Three companies are winners of the latest iteration of the Southeastern North Carolina NC BIONEER Venture Challenge. Renaissance Fiber was recognized with the first-place prize which includes a $20,000 investment from the NC Biotechnology Center and a one-year tenancy at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, acco ...

The coveted wooden surfboard was passed on to a new temporary owner at the 2022 Coastal Entrepreneur Awards ceremony Tuesday. Hosted by the Greater Wilmington Business Journal and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), the annual Coastal Entrepreneur Awards (CEA) ceremony honors fast-growing companies representin ...

After the birth of her son, Cheeky Monkey Coffee owner Maggie Blackham searched for a place to work and access child care at the same time. “It’s not a new concept,” Blackham said, including The Wing in New York City as an example. “But I thought, ‘I just really wish Wilmington had this.'” In addition to overseeing her downtown ...

Two Wilmington startups are recipients of the latest round of the NC IDEA SEED grant program, according to a Thursday press release. CICIL and Essential Personnel have received $50,000 each aimed at supporting the early-stage companies with “critical funding they need to scale faster,” the release stated. “This group of companies demonstrates that e ...

Solar energy, hemp fiber, independent films, banking technology – these are just some of the industries represented in this year’s Coastal Entrepreneur Awards. Despite their range in services and products, the common thread is the spirit of growth fueling each of the 11 companies and organizations tapped as CEA winners. Their wins were based on whether they ...

NC Lumber & Supply was first born by a space problem: Hordes of East Coast Lumber Co.’s unwanted wood kept piling up, taking up more and more of the warehouse floor.   “We were storing quite a bit of it,” said Rob Moore, co-owner of NC Lumber & Supply.   Co-owners Moore and Carter Derrick were then (and continue to be) sales represen ...

Apiture provides financial institutions with a platform to support the many services they offer their customers.   These services include web and mobile user interfaces for consumer and business customers, account opening software that expedites the process and data intelligence that integrates previously siloed information.   The Wilmington-based company for ...

Kristi Ray and Erika Arlee, co-founders of Honey Head Films, an award-winning boutique film production company in Wilmington, started their company as an underground movement.   Having successful film careers in front of the camera, Ray and Arlee were exhausted with the same one-dimensional characters and types of roles being offered to them as young women. Equally ...

Michelle Bethea launched Elaborate Outings-Luxury Picnics in August of last year to feature an intimate and sophisticated dining experience without walls.   Bethea said she strives to “please palates in an atmosphere of celebration with decor so amazing it makes you forget that you are not dining inside.”   A pop-up picnic, as she refers to it, in ...

The 80-pound reptile is a permanent resident and ambassador at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Surf City, which welcomes 40,000 to 60,000 visitors a year.   Ideally, all of the 31 turtles residing at the center as of April this year could be released back into the ocean after recovering from various ailments, but Lennie, a Kemp&rsquo ...