Our Partners

The Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council (RBTC) is a member-driven association promoting the growth of the Roanoke-Blacksburg technology community. We are the essential business resource for technology entrepreneurs and companies seeking greater success. Our membership ranges from emerging technology firms to the largest employers in the region. The RBTC is building a community that catalyzes innovation, inspiration, success, and leadership within the Roanoke-Blacksburg region. 

The RBTC works hard to build a community for the region’s technology sector through meaningful relationships. We are unifying the region through intentional programming and focus on developing a regional innovation ecosystem. The RBTC operates at the highest levels of integrity, and we are honest, transparent, confidential, and supportive. We are dynamic and bring energy and excitement to everything we do. As thought leaders, we are never content with the status quo and always look toward the future.

The RBTC strives to consistently add value to building a solid region. We believe our future is bright and our region can be recognized globally for innovation, entrepreneurship and talent assets and consistently rank as one of the leading technology hubs in the nation.

RAMP (Regional Accelerator and Mentoring Program) provides expert support and resources for western Virginia technology, health science and life science startups. Its signature initiative is a semiannual RAMP-in-Residence 12-week intensive program for company founders that offers free office space with hi-speed internet access; $20,000 in equity-free funding; access to angel and VC investors; free membership in the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council and GAN; and three additional years of ongoing support.

 In addition, RAMP offers a monthly Pitch & Polish clinic for early-stage entrepreneurs.

Born out of a need to translate Virginia Tech research into commercial potential, the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center (VTCRC) was established in Blacksburg in 1985 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Virginia Tech Foundation. Since then, it has been home to over 750 premier organizations with a common goal to disrupt industries. Today, with operations across Virginia, the VTCRC supports various regional technology clusters and continues to be a destination for growth and a space with purpose.

 VTC Ventures invests in early-stage life sciences and high growth technology companies through two investment vehicles: the VTC Innovation Fund (Series A / B) and the VTC Seed Fund (seed stage). VTC Ventures is primarily funded by Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic and is managed by Middleland Capital.

Our primary goal is to invest in rapidly growing companies to create long term value within the Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic ecosystem. Although VTC Ventures is focused on Central and Southwest Virginia, it pursues high growth opportunities across the state of Virginia, the Mid-Atlantic, and nationwide.

Over the past 25 years, we’ve trained over 3,000 early-stage innovation teams and helped launch over 850 ventures that have raised close to $1 billion in public and private investments. These ventures have reached millions of people in over 50 countries with technological advancements in fields such as biotechnology, healthcare, sustainable energy and materials, and solutions for low-resource settings.

The Tiny Cargo Company is innovating a range of therapeutics composed of milk-derived extracellular vesicles (mEV’s) loaded with potent peptidic cargo. Tiny Cargo was born from Dr. Robert Gourdie’s lab at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in Roanoke, Virginia. Under Dr. Spencer Marsh (Chief Scientific Officer), Tiny Cargo was awarded a National Science Foundation Small Business Grant (STTR) to continue commercial development of their mEV-based drug delivery platform. This award provides funding for the logistical scaling of mEV isolation, as well as pursuing the development of a suite of therapeutic products for diseases including ischemia reperfusion injury following a heart attack.

To date, animal trials have validated potent therapeutic potential of Tiny Cargo’s drug delivery platform in a range of disease models, and they plan to expand current efforts to additional diseases. Tiny Cargo is currently pursuing partnerships with global dairy producers, including Danone and Fonterra, and working to obtain regulatory approval for mEV therapeutics.

Headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia, Qentoros Inc is focused on creating novel therapeutics derived from platelets that combat chronic infection and/or inflammation and promote tissue healing. Our unique formulation called BIO-PLY™ contains platelet-derived bioactive factors that are directly antimicrobial, promote a healthy immune response, dampen overzealous inflammation and stimulate tissue regeneration.

The unique multimodal activity of BIO-PLY™ leads to a novel therapeutic unlike anything currently available on the market.  The company is currently focused on commercializing BIO-PLY™ for treating orthopedic diseases in horses.  WWe anticipate our next market to be focused on canines with hopes to translate to humans in the near future.

ThermaSENSE is a deep technology startup that provides unique thermal-based sensing solutions. After years of incubation and groundbreaking proof points for non-invasively measuring the internal temperature and properties of almost any object — ThermaSENSE was born. The core sensing hardware and data processing algorithms have served as the building block for ThermaSENSE’s novel sensing solutions. This includes non-invasive sensors for core body temperature and tissue blood flow (i.e., perfusion) measurement. 

ThermaSENSE continues to innovate with a suite of technology products focused on delivering critical insights that are accurate and otherwise not possible without invasive or complicated probing.

Verge (formerly Valleys Innovation Council), which includes alliance members Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council (RBTC) and the Regional Accelerator and Mentoring Program (RAMP), helps facilitate regional connection, communication, and collaboration by identifying regional priorities and funding to advance tech and biotech projects and solutions across the Roanoke and New River Valleys, and Lynchburg.  Verge serves GO Virginia Region 2 and works to form collaborations with government, business, academia, and other organizations to advance the region and grow a thriving innovation economy.