// Startup News

Birmingham’s New Venture Studio Has Its First Two Startups

BIRMINGHAM, September 24 (Hypepotamus) - Two new home-grown tech startups are planting their flag in Birmingham, Alabama, thanks to the local studio created in partnership with Innovate Alabama and Harmony Venture Labs.

The Innovate Alabama Venture Studio announced the first two companies launched out of their program, designed to build companies around real industry problems…backed by corporate partners from day one.

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What’s A Venture Studio Anyway?

Traditionally in the startup world, a founder comes up with an idea, forms a company, and goes out to find accelerators and VC firms to help them scale.

Venture studios take a different approach.

The Innovate Alabama Venture Studio, for example, works alongside corporate partners to identify high-potential ideas and accelerate them into venture-backable companies. The Studio was announced in summer 2025 (previous Hypepotamus reporting here). At the time of its launch, Harmony Venture Labs’ HVL Shegun Otulana said that the studio model was best for helping to get capital and attention into more Alabama companies.

Meet The Companies

The first, PackPay, is an early-stage startup that helps consumer-packaged goods brands identify and resolve retailer short payments and recover revenue. Under the leadership of Jeremy Carter, PackPay has already brought on Regions Banks as an early investor.

The other startup is DealTree, which uses AI to help private equity firms more efficiently find and evaluate potential investments. Alabama-based Tenet Partners is an early investor, and Ben Pollock recently joined as DealTree’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence, according to LinkedIn.

“Launch readiness comes down to confidence in the customer need, the business/market opportunity, and the team that will carry it forward,” the Harmony Venture Labs team told Hypepotamus. “We began the innovation cycle process for PackPay and DealTree in 2025, and each company has developed at its own pace since then.”

The Innovate Alabama Venture Studio is guided by the Alabama Department of Commerce's Catalyst strategic framework, which focuses on industries with high local potential, including financial technology, healthcare, logistics, industrial systems, and other innovation-driven markets.

“The Innovate Alabama Venture Studio was created to help turn Alabama's expertise and industry strengths into new companies," said Mary Beth Grant, Program Director of the Innovate Alabama Capital Access Initiative. "The launch of these first two companies shows Alabama can do exactly that. More importantly, it demonstrates that we're building a repeatable engine for company creation, one that can continue generating new businesses, attracting investment and supporting long-term economic growth.”