“Outcomes that enhance diversity and inclusion”: Bronze Valley after three years
February 2021 marked three years since the Bronze Valley Conference that launched an organization dedicated to creating opportunity, realizing potential and nurturing places where economic growth and cultural progress go hand-in-hand to strengthen entire communities....
Bronze Valley invests in Chicago-based EdTech startup Upkey
Upkey, a Chicago-based startup that offers students free online career readiness tools, recently announced its closing of $2.6 million in seed funding. The company also announced Purdue University, SNHU and Guardian Life as customers for its platform, which helps...
Bronze Valley Accelerator, Innovate Birmingham Announce Job Skills Training Program
Bronze Valley Accelerator and Innovate Birmingham announced on January 20 the launch of gener8tor Upskilling, a free training program to help Alabama residents obtain critical digital skills for in-demand jobs. Funded through a grant from Microsoft, the program will...
Bronze Valley cohort part of 50 companies in gener8tor fall pre-accelerators nationwide
On October 5, nationally ranked startup accelerator gener8tor announced the 50 participants selected for ten Fall 2020 gBETA cohorts. The 50 startups are located across the country, and represent a wide variety of industries and verticals, including IIoT, medical...
Bronze Valley board adds Coleman, Peoples
Bronze Valley has added two members to its Board of Directors. They are Kenneth E. (Kenny) Coleman, president and CEO of the Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA), and Jeff Peoples, executive vice president of Customer and Employee Services for Alabama Power. “Kenny and...
Acclinate Genetics is latest addition to Bronze Valley portfolio
Racial and ethnic minorities make up 40 percent of the U.S. population. But when it comes to medical research, minorities account for as little as two percent of participants in studies of new tests and treatments. Acclinate Genetics — the newest addition to the...
Bronze Valley Accelerator Welcomes Kendrick as Director
“Birmingham’s entrepreneurial ecosystem has been picking up momentum,” Haley Medved Kendrick says. “Our community can become one of the Southeast’s leaders in encouraging and supporting innovation- and tech-related growth and attracting and retaining top...
Atlanta-based Film Connx is latest Bronze Valley investment
Bronze Valley is making its first investment in the entrepreneurial hotbed of Atlanta. Film Connx, a job marketplace for the film industry, joins a portfolio of startups that now has grown to nine companies since the nonprofit Bronze Valley was launched late in 2017....
Bronze Valley teams with gener8tor to launch Bronze Valley Accelerator
A new partnership between Bronze Valley and gener8tor, a nationally-ranked startup accelerator, will fuel the growth of startups emerging from Birmingham and throughout the Southeast. The Bronze Valley Accelerator is a free version of gener8tor’s program, aimed at...
Bronze Valley welcomes new board member Greg Barker
Bronze Valley has added Greg Barker to its board of directors. Barker, recently named president of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama (EDPA), was elected to the board at its May meeting. “I am genuinely excited to be part of such a dynamic and...
Hassan Riggs and Smart Alto are at home in Birmingham
Achieving the convergence of need and opportunity is the essential idea behind Hassan Riggs’s company, Smart Alto, which is the latest addition to the growing Bronze Valley portfolio. It’s also a big reason he moved his startup from Silicon Valley to Birmingham — and...
TechBirmingham webinars helping businesses navigate COVID-19 challenges
The COVID-19 pandemic represents a substantial threat to public health and economic stability in the United States and throughout the world. At the very least, it is temporarily altering the ways people live and do business, with the need for social distancing,...
Bronze Valley and gener8tor launch emergency response program
Small businesses in Alabama affected by the COVID-19 outbreak will be supported by a new initiative announced on April 7. A partnership of Bronze Valley and business accelerator program gener8tor, the Alabama Emergency Response Program will provide small businesses,...
Debt management platform PeopleJoy is latest addition to Bronze Valley portfolio
"If you're an entrepreneur," Emeka Oguh declares, "you want to find a way to solve your own problems." Oguh, 36, is the founder and CEO of PeopleJoy, the latest addition to the Bronze Valley investment portfolio. A Philadelphia-based startup that helps student loan...
HBCU Summit focused on opportunities, challenges, leadership
America’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) currently serve well over 300,000 students. Alabama is home to 14 HBCUs with combined enrollment of more than 37,000, or about 12 percent of the national total; no state has more HBCUs and only North...
