A virtual reality pioneer who is now a professor at the University of Central Florida landed a spot in Augmented World Expo’s first-ever Hall of Fame class.
Carolina Cruz-Neira landed on the list alongside other pioneers including the person who coined the term “augmented reality” in the 1990s, the so-called “grandfather of VR” and a Disney Imagineer.
Cruz-Neira helped develop an immersive system that became a staple in virtual reality systems and hardware in 1992. The Cave Automatic Virtual Environment, also known as “The CAVE,” consists of projection screens on the front, side and floor along with a tracking system.
She also created the Human-Computer Interaction program at Iowa State University during her storied career.
According to an online bio, her former students have continued research work in virtual reality at Unity Labs, Intel, Google, DreamWorks and Sony Pictures Imageworks, among others.
Cruz-Neira joined the UCF faculty in the College of Engineering and Computer Science in 2019.
The AWE’s XR Hall of Fame honors “the pioneers whose monumental contributions have shaped and propelled the XR industry forward.”
Plug and Play Orlando on Thursday announced its inaugural class of startup that will go through its 12-week accelerator program.
The cohort will focus on smart cities-related companies from across the nation. Final presentations will be held on July 31 in Orlando.
The inaugural class includes several industries, including mobility, sustainability, energy, construction and automation.
“We are thrilled to welcome this inaugural batch of startups to Orlando as we foster innovation in Smart Cities here in Central Florida,” said Allison Chandler, Program Manager of Plug and Play Orlando, in a blog post.
Here is the list along with a short description of what the company does. You can expect further coverage on Orlando Tech News.
Dispel (New York) – Builds network-level moving target defenses that helps secure remote access to control systems.
Infranergy (Florida) – Smart, AI-powered software platform for energy optimization This company harnesses and monetizes solar and storage assets for businesses.
Exodigo (California) – A technology innovator combining the power of proprietary advances in 3D imaging, sensors and artificial intelligence.
FLUIX (Florida) – Enterprise AI software that saves critical infrastructure on energy costs, time, and resources.
Connected Wise (Orlando) – Transportation safety and connectivity with AI-driven innovation.
Capacitech Energy (Orlando) – Enhances battery and renewable energy infrastructure through patented energy storage products.
Precision Periodic (Orlando) – Next-generation mining, refining, and wastewater treatment.
Voxel (California) – A site visibility solution that enhances existing security cameras with computer vision AI software to automatically identify safety hazards.
Sapient Industries (Pennsylvania) – Tacklign facility energy data challenges to optimize energy, sustainability, and equipment health.
VANTIQ (Orlando) – A software development and deployment platform that enables companies to digitize their business.
NESTRE (Orlando) – Neuro-Strength Company that provides mental and cognitive strength training and solutions.
Enline (Portugal) – A real-time predictive digital twin platform for transmission line assets.
HAAS Alert (Illinois) – Delivers real-time emergency alerts to drivers using C-V2X technologies.
MAITLAND – A cybersecurity firm here has raised $115 million in Series D funding, providing a capital injection that will lead to more hiring and build out of its security products.
ThreatLocker already employs around 400 in offices across the globe with the majority being at its headquarters in Maitland. That number has doubled in the past year and is expected to double once more during the next two years.
The company owns a suite of enterprise-level cybersecurity products and has more than 45,000 clients worldwide.
At its Maitland office, which was once home to the video game giant Electronic Arts, ThreatLocker’s workforce constantly monitors threats, houses its sales staff and responds to customer service calls almost instantly.
“To be able to raise $115 million is really powerful,” CEO Danny Jenkins said at the company’s office on Wednesday.
The money will allow ThreatLocker to increase its visibility and evolve the technology behind its security products.
The business represents the third that Jenkins has launched.
While he had a plan and has executed on it, he said he really couldn’t comprehend what would happen if the business took off.
Now it has.
