Startups

Richmond-based Keya Snacks this week is unveiling a new Black Salt variety of its bagged chips as well as the introduction of a newly repackaged and tweaked Bombay Spice flavor, which the company has sold for several years.

REI Hub, which was the third fastest-growing company in the region last year, is now part of TurboTenant and its customer base of 700,000 landlords nationwide.

Food-related businesses fueled much of the local startup scene this year, while several young companies raked in sizable capital raises for their next phases of growth.

“Fusion is the process that happens inside the stars. On Earth, when we get it to work, we’ll use it to make electricity in fusion power plants. That electricity will be clean, it’ll be (reliable), it’ll be safe,” said the CEO of MIT-born Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

The company, which sold products like lip gloss and lipstick, pointed to inflation and a tightened investor capital market as reasons for its closing.

The funding will primarily be allocated toward the submission of an application to British regulators to allow for the commercialization of the company’s RespiRx nicotine inhaler in the United Kingdom.

Jeff Beck’s Shockoe Bottom-based company has nearly 150 employees, will serve more than 1,000 kids with autism this year through 8,000 hours of therapy each month and has raised $30 million from VC investors to date.

Sugar Magnolia Breads and Baked Goods officially rolled out its new Brownie Bark product this week, using the chocolate snack as its first foray into shelf-stable items suited to online sales and retail shelves.

Meredith Mexal left a career at a trucking company to launch Happy Tails, which offers pet grooming, pet sitting and dog walking with a fleet of Mercedes Sprinter vans.

The 6-year-old startup, which offers a fringe benefits marketplace for employee perks, said the funds will keep it running as it fine-tunes its software and operations as part of a pivot into partnerships with larger benefits providers.