After a year of anticipation, the 18th annual Venture Atlanta conference finally kicked off on October 15th and 16th at the Woodruff Arts Center and Atlanta Symphony Hall!

For nearly two decades, Venture Atlanta has been the Southeast’s hub for founders and investors to connect. This year, that energy only grew stronger, with attendees sparking countless connections and more moments that truly mattered than ever before.

Let’s take a look at some of the standout numbers from this year’s conference:

• 1,600 Attendees (Most Ever)
• 100 Sponsors
• 425 Investors
• 560 Applications to Pitch
• 85 Selected Companies (19 Sectors Represented)
• 50 Presenting Companies
• 65% From Outside Georgia (14 States Represented)
• 45 Pre-Seed, 23 Early Stage, and 17 Growth Stage Companies

If you missed out on the conference, don’t worry: watch the recap video or keep reading for insights from our expert panels, pitch competition, opening keynote, networking sessions, and more!

Key Takeaways from Day 1 of Venture Atlanta 2025

Investor & Entrepreneur Breakfast - The Great Disruptor: AI and the Opportunities from Enterprise to Consumer

Venture Atlanta 2025 opened with a packed tent and a powerful panel about how AI is reshaping how we build, work, and live. 

Moderated by David Excell, Founder of Featurespace, a Visa Solution, this panel brought together three distinct investor perspectives:

• Gardiner Garrard (Co-Founder & Managing Partner, TTV Capital)
• Vanessa Larco (Former Partner at NEA)
• Ryan Sanders (Managing Director, Mercato Partners)

Here are some of our takeaways from the panel:

• Vanessa Larco drew a parallel between today’s AI boom and the early iOS era in venture capital. Back then, investors feared that apps built on Apple’s platform wouldn’t be fundable, until companies like Airbnb and Uber proved otherwise. The same will be true for AI: OpenAI won’t want to own every application or touch real-world assets, leaving enormous room for founders to build on top of its technology.
• She also noted that founders can now do more with less: “You can raise $10 million and build something really great,” thanks to automation and lower operational costs.
• Ryan Sanders called today’s market the “most dynamic” he’s ever seen, but cautioned founders against competing head-on with foundation models. Instead, he advised them to compete on contrast, contracts, and control to own the differentiators only they can build.
• He also predicted “the death of the traditional SaaS contract,” with pricing models shifting toward outcomes and ROI. “The companies winning today,” he said, “are the ones that shrink time to value. Buyers will pay more when they see results faster.”
• Both investors emphasized that not all ARR is created equal. Healthy gross margins and quality recurring revenue matter more than ever.
• The panel closed with a reminder from Gardiner: “AI is your substrate. It’s the foundation, not the product.” Because the substrate changes daily, founders must anchor to a clear North Star. When you know exactly what problem you’re solving, you can adapt and apply new AI advances with focus and precision.

Opening Keynote: Garrett Langley in Conversation with Mayor Andre Dickens

In this fireside chat, Garrett Langley (Flock Safety) and Mayor Andre Dickens pulled back the curtain on what it really takes to win when your customers are cities and enterprises.

• Mayor Dickens made the case for Atlanta as a founder’s launchpad: a deep talent bench across 60+ colleges and universities, a global gateway airport that puts 80% of the U.S. within a two-hour flight, and one of the country’s densest clusters of Fortune 500s.
• Langley spoke candidly about the realities of selling into government. Blackout periods, strict procurement rules, and risk-mitigating processes that move on years, not weeks. The flip side? Once you’re in, you’re in: long, durable contracts with creditworthy customers and steady spend that compounds over time.

Key Takeaways

• Manufacture urgency. Don’t wait for annual budget cycles. Tie your value to things that matter to your buyer (e.g., World Cup timelines) to pull decisions forward.
• Find the champion. Deals close when a senior leader is willing to stick it out.
• Align to the public mission. In B2G, you’re really B2-Public. Map your value to the candidate or leader’s top three priorities to win support and trust.
• Expect rigor and rewards. Procurement is slow and regulated, but government contracts endure and can be financed against stable, long-term revenue.

Venture Atlanta Hall of Fame Induction

Every great ecosystem stands on the shoulders of its builders. This year, we celebrated three leaders whose companies, capital, and community-first ethos helped turn Atlanta into a launchpad for outsized outcomes.

