[Updated 8/5/14 8:47 am. See below.] It’s been a busy couple of weeks in the Texas innovation community. Here are some of the highlights: —Bluegrass Vascular Technologies might have to change its name. The three-year-old Kentucky medtech firm announced last week that it had closed on $4.5 million in funding from Targeted Technology, a San Antonio, TX-based … Continue reading “Texas Roundup: Funding, Relocations, & Techstars Cloud Returns”
Author: Angela Shah
Angela Shah was formerly the editor of Xconomy Texas. She has written about startups along a wide entrepreneurial spectrum, from Silicon Valley transplants to Austin transforming a once-sleepy university town in the '90s tech boom to 20-something women defying cultural norms as they seek to build vital IT infrastructure in a war-torn Afghanistan. As a foreign correspondent based in Dubai, her work appeared in The New York Times, TIME, Newsweek/Daily Beast and Forbes Asia.
Before moving overseas, Shah was a staff writer and columnist with The Dallas Morning News and the Austin American-Statesman. She has a Bachelor's of Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, and she is a 2007 Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan. With the launch of Xconomy Texas, she's returned to her hometown of Houston.
UnLtd USA Launches in Austin, Targets Social Venture Startups
A new accelerator called UnLtd USA has come to Austin, focused on on entrepreneurs focused on social and environmental problems. The accelerator is the latest, and the first American perch, of a program originally started in the United Kingdom. Accelerators have also been launched in three other countries, including India. UnLtd starts its program tomorrow … Continue reading “UnLtd USA Launches in Austin, Targets Social Venture Startups”
DiBS’s BioWheel Aims to Paint a Dynamic Picture of Life Sciences Data
[Updated 8/01/14 1:59 pm. See below.] Big Data is everywhere, and one Houston health IT startup says its software can help clinicians and researchers better interpret all the numbers—in color. Data is Beautiful Solutions, or DiBS, is a Rice University startup focused on making more useful versions of the “heat maps” used by healthcare researchers to … Continue reading “DiBS’s BioWheel Aims to Paint a Dynamic Picture of Life Sciences Data”
Be Gone, Junk: Austin Startup Touts “Reverse Amazon” Service
Amazon makes it easy to buy a lot of stuff. Gone wants to bring that ease to getting rid of it all. Today, the Austin, TX-based startup has unveiled its app designed to help consumers sell unwanted items around the house. The service is available in Austin and San Francisco, with plans to expand to … Continue reading “Be Gone, Junk: Austin Startup Touts “Reverse Amazon” Service”
Wide Open Spaces Creates Online Community for Anglers & Hunters
Denis O’Dwyer wants to bring the power of the Internet to the Great Outdoors. His startup, Wide Open Spaces, is designed as an online community targeting hunters and fishing enthusiasts, a one-stop shop to buy gear, research new techniques, and discover a new place to while away an afternoon. “This is participatory,” he says. “You’re … Continue reading “Wide Open Spaces Creates Online Community for Anglers & Hunters”
“Donut Settle” Recruiting Blitz Ruffles Feathers in Laid-back Austin
The tech world is known for its rather unorthodox ways of doing things. But a recent gambit by Austin, TX-based Bigcommerce caused offense to some in the city’s famously laid-back tech community. Bigcommerce, a maker of e-retail software for small businesses, is on a growth streak, and to get the attention of hard-to-recruit engineers and … Continue reading ““Donut Settle” Recruiting Blitz Ruffles Feathers in Laid-back Austin”
TX Roundup: Student startups, Shell GameChanger, MTPV, & Fallbrook
Here is the latest innovation news from the Texas community: —We take another look at Startup Summer School, this time visiting student entrepreneurs at the University of Houston’s RedLabs accelerator. Last week, we profiled ProsthetiTech, a Rice University startup building a robotic arm for wheelchair users. —Energy entrepreneurs got a chance to get in the … Continue reading “TX Roundup: Student startups, Shell GameChanger, MTPV, & Fallbrook”
