The Maritime and Defense Technology Hub is home to 21 entities. We are continually impressed with their accomplishments.
Lonestar Data Co. recently announced that it completed an oversubscribed seed round for more than $5 million. Lonestar, a Hub tenant, is set to launch a data center on the moon in Q2 of this year, with its second launch slated for the end of the year. Click here to read more
Other noteworthy updates:
PVM was accepted into the U.S. Small Business Administration 8(A) Business Development Program which allows them to compete for federal set-aside and sole-source contracts. Click here to read more
Virtru joined NIST NCCoE Data-Centric Security and Classification Consortium to develop recommended practices for data classification and security. Click here to read more
Saildrone completed the first uncrewed Alaska ocean mapping mission and discovered a 3,200 foot-tall seamount. Click here to read more
Woolpert opened a Maritime Systems Hub office in the Gulfport Blue Economy Innovation District in Gulfport, Mississippi. Click here to read more
(This article was first featured in our March newsletter -to subscribe to our monthly newsletter click here)
The graduation of the CodeBoxx AI Literacy and Applications Bootcamp was held on Saturday, August 9th at the ARK Innovation Center. The celebration included a tour of the ARK building, a sneak peek at the Vu Studio, and a hackathon. This bootcamp is designed to give participants a competitive edge in the job market by teaching practical ways to use AI. AI literacy and tech communication are more important than ever, and we're incredibly proud of this graduating class for taking that step forward.
A joint venture by Tampa Bay Wave and USF, the 2025 cohort of the nationally recognized FinTech|X Accelerator kicked off on August 4th, supporting high-growth fintech startups through an intensive 8-week program. This year’s class includes St. Petersburg-based innovators HappiNest.AI and Congruit Inc. The program leverages USF’s world-class faculty, research, and business networks to help founders scale impactful technologies.
Our neighbors at the ARK Innovation Center, MADTECH.AI, are doing some seriously impressive work. As a Marketing Decision Intelligence platform, they’ve built a system that takes the headache out of data wrangling and lets teams focus on strategy. Their tools unify, transform, and visualize data in one AI-powered hub—saving time and uncovering insights faster.