Allen Moseley: Noro-Moseley Partners

As the first Venture Atlanta Board Chair, Allen Moseley helped unite the Metro Atlanta Chamber, Atlanta CEO Council, and TAG into a single, catalytic conference. His driving force stays the same: to help young companies meet the right investors and contacts to succeed.

Greg Benoit: QGenda (#VA2012)

Greg Benoit built the healthcare workforce management software, QGenda, serving 700k+ providers across 4,500+ customers, and led to a landmark acquisition by Hearst in August 2024 for $2.5B. He’s also invested in the next generation with the Techrise building beside Atlanta Tech Village.

Marc Gorlin: Roadie (#VA2015), Co-founder of Kabbage (#VA2010)

Marc Gorlin launched Roadie’s crowdsourced delivery platform in 2014 and co-founded Kabbage to expand access to working capital for SMBs. His playbook blends grit and generosity, right down to vesting employees 100% at exit.

Congratulations to these three pillars of the Atlanta tech ecosystem!

Panel - Venture Perspectives: Navigating the Southeast’s Startup Ecosystem

Moderated by Ashraf Hebela, Co-Head of Technology Banking and Head of Startup Banking at J.P. Morgan, this panel brought together three of the Southeast’s most insightful voices in venture and innovation: 

• Lisa Calhoun (Founding Managing Partner, Valor Ventures)
• Bill Nussey (Partner, Tech Square Ventures & Managing Director, Engage)
• Joshua Silver (Founder & CEO, Rainforest)

Their conversation unpacked the Southeast’s growing momentum in venture capital, the realities of AI, and the importance of character and collaboration in building a sustainable innovation ecosystem.

Here are our takeaways:

• In 2024, the Southeast accounted for nearly $11 billion in investment, which is about 5% of all U.S. venture capital.
• Joshua Silver highlighted Atlanta’s structural advantages, a globally connected airport, strong talent pipeline, and deep Fortune 500 network, but stressed that collaboration between corporations and startups must catch up to the city’s assets.
• Bill Nussey noted that Atlanta’s diversity of industries creates a uniquely cooperative business culture. In other cities, all of the startups are in the same industry, ex. Energy in Houston and financial services in New York. In Atlanta, every imaginable industry is here, and all of them work together.
• Lisa Calhoun reframed AI as an augmentation tool, urging founders to ask: “How are you using AI to augment your own best destiny?”
• Silver warned of the darker side of accessibility: AI’s power in the hands of fraudsters. “Bad actors now have access to the same tools as innovators,” he said. “Governance, data privacy, and ethics matter more than ever.”

Key Takeaways from Day 2 of Venture Atlanta 2025

Founders Breakfast: Inside the Deal — From Seed to Growth Equity and Beyond

Day Two kicked off with hard-earned lessons from both sides of the term sheet. 

Moderated by Brooke MacLean, CEO of Marketwake, the panel featured: 

• Michael Bauer (Managing Director, Sixth Street)
• Joe Berklund (Partner, Gunderson Dettmer)
• Sandy Donaldson (Co-Founder, President & Chief Strategy Officer, Impiricus)

Together, they peeled back the layers of deal-making, including what really drives valuation, to how founders can protect themselves (and their culture) while scaling.

• Michael Bauer warned that misaligned risk appetites are the quickest way to tank a relationship. “It’s like a marriage,” he said. “If one partner wants to go high-risk and the other wants to go slow and steady, that friction will show up later.”
• According to Joe Berklund, valuation is about leverage, and leverage comes from performance and relationships. “The average fund-company relationship lasts longer than a marriage,” he reminded founders. “Start those conversations early.” You wouldn’t want to get married to someone you talked to one time.”
• When it comes to team building, Sandy Donaldson’s contrarian hiring philosophy stood out. “We don’t want people who just watch Netflix and walk their dog,” he joked. “We want quirky, passionate people who hustle.” That approach has paid off: Impiricus boasts 100% team retention over five years.

AI in Healthcare: Separating Fiction from Functional

By Day Two, the conversation around AI continued. In “AI in Healthcare: Separating Fiction from Functional,” moderator Jaimie Clark (Head of Innovation, Catalyst by Wellstar) led an all-star lineup: 

• Lauren Oyster (Sr. Manager, Venture, Catalyst by Wellstar)
• Jason Kuo (Principal, Tech Square Ventures)
• Virginie Raphael (Founder & Managing Partner, FullCircle)

Together, they unpacked one of the biggest questions facing the industry: Is AI truly transforming healthcare, or are we just inflating another bubble?

