Stories of Innovation

On the border city of Narva, Estonia – where Europe literally meets its edge – a bold experiment is reshaping how young people grow. DOTS isn’t another youth program or after-school club. It’s an operating system for life: a commitment-based “gym for personal development” where members train through real responsibilities,...

It’s not often you hear about companies that thrive for over a century, but FirstBank, from its humble start in rural West Tennessee in 1906 continues to evolve and conquer 117 years later. From its original mission of serving a small-town farming community, FirstBank, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee with a...

MARS Solutions Group is an award-winning talent solution supplier for information technology (IT), engineering, manufacturing, admin-clerical, healthcare, and professional roles located in Waukesha, WI. Founded by Rashi Arora-Khosla, an accomplished Enterprise Architect, and CEO of MARS Solutions Group, she launched MARS with boot strap capital and grew it organically into...

Local governments have struggled to engage residents, ensure accessibility, and provide timely responses to community needs for a long time. In 2016, Bratton Riley founded Citibot to revolutionize how local governments interact with their residents. With a deep-rooted passion for public service and a desire to foster community connections, Riley...

The energy transition is in full swing. The energy industry is undergoing profound transformations prompted by the search for sustainable solutions to address the impacts of climate change, meet our customers’ evolving needs and consumption habits and reap the benefits of the broad accessibility of new technologies. The invention of...

We follow the latest trends in technology, offering the perfect fit to our customer’s needs, effective solutions that enhance business activity and leads to achieving competitive advantages.   All our products incorporate interoperability mechanisms for information systems, including support for Industry 4.0, namely IOT, Machine Learning and remote monitoring. Specific developments for...

WHO WE ARE Phase Eight Theater Company is the latest arts organization to be formed in Jacksonville, Florida. It is recognized as a boundary-pushing and socially progressive theater group. They’ve presented fourteen productions in its first two and a half years of existence having performed for hundreds of audience members....

As an organization that has been serving innovation for more than 25 years, we are particularly proud to have supported companies that have since become flagships of our ecosystem, or that now act as powerful catalysts for progress and change in our society. “Our entrepreneurs’ capacity to create and to...

The Story of First South Financial’s Strength, Innovation, and Community Impact. For nearly seven decades, First South Financial has stood as a trusted partner in helping individuals, families, and business owners achieve their financial goals. What began as a modest effort to provide accessible banking services has grown into one...

INSTASHIELD FILLS PPE SHORTAGE, DONATES 1 MILLION SHIELDS TO PEOPLE IN NEED InstaShield™ is a new kind of face shield that ships flat and is folded to fit over a cap or visor. The company was founded in March 2020 by Dan Brown Jr. to help fill the nation’s PPE...

“Nineteen years ago, Gary Harwood and I were assigned to a project in Lagos, Nigeria, by the large multinational for which we were working. On the evening of the first day of the project, we sat in the hotel bar enjoying an ice-cold local beer and wondered, what on Earth...

Who are We? C-MORE is a socially-driven company supporting international organizations, companies and NGO’s in reaching their objectives on creating sustainable impact from their activities. Our Manifesto We are humans, all of us. It is almost absurd stating such a fact. Do we sometimes forget that? Are we creating the...

The University of Antwerp serves as a gateway for future innovations, playing a pivotal role within Antwerp’s thriving innovation ecosystem and beyond. It contributes significantly to driving innovation and fostering societal and economic impact, further solidifying its position as a pioneer in cutting-edge research and innovation. A key driver in...

Laquila was founded in 1980, with a small 100m² store, focused on selling motorcycle parts, in Rio Grande do Sul. With determination and a vision of the future, they expanded to 200m² and, later, to an even larger space, adopting the wholesale model. After 12 years in the capital of...

Emerging technologies continue to change the world around us. How can we innovate to leverage these technological advancements for good, within a robust defense strategy against cybercriminals who use these technologies to disrupt and profit? As radical innovation in technology has transformed our lives and world economies permanently, a new...

7Factor Software was founded on human-centric principles held fiercely true at every step in their work to design, develop, deploy, and maintain well-engineered software solutions for tech-forward enterprises and ambitious start-ups with great ideas and a commitment to quality. They tackle their clients’ most unique problems, empowering them to seize...

Greater Newark Enterprises Corporation (GNEC) is a Newark-based non-profit certified community development financial institution (CDFI) with a proven record of delivering capital and microenterprise services to disadvantaged microentrepreneurs in the northern New Jersey areas of Essex, Hudson, Passaic, Bergen, Middlesex, Union and Monmouth counties of New Jersey. GNEC’s primary purpose...

JUMPSTART SUPPORTS THE ENTREPRENEURS MOVING OHIO FOWARD Innovation, the story goes, happens somewhere else besides Ohio. Somewhere with better light, louder money and a mythology that has already been optioned for a miniseries. The reality is Ohio has spent generations making things people rely on, like rubber, steel, glass, cars,...

Take it from someone who knows: Scaling a firm from simple startup to unicorn status isn’t for the faint of heart. For Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, the founder and CEO of the African e-payments platform Flutterwave, earning a valuation of more than $1 billion wasn’t about having the best idea or...

For South African expats in Canada craving a taste of home—think boerewors, biltong, or rooibos tea—knowing where to find South African food in Canada can feel like a treasure hunt. Fortunately, a groundbreaking platform, HowZit Canada (howzitcanada.ca), launched by the South African Institute of Canada (SAIC), is revolutionizing the search....

Century Therapeutics is a Philadelphia-based, biotechnology company working to reimagine the potential of cell therapy across a number of serious diseases. The company is developing investigational cell therapies derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, to potentially treat autoimmune diseases, like Type 1 diabetes (T1D), as well as cancer....

Mosquitoes. For most people around the world, their buzzing is merely an irritation and a disruption to sleep. For many in Africa, it is a deadly killer. Of all the beautiful, awe-inspiring and scary animals across this continent, one of its smallest insects wreaks the most tragedy and pain. To...

Through technology and automation, Perch’s free analytics platform gives users detailed insights into all aspects regarding homeownership, all of which is supplemented by a dedicated mortgage advisor that strategizes with clients to help them achieve their homeownership goals. Perch’s mission is to empower Canadians to make more informed decisions when...

TO ALL OF OUR DMV INNOVATORS AND DREAMERS! Government and politics: two pillars that have long been synonymous with the identity of the capital region. While these will always remain cornerstones of the DMV, a new narrative is emerging – that of a global innovation hub for startups, emerging tech,...