Best High Tech Companies in Richmond, United States
The 32 best High Tech companies in Richmond, United States in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: EarthGrid.
Our analysis of 306 High Tech companies
$95.7b in tracked funding; 95% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2025.
Ranked: Best High Tech companies in Richmond
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Founder | Founded | Tech stack | Patents & IP focus | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | EarthGrid Provider of underground tunnel construction solutions using robots | $30M | 36 mo ago | Seed | Troy Helming Founder & CEO | 2016 | WordPressMySQLPHP+18 | — | — |
| 2 | Alion Energy Robotic installation and cleaning for solar energy installations | $20M | 172 mo ago | Series B | Mark Kingsley Chief Executive Officer | 2008 | — | 103 patents Solar PV mounting, tracking, cleaning, and maintenance vehicle technologies | — |
| 3 | Verdex Tech Provider of ceramic nanofibers | $4M | 56 mo ago | Seed | — | 2011 | — | — | — |
| 4 | Tulle Provider of AI-powered offering blockchain technologies such as Solana and Bitcoin | $2M | 44 mo ago | Seed | Jakub Kwiecien Co-Founder | 2022 | FirebaseEmotionChakra UI+18 | — | — |
| 5 | ARtGlass Provider of AR-based headsets for cultural & historic site exploration | $2M | 68 mo ago | Seed | — | 2017 | — | — | — |
| 6 | Linebird Provider of a line measurement system that can be attached with industrial drones | $520K | 23 mo ago | Seed | David Homfray Co-Founder & CTO | 2019 | — | 8 patents UAV-based power line inspection, measurement, and payload mounting solutions | — |
| 7 | AnswerThis Developer of an AI research assistant for academic and scientific writing | $500K | 16 mo ago | Seed | Ryan McCarroll Co-Founder | 2023 | SentryRadix UIReact Router+20 | — | — |
| 8 | Maxterial Provider of technology to modify the surface of a material to impart self cleaning and anti-fouling properties | $350K | 28 mo ago | Series A | — | 2014 | — | 74 patents Advanced surface coating technologies for industrial metal components and molds | — |
| 9 | MINTangible Online platform offering NFT development tools | $275K | 33 mo ago | Funding Raised | — | 2021 | — | 2 patents Patents concentrated in electrical & electronics | — |
| 10 | Marine Advanced Robotics Provider of unmanned surface vehicle systems for marine industries | $270K | 50 mo ago | Acquired | — | 2004 | Cart FunctionalitySquarespace CommerceSquarespace+14 | — | — |
| 11 | Mirrorcle Tech MEMS mirror technology innovator enabling advanced laser beam steering solutions | $184K | 203 mo ago | Funding Raised | Veljko Milanovic Founder & CEO | 2005 | — | — | — |
Top 12 High Tech companies in Richmond
#1
Seed · Richmond, Virginia · founded 2023$500Kraised▾
Developer of an AI research assistant for academic and scientific writing. The platform provides tools for literature reviews, citation management, and research gap identification. It helps users summarize papers, compare findings, and extract insights. The AI writing assistant aids in drafting abstracts, thesis statements, and research questions. It also offers citation formatting in various styles.
- 2025Seed$500K
#2
Seed · Richmond, Virginia · founded 2019 · 4 employees$520Kraised▾
Linebird provides a line measurement system that can be attached with different industrial drones. It uses unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to make contact with live power lines and allows preventive assessment of the health of the critical infrastructure. Claims that it helps utilities get actionable data on their critical infrastructure.
- Nov 2024Seed$100K
- Dec 2023Conventional Debt$535K
- Sep 2022Grant (prize money)$256K
- Jan 2022Seed$350K
#3
Seed · Richmond, California · founded 2016 · 8 employees$30Mraised▾
Provider of underground tunnel construction solutions using robots. Robots are based on plasma technology. It helps in creating an underground supergrid that connects to remote areas and transports clean energy to the grid.
- Oct 2023Seed$30M
#4
Series A · Richmond, California · founded 2014 · 5 employees$350Kraised▾
Provider of technology to modify the surface of a material to impart self-cleaning and anti-fouling properties. The technology modifies the microstructure of the surface in a way that it reduces the contact area of foreign particles on the surface of the material. Their process can be easily integrated into the existing manufacturing process.
- Jun 2024Series A—
- Feb 2021Grant (prize money)$206.5K
- Mar 2017Grant (prize money)$1.2M
- Oct 2015Seed$350K
#5
Seed · Richmond, Virginia · founded 2022$2Mraised▾
Provider of AI-powered offering blockchain technologies such as Solana and Bitcoin. The company has rebranded from NeoSwap and is leveraging artificial intelligence to optimize various processes.
- Feb 2023Seed$2M
#6
Series B · Richmond, California · founded 2008 · 17 employees$20Mraised▾
Robotic installation and cleaning for solar energy installations. It has developed a robot that provides installation of solar panels at a utility scale. It offers a robotic installation vehicle to cut out time and labor-intensive installation work. Apart from installation, the firm also provides help in cleaning the solar panels to maximize the energy output. Their automated cleaning robot can be programmed to clean the panels at particular intervals.