“I don’t know if you ever really expect it to happen,” he said. “But we just kept moving past the next barrier. The goal was to change market opinion on how security should be done. That was the initial goal and what we focused on.”
The round for ThreatLocker was led by General Atlantic, an existing investor in the company, with participation from several others including StepStone Group and D.E. Shaw.
Robert Catron points to a specific moment in his career that led to what has become a 20-year entrepreneurial journey.
As a rock station DJ in Virginia Beach, he was the only person who understood software extensively.
So, it was only natural that in the early days of the Internet, he maintained the station’s website. At the time, DJs had to remain on air until their replacement arrived.
Robert Catron
One night, well, the replacement did not arrive. The reason?
“He was at a concert in D.C. about four hours away,” Catron recalled, laughing. “I don’t know if it was legit or not but, either way, it was a failure of communication of some kind.”
The incident sparked an idea in Catron, who had been exploring this brand-new thing called the Internet, hoping to build a business around it somehow.
With the mix-up fresh in his mind, he whipped up a scheduling application that allowed the crew to check from anywhere who was scheduled and who was not.
Now, 20-plus years later, WorkSchedule.Net recently launched its 9th version, counting clients like CNN among its customers.
“They’re the ones doing the scheduling,” Catron said. “We just provide the tool for them to schedule their employees.”
Catron admits that, on its surface, scheduling isn’t exactly a super-exciting field. But he said sometimes utility is more important than excitement.
It’s a simple, but flexible, tool. Within the platform, employees can perform specific tasks like check-in, punch into an online clock, request time off and other functions.
The software takes care of the rest, ensuring that employees don’t go over hours and helping figure out the best schedule for those who are in the system.
One example is if someone calls out of a shift, the software immediately finds who is available to work the shift without eclipsing their allotment of hours.
“Instead of getting the call that, ‘Hey, I can’t come in because I’m at a Jethro Tull concert,’ the software helps provide alternatives instantly,” he said.
As the company’s revenue grew – from a mere $500 in Year 1 – Catron became involved in the UCF Business Incubation Program in 2010.
By 2013, he had hired several interns, who helped him discover that WorkSchedule.net had been priced at one-third of what the rest of the market was at.
So, Catron tripled his prices and used the money to bring on the interns full-time.
“I had a real company,” he said. “Joining the incubator was a pivotal point.”
“It’s been about connections,” he added. “Consultants, advisers, mentors, just a great network of people I can give my questions to and get advice.”
Catron has plans to evolve the software in the near future, exploring strategies to incorporate deeper artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.
But, for now, it’s about keeping clients safe and happy by migrating them to their most recent version.
“We have to keep up with the technology so we don’t allow that hacker in,” he said. “It’s unsexy stuff but it’s a big part of what we do.”
Perhaps it’s a bit harsh to call Sal Rehmetulah’s nieces “critics.”
But they asked the question many had on their mind when the Stax cofounder transitioned out of the company after helping build it to unicorn status alongside his sister Suneera Madhani.
“They were like, ‘Why would you ever do that?’” Rehmetullah recalled. “Stax was part of our DNA and identity. Now they are super excited about Worth.”
Worth AI, that is.
The new company uses artificial intelligence to produce more accurate risk assessments, quicker decisions and more standardized business credit scores by assessing underwriting and risk management.
Now, the critical questions from the nieces come in different forms.
“They’re asking, ‘Where’s the office? Will it have snacks? Why isn’t it there already and big?’” he says, with a laugh.
If the track record is anything to go off of, they won’t have to wait long.
In the second part of Orlando Tech News’ chat with Sal, we dive deeper into Worth and building a business with a sibling.
Did you ever manage to reflect and appreciate what you and Suneera did with Stax?
When you first go through it, you actually don’t know, right? We had to have a moment of pause to be able to reflect on this last time around, like, “We had a good run.” When it really started to kick in was when other people acknowledged it more than anything. When someone’s like, “Oh, man, I can’t believe you did X, Y, Z.” When we get invited to speak on this stage or that stage, we’re like, “Oh, this is real.” It’s still humbling. At the end of the day, we are still the same people at heart.
