More than 500 entrepreneurs, investors, and support organizations gathered in downtown Winston-Salem’s Innovation Quarter on August 27–28, 2026, for ConvergeSouth. Organized by the nonprofit Flywheel Foundation, the two-day event featured three distinct programming tracks across venues including Biotech Place and the Bailey Power Plant.
ConvergeSouth Marks Ten Years in Winston-Salem
Flywheel Foundation founder and board member Peter Marsh noted that the gathering serves as a platform for regional founders to connect with industry leaders and capital sources. Title sponsors supporting the 2026 edition included Johnson & Johnson, Pegasus Tech Ventures, Reynolds, NCInnovation, and the Innovation Quarter.
The event’s programming was divided across three core tracks: healthtech/biotech, AI and B2B SaaS, and food/beverage/agtech.
Expanding Beyond Regional Markets in Biotech
The North Carolina Biotechnology Center (NCBiotech) shaped the core of the healthtech and biotech track. Nancy Johnston, executive director of NCBiotech’s Piedmont Triad office, served on the organizing committee and led the second day of biotech sessions alongside staffers Kyle R. Bartholomew, Mike Carnes, and Zach Zabarsky.
During a panel titled "Building Biotechs in the Southeast" moderated by Carnes, Cape Fear BioCapital co-founder and general partner Ed Field urged founders to look past domestic markets. Field advised attendees to focus globally rather than limiting their scope to North Carolina, the Southeast, or the United States, pointing to China’s streamlined path to market as an example.
Hatteras Venture Partners CEO Heather Madsen addressed fundraising hurdles for companies outside traditional life science capitals. Madsen recommended that founders operating outside Boston or the Bay Area actively build relationships in established hubs by requesting direct meetings with industry contacts.
In a separate session on Department of Defense biomedical funding, Zabarsky reviewed federal appropriations, highlighting that Congress allocated $1.27 billion for 34 research programs under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, via the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs.
Startup World Cup and Portfolio Showcases
Agricultural technology company CHONEX, which develops biological agricultural products, captured the regional title during Pegasus Tech Ventures’ $1 million Startup World Cup pitch competition at ConvergeSouth. The win secures CHONEX a spot in the Grand Finale scheduled for San Francisco in November.
Several companies from NCBiotech’s active portfolio of roughly 90 investments participated in the event’s 75 pitch-session slots:
- Neuriora LLC: A Wake Forest-based firm working to improve clinical trial endpoint data reliability in psychiatry and CNS research.
- OncoTab Inc.: A developer of tumor-targeted therapies directed at pancreatic cancer.
- OsteoCure Therapeutics: A Duke spinout advancing an adenosine-based platform for bone repair and osteoporosis treatment.
- Plakous Therapeutics: A company that previously won NCBiotech’s 2022 Venture Challenge.
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