NC Tweener Fund - Q2 Portfolio: $475k, 8 New Investments, 4 Follow-ons. Tweener crosses over $12.3m Invested in NC Founders!
We continued our state-wide investment-palooza into Q2!
This quarter, new Tweener Fund checks landed in Charlotte, Raleigh, Wilmington, Durham, Cary, and Weaverville, a small town in the mountains west of Asheville. That's the "Triangle, Charlotte, Wilmington, Triad, Mountains, and beyond" promise from Q1, already showing up in the portfolio.
As we put it on our Q2 LP call, describing what we’re looking for as the map expands:
“We’re looking for companies that have one of a few competitive moats, and the best are either existing proprietary data or the ability to build a set of proprietary data over time. That’s kind of the best moat right now.”
Thank You, LPs 🙌
Before we jump into the recap: thank you to our investors! This milestone doesn’t happen without you. With your support: We’re approaching $12M invested across 170+ companies, while maintaining a ~10% failure rate, far below traditional VC benchmarks
Always open for new investors/LPs!
Do you want to join our 200 lifetime Limited Partners (or LPs, what we call our investors in VC) in helping us support NC startups? We’re structured as a rolling fund, which means, unlike closed funds that only let investors in every 5-10 years, we are ‘always open’ for new LPs. Here are the details:
Must be an accredited investor - SEC rule, not ours
1yr commitment, $30,000 for the year or $7,500/Q
1% management fee, 20% carry, and a small AngelList administrative fee
For more details - visit www.tweenerfund.com where you can see our pitch and hit the invest button to get started!
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Q2 NC Tweener Fund Investment Highlights
Our Tweener Fund Q2 2026 Snapshot:
$475K invested
12 total investments
8 new
4 follow-ons
4 Tweener / 8 Pre-Tweener
What stood out this quarter?
1. Statewide deal flow is already diversifying
New checks went out well beyond the Triangle this quarter. Charlotte, Wilmington, and Weaverville (Mountains) joined the usual Raleigh/Durham/Cary mix. Early proof the NC IDEA partnership is doing what we hoped.
2. Pre-tweener deal flow is surging, driven by the AI reset
The 2024/25 AI wave changed how cheap it is to get an early product built, which means we’re seeing more very-early-stage companies than ever. We’re staying disciplined about it and leaning into founders with real distribution chops and proprietary data, not just a fast MVP.
3. M&A is warming back up
The Validic exit closed and distributed earlier this year, and we’ve got a couple more deals in process we’ll share once they’re done. Cyclical, but trending the right direction after a quiet late-2025.
Introducing our Q2 Fresh New Investments!
In Q2, we’re ex
Druid (PT) - Modern IoT solutions for farmers. (Charlotte)
Pellucid Network (PT) - AI solutions marketplace for enterprises and government. (Raleigh)
RCOAST (PT) - Coastal erosion tracking and remediation using drone data and AI. (Wilmington)
AIXI (PT) - Proprietary dataset of aviation repair parts. (Raleigh)
RoundUp (PT) - Automatic charitable giving through credit card round-ups. (Durham)
Smart Family Tech, Inc. (T) - Fintech for complex family banking situations. (Charlotte)
Amissa (PT) - Clinical data platform for women’s menopause care. (Charlotte)
NextPower360 (PT) - DC power generator eliminating AC-DC conversion losses. (Weaverville)
Existing Investment add-ons
Also, Tweener Fund made additional investments in 4 portfolio companies:
Details:
ReFiBuy (T) - Product catalog optimization for AI-driven shopping. (Raleigh, refibuy.ai)
OOGA Technologies (T) - Second Q/Q investment, split across a SAFE. (Cary, oogatechnologies.com)
Protect3D (PT) - 3D-printed custom orthoses via iPhone scanning. (Durham, protect3d.io)
HighArc (T) - AI solutions for builders. (Durham, higharc.com)
Q2 Tweener Events
Q2 is always our busiest event season, and this one didn't disappoint, seven events in the quarter!
[REDACTED] Launched!
Continuing on our mission to bring NC’s best builders content they can’t get anywhere else that’s hyper-local, we launched a new podcast this quarter: Redacted. Redacted is a practitioner-focused show on AI automation in startups, with hosts David Shaner and Taylor Cotner of Offline. If you're curious what it actually looks like when founders put AI agents to work day-to-day, it's worth a listen.
It’s best viewed on YouTube to fully see the examples (make sure to subscribe!)
But also available on all audio podcast players through Tweener Talks!
PLUS we have a new spot for show notes and files discussed in the episode. Check it out: https://github.com/instanttaylor/redacted-podcast
Become a Sponsor
Would your company benefit from exposure to NC’s fastest-growing startups?
Our audience is made up of NC founders and operators, primarily at startups doing over $1M/year and many much larger. When a company hits Tweener status, they’ve got real traction, funding (usually), a growing team, and momentum.
Thanks to strong demand, we’re upgrading our sponsorship opportunities across Tweener Times, Tweener Talks, and more.
If you’re looking to connect with this high-impact community, now’s the time. Send us a message or an email to contact@tweenerfund.com.
Let’s build together!