Tampa Bay Inno - Former Tampa company goes public (2024)

Totally twisted

If you were like me (and the rest of America), the number of card and board games you played went up exponentially in 2020. One duo of Sarasota entrepreneurs is reaping in the benefits of that new trend, after launching their own card game Socially Twisted.

The card game "for bad people with good humor" is a type of Mad Libs-meets-improv game, and officially launched this year with both a physical card game and mobile app. It was originally created in the 1990s by Jill Ramsey and her brother. Last year, Jill was joined by Jane Bennett, who as a co-founder, helped "bring the game into the 21st century."

"We took the original game and we rebooted it, but the thing that made us say 'Time to go,' is the pandemic hit," Ramsey said. "There was resurgence in game playing under lockdown, and we also all just needed a reason to laugh again."

The company is entirely Florida-based, with both co-founders living in Sarasota, its app developer living in Orlando and its social media director living in Longboat Key. Socially Twisted is the latest to enter into the Sarasota budding startup scene, but has aspirations well beyond Florida.

"There is this huge creative undercurrent in Sarasota — we have Ringling, we have the Florida Studio Theater, so we’re really lucky," Bennett said.

Check out their story and the game here.

Return of the SPAC

AgileThought, the Tampa-based software company acquired in 2019, is going public after merging with a special purpose acquisition company, otherwise known as a SPAC.

AgileThought, which still has a presence in Tampa, will be combining with blank check company LIV Capital Acquisition Corp. Officials state the combined deal will have a value of roughly $482M.

Blame it on the juice

Juice Technology AG, a Switzerland-based producer of electric charging stations and software, is expanding a sales office to Tampa. The city was chosen because, unsurprisingly, Juice Technology's general manager Michael Boehm decided to make the city his new home.

This is the first foray into the U.S. for the company. Get the full story here.

Below are featured jobs fromourCareers Directory. To feature a job in this newsletter,read more.

• Salesforce Lightning Developer - Accenture

• Oracle Cloud HCM Consultant- Accenture

• Big Data Engineer - Accenture

• Digital Finance Consulting Senior Manager -Accenture

• Growth Marketing Manager - Embarc Collective
• Infrastructure Engineer - Omnivore
• Senior Full Stack Software Engineer - Omnivore

• Tampa startup using tech to change the way sports industry is hiring
• PikMyKid gets seven-figure deal from Silicon Valley firm
• Two Tampa companies kick off funding rounds on crowdfunding site
• Sarasota tech company acquired by Canadian PE firm

• ‘Shark Tank’ vegan burger startup breaks into Target while chasing $10M in revenue - DC Inno
• Rocket startup Firefly raises $75M as new Central Texas unicorn - Austin Inno
• Local VC with NASCAR link leads investment in Richmond startup - Charlotte Inno

Esports Expansion

Lakeland-based Florida Southern College has invested more than $120K into its new esports arena. While the school has had an arena and esports team since 2017, the expansion and upgrade are intended to get its entire student body in on the fun. Get the full story here.

UT's new tech

The University of Tampa announced this morning it will be building a "Technology Building," spanning six floors in the heart of its campus. The new center will house more than the dozen programs it has relating to tech and is expected to be completed in fall 2022.

For more upcoming events, be sure to check out this month's Inno-approved events calendar or browse the Inno events directory.

SCP & CO Panel: Investing in Digital Healthcare

EY's "SPACs: fad or permanent fixture?" panel

USF Connect's Building Successful University Partnerships

Why are Tech Executives Flocking to Tampa Bay? A Tampa Bay Inno virtual event

Lauren: This has been such a busy news week, that I've found myself turning to the tried and true way of relaxing: looking at cute animal tweets. Some of my favs include what I'm going to be doing this weekend, Florida's version of a dog, and the cutest little criminal there was.

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Contact the Author:
LaurenCoffey:lcoffey@americaninno.com

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