. Arlington — “Crash involving an ambulance (not ACFD) at Old Dominion Drive & Lorcom Lane. @ArlingtonVaFD & @ArlingtonVAPD on the scene.” [Twitter]

New Hire for County Retirement System — “After a nationwide search, the Arlington County Employees’ Retirement System (ACERS) has selected Susie Ardeshir as Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer. The appointment is effective July 6, 2021. Ms. Ardeshir has more than 15 years of investment management experience. Before joining ACERS, she was the investments director at a public university system in California.” [Arlington County]

Grants to Nat’l Landing Merchants — “The National Landing Business Improvement District (BID) teamed up with Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) to provide $100,000 in relief funding to 30 businesses as part of their “Love Local” campaign. Funds are allocated evenly across the eligible National Landing establishments to help cover necessary operator-related expenses including rent and employee wages.” [Press Release]

VHC Doc, Nurses Honored — “Virginia Hospital Center… is pleased to announce Michael Silverman, MD, FACEP, chair of emergency medicine, was recently selected as one of five 2020 Facility Medical Directors of the Year by Alteon Health [and] five members of the nursing team were selected by Washingtonian Magazine to receive Excellence in Nursing Awards.” [Press Release]

Rosslyn-Based Meal Delivery Service Territory Foods Nabs $22 Million

By Jo DeVoe

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1812 N. Moore Street in Rosslyn.

Territory Foods, a meal delivery service that lets consumers personalize to their diet, recently announced it raised $22 million in a recent funding round.

Territory delivers its healthy meals directly to consumers through “a decentralized back-end marketplace” that partners with local chefs in the communities served by the company.

The Rosslyn-based startup caught the interest of investors that have put their money behind companies such GoPro, the online consignment service thredUP, the vegan “meat” alternative Beyond Meat and the fast-casual salad chain Sweetgreen. Two retired sports celebrities, soccer player Abby Wambach and NFL tight end Vernon Davis, also invested.

Territory Foods has enjoyed 250% year-over-year growth and is poised to increase its footprint nationwide, according to Rick Lewis, a general partner of U.S. Venture Partners, the investment group that led the funding round.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Territory Foods, a mission-driven brand who has built an incredibly distinctive business model by tapping local chefs who make healthy-eating attractive, tasty and attainable to consumers around the country,” Lewis said in a statement. “More than ever, we need true innovation in the food space.”

The new round of funding will allow Territory to expand the number of chefs it works with and provide customers more meal options, said CEO Ellis McCue.

“We go to great lengths to create optimized, personalized meals for each consumer and empower our chefs with data about our customer’s taste and nutritional preferences so they can tailor each meal, ultimately providing more variety than other delivery options out there,” McCue said in a statement.

The startup has raised $44 million to date, which Territory Foods said is the most venture funding raised by a female-led company in the ready-to-eat food category.

According to the company, Territory’s meals are made from scratch using responsibly-sourced ingredients.

“Territory’s ever-rotating, regionally curated menus always feature fresh non-inflammatory ingredients that optimize whole-body health, support a wide variety of dietary preferences, and have minimal to zero environmental impact,” the company said.

The startup launched in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria in 2012 but the company now lists its headquarters as being based at the WeWork in Rosslyn (1201 Wilson Blvd). Territory Foods has grown to serve over 20 major U.S. markets from coast to coast.

Partner chefs and restaurants hail from all over the U.S., and D.C.-area customers will recognize one partner restaurant — local restaurant chain Founding Farmers. Of Territory’s partner food-service companies, McCue said that 42% are women-owned and 38% are led by people of color.

Territory Foods also partners with Feeding America, donating proceeds, meals and volunteer hours to fight food waste and hunger in the U.S., according to the website.

Territory announced last winter that it was recognized as a Best Company for Women and McCue a Best CEO in a 2020 awards competition from the startup Comparably. The awards recognize workplaces that are good for women, have a diverse workforce and promote work-life balance, among other categories.

Photos via Territory Foods

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