With 62% of all digital health venture funding now flowing into AI, the panelists agreed that the frenzy is real, but so are the opportunities.

• Lauren Oyster noted that while the foundational AI boom has drawn attention, it’s mainly on the administrative side of healthcare. “The bubble isn’t on the clinical side. It’s in the back-office AI surge.”
• Jason Kuo added context: “Healthcare is about 20% of GDP, but only 6–8% of total IT spend. The appetite for AI in both clinical and administrative settings is huge.”
• When it comes to where AI is making its mark, the panel was aligned: administrative and revenue cycle management are leading the charge. “Administrative costs are 30% of total healthcare spend,” said Kuo. “If we can make that more efficient with AI, through things like ambient note-taking and automated billing, we unlock massive ROI with minimal risk.”
• “There’s no product differentiation anymore,” Virgine Raphael noted. “It’s about who your customer is, how quickly you can reach them, and how tenacious you are in doing it.”
• Oyster pointed out that while the FDA is catching up, innovation can’t wait. “Until it’s malpractice not to use AI in healthcare, adoption will never be complete.”

Procurement Palooza Panel

How do startups actually break into billion-dollar enterprises? At Procurement Palooza, a powerhouse panel pulled back the curtain on how some of Atlanta’s biggest companies evaluate, vet, and scale partnerships.

Moderated by Richard Hesse, Head of Commercial Partnerships at Inspire Brands, the panel featured:

• Neeraj Gulati, Director of Business Excellence, Southern Company
• Jonathan Townsley, VP of Global Sourcing, Fiserv
• Geri Williams, General Counsel for Strategic and Enterprise Contracts, The Home Depot

Together, they shared the inside view of what it really takes to get a “yes” from procurement, one of the toughest gates in enterprise innovation.

• “Every relationship starts with a business need,” said Neeraj Gulati. “Someone inside the company needs to buy the service. If there isn’t a clear need, we’re not bringing you in.”
• Geri Williams spoke on the importance of pilots: “It’s not just a PowerPoint presentation. It’s show and tell. Pilots are how we de-risk the relationship and see your value in action.” 
• Behind closed doors, much of the conversation centers on risk, including data protection, SOC 2 compliance, and financial stability. “We’re a public company,” said Gulati. “We have to make sure the businesses we work with are sustainable, trusted, and protect our data.”
• Jonathan Townsley was candid about what separates great founders from forgettable ones: “Be persevering, but don’t be a pest. Monthly check-ins with new information are perfect. Daily emails with nothing new are not.”

Mythbusting Procurement

To close the session, the panel tackled the biggest misconceptions about procurement:

“It’s all about cost.”

“Not true,” said Williams. “We invest in innovation and novelty. The company that brought us those orange pickup lockers? That started with an idea, not a discount.”

“You can go around procurement.”

“Big mistake,” warned Townsley. “In top-tier organizations, procurement is a key influencer. Don’t go around us, come through the front door.”

“Technology alone wins deals.”

Gulati summed it up: “Don’t just lead with tech. Lead with how it solves our business problem.”

Venture Atlanta 2025 Pitch Competition Winners

This year, 560 of the brightest tech startups in the Southeast applied to pitch on stage at Venture Atlanta. Of the 85 selected, 50 took the stage, 11 were finalists, and one took home a $375K investment prize.

This year’s finalists represented the best of what’s next across 19 sectors. Let’s take a look:

Startup Showcase Live - Seed and Pre-Seed

Winner: PromptWrx Inc.

Congrats to PromptWrx Inc. for winning the Venture Atlanta 2025 Startup Showcase Live! This innovative company helps hospitals collect money that insurers owe them through AI agents that work on denied claims.

PromptWrx integrates with EMRs and major payment gateways so its agent can work in the background, cutting manual effort by ~80% and recovering dollars without shifting cost to patients.

What’s next for them? PromptWrx plans to make its technology even faster to implement: cutting setup time from about eight weeks to just three or four. From there, they aim to move beyond fixing denied claims to preventing them altogether, using AI to review claims before submission and handle prior authorizations proactively.

