Standout of the week
Higharc
AI-native design and sales platform for homebuilders.
Closed a $95M Series C led by Insight Partners, bringing total funding past $170M.
Announced June 30 alongside a partnership with US LBM, the private lumber and building-materials distributor, which extends the platform from homebuilders into the materials supply chain. Wellington Management joined the round with eleven existing backers. CEO Marc Minor declined to discuss valuation with Triangle Business Journal and called an eventual public offering the most likely outcome. The remote-first company reports 215 employees, up from 70 two years ago, with nine in the Triangle and open roles here.
What you should know
ChampOS launched Relay, its AI voice-ordering system built by NC State brothers, at the Champion family restaurant, and reports 22 interested locations with 10 signed LOIs.
SPRTN Technologies, a four-person Raleigh startup founded in 2025, opened the waitlist for its waterproof athletic earbuds with in-ear AI coaching after interviewing about 200 local athletes.
Moment
Students Who Sit
The Duke babysitting startup is expanding to UNC this fall.
Students Who Sit connects university faculty, staff, and alumni with vetted student sitters at their own institution, with institutional-email verification on both sides. Founded by three Duke sophomores in spring 2024, it reported 500-plus sitters and 1,000-plus parents by October 2025 and won a $10,000 Borchardt prize at the 2025 Duke Startup Showcase. Triangle Business Journal covered the UNC expansion on June 29; the company joined the Triangle Startups directory the same week.
Deep dives
Capital
2 rounds
$101.8 million across two rounds, nearly all of it Higharc's Series C, the largest Triangle software round the log has carried this year. The syndicate is notable for who it keeps: eleven existing backers returned, from Fifth Wall and Spark Capital to the NC Tweener Fund, with Insight Partners new at the front and Wellington Management joining. Extellis's seed is a November backfill that surfaced in late June, already attached in the directory, and included here with its real date.
Series C
Higharc
$95M
of $95M
This tranche: 100% of total round
Lead: Insight Partners
With: Wellington Management, Fifth Wall, Spark Capital, Lux Capital, SE Ventures, Simpson Strong-Tie, PSP Partners, RXR Arden Digital Ventures, Suffolk Technologies, Vertex Ventures, NC Tweener Fund, MetaProp
Durham. Series C announced June 30 with the US LBM partnership; total funding now above $170M. Participant list per the company's release, which names the NC Tweener Fund among existing investors. Round not yet in funding_rounds; migration pending.
Seed
Extellis
$6.8M
of $6.8M
This tranche: 100% of total round
Lead: Oval Park Capital
With: Duke Capital Partners, First Star Ventures, New Industry VC, Front Porch Venture Partners, EGB Capital, Blue Lake VC
Durham, Duke spinout. Oversubscribed $6.8M seed announced November 10, 2025, funding a first orbital demonstration of all-weather SAR satellite imaging built on a patented Duke metasurface antenna. Backfill: surfaced in late June, included with its real announcement date.
Infrastructure
The region's oldest tech company and its newest grant cycle in the same week. SAS's anniversary release leads with AI governance; NC IDEA's fall cycle opens applications July 27.
Coming up
Chapel Hill
AI Unfiltered, coffee and conversation at Innovate Carolina Junction
CED-hosted morning session, 9:00 to 10:30 AM.
Durham
Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition mixer at 21c
New Majority Capital and Provident1898 introduce the bETA accelerator launching in Raleigh-Durham this fall.
Durham
NC IDEA Fall 2026 grants information session at Frontier RTP
Ahead of applications opening July 27.