Startup Summer School: Houston’s Zodist, Luminostics, & RaptorBird
This edition of Startup Summer School brings us to RedLabs, the University of Houston’s student accelerator. I dropped into RedLabs Tuesday to speak to a few of the student entrepreneurs about their innovations in robotics, rapid medical diagnostic testing, and e-cigarettes. These entrepreneurs will join those from 13 other startups at both Houston and Rice … Continue reading “Startup Summer School: Houston’s Zodist, Luminostics, & RaptorBird”
Houston Energy Startups Take A Shot at Shell GameChanger Funding
Henk Mooiweer and his colleagues at Shell GameChanger usually gather behind closed doors when evaluating new investments in energy startups. But recently they opted to participate in a sort of public casting call for energy entrepreneurs that, if the pitches looked interesting, Shell would immediately pledge $25,000 of in-kind advice and assistance to help bring … Continue reading “Houston Energy Startups Take A Shot at Shell GameChanger Funding”
CPRIT Executives Outline Cancer-Fighting Priorities in Houston Visit
Executives from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas were in Houston recently, updating the technology and life sciences community on the agency’s progress and future goals midway through its first year as a reformed institute. “Will we cure cancer? I think we will,” said Wayne Roberts, CPRIT’s executive director. “I think we will … Continue reading “CPRIT Executives Outline Cancer-Fighting Priorities in Houston Visit”
Austin’s Tracking Point Uses Wi-Fi, Video Tech to Build Smarter Gun
It’s like a video game come to life. Tracking Point, based in an Austin, TX, suburb, has developed a firearms technology that allows shooters to harness the power of Wi-Fi, the Web, and streaming video for the kind of long-range precision shooting that can guide bullets to hunting or military targets around corners. The company’s … Continue reading “Austin’s Tracking Point Uses Wi-Fi, Video Tech to Build Smarter Gun”
Startup Summer School: Rice’s ProsthetiTech Builds a Robotic Arm
The slow days of summer don’t apply to student entrepreneurs at Rice University and the University of Houston. For the first time, the schools’ startup accelerators—Houston’s RedLabs and Rice’s OwlSpark—are working together, with joint mentor meetings and social hours, towards a shared demo day next month that they are calling the first “Bayou Showcase.” (Fun … Continue reading “Startup Summer School: Rice’s ProsthetiTech Builds a Robotic Arm”
Coding For All: Makersquare Aims to Expand the Programming Corps
Ravi Parikh was a health IT student at the University of Texas at Austin, which has one of the top computer science departments in the country. “They were teaching us about how IT worked, and how to sell and implement it, but they weren’t teaching us how to write the code,” he says. “UT doesn’t … Continue reading “Coding For All: Makersquare Aims to Expand the Programming Corps”
Lone Star Innovation: Xconomy Texas’ Top Stories for Q2 2014
At Xconomy Texas these last three months, we started with the world’s richest business plan competition and ended with a somewhat rare event, that of a local biotech company going public. In between, the financing market for Texas startups, especially those in Austin, really took off. In addition to separate venture capital and angel deals, … Continue reading “Lone Star Innovation: Xconomy Texas’ Top Stories for Q2 2014”
Austin’s Bigcommerce Taps Steve Case’s Fund to Take On Amazon
[Corrected 06/30/14, 8:22pm] Bigcommerce, an e-retail software maker in Austin, TX, has gotten a $40-million boost from one of tech’s biggest names. In the year since Steve Case’s Revolution Growth Fund made the investment, bringing the company’s total funds raised to $75 million, BigCommerce has aggressively expanded both its workforce and its target customer. [The … Continue reading “Austin’s Bigcommerce Taps Steve Case’s Fund to Take On Amazon”
Neelan Choksi on Tasktop’s VC Round and Austin “Growing Like a Weed”