- 2012Series B—
- May 2011Series B$5M
- 2010Series B$15M
- 2009Seed—
#7
Seed · Richmond, Virginia · founded 2011 · 2 employees$3.9Mraised▾
Provider of ceramic nanofibers. It develops nanofibers without the use of toxic solvents for various applications. Their process allows the functionalization of nanofibers by impregnating the fibres with other nano-sized ingredients. Their products can find applications in drug delivery, water purification, and the food industry.
- Mar 2022Seed—
#8
Funding Raised · Richmond, Virginia · founded 2021 · 6 employees$275Kraised▾
Online platform offering NFT development tools
- Feb 2024Grant (prize money)$275K
#9
Seed · Richmond, Virginia · founded 2017 · 26 employees$2Mraised▾
ARtGlassGroup provides an augmented reality-based headset for cultural & historic site exploration. It provides augmented guidance to visitors on interactive journeys through time & space, creating storytelling & educational experiences in sites including art museums, iconic buildings & estates, and archaeological sites through the smart glasses. The programs are programmed differently on the glasses for each site according to a site's assets. Sites worked on includes The Pisa Tower Square, Tremona Castle Archaeological Park, The Capitoline Temple, and Casa Rossini, and more.
- Feb 2021Seed$486.8K
- Jun 2020Seed$191.5K
- Sep 2019Conventional Debt$180K
- Dec 2018Seed$1.3M
#10
Acquired · Richmond, California · founded 2004 · 6 employees$270Kraised▾
Provider of unmanned surface vehicle systems for marine industries. Its product portfolio includes shore USV robots, ocean USV robots, and ground-up USV robots. It enables users to survey and recuse operations. It also offers research and development services. It caters to maritime, defense, and GIS sectors.
- Sep 2022Grant (prize money)$150K
- Jan 2020Grant (prize money)$120K
#11
Funding Raised · Richmond, California · founded 2005$183.7Kraised▾
MEMS mirror technology innovator enabling advanced laser beam steering solutions. The company provides optical microelectromechanical system (MEMS) products and laser systems. They offer two-axis beam-steering MEMS Mirrors and resonant-type micromirror devices. Their technology is used in 3D metrology, biomedical imaging, LiDAR, AR/VR prototypes, and laser projectors. They provide system solutions for visual messaging and 3D perception sensing, including vector graphics laser projectors and compact 3D LiDAR systems. They offer R&D development kits and off-the-shelf products, and engage in specialty design and fabrication projects. Their MEMS mirror fabrication, packaging, and testing are performed in a clean-room environment. They provide high-quality products and support to facilitate product development and commercialization.
- Nov 2009Grant (prize money)$183.7K
#12
Funding Raised · Richmond, Virginia · founded 2018$20Kraised▾
NIRSleep provides a wearable smart patch to measure brain activity for sleep tracking. The device is encapsulated in a silicon housing and can both communicate and charge wirelessly. It uses fNIRS, a technology, to measure sleep problems directly at the source brain by measuring the cerebral oxygenation (ScO2). It can also calculate sleep indices such as sleep onset latency, wake after sleep onset, total sleep time, apnea/hypoxia index, and sleep efficiency. The device can stream data in real-time via Bluetooth and store data to be later uploaded into the dedicated cloud storage. Applications are in sleep recovery, hypoxia detection, remote patient monitoring, cognitive load monitoring, and neuroscience.
- 2020Grant (prize money)$20K
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of High Tech coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
How research on Semiconductors is moving in the United States
A read on the academic research around Semiconductors — which themes are gaining ground, the institutions and researchers driving them, and how the tone is shifting. Based on 8,739 United States-affiliated papers.
- Georgia Institute of Technology489
- IMEC343
- Intel325
- Purdue University West Lafayette218
- Industrial Technology Research Institute177
- Photonics56→121
- Photonic integrated circuit49→81
- Artificial neural network3→29
- Detector25→48
- Scalability53→73
- Photonics45→59
- Artificial neural network2→14
- Rapid single flux quantum2→12
- Detector20→29
- Image sensor2→11
- Photonics10→28
- Hardware security module6→13
- Thermal10→16
- Automotive industry2→8
- Photonic integrated circuit9→14
Where semiconductors is researched across United States
Location clusters by institution affiliation — each city's volume, stance tone, and a quick read on its hot topic, what's advancing, the opening opportunity, and the main concern.
Who's filing semiconductors patents in the United States
United States semiconductors patent filing is cooling — 112,775 filings from 8,000 assignees (2016–2025), led by IBM, Applied Materials, Intel; annual filings 11572→7675.
- IBM19691
- Applied Materials13119
- Intel11689
- Micron Technology10011
- Texas Instruments4804
- LAM RES4667
- Sandisk Technologies3051
- Qualcomm2897
Common questions
Rohit lives in the feed. He covers what's moving right now — the funding rounds, launches and shifts breaking across the trade press — and ties them back to where the sector is heading.