Chattanooga launches accelerator program for mobility industry
Five years to the day after AOL co-founder Steve Case first came to Chattanooga to invest in a burgeoning logistics industry, the billionaire investor returned Wednesday to help launch an initiative to support new businesses focused on sustainable ways to move freight, people and information.
Case, whose Rise of the Rest tour has funded startups from non-coastal states, praised Chattanooga’s efforts to launch and nurture more startup businesses in what local promoters have dubbed Freight Alley.
As home to two of the nation’s biggest long-haul trucking companies and more than a dozen freight logistics operators, Chattanooga already has the highest share of logistics industry jobs of any major city.
Case and local leaders also said the central location, highspeed data networks and Smart City research at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga make Chattanooga ideally suited to develop and grow businesses in logistics and related fields.
“I think Chattanooga is rising and is poised to continue to rise,” Case said Wednesday during a UTC summit on the subject. “Chattanooga has an opportunity, and this is a moment if you seize it.”
While Silicon Valley and major cities such as New York and Boston boast more capital and business talent overall, Case said markets such as Chattanooga are better suited for some targeted industries and their highgrowth companies.
Case, who now heads the venture-capital firm Revolution LLC, was an early investor in Chattanooga-based FreightWaves, which he called “highly
“Gener8tor has an incredible network of mentors and investors, and they have an exceptional playbook for helping founders to scale and grow their businesses. Coupled with what we have here in Chattanooga already, I think we’re set up to help these businesses to thrive in a growing industry.”
— TASIA MALAKASIS, CEO, THE COMPANY LAB
successful” and a great example of being in the right place for success.
The longtime venture capital investor said the shift to more sustainable energy and transportation networks will transform much of the U.S. economy, especially with the Inflation Reduction Act propelling changes in how goods and information are moved with nearly $3 trillion of tax credits and investments.
To aid the start and growth of businesses eager to capitalize on such economic and energy changes, The Company Lab announced Wednesday the launch of a new accelerator program to help fund and nurture six startup businesses working on new approaches to sustainable mobility.
The 10-week accelerator will begin in September after winning applicants are chosen in July. Each of the participants in the small business development program will receive anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000 to boost their businesses along with coaching and networking advice from both Co.Lab and one of its partners, Gener8tor — a startup accelerator that operates in 42 other U.S. cities.
“Gener8tor has an incredible network of mentors and investors, and they have an exceptional playbook for helping founders to scale and grow their businesses,” Tasia Malakasis, CEO of The Company Lab, told reporters during a news conference Wednesday at UTC. “Coupled with what we have here in Chattanooga already, I think we’re set up to help these businesses to thrive in a growing industry.”
Lauren Usher, a partner in Gener8tor, said the project is the first in Chattanooga for her company. But Gener8tor has previously worked with more than 1,200 startup businesses nationwide that have collectively gone on to raise more than $1.5 billion of additional funding.
“We’re excited to work with communities like Chattanooga that already have an entrepreneurship eco-system and want to build up that momentum and continue to accelerate startups,” Usher said Wednesday. “During our 10-week program, we’re coaching businesses and their founders and making many introductions to industry experts, serial entrepreneurs and potential investors to help take their businesses to the next level.”
The new initiative won support during Wednesday’s summit from both Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly and Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp, who both helped to start businesses before becoming politicians.
“Entrepreneurship is baked into Chattanooga’s broader culture,” Kelly said. “The first guys that thought to bottle Coca-Cola were Chattanoogans. We’re not a big state capital, and we don’t have some overarching industry. Chattanoogans have always had to be resourceful. That’s the soul of entrepreneurship.”