Market Square Ventures
Venture capitalKnoxville · Pre-Seed–Series A · 5 people tracked
Investment thesis
Market Square Ventures backs early-stage startups led by exceptional founders in Tennessee, the Southeast, and Appalachia — a region it views as traditionally overlooked by venture capital. The firm aims to deploy both capital and connections where they can generate outsized impact, supporting founders in an emerging ecosystem and helping grow the local startup community. Founders are invited to apply by emailing a pitch deck directly to the firm.
Source: firm website, verified Aug 3, 2026.
Team · 5 people
from the firm's website
What they invest in
from 24 of 27 portfolio companiesAI & Machine Learning ×13Consumer ×6Healthtech ×6Data & Infrastructure ×4Digital Health ×4SaaS ×4Direct to Consumer ×3HR Tech ×3
HQs:United States×12
Who they back
founder profiles across 9 portfolio companiesFounding team size:solo founder×32 founders×43 founders×2
Accelerator rootsportfolio companies that came through a program
Investments · 27 tracked
founders shown can be your intro pathBy year:2025 · 32024 · 14 dated
Adele Health builds a consumer app and glucose meter that unify blood sugar data and use AI to surface patterns and insights for people managing their glucose.
AI & Machine LearningConsumerDigital Health
Mark(Co-founder)Tyler(Co-founder)
AGYL provides a data operating layer that runs inside a customer's cloud tenant, reconciling records across enterprise systems into one governed, evidence-backed canonical version (a "context graph") so AI agents, copilots, and retrieval systems read reliable data.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareNashville, US
Jon Ricketts(Executive Officer, Director, Promoter)
Co-investorsVictorum
Co-investorsSentiero Ventures
Blank Beauty makes custom, made-to-order nail polish, mixing each bottle to a shade the customer specifies (including from an uploaded photo) using an AI-assisted pigment-matching microfactory, with buyers able to name their own color.
AI & Machine LearningConsumerDirect to ConsumerCollierville, US
CHARLES C. BRANDON(Executive Officer)
Co-investorsEvolution VC PartnersGlobal BrainRareBreed Ventures
Clockout provides earned wage access (EWA) technology that financial institutions embed into their mobile banking apps, enabling consumers to access a portion of earned wages before payday.
FintechCooper City, US
Juan Jurado-Blanco(Founder)inAnthony Tardugno(Founder)inKrishna Dosapati(Executive Officer, Director)
Co-investorsTechstarsBrickyardCofounders Capital
Daily Crunch is a women-owned snack brand that makes sprouted, seed oil-free nut snacks using a patented process of soaking and dehydrating (rather than roasting) nuts.
ConsumerDirect to ConsumerFoodTechNashville, US
Laurel Orley(Co-founder)Diane(Co-founder)Dan Stephenson(Executive Officer, Director)
Co-investorsAtlanta Technology AngelsLaunch Tennessee
Green Llama makes plant- and mineral-based, non-toxic cleaning products such as laundry powder, dishwasher tabs and refillable tablet-based cleaning solutions sold direct to consumers.
Circular EconomyConsumerDirect to Consumer
Matt(Co-founder)Kay(Co-founder)
Laborup is a hiring platform that combines AI software with expert recruiters to source, screen, and vet skilled manufacturing workers such as machinists, welders, and engineering technicians.
Advanced ManufacturingAI & Machine LearningHR Tech
Co-investorsHeartland VenturesHeartland Ventures S7Westbound Equity Partners
Memvid provides a self-contained memory and retrieval system that stores data, embeddings, indices, and a write-ahead log in a single portable .mv2 file, offering hybrid BM25 and vector search as an alternative to traditional vector databases and RAG pipelines.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper Tools
Co-investorsBrickyard
MenuData provides AI-powered menu analytics and insights for large food and beverage companies, analyzing data from 300k+ restaurants across 10M+ menu items.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureFoodTechMarketing TechPleasanton, US
Sunny Khamkar(CEO)Lino Fabiani(Head of Operations & Data Science)Edwin Villanueva(Head of Technology)Ryan Robichaud(Vice President Sales & Commercial Strategy)
Co-investorsService Provider CapitalTechstarsBrickyardGrowth Warrior Capital
Offload is an AI-powered platform for oversized and overweight (OS/OW) freight operations that digitizes paper permits into GPS-ready compliant routes and connects route planning, resource management, and dispatch in one system.
AI & Machine LearningLogistics & Supply ChainSaaS
Co-investors25MadisonCERVIN VENTURES
Oply is a home management app that lets homeowners set maintenance reminders, log DIY projects, upload inspection reports for AI-scoped project descriptions, and find, book, and store vetted contractors.
AI & Machine LearningConsumerPropTechNashville, US
Gabe Chrismon(Founder)in
Co-investorsBoston Seed CapitalThe MBA FundVisible Ventures
Rebel Audio is an AI-native podcasting platform that lets creators plan, record, edit, clip, transcribe, translate and publish podcasts through a chat-based workflow.
