Occidental Petroleum, through its subsidiary, Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, acquired the the Direct Air Capture (DAC) company, causing an eruption of celebration throughout the community.Another great success story for the Knoxville entrepreneurial community with the official announcement that Holocene has been acquired by the oil and gas giant: Oxy.Rumors of the acquisition circulated in the
Hard tech isn’t for the faint of heart.It’s slow. It’s complicated. It often requires years of research, millions in funding, and a near-obsessive level of focus. But for founders like Corey Tyree and Dr. Nicholas Sokol, it’s not just worth it—it’s a calling.
The 5th annual PYA Tom Ballard Innovation Award will be held on Wednesday, April 16. This year, for the first time, PYA will welcome six startups to the stage to pitch their innovative businesses. The firm decided to have six presenters instead of five due to the sheer volume and quality of applications submitted.
Ben Nibali, the Founder of APTUS DesignWorks, spoke to fellows and partners of the Innovation Crossroads’ Founder’s Forum.A group of about two dozen gathered at the Smoky Mountain Brewery in Turkey Creek to hear Ben Nibali, Founder of APTUS DesignWorks, share his entrepreneurial journey. In September 2007, Nibali left a secure position at a large
“We have several more start-ups in the pipeline,” Brandon Bruce said. “We’re continuing our trend of investing in great Tennessee founders.”A year into operations for Knoxville’s venture capital firm, Market Square Ventures (MSV), more local founders are flocking toward the opportunity to raise money in East Tennessee before extending their search nationwide.
The Knoxville Chamber, in conjunction with Pinnacle Financial Partners, announced the winners of the 2025 Pinnacle Business Awards on Thursday. The annual Pinnacle Awards recognize regional business excellence, honoring outstanding professionals in nine categories for their contributions to the greater Knoxville economy. Over a hundred of Knoxville’s most prominent business leaders and partners attended the event
Circular Biosciences, a startup founded by Jordan Cannon, is at the forefront of developing sustainable solutions for plastic degradation. Born out of research from Cannon’s PhD work in Todd Reynolds’ lab in the Department of Microbiology at the UT Knoxville, the company is focused on utilizing groundbreaking enzymes to accelerate the biodegradation of polylactic acid
Perseus Materials Inc., a member 0f the 2023 cohort of the Innovation Crossroads program operated by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is one of 20 finalists selected to pitch at next week’s “JEC World 2025” event.
Six companies have moved forward to the 48-hour pitch competition on March 2nd at Scruffy City Hall!After 23 video-idea submissions, a full week of voting, and a lot of excitement from the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center (KEC), six founders have been selected to pitch at the annual “What’s the Big Idea?” pitch competition.