How does Worth AI benefit from that experience?
We have difficult conversations quicker than we historically have. We know what to avoid, too. We know the things that work, what to focus on and what not to focus on.
Where did the drive to tackle big problems come from?
We have always dreamed big. It’s in our DNA. We want to push, drive and be the best versions of ourselves we can be. Those things make up our character. There isn’t a day that goes by that we want to pinch ourselves and say, “Man, life’s really good.” But we are also the hardest workers you’ll meet. Whether it’s an investor, a past employee, current employee or a vendor partner, they will tell you that.
What about that aspirational personality?
Everyone in today’s day and age want to aspire to be something. I think back in the day, if I introduced myself as a 10-year-old, I’d tell you I wanted to be the starting point guard for the Dallas Mavericks. We all aspire for something but what’s really cool is we are starting to inspire a new generation to be entrepreneurs so that they can build businesses, make an impact on communities and leave something good behind.
What is your role in representation and entrepreneurship?
You don’t see a lot of people like us, you know? You don’t see, frankly, a woman as CEO like at Stax. You don’t see two Pakistani kids, Muslim-Americans doing this. You don’t see a brother-sister duo. That stuff really does inspire and push us. We are thrilled to be able to do that.
How much of that is also being an example to your nieces and nephews?
For my nieces and nephews and for all, all the kids and children out there, it’s just fun. Be able to have people know that they can do something different and build and leave an impact you know, that maybe they didn’t think that they could do based on general conformity as a society.
How, exactly, does Worth AI work?
Worth is available for enterprise customers. We bring in more than 1,100 data points in less than two minutes to be able to actually underwrite a full customer through generative AI. The digitization that happened in the small and medium business world combined largely with models and AI is what really makes this possible.
It’s an intersection of tech and a market.
A lot of people ask this question of like, “Well, why business credit scoring? Why has it never been done?” It’s hard and being able to do it all together in the speed that we’ve been able to do, and then we have our Worth score coming. So we want to empower all the small, medium sized businesses. We’re excited for the Worth score to be live toward the end of Q2.
Did Stax ever consider leaving Orlando?
There were plenty of times that we thought about it. At the end of the day, somebody has to pioneer (a new tech scene here). But we also want the community to champion and support us. We have to support our own here. We want every person here to be a large customer, not just for banks and credit unions. Anybody that owns credit risk. So, anybody that has trade financing, supplier financing, we have a lot of large companies here.
An Orlando tech company has partnered with Tampa General Hospital to provide first-in-the-nation emergency supply deliveries via drones starting next month.
Archer First Response Systems will deploy its drones carrying an automated external defibrillator, NARCAN Nasal Spray and a tourniquet through a 9-1-1 dispatcher.
The dispatcher will walk the 9-1-1 caller through the application needed while emergency vehicles are en route.
The range will cover a 35-square-mile area of Manatee County. Drone-based delivery is expected to cut response time to those suffering cardiac arrest to around 2 minutes, depending on the specific delivery location.
The program will begin with a 12-month evaluation period to determine how the tech can be used across the state. That program will launch May 1.
ArcherFRS CEO Gordon Folkes said the company is committed to using next-gen tech to save lives.
“Sudden cardiac arrest, opioid overdose and trauma impact hundreds of thousands of people in the United States each year; there is a real need for a paradigm shift in the treatment and response to these time-critical emergencies,” he said. “We are excited, together with Manatee County Public Safety and Tampa General Hospital, to redefine what is possible and raise the bar when it comes to cardiac arrest, overdose and trauma response.”
Initially, the company will serve a 3.5-square-mile area of coverage Monday through Friday during daylight hours. However, the goal is to expand that coverage area to 35 square miles, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week with further approvals form the FAA.