Tasktop Technologies wants to help improve the operations of the brains behind technology companies: the staff that makes the software. What Tasktop does is develop tools for customers that allow their developers to make software more efficiently. With the dozens of tools now in use for each part of the software development process, organizations are … Continue reading “Neelan Choksi on Tasktop’s VC Round and Austin “Growing Like a Weed””
Texas Roundup: New Funds for Phunware, FTL Global; Kudos to Rice
Here is the latest innovation news from Texas. —Phunware, an Austin,TX-based company that makes mobile apps for multinational corporations, announced Monday it has completed a Series E round of $30.72 million, following an investment by Samsung Venture Investment Corporation. The round was opened in March and the close of the Series E brings the total … Continue reading “Texas Roundup: New Funds for Phunware, FTL Global; Kudos to Rice”
Ziosk’s E-Waiter Device Brings Technology to Restaurant Orders
Bringing technology into a restaurant’s dining area is a matter of child’s play. Or, at least the child in all of us. Turns out that $1 tries at games like “7 Little Words,” “Field Runners” or “Operation Math” can add up to enough dough for a restaurant to pay for the installation of “pay-at-the-table” tablets … Continue reading “Ziosk’s E-Waiter Device Brings Technology to Restaurant Orders”
Q2’s Software Helps Community Banks Digitize Customer Operations
Q2 Holdings (NYSE: [[ticker:QTWO]]) sees big opportunity in the digitization of small banks. The Austin, TX- based company sells software to community financial institutions, including credit unions, so that they can offer banking services online and via mobile devices. In March, the company went public in a $101 million initial public offering, selling 7.8 million … Continue reading “Q2’s Software Helps Community Banks Digitize Customer Operations”
Dallas Tech Startup Chui Crowdfunds an ‘Intelligent’ Doorbell
Smart gadgets are infiltrating many parts of our lives, but two Dallas entrepreneurs are focusing on a forgotten, but key, device we all use: the doorbell. Shaun Moore and Nazare Chafni founded 214 Technologies last year to manufacture Chui, a so-called “smart doorbell” that uses facial recognition to tell you who’s at the door. Chui, … Continue reading “Dallas Tech Startup Chui Crowdfunds an ‘Intelligent’ Doorbell”
Texas Biotech ZS Pharma Makes Wall Street Debut, Raises $107M
ZS Pharma, which is making a therapy for kidney disease, makes its debut on the Nasdaq today after pricing its IPO at $18 per share, above its projected range of $15 to $17. The pricing of 5.9 million shares—versus the 5 million originally planned—raises $107 million and marks the first appearance on Wall Street in … Continue reading “Texas Biotech ZS Pharma Makes Wall Street Debut, Raises $107M”
Roundup: New Funds at Wisegate, Savara, Besomebody, & Dallas startups
[Updated 6/17/14 1:10 pm. See below.] Another week, another slew of startup financings in Texas. Here’s the latest news: —The Dallas Entrepreneur Center announced that Comerica Bank has funded a $50,000 pitch contest in North Texas. The DEC, a co-working space as well as incubator and accelerator, was founded a year ago by Trey Bowles, … Continue reading “Roundup: New Funds at Wisegate, Savara, Besomebody, & Dallas startups”
Houston’s ChaiOne Sees a Role for the Internet of Things in Industry
Much of the discussion around the “Internet of Things” has focused on how such connectedness will impact our everyday lives as consumers. ChaiOne’s Gaurav Khandelwal has been focusing on how IoT, as it’s known, can make businesses processes more efficient. Houston-based ChaiOne designs and develops mobile app platforms for large companies, and Khandelwal sees a … Continue reading “Houston’s ChaiOne Sees a Role for the Internet of Things in Industry”
Austin Firms, Dallas’ Health Wildcatters Startups Raise Funds
School’s out for summer, and the temperatures around Texas are rising. Instead of taking that as a cue to slow down, the state’s startups continue on a brisk pace with several new funding announcements. —TurnKey Vacation Rentals announced Tuesday it has raised $3 million in seed funding from Silverton Partners, an Austin, TX, venture capital … Continue reading “Austin Firms, Dallas’ Health Wildcatters Startups Raise Funds”
Techstars Austin Debuts Second Class of Startups for 3-Month Program
