Knoxville Entrepreneur Center (KEC)

Overview

Helps people with business ideas become founders through mentorship, classes, events, cohorts, and connections to education, capital, and other resources.

Related

• Also CapitalInvests early in founders tackling hard problems, helping portfolio companies recruit initial teams and prepare to raise follow-on capital from later investors.
• Argonne National LaboratoryDOE multidisciplinary national lab in Lemont IL; flagship facilities include the Advanced Photon Source, Aurora exascale computer, and major programs in AI, quantum, fusion, and battery science.
• Capital FactoryInvests early in Texas startups, provides first checks for deep technology companies, and connects companies with introductions, customers, and capital.
• Eclipse VenturesInvests in and supports entrepreneurs building physical-economy companies, helping with strategy, technology validation, leadership hiring, customer access, and connections to industrial and government stakeholders.
• General InnovationProvides investment capital through General Innovation Capital Partners to support companies developing new products, commercial research, business services, and operations.
• Generational PartnersGenerational Partners invests in early-stage technology startups addressing critical problems in safety-critical industries where customer access is limited and failure costs are high.
• Giga EnergyManufactures, develops, and operates energy infrastructure, including site development and equipment, for AI projects and related data center power needs.
• LiminalBuilds ultrasound and machine learning inspection tools that help battery R&D teams and cell manufacturers detect quality issues during development, ramp-up, and production.
• Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)Conducts multidisciplinary scientific research and advanced technology development for maritime, ocean, atmospheric, and space applications supporting Navy and Marine Corps needs.
• RTI InternationalConducts scientific research, data analysis, program evaluation, technical assistance, publishing, and engineering scale-up services for government, commercial, and public policy clients.
• Vertiv ($VRT)Builds critical digital infrastructure for power, cooling, IT, and services, including liquid cooling and thermal management for high-density racks and critical spaces.
• ZettascaleBuilds XPU chips for AI inference and training, with an FPGA prototype, planned serving API, and hosted XPU clusters designed to act as one chip.