Franklin-based Metova, a provider of mobile, connected car, connected home and IoT solutions, has reached a recapitalization agreement with Lightview Capital, a Summit, New Jersey-based private equity firm.

The transaction supports Metova’s focus on providing innovative solutions in areas including the Internet of Things, mobile self-service as well as the connected car and home.

“As technologies develop and mature around connected services, homes, vehicles and more, businesses are often overloaded with the many options and directions for a meaningful and powerful digital transformation,” says Josh Smith, CEO at Metova. “At Metova, we work alongside our partners, understand their vision and then help get them there with innovative solutions.”

The transaction with Metova is consistent with Lightview’s strategy of investing in tech-enabled and outsourced services businesses.

Kindful creates new software for nonprofits

Nashville-based Kindful, a company providing software that helps nonprofits organize data and manage donors, has launched Donor Lifecycle Analytics, bringing powerful and holistic insights to donor management.

Kindful’s approach to donor data looks at the entire lifecycle. Where many other providers in the market focus only on retention, Kindful’s Donor Lifecycle Analytics take into account both acquisition and upgraded donors, supplementing retention data.

Kindful’s Donor Lifecycle Analytics segment the lifecycle into acquisition, retention and upgrades. Providing metrics around campaign success, acquisition analytics can help fundraisers analyze their marketing strategies.

Retention analytics offer an easy-to-view list of donors in danger of lapsing, providing straightforward points of contact for relationship nurturing. Looking at already engaged donors, upgrade analytics help development specialists see how well they are getting their donors to give more year over year.

Nichols Vale community in Mt. Juliet sold

Ashlar Development has acquired Nichols Vale, a 402-home site, single-family residential community in Mt. Juliet.

“We were very attracted to Nichols Vale because of its location to Nashville, the 4th fastest growing market in the nation,” says Steve Yetts, president of Ashlar Development.

“Nashville and its surrounding areas are experiencing significant growth and we are excited to continue developing this beautiful community.”

Homes in the community range from the mid-$300s to mid-$500s and include custom/estate homes, production homes and townhomes by builders Beazer Homes and Eastland Construction.

Upon completion, the Nichols Vale amenity center will feature a swimming pool with a 2,000 square-foot pool house overlooking 32 acres of open space including a pond and trail system.

$23M anonymous gift for Lipscomb

Lipscomb University has received a $23 million gift, the largest gift in the school’s history.

The donors wish to remain anonymous.

The gift will fund new facilities for the College of Business and will support business programs, faculty and students. In addition, the funds will build a parking structure and global learning facilities in Florence, Italy, among other initiatives.

“This is a significant moment in the history of Lipscomb University,” says L. Randolph Lowry, university president. “We are grateful to these donors for their commitment to this institution. This gift is an investment in our College of Business as a way to continue to elevate the image of the school as a leader in business education in Nashville and in the nation.”

The business school is one of the fastest growing in the university, with more than 600 undergraduate and graduate students and 16 undergraduate and four graduate programs, touting a 95 percent overall job placement rate for 2016 and thousands of alumni around the world.

The college has been named the No. 1 Undergraduate Business Program in Tennessee two years in a row by both Bloomberg Business Week and Poets & Quants and the No. 2 part-time MBA program in Tennessee in 2016 by Bloomberg Business Week.

Low-income students to get college support

Students in 15 Tennessee counties, including Davidson and Robertson, will benefit from more than $11.68 million in funding to support college access thanks to a federal grant.

The funding is part of the U.S. Department of Education’s Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) grant, which aims to increase the number of low-income students in Tennessee who are accessing and succeeding in higher education.

The Tennessee Higher Education Commission, which secured the federal grant, announced the communities that will be a part of Tennessee’s GEAR UP project, GEAR UP TN, following a competitive selection process.

Selected GEAR UP TN middle and high schools are located in the following counties: Anderson, Bradley, Campbell, Davidson, Fayette, Haywood, Henry, Jackson, Johnson, Lincoln, Meigs, Overton, Polk, Robertson and Shelby. GEAR UP TN will provide services in 32 middle schools and 18 high schools statewide.

In total, over 23,000 middle and high school students will directly benefit from GEAR UP TN services through 2024.

GEAR UP TN will provide academic readiness and college access services to a cohort of 3,500 students in participating schools. Students in the GEAR UP TN cohort will receive tutoring, career guidance, comprehensive college advising and mentoring that will continue through their first year of postsecondary education.

Additionally, more than 3,250 high school seniors at participating high schools will receive GEAR UP TN support during each year of the grant. Statewide services, including resources for fostering a college-going culture and a college access and success website, www.CollegeforTN.org, will serve over 35,000 students across Tennessee.

Cumberland Trust surpasses $3B in assets

Cumberland Trust, an independent corporate trustee with nine offices serving clients in 48 states, has announced it has surpassed $3 billion in assets under administration.

Cumberland Trust began in 2001 in Nashville as a firm specializing in trust and estate administration. Since it focused exclusively on being a corporate trustee, not a financial or legal advisor, it opened the door for collaboration with advisors across the country.

This model uniquely allows advisors to offer best-in-class corporate trustee services to its clients through Cumberland Trust, without having to worry about service overlap or redundancies.

In addition to Nashville, Cumberland Trust has offices in Atlanta, Austin, Chattanooga, Dallas, Knoxville, Memphis, St. Louis and Tampa-St. Pete.

Comdata launches OnRoad Card

Comdata Inc., a FLEETCOR company located in Brentwood, has introduced the Comdata OnRoad Card, a multipurpose fuel and driver funds card in the transportation industry.

The card builds on the leading security and controls of the Comdata Proprietary Card and adds increased visibility and security features for fleets while offering more convenience, broader access to personal funds and a fee-friendly structure for drivers.

The OnRoad Card’s dual-sided setup keeps fleets in control of company money while allowing drivers to easily manage personal funds with a single card that has universal acceptance and zero point-of-sale fees when running debit transactions on the MasterCard Signature Debit Network.

In addition, driver funds can be easily accessed at bank tellers and thousands of Cirrus and AllPoints ATM locations across North America.

“We are increasingly seeing fleets focus attention on the driver experience as a way to attract and retain top talent,” says Greg Secord, president of Comdata North American Trucking.

“Access to the MasterCard network will give drivers the ability to use their personal funds in virtually any location at any time, including on-line purchases.

“The OnRoad Card’s convenience and flexibility aligns with our mission to improve driver experience by empowering them to focus fully on the road ahead.”

Goodyear, Bridgestone launch TireHub

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and Nashville-based Bridgestone Americas, Inc., are set to form one of the largest tire distribution joint ventures in the U.S.

TireHub, LLC, will provide U.S. tire dealers and retailers with a comprehensive range of passenger and light truck tires from two of the world’s leading tire companies. The goal is to rapidly grow demand for larger rim diameter premium tires.

TireHub will combine Goodyear’s company-owned wholesale distribution network with Bridgestone-owned Tire Wholesale Warehouse. The transaction will enable Bridgestone and Goodyear to grow their respective tire businesses and capture enhanced value for their brands. The transaction is subject to customary approvals and is expected to close mid-year.

At launch, TireHub will have the scale to reach the vast majority of retail locations in the U.S. daily. The new distribution company will complement both companies’ networks of existing third-party distributors and provide a superior, fully integrated distribution, warehousing, sales and delivery solution immediately following completion of the transaction.