A beer robot, an online portal to manage lawn care, and an app to deploy Ruby apps on any cloud. Yep, with startups like that, it has to be Austin. Those companies, along with eight others, comprise the latest class of Techstars Austin. The startups aim to use software and mobile apps to innovate in … Continue reading “Techstars Austin Debuts Second Class of Startups for 3-Month Program”
In Crowded Field, Cariloop Helps Families Find Care for Elders
As our population ages, more and more of us must grapple with the question: What’s the best way to take care of Mom and Dad? One Dallas area medtech startup says it can help us wade through the tens of thousands of available options. Michael Walsh, co-founder and CEO of Cariloop, a healthtech startup based … Continue reading “In Crowded Field, Cariloop Helps Families Find Care for Elders”
Texas Deals: Austin Startups Gazzang, Phunware, Structured Polymers
Here is the latest technology and innovation deal news from Texas. —Austin, TX-based data-security software company Gazzang was acquired Tuesday by Cloudera, a big-data analytics company in Palo Alto, CA. Terms were not disclosed. Among Cloudera’s investors include chipmaker Intel. Gazzang, which will become the Cloudera Center for Security Excellence, was founded in 2008 and … Continue reading “Texas Deals: Austin Startups Gazzang, Phunware, Structured Polymers”
A Few Raindrops Amid Texas Biotech IPO Drought
As the proverb goes: Ask, and ye shall receive. Recently, I wrote about ZS Pharma’s bid to go public. The suburban Fort Worth company is developing a drug to treat chronic kidney disease and hopes Wall Street cash can propel it through late-stage clinical trials. (Terms have not yet been set.) Still, ZS’s SEC filing … Continue reading “A Few Raindrops Amid Texas Biotech IPO Drought”
Texas Update: Localeur, Need Raise New Funds & Plan Expansions
It’s been just over a year since we launched Xconomy Texas. One of the items I’ve recently been considering adding to our roster of innovation coverage is a regular catch-up feature with some of the many entrepreneurs we’ve met. And that’s when two of them—Joah Spearman, founder of Localeur in Austin, and Matt Alexander, founder of … Continue reading “Texas Update: Localeur, Need Raise New Funds & Plan Expansions”
Austin Startup Voter Trove Brings Big Data Analytics to the GOP
Justin Gargiulo wants to bring Republican political campaigns into the 21st century. The young political consultant was at an industry conference three years ago when he noticed that the panelists discussing campaign technology were either Democratic or non-partisan. “I thought, I’m a Republican. We should have this,” he says. “And I saw a market opportunity, … Continue reading “Austin Startup Voter Trove Brings Big Data Analytics to the GOP”
Cleantech Entrepreneurs—and Sasquatch—Star at Surge Demo Day
Energy is a vital industry to the global economy, yet many of the basic practices to find, extract, and deliver oil and gas have not changed in decades. That situation has proven to be fertile ground for cleantech accelerator Surge and its startups. Earlier this week, Surge’s third class made their debut in front of … Continue reading “Cleantech Entrepreneurs—and Sasquatch—Star at Surge Demo Day”
Texas Roundup: Filament Labs, LiveOak, Capital Royalty, Alafair
Here is the latest innovation news from Texas: —Austin, TX-based Filament Labs announced Thursday that it has raised $1 million in seed funding to develop an app that creates digital patient self-care programs with task reminders and educational information and videos. The round was led by Mercury Fund in Houston. —LiveOak Venture Partners closed Tuesday … Continue reading “Texas Roundup: Filament Labs, LiveOak, Capital Royalty, Alafair”
New Funding, Commercialization Officer at Texas Cancer Agency
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Wednesday awarded about $82 million in grants, the largest of which went to Austin, TX-based Mirna Therapeutics. The board approved spending $25 million in a three-year grant to support the biotech firm’s efforts to develop therapies based on microRNAs, very short RNA strands that work as genomic … Continue reading “New Funding, Commercialization Officer at Texas Cancer Agency”
