The new year is progressing at a rapid pace, as are Texas’s innovators. Here’s the latest on new products, a shout-out to Houston and Austin as meccas of STEM jobs, and a slew of fresh money being invested into startups.
—Got a traffic ticket? Aceable in Austin, TX, says you can now take a defensive driving class on your iPhone via its app. The startup also offers driver’s ed.
—The Geekdom Fund in San Antonio has raised $3 million to invest in tech startups, Silicon Hills News reported this week.
—Move over Silicon Valley, Houston and Austin top a new survey of best places to land a job in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
—RideScout CEO Joseph Kopser—West Point graduate and U.S. Army veteran—has established a veteran-focused incubator in Austin.
—Austin’s Roverpass wants to become the Kayak for campers.
—Texas Venture Labs at the University of Texas at Austin has hatched some of the state capital’s successful recent startups.
—Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban will emcee South By Southwest’s first pediatric health pitch contest.
Texas startups also began the new year with welcome injections of new cash:
—Wireless Seismic, a suburban Houston company that uses seismic imaging to pinpoint the size and location of underground oil and gas formations, has raised $10.2 million in equity funds.
—Alert Logic, a Houston-based provider of cloud security, raised an equity round of $4.2 million.
—Austin’s Appconomy, which makes a smart shopping app, has raised $9 million. The startup has a special focus on the retail market in China.
—Neos Therapeutics, a Dallas-area biotech that is making a drug for a controlled release of ADHD medications, has raised $8 million in equity financing.
Finally, let’s take one more look back at 2014.