Finalist: CivicReach

CivicReach is raising the bar for government customer experience. Their solution uses voice + vertical AI to make cities/counties/social services/government customer service actually work, helping backfill phone capacity amid understaffing and layoffs.

Finalist: Franzy

Franzy is the Zillow for buying & selling franchise businesses. With just a few questions, you can find a franchise that fits your investing goals and preferences. You can also find lenders for your franchising journey and do in-depth research, a typically complex task in the franchising process. 

Gale

Gale makes it easy for shoppers to pay with their HSA or FSA cards anywhere online, unlocking $175 billion in tax-advantaged funds for merchants. By tagging eligible products and adding Gale as a payment method, retailers can instantly boost conversions and revenue. Built on the same trusted SIGIS standard used by Amazon and CVS, Gale helps merchants see an average 10% lift in sales while consumers enjoy a smoother, smarter checkout experience.

Early Stage

Congrats to our finalists of the early-stage pitch competition at Venture Atlanta!

Captain Compliance

Captain Compliance is a privacy compliance platform that helps businesses prevent lawsuits and avoid fines related to data and tracking violations. Its suite of tools automates complex privacy requirements, reduces litigation risk, and builds customer trust.

Pixlmob Inc.

Pixlmob connects real estate professionals with top-tier photo and video editors, streamlining the entire post-production workflow. What started as a creative marketplace has evolved into a full-service platform that simplifies collaboration, accelerates turnaround times, and helps real estate teams elevate their property marketing.

Supered

Supered is a digital adoption platform built for teams using HubSpot, turning process documentation into in-platform behavior change. By delivering real-time, contextual training inside the CRM, Supered helps companies drive process adoption, improve sales productivity, and boost retention.

Kind Designs

Kind Designs uses advanced 3D-printing robotics to build custom, eco-friendly seawalls and shoreline structures that protect coastal communities while restoring marine habitats. Their innovative approach to marine infrastructure makes construction faster, more cost-effective, and more sustainable.

Growth Stage

Here are the finalists for our Growth Stage competition:

Elloe Inc.

Elloe is building the immune system for AI. Their platform and compliance layer protect large language models from hallucinations, bias, and regulatory risk. Its suite of tools, including TruthChecker, Autopsy, and Sentinel AI, delivers real-time explainability, live audits, and automated compliance guardrails for frameworks like the EU AI Act and HIPAA.

OptimaEd

OptimaEd is reimagining education through AI-driven, immersive classrooms in the metaverse. Its VR field trips and online courses bring core subjects to life for K–12 students, transforming lessons into interactive explorations that improve curiosity and retention. Already serving homeschool networks and scholarship programs, OptimaEd is shaping the future of virtual learning, one headset at a time.

VeroSkills

VeroSkills is tackling America’s blue-collar labor shortage with an AI-powered staffing platform designed for skilled trades and industrial employers. By streamlining the application and screening process, VeroSkills connects qualified candidates with nearby job openings in minutes. Partnering with major staffing and recruiting firms, the company is helping to rebuild the American workforce from the ground up.

Lucid Bots Inc.

Lucid Bots designs and manufactures AI-enabled drones and robots that handle the world’s toughest cleaning and maintenance jobs, from pressure washing skyscrapers to painting bridges. Based in Charlotte, NC, the company’s Sherpa drone and Lavo Bot eliminate dangerous manual labor while boosting productivity for cleaning and construction crews.

What’s Next for Venture Atlanta?

To everyone who joined us for Venture Atlanta 2025, thank you for making this year’s conference our most impactful yet!

A special thank-you goes out to everyone who made this event possible:

• Our Venture Atlanta 2025 Chair, Elizabeth Stephens
• The Venture Atlanta Board of Directors
• Our 100 incredible sponsors
• Our Title Sponsor for the sixth year running: Invesco
• Our Premier Sponsor: J.P. Morgan
• Our Diamond Sponsors: Intuit Aprio
• Our Headline Sponsors: Cherry Bekaert, ExtensisHR, Gunderson Dettmer, and Marketwake

We’re already gearing up for an even bigger and bolder Venture Atlanta 2026. Stay in the loop by subscribing to our newsletter and following us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and Facebook. Get ready to be part of the next moment that matters!