Biz Talk: Introducing the Inaugural Accelerate 2022 Event, Showcasing Arlington’s Innovation

This article was written by Adam Henry, CEcD, Business Development Manager for Arlington Economic Development.

Next month, Arlington Economic Development will participate in the inaugural Accelerate 2022 event as a founding sponsor.

Accelerate 2022 is an investor conference and startup business competition to showcase Arlington and the Northern Virginia region as a national anchor for innovation and business opportunities. The audience for the event includes angel investors and venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and high-growth companies, students and state and local tech ecosystem service providers.

This event will take place at George Mason University’s Arlington Campus and provide a unique opportunity to showcase the community and its innovative companies to investors from all over the country to attract more outside capital to the region.

Arlington’s tech ecosystem is thriving with startups and high-growth companies throughout the community. In August 2021, the annual Inc. 5000 list was released. This list features the nation’s fastest-growing privately-owned companies in the United States, and 30 Arlington-based companies made the list for 2021.

Additionally, Arlington-based companies have had great success in raising venture capital in 2021. So far in 2021, Arlington-based companies have logged 20 angel and venture capital deals totaling more than $252.7 million (Pitchbook, 2021). Some notable activity in Arlington for 2021 included:

• Last week, local food tech startup Hungry Marketplace announced it raised $21 million in Series C financing from multiple high-profile investors
• In July 2021, supply chain risk management software company Interos announced it raised $100 million in Series C financing and joined an elite group of only 4% of the ‘unicorn’ startups nationally valued at more than $1 billion led by a female founder-CEO
• In June 2021, geospatial data and analytics company Fraym announced $7 million Series B financing to further scale their AI/ML software
• In February 2021, WireWheel, a data privacy technology company, announced $20 million in Series B financing to speed up its go-to-market plans and establish its leadership position in SaaS
• In January 2021, Stacklet announced it raised $18 million in Series A funding for its cloud governance platform

Arlington Economic Development is excited about the inaugural event to showcase Arlington and Northern Virginia as a major innovation hub through its world-class business assets, innovative companies, and an unparalleled diverse and talented workforce.

For more information on the event, please visit www.accelerate2022.org. Additionally, you can follow the event on LinkedIn and Twitter.