Stories of Innovation

Since 1847, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce has been working for Middle Tennessee businesses. The Chamber is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating economic prosperity by facilitating community leadership. The Nashville Area Chamber is Middle Tennessee’s largest business federation, representing more than 1,700 member businesses in 10 counties (Davidson,...

Renewal House combines evidence-based treatment with deep compassion, creating innovative paths to recovery that strengthen both mothers and their children. As the only long-term family residential recovery program for women and their children in Middle Tennessee, Renewal House has always been driven by a vision that goes beyond addressing substance...

When the time came for her granddad to move to a nursing home, Allison Nikula was worried. She was an occupational therapist in charge of 440 care workers in Adelaide, but the thought of putting her own kin in an institution more than 800 kilometres away in Geelong made her...

SoundBoard Venture Fund leverages the diverse perspectives of our LPs to make investments through a collaborative and facilitated process. SoundBoard Venture Fund is an early-stage fund focused on scalable, tech-enabled, and capital-efficient businesses. We value collaboration, mobilizing our LP base to join our deal flow, diligence, and decision-making processes, assembling...

Founded in January 2001, Signature Transportation Services – originally known as Nashville Livery, Inc. – has become synonymous with luxury, professionalism, and reliability. From its beginnings on Music Row, the company has grown into Nashville’s premier limousine and chauffeured transportation provider, now operating nationwide through an extensive affiliate network. “We’re...

Acclaim will serve as a Virtual Business Environment (VBE) for all small businesses globally. The idea is to take small businesses to the internet and be able to create virtual offices, stalls, and markets which are manageable. This innovation was inspired by the digital transformation of the economy and the...

Founded in 2018, the Center for Bio-food and Environmental Innovation, Bio.Enviro.In, is affiliated with the Cégep de Lanaudière à Joliette, an educational and technical college. It has developed extensive expertise in the bio-food sector, from the field to the consumer’s plate and food processing. While integrating into the socio-economic context...

Breshna.io is a barrier-breaking platform. It is a game maker platform that empowers a non-tech, non-gamer audience to create, share, and monetize their own video games with no code and at lightning speed. With Breshna, everyone can create snackable games for entertainment, educational, marketing, and training purposes, like Canva for...

NashvilleHealth’s story begins with a paradox. In 2015, Nashville was rising rapidly as one of America’s most dynamic economic engines, an “it city” defined by innovation, creativity, and growth. Yet beneath this momentum lay an alarming truth: Nashville’s residents were among the least healthy in the nation. Former U.S. Senate...

HOW NEXT AGENTS IS SHAPING THE FUTURE Stockholm is globally recognized as a hub for innovation, particularly in sustainability, and Next Agents plays a pivotal role in advancing this ecosystem. Sustainability-driven innovation lies at the heart of Next Agents’ mission to empower businesses to create solutions that benefit people, the...

Housell is a proptech – a company that applies information technology and the new economy to the property sector – founded in Madrid in 2017 by Guillermo Llibre, CEO of the company. Its revolutionary concept, which seeks to use technology to give autonomy and power to the user, so that...

La Corporation d’innovation et de développement des Îles, LA VAGUE, est un organisme qui crée un lieu de convergence pour favoriser la synergie entre les acteurs socioéconomiques des Îles-de-laMadeleine et d’ailleurs. Sa vision est orientée vers une économie insulaire durable et créatrice de richesses. Elle offre de l’accompagnement spécialisé pour...

Our country’s most pressing challenges – from climate change and national security to healthcare and education – demand a renewed partnership across the private and public sectors to connect our greatest national asset: our talent. The NobleReach Foundation inspires, develops, and supports mission-driven entrepreneurship to tackle our society’s biggest challenges...

In recent decades, Oeiras has seen some very significant changes. Namely, the housing qualification cycle – Oeiras was the first municipality in the country to eliminate shanties, providing decent housing to all residents. The cycle of attracting business, science and innovation is also worth mentioning; Oeiras is home to the...

Scheduling and moving labor across construction projects sounds simple. But in reality, that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s a never-ending process that’s nigh impossible to do accurately, efficiently and indefinitely. To make this less of a hurdle, RIVET Work Inc. (RIVET) created a Workforce Management platform tailor-made for...

In a few short years since launching in 2015, Yoco has grown into an African technology company that is ready to take on the world. With its focus on creating opportunities for small businesses, breaking down the barriers they face, and helping them to participate fully in a more inclusive...

Chargello makes portable phone charging kits, places them in restaurants and other venues, and uses this unique location to sell targeted ads. By doing this, they have built a highly focused new media channel while also solving the universal need for charging your phone away from home. “My phone was...

THE INDUSTRIAL CITY OF CURITIBAThe Industrial City of Curitiba (Cidade Industrial de Curitiba – CIC), was founded on July 8, 1973. It is the largest neighborhood in the city of Curitiba in terms of geographic area (43.38km²). Today Cidade Industrial is the most populous neighborhood in Curitiba with approximately 220,000...

Hiring doesn’t have to be messy. Say Sayonara! to the stacks of resumes cluttering up your workspace, and let Breezy help you find your next A-player—sooner. With Breezy, you’ll automate time-consuming hiring tasks like advertising your jobs, emailing and texting candidates, scheduling interviews, and gathering feedback from your team. Breezy...

WHO WE ARE The Varsity Esports Foundation is a global non-profit organization established to offer financial assistance to schools and to provide a pipeline for students to reach their potential through esports. We strive to increase literacy around the esports industry’s positive impact on healthy lifestyles, mental health, community, and...

Laurent is a regular on the media circuit, seen on Oprah’s Live Your Best Life Tour, the Dr.Oz Show, TEDx talks, and many local news programs. Laurent had an idea. His idea was to create a space to support the fitness community. Providing affordable expertly designed and fully equipped fitness...

Le CIRANO est la référence au Québec pour l’avancement des connaissances en évaluation économique des décisions autour des grands enjeux de société et pour l’élaboration et l’évaluation de politiques publiques. Nathalie de Marcellis-Warin, Polytechnique Montreal professor, President and CEO, CIRANO Catherine Beaudry Polytechnique Montréal «Le CIRANO joue un rôle crucial...

CONNECTING BRANDS AND MEDIA GLOBALLY: PRNEWS.IO’S MISSION TO UPLIFT THE EDITORIAL ADVERTISING MARKET. Founded by Ukrainian entrepreneur Alexander Storozhuk and his business partner Alexander Nigmatulin, PRNEWS.IO emerged to bridge the gap between brands and news media. Initially launched as a newswire distribution service called B2Blogger.com, PRNEWS.IO recognized that brands needed...

When its founders, Richard Chan and Winston Walker, learned that educators were purchasing their research-grade equipment to help students get hands-on experience with electrophoresis in their classrooms, they sought to develop a teacher and student-friendly electrophoresis system that was safe, compact, fast, and affordable, making it possible to complete inquiry...