Welcome to the weekly roundup of the latest from DC's tech and entrepreneurship scene. Want this in your inbox? Subscribe for free.
This latest DC newsletter highlights a former 2U executive’s new Bethesda-based startup, which uses agentic AI to give companies their own data scientist. Learn about that, as well as how the District Angels syndicate uses shared resources to lower investment barriers.
Then, keep scrolling for more.
📰 News Incubator: What else to know
• Here’s an explainer on what the term “valuation” means. [Technical.ly]
• The CIA’s venture arm and Silicon Valley investment firms are coalescing around Israeli startups, with the prediction that the companies will compete for defense contracts in the US and Europe. Several Israeli defense tech companies and US subsidiaries have set up shop in the region, including through a public-private partnership in Maryland. [Wall Street Journal/Technical.ly]
• Alexandria startup pgEdge raised just over $4 million, bringing the data management firm’s total seed funding to $23 million. [pgEdge]
• President Trump says he wants to keep the FBI’s HQ in DC. Former President Biden decided to move the FBI to Greenbelt, Maryland, in 2023. Abandoning the plans could leave a mark on Prince George’s County’s economy. [Washington Post]
• Rent prices are rapidly increasing in the data center market, where demand outpaces supply. In Northern Virginia, the vacancy rate is near 1%. [BisNow]
• DC may avoid a $1.1 billion budget cut that federal legislators included in their latest spending bill. Senators passed a bill that would restore the city’s current budget, though the measure still needs to clear in the House. [Axios DC]
• How Elon Musk rose to the role he has, his and DOGE’s overhauls and the possible next steps. [WIRED]
• Urgent.ly, a Vienna roadside assistance company, is planning a reverse stock split to improve its stock price and operate in compliance with Nasdaq requirements. [Washington Biz Journal]s
🗓️ On the Calendar
• CONNECTpreneur is hosting a networking and pitch event on March 19. [Details here]
• The web developers and JavaScript conference Frontrunners takes place March 21 at George Mason University’s Arlington campus. [Details here]
• Learn how local technologists use DC’s open data at a showcase on March 26 hosted by Civic Tech DC and the DC Office of the Chief Technology Officer. [Details here]
• Connect with technologists, founders and investors at DC Tech Party’s next event on March 26. [Details here]
• Learn how to navigate state and local government grants at a Johnson & Johnson Innovation event with the Washington DC Economic Partnership, TEDCO and the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation. It all goes down on March 27. [Details here]
• California defense technology contractor Saalex Corp is hosting a job fair in DC on April 8. [Details here]
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