Detroit, Mich. – Detroit is shedding its underdog stance for a more inclusive pitch: the Motor City as an AI-era launchpad where tech innovation meets the real economy.
At Michigan Tech Week last week, entrepreneurs and investors gathered at an LP-GP summit organized by Venture 313 and Transparent Collective to explore how the region’s innovators are marrying new technologies with legacy industries.
“I’m so long Detroit,” said Dug Song, who leads Song United, a Detroit-based family office. Earlier, Song built Duo Security, Michigan’s first tech unicorn. “Places like Detroit, but maybe specifically Detroit, is where software meets the real world.”
Song, who now supports entrepreneurship in Michigan as an active investor and ecosystem builder, contrasts over-inflated San Francisco valuations with the real-economy strengths of places like Michigan, which has been deploying AI and other technologies for the physical economy for decades.
Ann Arbor-based SoarTech, for example, has been building defense tech with AI for 30 years. Newer companies, like Geminus AI, a generative engineering and AI startup founded by researchers from the University of Michigan, are building physics models for industry. Based in Wixom, Michigan, Remora captures carbon dioxide from exhaust (think trucks, trains, generators and data centers) and sells beverage‑grade carbon.
“The majority of AI impact and value will be delivered outside of the frontier models,” says Song.
Launch pad
A growing number of high-impact entrepreneurs are calling Detroit home. Dealbook this week ranked Detroit 10th on its list of “rising star” startup ecosystems in North America, a measure of fast-growing, under-the-radar innovation hubs.
Last year, Houston startup Churchspace relocated to Detroit, which boasts one of the highest church densities per square mile. The company, co-founded by Emmanuel Brown and Day Edwards, helps faith institutions monetize flexible space.
Just Air, a Detroit startup led by Darren Riley, works with government agencies, industry leaders and health institutions to monitor and improve air quality. The company has grown its reach to 13 states and more than 750 ZIP codes.
CircNova, an AI drug discovery platform founded by Crystal Brown, uses deep learning to design and study new circular RNA therapies for ovarian cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and other rare genetic diseases.
“Michigan is a special place, as is Detroit, the cities around it, and the work that’s been done over the past couple years to create a space is really unmatched in other places in between the coasts,” said Black Ops VC’s James Norman, a Michigan native and founder of Transparent Collective.
Norman’s Black Ops VC, which invests in startups led by Black founders historically overlooked in VC, has backed Churchspace and JustAir, as well as Detroit’s Livegistics, a waste management startup, and Athlytic, which connects student athletes with potential endorsement partners.
Says Norman, “It took a long time to build a space in Michigan where people can be more collaborative, and there could be one plus one equals three.”
Capital continuum
A new generation of fund managers, family offices and entrepreneurial support organizations are building the capital infrastructure to match Detroit’s startup ambitions.
Venture 313, founded in 2022 with an initial $10 million from Gilbert Family Foundation, has built a coordinated capital continuum for Detroit builders by uniting the efforts of three long-standing Detroit-based capital providers: TechTown Detroit (grants), Invest Detroit Ventures (equity) and Detroit Development Fund (debt).
V313 has backed founders across 127 companies, which have gone on to raise over $62 million.
A growing crop of diverse and emerging Michigan- and regional-based venture funds are also cutting checks, including Kalamazoo Forward Ventures (Kalamazoo), WAVE Ventures (Ann Arbor) and Fireroad Ventures (Cincinnati).
The LP/GP event also attracted fund managers from the coasts, such as REFASHIOND Ventures (New York), Radix Innovation Capital (New York), Ain Ventures (New York), Ruthless for Good (New York) and MaC Venture Capital (Los Angeles).
Along with Song United, which has backed a number of local venture funds, other sources of Michigan-based LP capital include the University of Michigan’s Investment Office, State of Michigan Treasury, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Kresge Foundation and Renaissance Venture Capital, an Ann Arbor-based fund-of-funds.
Instead of the more common university technology transfer, TechTown Detroit’s Niles Heron told ImpactAlpha, the effort to coordinate capital for entrepreneurs in Detroit amounts to “community tech transfer.”
