Let’s catch up with the latest innovation news in Texas.
—Boeing (NYSE: [[ticker:BE]]) has acquired Houston-based ForeFlight, a mobile and web-based maker of aviation software, according to a press release. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. ForeFlight had already been partnering with the Chicago-based aeronautical company for the past two years through Boeing’s subsidiary Jeppesen by using the latter’s data and charts in ForeFlight’s mobile platform. “This acquisition also expands Boeing’s rapidly growing, unparalleled digital services portfolio which will enable us to compete and win in the $2.8 trillion” market, Ken Sain, Boeing’s vice president of digital solutions and analytics, said in the prepared statement.
—Osano, which makes a browser plugin aimed at helping users better manage online privacy, has raised $3 million, according to a press release. LiveOak Ventures led the round with participation from Next Coast Ventures, Capital Factory, Social Starts, and Barracuda Networks. Individuals including Michael Perone, 345Partners co-founder; Brett Hurt, founder of data.world and Bazaarvoice; and Indeed founder Rony Kahan also invested in the funding round.
Osano, which was founded in Austin last year, operates as a B corporation, which signifies a commitment to social responsibility practices. “With data privacy at the constant forefront of tech industry and consumer conversations, greater transparency is desperately needed on the web to unlock the secrecy of convoluted privacy policies and give users control over their data again,” Osano founder Arlo Gilbert said in a prepared statement.
—Houston medtech company Saranas has received de novo classification for its device that detects internal bleeding occurring when a catheter accidentally punctures a blood vessel. Saranas’ device, calls the “Early Bird Bleed Monitoring System,” includes a vascular access sheath with embedded sensors. These are designed to detect and monitor bleeding that may occur during endovascular procedures, such as a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), a large bore hemodynamic support device placement, or when the femoral artery or vein is used to obtain vascular access.
The company says one in five patients experienced a bleed complication in a recent study of more than 17,000 large-bore transcatheter interventions from the National Inpatient Sample Database. Saranas said a 2017 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported a three-fold increase in mortality, a two-fold increase in length of hospital stay, and a 60 percent increase in healthcare costs when bleeding occurs after percutaneous interventions using large-bore catheters.
