Announcing The 2025 Triangle Tweener Award Winners
Celebrating the Triangle's 2025 top exits, fundraisers and the 2026 NC Tweener Madness Champion. **PLUS** Our first Tweener Community Award.
In partnership with Raleigh Durham Startup Week the NC Tweener Fund, powered by NC IDEA 2026 Tweener Awards hosted over 200 NC ecosystem stakeholders (investors, founders, ESOs and vendor partners).
First, we highlighted 2025 Triangle Tweener companies that executed on the top exits and fundraising rounds (note: the awards are backwards looking so this covered the time frame, 2025, before we widened our focus to be state-wide). Also, NC Tweener Fund announced the previously ‘Triangle focused’ Tweener List as the now State-Wide 2026 NC Tweener List!
Every year we get together with local angel investors, institutional investors and entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs) to celebrate two of the biggest miles tones as founders: Fundraising and Exits!
At the same time, we also released the newest NC Tweener List, a data-driven snapshot of startups across North Carolina that are building, scaling, and gaining traction.
The awards look back and recognize performance. The list captures where things stand now. Together, they create a clear picture of momentum across the state for our focused tier of startups: Tweeners (ARR > $1m, < $80m)
Before we get into the details, a big thank you our amazing sponsors!
This event and the broader Tweener platform would not be possible without the partners who continue to support founders and the ecosystem across North Carolina.
We’re grateful to our sponsors, collaborators, and community members who show up year after year to help make this happen.
What This Year Represents
The Tweener list brings together companies from across the state that are hitting meaningful milestones in revenue, hiring, and product traction.
Just in case you forgot, Tweeners are “Goldilocks” companies and have the following criteria:
They must be headquartered in North Carolina.
They need to be a technology company: software, hardware, tech-enabled services, digitally native brands, e-commerce, etc.
Have a minimum of $1,000,000/yr ($80k/m) in sales OR 10 people. Or as we say in startup-land, $1m ARR or $80k MRR.
While the full list is available at tweenerlist.com, a few signals stand out:
The geographic spread is wider than ever
More companies are crossing meaningful revenue thresholds earlier
There is stronger representation across software, hardware, and tech-enabled businesses
Follow-on momentum is increasing across the board
Recognizing the Builders
Alongside the list, we continue to highlight standout achievements across the ecosystem like founders building durable companies, teams navigating real growth, and operators turning ideas into something that works.
Tweener Top Exits
Companies that reached meaningful exit milestones over the past year. These outcomes reflect real value creation and years of execution.
Biospatial - acquired by ImageTrend
CareNexis - acquired by Aphora Health
PerfectScale - acquired by DoiT International
Tenor - acquired by Juniper Square
Element 451 - acquired by Providence Strategic Growth (PSG)
Tweener Top Fundraising
Companies that raised significant capital to accelerate growth. These rounds signal strong investor conviction and continued momentum.
Inn-Flow - $45M
Plantd - $25M
Ndustrial - $20.07M
The Looma Project - $13M
Ardent - $10.3M
Phinite - $10M
Trio Labs - $9.72M
Extellis - $6.8M
Keebler - $6M
Greenlight - $6M
We also introduced a special recognition this year.
Tweener Hero Award
This year’s Tweener Hero Award goes to our longtime friends at Earflunce, now Walk West.
Their work behind the scenes has helped bring so much of this ecosystem to life. From storytelling to production to showing up consistently, they have played a real role in shaping how these companies are seen and celebrated.
It felt important to recognize their exit in 2025 and continued growth with Walk West
Tweener Madness Championship
At the Tweener Awards we also award out Tweener Madness champion!
Over 50 companies entered the competition and only eight were chosen. After a bracket-style competition with founder pitches, live Q&A, and judge deliberation, the final matchup came down to two standout teams.
However, only one can win and we are excited to announce Julian Walker from Druid Ag as the 2026 Tweener Madness Champion! Druid Ag receives a $25,000 investment from the NC Tweener Fund, along with the recognition that comes with emerging on top of one of the most competitive founder showcases in the state.
A Bigger Map, Same Energy
The expansion to a statewide list does not change what makes this special. It is still about the people. The founders taking risks. The investors leaning in. The operators doing the work. The community that keeps showing up.
The difference now is scale with more companies, more regions, and more momentum.
Explore the Full List
Want to see who is building across North Carolina?
👉 Head to tweenerlist.com to explore the full 2025 NC Tweener List and meet the companies shaping what comes next.
We also have photos of the whole night right here!
