Colorado continues to influence the national tech scene with recognition of local female founders and Techstars’ support for diverse entrepreneurs. Keep reading to learn about the latest local tech news. This is the Built In Colorado weekly refresh.
TechStars launched an accelerator for diverse founders. The Colorado-born tech accelerator has partnered with J.P. Morgan to invest more than $80 million in diverse entrepreneurs and founders over the next three years. The funds will be distributed to more than 400 companies in nine American cities. The program will start this year in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Miami and Washington, D.C. [Built In Colorado]
Northrop Grumman expanded its Boulder campus. The Virginia-based aeronautics and defense technology company added a 23,680-square-foot office building to its campus in the Longbow office park to accommodate its growing headcount. The company, which currently employs 400 people, will be hiring staff to work on missile-launch detection satellites, among other projects. [Denver Business Journal]
Virtuance was acquired by Diakrit. Virtuance is a Denver-based company that provides real estate photography and virtual tours for more than 45,000 real estate agents across 37 cities. The company was recently acquired by Diakrit, a Swedish company that produces real estate photography, virtual tours and other digital marketing products for the real estate industry. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. [Virtuance]
Colorado female founders are among the top-funded entrepreneurs of 2022. Crunchbase recently highlighted 10 female founders who have earned the most funding in the first two months of the year, and Colorado was well-represented, occupying four of the 10 spots. Companies include Purely Elizabeth, an organic food company that raised $50 million in January; Spekit, a platform for onboarding, training and sales enablement that raised $45 million in January; soona, an e-commerce photography and videography studio that raised $35 million in January; and Vangst, a cannabis industry jobs platform that raised $19 million in January. [Crunchbase]
