· Public charity
Tennessee Technology Development Corp
Launch tennessee is a 501c3 that supports the startup ecosystem through capital, connections and commercialization.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k5 grants · $34k
- $10k–50k4 grants · $101k
- $50k–250k29 grants · $3.6M
- $250k+31 grants · $9.2M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER | $421,000 |
| ROBOTIC TECHNOLOGIES OF TENNESSEE LLC | $308,000 |
| FC RENEW LLC | $308,000 |
| PERSEUS MATERIALS | $304,000 |
| YAYA SCIENTIFIC | $304,000 |
| WINTER INNOVATIONS INC | $304,000 |
| ENDEAVOR COMPOSITES INC | $304,000 |
| ULTRASONIC TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS | $304,000 |
| SKYNANO LLC | $304,000 |
| RELIABLE MICROSYSTEMS | $304,000 |
| ARENA LABS INC | $302,175 |
| AMALGAMATED VISION LLC | $302,000 |
| INFUSENSE CORP | $300,000 |
| ENDOTHEIA INC | $300,000 |
| EDEN CONCEPTS LLC | $300,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 90% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
Which US states your grants reach
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +24% since the first grant, against 0% for the ones you funded once.
68 repeat relationships — 48 still active in FY2025, 20 since wound down; 21 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 85% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.0M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
Backed again, and grew
- KEKNOXVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER9× · 2017–2025 · $7.4M · revenue +58% · 41% of their budget
- TNTHE NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER7× · 2019–2025 · $2.6M · revenue +26%
- CCOLAB7× · 2019–2025 · $1.8M · revenue +24% · 34% of their budget
Funded once
- SLSKYNANO LLCone grant, 2023 · $309k
- MPMOBIUS PBCone grant, 2022 · $306k
- NTNON-CONTACT TECHNOLOGIES LLCone grant, 2023 · $300k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
Smtec supports entrepreneurs by providing mentoring, education and training, strategic and technical support, and assistance identifying sources of capital.
The launch place (tlp), a venture development organization located in danville, va and in the research triangle park, nc. the launch place invests in innovative start-ups in virginia and north carolina with a potential to create economic…
The alabama collective seeks to expand and enhance tech, innovation and entrepreneurial programs in alabama. by fostering growth and broadening opportunities within the states tech and entrepreneurial landscape, the alabama collective is…
Launch tennessee is a 501c3 that supports the startup ecosystem through capital, connections and commercialization. as a public-private partnership, we are uniquely positioned to provide direct investment, while also supporting…
To establish , develop, and operate an entrepreneur support program in northern kentucky to attract, educate, and serve start-up and emerging high-technology entrepreneurs for the benefit of the city of covington, in particular, and the…
The nashville area chamber of commerce facilitates community leadership to create economic prosperity.
Ntc mission is to advance the diverse technology ecosystem by connecting and promoting members, attracting, growing and retaining tech talent, and providing opportunities to reinvest in the greater nashville community.
Startup virginia is a non-profit, high-growth-business incubator, dedicated to building a long-term, sustainable economy for virginia. we connect our startup community to exceptional mentors and extensive programs in a dynamic workspace.
Jumpstart inc. drives economic vitality by connecting entrepreneurs to the opportunities and resources they need to succeed. jumpstart inc. is focused on enabling companies and founders in targeted areas succeed so that their success can…
Development and educational opportunities to promote industrial and economic development in kentucky.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Nashville Entrepreneur Center and the most unlike its peers is The Ayers Foundation Trust. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 12 years old; the field is 19. You back the younger end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 16% of your grantees by number, and just 7% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
34 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 34 of the 175 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds KNOXVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER ↗
- Who funds THE NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER ↗
- Who funds Entrepreneur Development Center - Southwest Tennessee ↗
- Who funds COLAB ↗
- Who funds VIBRANT MEMPHIS INC ↗
- Who funds UPPER CUMBERLAND ENTREPRENURIAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds SYNC SPACE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER ↗
- Who funds TENNESSEE ADVANCED ENERGY BUSINESS COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds BIOTN FOUNDATION INC DBA LIFE SCIENCE TENNESSEE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds TENNSMART CONSORTIUM INC ↗
- Who funds AGLAUNCH INITIATIVE ↗
- Who funds PROOF PROGRAMS ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Vanderbilt University · Memphis Bioworks Foundation · Truist Foundation Inc · The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Inc · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Tennessee Technology Development Corp funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.