AI & Machine LearningCreator EconomyMedia & Entertainment
Co-investorsLaunch Tennessee
Shift Thermal develops FLEX Thermal Storage technology for building HVAC systems, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from heating and cooling.
CleantechClimate TechEnergy
Co-investorsClean Energy Venture
Station was a service to help creators find new revenue and is now part of SpotsNow, which connects shows with advertisers to fill ad space and get paid.
AdTechCreator EconomyMedia & Entertainment
Cam Pritchard(Co-Founder & CEO, SpotsNow)
Co-investorsAtland VenturesBrickyard
StratusGrid provides cloud technology consulting and solutions, working with startups, small and medium businesses, and large enterprises.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingCybersecurityDeveloper ToolsEnterprise Software
Chris Hurst(Chief Executive Officer)inJeremy Scardino(Chief Operating Officer)inTrey McGaughy(Chief Financial Officer)in
Co-investorsService Provider CapitalDOGWOOD VENTURESVentureSouth
subQdocs provides an AI-powered documentation platform for dermatologists, using agentic AI to deliver pre-visit analysis, in-visit insights, post-visit documentation, and cross-visit intelligence.
AI & Machine LearningDigital HealthHealthtech
Eric Turner(Co-founder)Jason Judd(Co-founder)Adrian Tinajero(Co-founder)
Sylvan Health provides a turnkey nutrition care program that connects medical practices with a network of registered dietitians via virtual care, embedded into clinical workflows.
Digital HealthHealthtechWellness & Fitness
Co-investorsBlue Hour VenturesFTW VenturesNueterra Capital
Tessellate (T8 Health) operates a private career navigation platform for physicians in the U.S., indexing every physician-employing site—hospitals, private groups, telehealth, and hybrids—to match doctors to roles based on 130+ alignment criteria while keeping them anonymous until they choose to connect.
Digital HealthHealthtechHR Tech
Co-investorsBallad Ventures
Trinity Guardion makes the Soteria Bed Barrier, an FDA-cleared, launderable and reusable physical barrier that protects hospital beds and mattresses from patient soiling to reduce Healthcare-Acquired Infections.
BiotechHardwareHealthtechMedical DevicesBatesville, US
Bruce Rippe(Board Chairman & CEO)
BoardMartin Foster(Director)Troy Reiff(Director)Matt Sokany(Director)George Hagan(Manager)Mike Goonewardene(Manager)
Co-investorsElevate VenturesTamiami Angel
Unified Track is a platform that automates student attendance intervention planning and helps school districts recover funding tied to attendance-based revenue models.
EdTechGovTechSaaS
Co-investorsSamvid Ventures
Co-investorsService Provider CapitalBrickyardSerra Ventures
VetVerifi provides verified pet vaccination records along with smart tags and API access for pet care.
ConsumerHealthtechSaaSNashville, US
David Servodidio(Executive Officer, Director)inChris Lynn(Founder)inTim Ridgway(Founder)in
BoardMark Volchek(Director)inTimothy Ridgway(Director)
Co-investorsRoo CapitalLas Olas Venture Capital
Vinny provides structured, day-one inspection software for RV or vehicle dealerships, capturing categorized findings and photos tied to each unit before a repair order is created.
Data & InfrastructureRetail TechSaaS
Co-investorsNew Stack Ventures
Consumer commerce platform for emerging brands.
Karla Valdivieso(Founder)in
Co-investorsRender CapitalWestbound Equity PartnersBrickyard
Laborup uses AI to help manufacturers hire vetted, skilled blue-collar workers such as machinists, welders, and programmers, reducing hiring time and cost.
Advanced ManufacturingAI & Machine LearningHR Tech
Simba J.(Founder)in
Co-investorsNVP CapitalThreshold VenturesTorch CapitalWestbound Equity PartnersHeartlandNewark Venture Partners+1 more
Portfolio news
latest coverage across their companies
Station · themainewire.com · Aug 18, 2026
VetVerifi · dvm360.com · Aug 6, 2026
StratusGrid · hostingdiscussion.com · Jun 3, 2026
Rebel Audio · inforcapital.com · Mar 18, 2026
weblink · haslam.utk.edu · Oct 7, 2025
Laborup · haslam.utk.edu · Oct 7, 2025
Shift Thermal · teknovation.biz · Jul 20, 2025
Frequently asked questions
- How many investments has Market Square Ventures made?
- Market Square Ventures has 26 tracked investments, including 2 dated in the last 24 months.
- What stage does Market Square Ventures invest at?
- Market Square Ventures invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A stages.
- What sectors does Market Square Ventures focus on?
- Market Square Ventures focuses on Sector Agnostic.
- Where is Market Square Ventures located?
- Market Square Ventures is headquartered in Knoxville, US.
- Who does Market Square Ventures co-invest with?
- Market Square Ventures most often shares deals with Service Provider Capital, Techstars, Westbound Equity Partners, among 27 tracked co-investors.
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