Let’s get caught up with the latest innovation news from Xconomy Texas:
Austin:
—Techstars Ventures and Texas-based angel investors have added $1 million to the $1.6 million previously raised by NuPark, an Austin startup with video technology to help schools and governments better manage parking. NuPark says its software can help customers manage permit sales, citation appeals, e-commerce websites, among other services.
—Hangar, a startup that makes software to help businesses better collect and analyze data from drone flights, has raised $6.5 million in an early stage funding round. New York-based Lux Capital led the financing; the company reported that Fontinalis Partners, Haystack Partners, and several prominent angel investors also participated. Founder and CEO Colin Guinn says Hangar produces autonomous drone flight software that can be easily shared to business customers such as commercial and residential real estate or construction companies on a large scale.
Dallas:
—Edition Collective, a men’s e-commerce startup, has been acquired by a brick-and-mortar retail company, Q Fifty One. The Houston-based retail chain owns and operates Q Clothier and Rye 51 stores in four cities nationwide. Matt Alexander, founder and CEO of Edition, now becomes CEO of Q Fifty One Digital, which will manage the company’s online shopping business.
Houston:
—SheHacks, a hackathon geared toward women tech entrepreneurs, hosted its first event in Houston where participants worked on eight projects. The New York-based group says its previous two hackathons have resulted in more than 100 women in technology pitching 23 new business ventures. Among the winners of the Houston event was EllieGrid, “smart” pillbox that allows users to scan medication labels so that an app can give them alerts about missed dosages or if a medicine needs refilling.
—Xconomy brings its Disruptors conference to Houston tomorrow in a daylong seminar at the Texas Medical Center’s TMCx accelerator. The event brings together innovators from across the state in healthcare, space, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and other sectors. Register here.
San Antonio:
—The 80/20 Foundation is giving Tech Bloc a $600,000 grant for an effort to construct a new high school focused on technology and entrepreneurship, called CAST Tech. Tech Bloc, a San Antonio tech-focused advocacy group, plans to seek a dollar-for-dollar match for the grant. A new foundation called TechBlock-4-TechEd will work to raise the funding from local businesses and the public. The new school will have a typical core curriculum, along with teaching skills in specializations such as cybersecurity, coding, or video game development, as well as business practices.
—After four years, Techstars has closed its accelerator targeting cloud computing startups in San Antonio due to declining activity in early stage cloud startup activity. Director Blake Yeager moves to Techstars headquarters in Boulder, CO, where he becomes vice president of engineering for the accelerator program overall.
—The British are coming—well, they did come to Texas last week. A contingent of healthcare companies based in the U.K. traveled to Texas’ largest cities scouting out business opportunities and potential customers with local companies, physicians, and institutions.