Incubation Station Turns Eye to Austin’s Consumer Products Startups
Austin is rightly known for its tech hardware and software startups, but Shari Wynne felt there was a need to support other entrepreneurs, namely, those making consumer products. So, she took a page out of the book of tech accelerators like Techstars and Capital Factory and founded Incubation Station in 2012, a 14-week program to … Continue reading “Incubation Station Turns Eye to Austin’s Consumer Products Startups”
ZS Pharma Ends Texas Biotech IPO Dry Spell With $86M Pitch
Biotechs all over the country have been rushing into the IPO queue over the last year—just, as it turns out, not in Texas. That changed this past week, when ZS Pharma, a suburban Fort Worth, TX, biotech, revealed plans to go public and raise as much as $86 million from investors. ZS Pharma is developing … Continue reading “ZS Pharma Ends Texas Biotech IPO Dry Spell With $86M Pitch”
Austin’s Step One Aims to Put the Customer in Charge of Customer Care
Calling customer service—or navigating the maze of an online help desk—is among the most frustrating chores for consumers who are dealing with product problems. Turns out, it’s not that much fun for the companies either. One Austin startup says its software can make the experience better for all. “There are typical things that people call … Continue reading “Austin’s Step One Aims to Put the Customer in Charge of Customer Care”
U of H’s Quoz Capital Will Channel Foreign Investment into Startups
The University of Houston will announce today a deal with private investors to create a venture fund to boost its technologies and create a dedicated entrepreneurial center near campus. “This agreement is not just about the technologies, it’s about the whole ecosystem,” says Roth Bose, the university’s vice chancellor/vice president for research and technology. “The … Continue reading “U of H’s Quoz Capital Will Channel Foreign Investment into Startups”
Roundup: Compare Metrics, Zebra Imaging & Cypress Raise New Funds
A rare cool front has blown through Texas—it’s in the low 60s and breezy in Houston in mid-May—so here’s a quick-and-dirty roundup of innovation news so you can spend the rest of your time outside and enjoy the weather. —Compare Metrics in Austin, TX, announced it had completed a $3.8 million fundraise Wednesday. The company, … Continue reading “Roundup: Compare Metrics, Zebra Imaging & Cypress Raise New Funds”
Vobi Wants to Update Conference Calls for Mobile Workers
Mobile devices and Wi-Fi mean that we really can work anywhere. But we’re still pulled into an office setting when it comes to conference calls and other meetings with colleagues. Austin, TX-based Vobi says its cloud-based technology, which is being released today, can set those gatherings free. Think of it as the next generation conference … Continue reading “Vobi Wants to Update Conference Calls for Mobile Workers”
Austin’s Peach Digitally Connects Local Farmers to Restaurant Chefs
Call it a virtual farmers market. Two Austin entrepreneurs have developed a mobile app that they say will digitize the marketplace for produce, meat, and other food products grown by local farms. “Chefs want to source more locally but they have no time to research, find these products, and connect to the farmers,” says co-founder … Continue reading “Austin’s Peach Digitally Connects Local Farmers to Restaurant Chefs”
Austin’s RideScout Picks Up Steam, Rolling Out to Dozens of Cities
The last time we met Joseph Kopser, he was pitching his newly hatched startup, RideScout, at a Start Houston pitch night. Nine months later, the RideScout app, which Kopser describes as “Kayak for ground transportation,” is preparing to roll out to 40 cities by the end of the summer. Currently, commuters in four cities—Austin, Boston, … Continue reading “Austin’s RideScout Picks Up Steam, Rolling Out to Dozens of Cities”
Texas Roundup: Capital Factory, DEC, UT-Dallas, & Austin Biosciences
The latest innovation news in Texas includes new accelerator partnerships, a new Big Data master’s program in Big D, and a deep dive into biosciences’ place in the Austin economy. —Google (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GOOG]]) announced Tuesday that Austin would be latest node on its now eight-city Tech Hub Network, a program that both hosts accelerator programs … Continue reading “Texas Roundup: Capital Factory, DEC, UT-Dallas, & Austin Biosciences”
