December 8, 2025

GNO, Inc. Sunday Night Highlight – “Early Economic Development Christmas”

Economic Development Christmas arrived early in Greater New Orleans, with a range of recent announcements about projects and progress:

Plan A Games announced a team in New Orleans to develop a data analytics platform for mobile free-to-play games
Nest Health, a New Orleans-based startup delivering whole-family, in-home care for Medicaid patients, closed a Series A round exceeding $22.5 million. The company will use the funding to expand its model, including new clinical products and AI-enabled automation, and to grow in its current states while entering new markets through payer partnerships
Waymo recently announced plans to bring its driverless ride-hailing service to New Orleans after testing earlier this year, making NOLA one of the few cities in the nation to host the leading autonomous driving company (in challenging circumstances!)
Sports betting analytics company Outlier, which has a five-person office downtown, announced a $10.7 million raise to scale its platform, expand its subscriber base, and keep building its team in New Orleans and elsewhere. Outlier’s subscription product helps users make data-driven betting decisions across major pro sports and some college sports, and the company says it now serves hundreds of thousands of users across the U.S., the U.K., and Australia
On the Northshore, Boudreaux’s Jewelers announced a $4 million expansion and modernization of its flagship showroom and manufacturing facility in Mandeville
In our neighboring Bayou Region, autonomous shipbuilder Saronic announced a $300 million investment to expand its Louisiana shipyard, adding more than 300,000 square feet of production capacity and 1,500 new jobs. The buildout is positioned as a major boost to the Gulf Coast’s maritime and defense-industrial base, scaling domestic production as demand grows for faster delivery of advanced capabilities, including Saronic’s Marauder autonomous vessel platform.