Venture Atlanta 2025 Showcases Southeast's Tech Ecosystem with Record Regional Representation
Venture Atlanta's 2025 conference highlights 86 tech companies from across 14 Southeastern markets, offering unprecedented access to investors and enterprise partnerships while continuing its legacy of facilitating over $8 billion in capital raises.
Venture Atlanta, one of the nation's largest venture capital conferences, announced the selection of 86 tech companies for its 18th annual event scheduled for October 15-16 at The Woodruff Arts Center and Atlanta Symphony Hall. The conference is expected to draw more than 1,600 attendees, including 450 investors from across the country, solidifying its position as a critical gathering for the Southeast's technology innovation economy.
The 2025 event features expanded programming and enhanced networking opportunities designed to deliver greater value to startups, growth-stage companies, investors, and ecosystem builders. CEO Allyson Eman emphasized the event's elevated quality, noting that "the quality of companies is the best we've ever seen" and highlighting the new Procurement Palooza session featuring 15 procurement leaders from major regional enterprises. This initiative provides attendees with unprecedented access to decision-makers and supplier opportunities.
This year's event showcases the broadest regional representation in Venture Atlanta's history, with companies from 14 Southeastern markets including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. The conference enables investors to connect with top companies from across all these markets in a single event rather than attending multiple state-specific conferences over several months.
The event's impact is demonstrated by alumni success stories including Flock Safety's $275 million raise, VIVA Finance's $220 million funding, and multiple acquisitions. Since its founding, Venture Atlanta has helped launch more than 930 companies, facilitating over $8 billion in capital raised and $20.8 billion in successful exits. Notable alumni include companies such as Bark, CallRail, Car360, Flock Safety, Florence Healthcare, ParkMobile, Salesloft, Kabbage, Bitcoin Depot, PrizePicks, Stax, SingleOps, Pindrop, and Terminus.
Venture Atlanta will host pitch competitions for early-stage and growth-stage companies, including the "Startup Showcase Live" competition for pre-seed and seed-stage companies. The winner will receive a $375,000 investment prize funded by Cofounders Capital, Front Porch Venture Partners, Knoll Ventures, and TiE Atlanta Angels. The competition involves audience voting to determine which companies advance to be judged by an investor panel.
Emery Waddell, General Partner at Vocap Partners and Venture Atlanta Board Member, stated that the conference has "unquestionably become the Southeast's can't-miss tech conference" through continuous evolution and innovation. The organization has deepened partnerships with leading accelerators, incubators, and venture capital conferences including the Florida Venture Capital Conference, Capital Factory, gener8tor, Nashville Entrepreneur Center, and others.
Garrett Langley, Founder and CEO of Flock Safety and a Venture Atlanta alum who pitched in 2020, will deliver the keynote address. Langley returns to share insights from building Flock into a $7.5 billion safety technology company. Kelly Anne O'Neill, SVP of Revenue and Strategy at Dualboot Partners and chairman of the Venture Atlanta Recruiting and Screening Committee, emphasized the event's broader impact, calling it "more than a conference; it's a community, a platform, an investment engine, and a business accelerator" that serves as a catalyst transforming the Southeast into a launchpad for industry-changing companies.
Venture Atlanta 2025 is presented by Invesco QQQ as Title Sponsor, with J.P.Morgan as Premier Sponsor and additional Headline Sponsors including Cherry Bekaert, ExtensisHR, Gunderson Dettmer, and Marketwake. The event features more than 95 total sponsors supporting the Southeast's technology ecosystem.