Here is the latest innovation news from Xconomy Texas this week: —Cloud security company FireHost raised $25 million Wednesday in a Series E funding round, in order to pay for sales and marketing support as well as technology advances. The Richardson, TX-based company has now raised a total of $59 million in the last four … Continue reading “Texas Roundup: Funds for FireHost, Silvercar; UTSA Joins Microsoft”
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.
Rice Alliance Taps Northwestern’s Hochberg to Boost Entrepreneurship
Rice University has brought some of Northwestern University’s entrepreneurial prowess to Houston. While a team from the Chicago-area institution did not win this year’s Rice Business Plan competition—healthtech startup Innoblative came in 4th—Northwestern teams won the previous two years, and consistently place in the finals. In July, Yael Hochberg, a Northwestern professor of finance who … Continue reading “Rice Alliance Taps Northwestern’s Hochberg to Boost Entrepreneurship”
Big Money Follows Big Talk at Rice University’s Startup Competition
All weekend long, Rice Alliance director Brad Burke needled members of the Goose Society with affectionate trash-talk, urging them to live up to their reputations as generous investors. After all, the “Grand Order of Successful Entrepreneurs” has provided much of the drama over the years on the final night of the Rice Business Plan competition. … Continue reading “Big Money Follows Big Talk at Rice University’s Startup Competition”
Diagnosis On-demand: Methodist Develops V-chip Medtech Device
Methodist Hospital Houston wants to make disease diagnosis as simple as a pregnancy test. That’s the idea behind the “V-chip,” a credit card-sized medical device being developed at the hospital that is designed to allow doctors and other caregivers to immediately diagnose as many as 50 diseases with just a drop of blood or urine. … Continue reading “Diagnosis On-demand: Methodist Develops V-chip Medtech Device”
Rice Business Plan Contest In Gear, with Almost $2M Up for Grabs
The Rice University Business Plan competition begins today, a weekend of “April madness” that will see a starting lineup of 42 startups get whittled down to just one grand champion Saturday night. Now in its 14th year, the contest has grown into one of the highest profile platforms for student-led ventures in the world, attracting … Continue reading “Rice Business Plan Contest In Gear, with Almost $2M Up for Grabs”
Zombies, Cowboys, & Aliens Dish Up for BioHouston Chili Cookoff
BioHouston hosted its 11th annual Chili Cookoff Friday, bringing together the city’s life science and biotech communities for some culinary innovation. Twenty-two teams set up tents at the Bayou City Events Center with decor that featured the 1970s, Alice in Wonderland, Margaritaville, and alien and zombie worlds. A DJ mixed tunes in between sets of the … Continue reading “Zombies, Cowboys, & Aliens Dish Up for BioHouston Chili Cookoff”
Roundup: Capital Royalty, Buzz Points, Q1 Media, SCIenergy & More
The latest innovation news from around the Lone Star State includes new fundraising, the launch of a cloud software company in Dallas, and a Minneapolis medical device company’s move to Austin to tie up with the city’s growing healthtech community. Capital Royalty announced Friday a loan agreement with NanoString Technologies, a Seattle-based biotech. The company … Continue reading “Roundup: Capital Royalty, Buzz Points, Q1 Media, SCIenergy & More”
Houston Startup Energy Funders Aims to Crowdfund the Oil Patch
The global energy business is dominated by multinational corporations and state-owned conglomerates. But the wildcatters of the oil age’s early days are still out there exploring holes and hoping for a big strike. Two Houston attorneys say they have developed a 21st-century way to help those smaller operators raise money. The pair has founded Energy … Continue reading “Houston Startup Energy Funders Aims to Crowdfund the Oil Patch”
Austin Social Media Marketers Spredfast, Mass Relevance Merge
[Updated 04/02/14, 12:42 pm. See below.] Two Austin social-media software companies—Spredfast and Mass Relevance—announced today they are merging. Rod Favaron, Spredfast’s CEO, says the combining of the firms gives them “unparalleled ability” to stay on top of market trends to enable clients to build relationships with customers through social media. [Story updated to include quotes from … Continue reading “Austin Social Media Marketers Spredfast, Mass Relevance Merge”
Lone Star Innovation: Xconomy Texas’ Top Stories of Q1 2014
Our strange, icy winter has finally given way to spring here in Texas, a perfect opportunity to reflect back on Xconomy Texas’ most notable stories of the last three months. Many of these stories attracted your attention as well, as measured by readership. These entrepreneurs and their innovations span the range of the Texas economy … Continue reading “Lone Star Innovation: Xconomy Texas’ Top Stories of Q1 2014”
Austin’s Phunware Plans Aggressive Global Expansion with New Funds
Five years after its founding in the depths of the Great Recession, Phunware has done more than survive. Its mobile apps are now spread so wide that founder and CEO Alan Knitowski says the company’s software has been a part of 1 trillion transactions over mobile devices worldwide. And that was before a $26.2 million … Continue reading “Austin’s Phunware Plans Aggressive Global Expansion with New Funds”