Google Buys Austin’s Adometry, Maker of Online Marketing Dashboard
Google has purchased Austin, TX, online ad attribution company Adometry for an undisclosed price, the companies announced today. Adometry creates a sort of digital dashboard for chief marketing officers to help them evaluate which tactics—a retailer’s online ad or through a Google search—resulted in a customer making a purchase. “We couldn’t be more excited to … Continue reading “Google Buys Austin’s Adometry, Maker of Online Marketing Dashboard”
Houston’s GripeO Markets Online Customer Service Platform
Social media is chockablock with complaints from consumers less than satisfied with products and services. But one Houston startup says it has a platform that makes it more likely those #badservice hashtags will get the attention of the purported offenders. Launched in early March, GripeO is a website and a mobile app designed to standardize … Continue reading “Houston’s GripeO Markets Online Customer Service Platform”
GlobeRanger Acquired by Japan’s Fujitsu for RFID Business
[Updated 5/2/14 1:41 pm. See below.] A suburban Dallas maker of RFID technologies specialized for the U.S. military was bought Friday by Japanese electronics giant Fujitsu to shore up its portfolio of national security and defense-related products and services. [Comments from GlobeRanger CEO George Brody and Bill Sproull at the Richardson Economic Development Partnership added.] “The opportunity … Continue reading “GlobeRanger Acquired by Japan’s Fujitsu for RFID Business”
Halcyon Biomedical Aims to “Wash” Blood for Safer Transfusions
Nearly 10 million people in America donate blood every year, which starts the clock ticking on a perishable product becoming less and less useable. Blood cells can get damaged during donation or in the storage process. Burst cells, for example, could lead to inflammation or blood clots in a recipient. The longer blood sits before … Continue reading “Halcyon Biomedical Aims to “Wash” Blood for Safer Transfusions”
Texas Roundup: Funds for Virtuix, Ortho Kinematics; FPX Buys Glider
Here is the latest innovation news for Xconomy Texas for the past week. —Virtuix, a Houston-based virtual reality gaming startup, has raised $3 million in seed funding from investors such as Mark Cuban, the Houston Angel Network, and Tekton Ventures in San Francisco. The company’s product, the Omni, is a 360-degree treadmill on which users … Continue reading “Texas Roundup: Funds for Virtuix, Ortho Kinematics; FPX Buys Glider”
MD Anderson Leverages IBM Watson in Cancer-Fighting Efforts
Even a powerful “mind” like Watson needs regular checkups. Mike Rhodin, senior vice president for IBM’s Watson Group, was in Austin Wednesday meeting with staff in the group’s emerging technologies and strategies departments. The Texas capital is a key node in Watson, IBM’s big artificial intelligence project, whose endeavors include a collaboration with the University … Continue reading “MD Anderson Leverages IBM Watson in Cancer-Fighting Efforts”
Texas Roundup: Neos, See Forge, Ilumi, M-87, Food on the Table
Here’s the startup innovation news from Xconomy Texas this week. —Neos Therapeutics announced Wednesday it has secured a $20 million loan facility with Hercules Technology Growth Capital (NYSE: [[ticker:HTGC]]) and that it raised $18 million in a recent Series C funding round, an increase from the $15.5 million initially reported. The suburban Dallas company makes … Continue reading “Texas Roundup: Neos, See Forge, Ilumi, M-87, Food on the Table”
MolecularMatch Uses Health IT Software for Better Clinical Trials
Connecting cancer patients to clinical trials that could help them is an expensive and inefficient process. Houston’s MolecularMatch says they have a better way, an approach that combines Google search with Match.com. “What we do is take publicly available information and package it so that it’s actionable,” says MolecularMatch CEO Kevin Coker. “We distill the … Continue reading “MolecularMatch Uses Health IT Software for Better Clinical Trials”