“Through the use of technology and innovation, Tampa General Hospital is transforming health care,” said John Couris, president and CEO of TGH. “We’re excited to see this vision come to life. With the ability to measure the impact of this program on the community, we can determine how the technology can be used in more scalable, reproducible ways for the broader benefit of our state.”
Manatee County leaders said being in on a first-of-its-kind program illustrates its forward-thinking approach.
“This is an amazing opportunity to be on the cutting edge of technology in emergency response,” said Manatee County Board of County Commissioners Chair Mike Rahn. AEDs are used to respond to individuals experiencing sudden cardiac arrest.
Each year, 350,000 people in the United States experience a cardiac arrest outside the hospital and only 10% survive. NARCAN Nasal Spray can prevent death in the event of overexposure to opioids. Last year, more than 112,000 Americans died from opioid-related exposure.
The tourniquet is used to apply pressure and stop blood loss for individuals with trauma-related injuries. Any 9-1-1 caller in the coverage area that uses the equipment will benefit from the drone delivery at no cost to them.
“Our team has diligently worked with the FAA to ensure strict adherence to safety standards for the deployment of life-saving equipment via drones within the Manatee County community,” said Jason Swoboda, director of innovation at Tampa General Hospital.
A partnership with Orlando’s two professional soccer clubs could put local tech startup PETE Learning on a roll.
On Game Day, hundreds of workers show up at the stadium, ready to provide customer service for the thousands of fans who click through the ticket turnstiles.
They scan tickets. Field complaints.
Help guide the wave of Orlando City Soccer Club and Orlando Pride fans to their destinations.
However, this crucial workforce often attends a one-day workshop then awaits their assigned game to come back into the stadium. With PETE Learning, education can be constant and consistent.
“It was important that they expand customer service training to the rest of the team in an efficient way,” PETE cofounder Luis Garcia told Orlando Tech News. “Creating a digital course allows them to constantly, as they bring in new people, train them quickly.”
The platform will also introduce tracking of learning for individuals.
PETE enables organizations to provide personalized learning to a workforce using artificial intelligence.
Jarrod Dillon of Orlando City and Orlando Pride said that element was an “exciting step forward” for the clubs.
“Partnering with a forward-thinking Orlando-based company like PETE allows us to tap into innovative tools that expand our training capabilities and drive our organization’s success,” said Dillon, the teams’ president of business operations, in a press release. “We’re thrilled about this partnership and look forward to its positive impact.”
The partnership essentially creates a virtual academy using up-to-date content for trainees to learn.
“Their core team is small but on Game Day, they welcome hundreds of workers who come in,” Garcia said.
The partnership with a sports franchise sets the stage for PETE Learning to potentially pursue other sports-related deals while also thinking local, Garcia said.
“Not only does it underscore our commitment to local community engagement, but it also showcases our platform’s versatility in empowering organizations across diverse industries,” he said. “We are excited to embark on this journey with our home soccer clubs.”
A pair of Orlando firms has landed a defense contract seeking a simulator for obstetric emergencies in the military.
Orlando-based Knight Federal Solutions and SIMETRI announced the award on Monday. Terms of the deal were not shared.
However, an online database for the Defense Health Agency, under which the contract was awarded, listed an estimated value of $13 million for a similar contract.
SIMETRI provides realistic mannequins that provide training opportunities for the military.
The military’s COES2 program provides cutting-edge training for prenatal healthcare personnel.
COES, which stands for Complicated Obstetrical Emergency Simulation, reduces life-threatening risks to mothers and newborns.
Under terms of the Defense Health Agency deal, the firms will provide simulation-based obstetric training to 49 military inpatient facilities worldwide for the Military Health System, which provides services and benefits to military active-duty personnel, retirees and their families.
The deal is expected to include a five-year period of service and support to the program.
