Founders gain free access to AI Tennessee’s industry consortium, AI TechX, through the program to help accelerate AI solutions to commercialization in Tennessee.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (September 10, 2026) – AI TechX, the industry consortium of AI Tennessee, is adding 10 companies to its ranks. Apex AI, ComparaVet, IV.ai Solutions, Motion Intelligence, Omega Digital Solutions, Pangea, the.garage, UrbisIQ LLC, ValidBound, and WizPrinter were inducted into the AI TechX Start-Up Connect program this month.
The consortium connects Tennessee-based entrepreneurs with corporate members, faculty researchers, university talent, and other resources to advance AI technology toward commercialization, accelerate scalable AI solutions, and prepare Tennessee’s workforce for new high-impact jobs. Current AI TechX members like Enterprise Sensor Systems LLC (EnSenSys) and Vibrint have demonstrated the power of these industry partnerships to propel pivotal academic research, like ESS Protect hyperspectral sensing technology that is advancing animal disease detection, and Vibrint’s Quantum Geospatial Intelligence Project, a collaboration involving UTK faculty and students that conducted real quantum computing demonstrations processing trillion-pixel satellite images using quantum algorithms, including SIFT (Scale-Invariant Feature Transform).
Since its founding, AI TechX has grown to over 40 members, delivering $200,000 in industry and philanthropic investment.
“We want to see this market and the partnerships we’ve built with companies and our state’s educational institutions continue to grow,” said Caleb Knight, Director of AI TechX. “AI TechX Start-Up Connect is a big part of fulfilling our mission of statewide economic growth, with innovative, multidisciplinary collaborations that create career opportunities for Tennesseans.”
Startups are admitted to the consortium based on their ability to solve a challenge in the market tied to AI or by leveraging AI technology. Founders may apply to the Start-Up Connect program at any time throughout the year and are accepted on a rolling basis. Once accepted, Start-Up Connect members receive a year of no-cost membership and access to the AI Tennessee community, including AI Tennessee’s statewide network of collaborators working to strengthen AI readiness and accelerate adoption across Tennessee. These include academic and industry-leading partnerships, government agencies, and access to capital opportunities and events.
The newest members of AI TechX Start-Up Connect:
ApexAI is building the first real-time, fully private, on-device AI navigation system for people who are blind or visually impaired. The software will be available via mobile app, making it the only product that offers true pedestrian navigation. The company was founded by CEO Dr. Maged Shoman.
Dr. Tim Chamberlain, veterinary anatomist and instructor at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, designed ComparaVet to solve a real problem in his own classroom. Comparavet’s technology delivers tiered AI grading on student anatomy images across seven species. The AI model evaluates each labeled structure in a student’s submitted anatomy image and returns immediate graded feedback.
Founded by Ines Voellinger, IV.ai Solutions is a healthcare-focused company headquartered in Chattanooga that helps physicians navigate new technologies without losing the human touch.
Together, co-founders Madelaine Martinez-Ferguson and Dr. Xueping Li lead Motion Intelligence, a company developing AI-powered decision-support systems that combine digital twins, predictive analytics, and human-AI collaboration. Motion helps transportation organizations shorten planning cycles by turning complex data into timely, actionable insights that enable them to anticipate disruptions and evaluate complex scenarios.
Founded by Marcus Blair, the team at Omega Digital Solutions released CoreIQ in 2025 to help principal employment organizations and franchisors manage training and information access. CoreIQ handles all routine requests and even works through scenarios, making operations much easier for everyone involved. In addition, they provide AI-related consulting services for enterprise clients in manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and financial services.
Pangea, led by Ali Sekman and Chris Jones from Tennessee State University, is a deep-tech AI platform company that builds, deploys, and scales novel AI architectures from the ground up — grounded in mathematics and peer-reviewed science.
Nashville-based the.garage builds software and integrations that help universities, accelerators, and research institutions get more of their technology to market through licensing, acquisitions, and new ventures. Founded by Dr. Rami Ajjuri, the.garage’s AI-native platform is grounded in each institution’s own knowledge, assets, and industry relationships rather than the open web, and surfaces contextual guidance and opportunities for their innovators and partners exactly when they need it.
UrbisIQ is a company focused on providing technology for urban safety. Led by CEO Dr. Eric Hoang H. Nguyen, the startup’s iCityGuardian product is a human-interactive AI platform that transforms the city camera into proactive city-scale intelligence, helping public safety and transportation agencies detect and monitor roadway incidents in real time, using natural language instead of complex system configuration.
Anna McClure, creator of ValidBound, founded the company by turning research and classroom experience into practical coaching and software for speakers, instructors, and programs. In addition to one-on-one interviews and public speaking coaching services, ValidBound’s SpeechGradebook software helps prepare speakers for valid practice feedback at home and instructor-reviewed speech evaluation courses.
WizPrinter is a faculty-workflow platform that helps educators generate, deliver, and grade both paper and digital assessments directly from course modules, learning objectives, existing course materials, and past exams. The company was founded by Thomas Raymer, an East Tennessee State University (ETSU) alumnus, along with Sonu Mirchandani, ETSU faculty, as lead advisor.
To learn more about joining AI TechX, contact Caleb Knight at caleb.knight@utk.edu.
For more information about AI Tennessee and the initiative’s additional research projects across the state, contact Rachel Anderson at 734-693-7009 or randerson@piper-communications.com
About AI Tennessee
AI Tennessee’s mission is to position the state of Tennessee as a leader in the AI data economy. AI Tennessee is led by the University of Tennessee and promotes the state’s unique strengths and opportunities in artificial intelligence. AI Tennessee’s goal is to make lives better through artificial intelligence, research, education, and application. For more information, visit aitennessee.ai
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