Over your turkey-weekend hangover? Let’s set the table with the latest innovation news in Texas, including new money raised, expansions, and the filing of the first IPO for a Houston biotech company in 14 years.
—Need, a Dallas-based e-retailer, is getting a little brother. Matt Alexander, Need’s CEO and founder, told me about plans for a new site called Foremost and ongoing fundraising for the startup’s Series A round.
—Experiment Engine, a software company, has raised $1 million in seed money from Founder Collective, Houston-based Mercury Fund, and other investors. The Austin, TX-based company’s software helps businesses test different versions of a website, which is known as A/B testing.
—Blood testing by anyone anywhere is the philosophy behind Spot on Sciences, an Austin medical device manufacturer. The company has raised $2 million in research grants to help develop its “HemaSpot” blood collection kit.
—Life sciences startups ranging in focus from software to better manage patient data to an eyewear kiosk made up the second annual class of Dallas-based Health Wildcatters’ startups.
—Houston legal software startup CS Disco raised $10 million in a Series B round of funding. The company’s software helps attorneys more efficiently find and peruse the reams of documents handled in litigation.
—In Austin, software company Bigcommerce pulled in big money in a Series C round of $50 million. The company sells e-commerce software to small businesses.
—Bellicum Pharmaceuticals filed for a $115 million initial public offering, which would make it the first Houston biotech company to go public since 2000. Bellicum is developing immunotherapies that allow the suppression or activation of cells administered to patients with leukemia, lymphoma, or pancreatic cancers.