“In collaboration with SIMETRI, we are excited to support the mission of enhancing the skills of military medical personnel, ultimately leading to improved patient care and safety,” said Chris Baeten, CEO of Knight Federal Solutions, in a press release.
Angela M. Alban, President and CEO of SIMETRI, added: “Our partnership with Knight Federal on the COES2 project allows us to leverage our expertise to deliver high-quality, evidence-based training that makes a real difference. We are thrilled to continue providing advanced medical training for the Warfighter.”
NOTE: TUESDAY 1-ON-1 IS A MOSTLY WEEKLY SERIES OF DEEP CONVERSATIONS WITH ORLANDO’S RELEVANT AND TIMELY TECH NEWSMAKERS WHICH AIM TO PROVIDE CONTEXT ON THE CITY’S ECOSYSTEM AND BUSINESSES.
Sal Rehmetullah started to get the business itch last summer.
Having exited Orlando’s fintech unicorn Stax alongside his sister, Suneera Madhani, he was ready to explore what might come next.
“We had done a good job of life integration but it was really nice to spend time to enjoy the fruits of our labor for a bit,” he said. “But I don’t think I could just be retired. Golf is fun. Sitting on beaches is great. But it just felt like something was missing.”
That something could be Worth AI, the startup he co-founded and launched recently, about one year after he transitioned out of Stax, known as Fattmerchant when it launched.
He said that the platform, which will produce more accurate risk assessments, quicker decisions and more standardized business credit scores by assessing underwriting and risk management using AI, came after some brainstorming with Madhani.
The duo has already made a splash, having announced a partnership with credit-monitoring giant Equifax earlier this month.
Starting today, we are sharing a two-part interview with Rehmetullah that dives into the company’s origin, where the idea came from and a little bit about what it’s like to build a business with his sister. Part 2 will be published next Tuesday.NOTE: Lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
RELATED VIDEO
How did Worth AI come together?
Suneera had CEO School and women empowerment, specifically. She had another outlet. I did not. So, I started to think about what I wanted to do. We went into a room and were like, “We got to figure out what we want to do.”
You once again partner with your sister. How did you become so close?
I love my sister. I couldn’t build a business without my sister. Suneera and I went to 10 schools in 12 years so we bounced around a lot as children. She was my best friend throughout the process. When you’re in that situation, you learn to not only make the best but also enjoy them. That’s why we were able to do what we did.
We had an amazing run with Stax and clearly its success was a collaboration with both of us. It took both of us to figure out how to win and that’s what we felt really good about. We knew we were going to do something together again, whether it was CEO School and spending more time there, I was absolutely on board. We share the same mission, vision and values as humans.
Why did Worth AI emerge as the business idea to pursue?
We wanted to focus on building a legacy. We come from immigrants and grew up in small business. One challenge has always been getting credit as a business owner.
Talk about the problem you solve with Worth AI.
There are 50 million small and medium-sized businesses in the U.S and each one struggles in some capacity to grow and scale. But you can walk into a Lexus dealership with a W-2 and a 750 credit score and buy a car in 15 minutes.
Under an LLC, it’ll take you three months of bank statements, two years of tax returns, a PNL forecast for the exact same purchase. If you do get underwritten, it’s a very cumbersome process that requires a lot of documentation and time. We said, “Why is there no business credit score?”
Where did the entrepreneurship bug come from in your family?
It goes back to our roots. You think about small businesses in the U.S., you look around and entrepreneurship is cool now. But 20 years ago, it was a necessity. When my parents came here, the American dream was college, corporate job and then buy a house. The way to make a living when you were an immigrant coming in is you had to buy or build a business.
Whether you look at the stereotypes or not, most small U.S. businesses are dominated by some style of immigrant or somebody who really wants to do it, at least historically. Now, entrepreneurship’s gotten cool and everybody wants to be a part of it.
For us, we just grew up in it, right? We always saw the struggles. Our friends and families were a big part of it. That drove a big portion of us wanting to continue to focus in that area.
