Let’s catch up with the latest innovation news in Texas.
—One of the awardees of the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowships, aka the “genius grants,” is a University of Texas at Austin professor. Lisa Schiavianto Eberlin is a chemistry professor and her research led to the development of the MasSpec Pen, which UT says enables a surgeon to rapidly differentiate cancerous tissue from healthy tissue in patients in a surgical setting. Eberlin is the first UT professor to be awarded the five-year, $625,000 grant since 1999.
—Austin’s Upland Software has acquired Rant & Rave, a U.K.-based maker of enterprise management software for $65 million. “Rant & Rave broadens our product portfolio, adds an established sales channel for Upland messaging solutions in Europe, and enables Upland to drive sales of Rant & Rave solutions in the United States,” Jack McDonald, Upland’s chairman and CEO, said in a press release. The deal was the Austin software maker’s 19th acquisition, according to the Austin Business Journal.
—Women-focused dating app Bumble is expanding to India later this year, and now has one of Bollywood’s biggest names, Priyanka Chopra, as an investor, according to multiple media reports. Dating apps have had difficulty getting traction with women in India but Bumble—which requires that the women reach out first—has added new features for Indian women to promote safety. Female users can have profiles that show only their first initial and the app will have new features for reporting bad behavior. Austin-based Bumble could expand those features to other markets, the company said in a news release, according to media reports.
—Stoplight, which develops APIs for business, has raised $3.25 million in a seed round led by Bill Wood Ventures, with additional funding from NextGen Venture Partners, Next Coast Ventures, Social Starts, and Capital Factory, according to a press release. In total, the the Austin-based company has raised $4.65 million and says it plans to use the investment to double its engineering team. Stoplight has 500 customers, particularly in the finance and healthcare sectors, the company said.
—Cratejoy, a box subscription service startup based in Austin, has laid off nearly half of its employees, according to an article in TechCrunch. The four-year-old startup let go 18 of 43 staff as part of a restructuring effort, said co-founder Amir Elaguizy. In total, Cratejoy has raised nearly $11 million from investors such as Charles River Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Capital Factory, and others, the publication reported.
—Austin-based Yeti Coolers has put its IPO plans back on the front burner. The company had filed paperwork with securities regulators two years ago to go public; this time, it’s seeking to raise up to $100 million (a figure that’s typically a placeholder as final preparations for the offering are made). The company is seeking to trade on the New York Stock Exchange using the ticker: “YETI.”
