Let’s catch up with the latest innovation news from Xconomy Texas.
—The Cannon, a Houston-based venture studio, is creating an angel network that founder Lawson Gow hopes will “democratize” angel investing in startups. “We will have junior memberships and regular memberships,” Gow says. “We want to bring in 35-year-olds who want to invest $20,000. There are people who could be angel investors and they aren’t.” The angel network is called Cannon Ventures, and Gow says he expects it will be composed mainly of high-net-worth individuals who are not currently involved in early stage investing. “We want to get them off the bench and onto the field, and convert them into angel investors.”
—SigmaSense, which makes screen sensor and controls technology for computers, tablets, and smart screens at department stores, has raised $1.4 million in new equity funding, according to an SEC filing. Earlier this year, the Austin, TX-based company changed its name from 3AxisData to SigmaSense.
—Pensa Systems, which makes autonomous inventory management software for retailers and manufacturers, has raised $2.2 million as part of a seed funding round, according to a press release. The round was led by ATX Seed Ventures, with participation from ZX Ventures, the venture arm of Anheuser-Busch InBev, Kiva Systems founder Mick Mountz, and Yechiam Yemini, a serial entrepreneur and professor emeritus at Columbia University in New York.
—FloSports, a subscription-based media company that specializes in alternative sports, said it’s acquired the The Rugby Channel from Rugby International Marketing. Austin-based FloSports has a network of more than 20 websites with live and on-demand video coverage of sporting events, along with original content, of sports such as track and field and mixed martial arts. FloSports did not say how much it paid to acquire the channel in its announcement of the deal.
—Joseph Kopser, the Austin entrepreneur who co-founded the transportation app startup RideScout, which was sold to a subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler AG in 2014, won his bid to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for Congress for Texas’ 21st congressional district. Kopser, a West Point graduate and former instructor at the school, also served in the U.S. Army in Iraq. He faces Republican nominee Chip Roy in the general election in November.
