Bridging the Bay: Tampa Bay Wave and spARK Labs Connect Tampa Bay's Innovation Communities
Across Tampa Bay, founders are building companies, finding customers, meeting investors and tapping into expertise on both sides of Tampa Bay. The stronger those connections become, the stronger the region becomes as a place to start and scale a company.
That idea is behind Bridging the Bay, a new partnership between Tampa Bay Wave and spARK Labs by ARK Invest designed to create stronger connections between the innovation communities in Tampa and St. Petersburg.
The organizations formalized the partnership through a memorandum of understanding in early September and marked its public launch on Oct. 7 with the FinTech|X Accelerator Mixer at ARK Innovation Center in St. Petersburg.
The mixer brought founders, investors and ecosystem partners together following a curriculum day for Tampa Bay Wave’s 2026 FinTech|X Accelerator cohort.
Building stronger connections across Tampa Bay
Bridging the Bay is designed to extend well beyond a single gathering.
Through the partnership, Tampa Bay Wave and spARK Labs plan to host joint programming, share resources and create more opportunities for founders to build relationships across the region.
For entrepreneurs, those connections matter. Tampa-based companies can benefit from relationships, expertise and opportunities in St. Petersburg, and vice versa. Making those resources easier to access can help founders build stronger networks as their companies grow.
“Founders don’t stop at a bridge, and neither should the support around them,” said Linda Olson, CEO of Tampa Bay Wave. “Tampa and St. Petersburg each bring something different to this ecosystem. Bridging the Bay makes it easier for founders to draw on both, and that’s good for every entrepreneur building a company here.”
That regional mindset is shared by spARK Labs, an innovation hub powered by ARK Invest in St. Petersburg.
“Tampa Bay’s strength has always been its people, and the best ideas come from collaboration,” said Becca Brown, President and CEO of spARK Labs by ARK Invest. “Bridging the Bay brings our communities closer together. By combining spARK Labs’ role as a hub for disruptive innovation with Tampa Bay Wave’s deep accelerator experience, we can support founders at every stage of growth.”
Starting with FinTech|X
The partnership’s public launch alongside FinTech|X reflects the kind of founder connectivity Bridging the Bay aims to encourage.
Now in its fifth year, the FinTech|X Accelerator supports startups building solutions for the financial services industry. The 2026 program is presented in partnership with the USF Muma College of Business Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance and supported by Regions Foundation.
Bringing the cohort to the ARK Innovation Center created an opportunity for founders participating in the program to connect with a broader cross-section of Tampa Bay’s entrepreneurial community.
One region, more opportunities for founders
Tampa and St. Petersburg each have distinct innovation communities, but founders rarely build companies within the boundaries of a single city.
Bridging the Bay gives Tampa Bay Wave and spARK Labs a framework to connect those communities more intentionally. Through continued programming, shared resources and stronger relationships between organizations, the partnership can make it easier for entrepreneurs to access what the broader Tampa Bay region has to offer.
For Tampa Bay Wave, that work is part of building an ecosystem where geography creates more connections for founders, rather than fewer.
Bridging the Bay starts with bringing communities together. Where it goes next will be shaped by the founders, investors and partners collaborating across Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.