You famously kept Stax in Orlando for as long as possible. What are your thoughts on Orlando’s tech scene today?
Orlando’s tech community has done a great job of continuously evolving. We still have a lot of work to do but you have the newly minted fintech program at UCF. We are trying to drive more youth and the population to this, which I think is amazing. You’re starting to see more companies want to headquarter and locate in these regions. Then the talent wants to stay here, right? These are all things that have to converge to make this area successful. We have great community leaders that make it possible for you to scale a business here. We are all learning from the regions around the U.S. and the world.
We had a choice once again like we’ve always had. And we said, “Nope, we will continue to stay in Orlando.” We want to be here. We want to grow here. So, you know, I continue to see that there should be a huge prosperous future here.
What are lessons you take from Fattmerchant into Worth AI? What would Sal of 10 years ago tell Sal of today?
It doesn’t get easier. You just get better. We now have a decade of experience. When it comes to that, it’s twofold, right? One, I don’t get the benefit of like, this is a minimal viable product. I don’t get the benefit of like, it’s just a startup. The products that Suneera and I are going to put out have to meet and/or beat the standard of a unicorn business. We’ll get leeway for being early, but the expectations for us are set.
So “unicorn-level” becomes an expectation.
We wouldn’t do it again if we didn’t believe that this would be not just a unicorn, but we generally believe that this can be a “deca-corn” as far as, you know, the way that we can make an actual impact. We have a ton of experience, not only in the sector and the space, but we also have built up great credibility and relationships. From raising capital and private equity groups to being able to talk about some of the key partnerships that we will eventually announce. A lot of these things in customer relationships that take a lot of time for brand new businesses to get started, we’ve been through. We can now leverage our work, our hustle, our experiences to be able to drive that. I think that’s where that magic starts to happen for us is: We can quickly push ourselves and propel ourselves, you know, near the top.
An independent video game studio primarily based in Orlando announced Monday a $10 million funding round to support the development of its debut title.
AVALON has been building what it’s calling “a next-generation massively multiplayer online game” that incorporates interoperability between multiple worlds, with assets adapting and progression carrying over to each world.
The result will be a world that empowers players to create, share and take ownership of experiences.
Artificial intelligence-assisted and user-generated content systems will combine with Unreal Engine 5 to help players develop game logic, a press release announcing the news said.
Concept art for the video game AVALON, which raised $10 million in a fundraising round.
The release also suggested that a forthcoming NFT collection will introduce AI-powered avatar NFTs, a press release announcing the news said.
“The AVALON universe prioritizes delivering an immersive gameplay experience by combining cutting-edge tech like Unreal Engine 5 with AI-assisted user-generated content systems,” AVALON Founder and CEO Sean Pinnock said in the release. “Our focus on a no-code solution enables players to create game logic effortlessly.”
The studio includes industry veterans with experience on classic video games including Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed and EverQuest.
The round was led by BITKRAFT Ventures and HASHED, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Spartan Capital, Foresight Ventures, LiquidX, and Momentum6.
AVALON was founded in 2021 and powered by a hefty team that includes from industry-leading studios including Microsoft, Sony, Capcom, Infinity Ward, and Ubisoft.
In AVALON, the world will grow with and around players, featuring real-time interactions with non-player characters. The interactions will be powered through a partnership AVALON has forged with AI pioneers Didimo and Inworld AI.
Players will experience AVALON Core, the main gameplay mode designed by the studio, as well as separate, user-generated worlds and experiences, bringing their heroes, items, and progression across worlds.
AVALON leaders expect the game to go into a closed early access later this year. AVALON will “write the next chapter” in MMO games, said Baek Kim, HASHED general partner in a release.
“The team’s industry-leading experience is immediately evident in the title’s gameplay, graphical fidelity, and creative implementation of technology, economy, and owned content,” he said. “AVALON has a clear vision for a limitless and cohesive online experience, and we’re excited to see this title come to life.”