Houston Medtech Firm Procyrion Aims to Help Heart Heal Itself
Procyrion says it’s developed a crutch for your heart. The Houston medtech startup’s device is called Aortix, a circulatory support pump that is thinner than a pencil and can be implanted in the aorta, the major artery coming from the heart, through a catheter threaded up from the thigh through the femoral artery. The device … Continue reading “Houston Medtech Firm Procyrion Aims to Help Heart Heal Itself”
Austin Software Firm Spanning Works to Back Up the Cloud
More and more companies are doing business on the cloud, but is that information safe? One Austin, TX, company is offering an insurance policy of sorts for data in the cloud. “People are starting to realize the risk that their data is facing,” says Jeff Erramouspe, Spanning’s CEO. “There are all kinds of ways that … Continue reading “Austin Software Firm Spanning Works to Back Up the Cloud”
San Antonio’s Geekdom Fund Aims to “Pre-Seed” Tech Entrepreneurs
Austin gets a lot of the startup spotlight in these parts, especially as the spring brings in the hordes of South By Southwest. But about an hour south, in San Antonio, boosters are working more quietly on a number of programs to kick-start entrepreneurship in South Texas. Among those efforts is Geekdom, an Alamo City-based … Continue reading “San Antonio’s Geekdom Fund Aims to “Pre-Seed” Tech Entrepreneurs”
Austin Mobile Apps Firm Phunware Nets $26M for Expansion
Phunware, which develops mobile apps for multinational corporations, has raised $26.2 million in a Series E financing round. The Austin, TX-based company said in a press release yesterday that it expects to close on an additional amount in the next 60 days to bring the total funding to $30 million. At that point, the five-year-old … Continue reading “Austin Mobile Apps Firm Phunware Nets $26M for Expansion”
Texas Roundup: Bio2 Medical, Oxane Materials, Alkami Tech, Illumitex
A summary of the news-in-brief from Texas’s innovation community in the last week. (Yes, there was more going on than just South By Southwest:) — Bio2 Medical has raised $5.8 million out of a possible $7.5 million equity financing round from 10 investors, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. … Continue reading “Texas Roundup: Bio2 Medical, Oxane Materials, Alkami Tech, Illumitex”
South By Southwest: Interactive 2014 in Pictures
Panel discussions and parties. “Meatups” and Mario Kart. SXSW Interactive aimed to have a little something for everyone. And considering that more than 30,000 people came to downtown Austin for this year’s festival, the variety is probably a good thing. Here is a very unscientifically collected group of photos crowdsourced from Xconomy readers over the … Continue reading “South By Southwest: Interactive 2014 in Pictures”
Capital Factory Pitch Day Offers Peek at Upcoming Austin Innovation
In addition to “Is SXSW too big?” another comment I heard frequently during the four days of Interactive was, “Josh Baer is everywhere.” And Baer, founder of Austin’s Capital Factory, did pop up ubiquitously over the festival, whether its was as his virtual avatar on social media or in person at the Austin Hilton and … Continue reading “Capital Factory Pitch Day Offers Peek at Upcoming Austin Innovation”
South By Southwest Interactive—The Compulsory Tech Pilgrimage
Thirty thousand people have come to Austin, TX, for “Spring Break for Geeks.” You might know it as South By Southwest Interactive. What started as a small music festival in central Texas 27 years ago is now a heaving throng of entrepreneurs, investors, gurus, and groupies—each hoping to discover, or be, the next big thing. … Continue reading “South By Southwest Interactive—The Compulsory Tech Pilgrimage”
ZS Pharma Raises $55M to Develop Drug to Treat Hyperkalemia
ZS Pharma, a Fort Worth-area biotech developing a chronic kidney disease drug, has raised $55 million in new equity financing. ZS Pharma will use the Series D funding round to continue to develop its lead drug candidate, ZS-9, an experimental treatment for people with hyperkalemia, and get the company to the point of filing new … Continue reading “ZS Pharma Raises $55M to Develop Drug to Treat Hyperkalemia”
Dallas Biotech Neos Therapeutics Raises $15.5M for ADHD Drugs
Neos Therapeutics has raised $15.5 million in a Series C round of venture financing to further develop its controlled-release technology for ADHD medications. The biotech startup says it has developed a mechanism for making liquids and pills that deliver their doses in a gradual, controlled manner over time, instead of all at once. Neos, based … Continue reading “Dallas Biotech Neos Therapeutics Raises $15.5M for ADHD Drugs”
Data Miner EquityMetrix Digitizes Energy’s Back Office
In energy exploration, millions, if not billions, of investment dollars are still largely tracked by paper. And paper is easily lost. A typical well changes hands about five times, according to Tom Agnew, founder and CEO of EquityMetrix in Dallas. “Every time the ownership changes, the records get boxed up and shipped to new company,” … Continue reading “Data Miner EquityMetrix Digitizes Energy’s Back Office”
Rebooted Texas Cancer Agency Funds Biotech Firms
Jon Northrup will move his life sciences firm Beta Cat Pharmaceuticals to Texas after all. A year ago, Northup was caught in limbo and unsure how he should proceed in getting funding for his company, which is developing a drug that targets cancer stem cells. Beta Cat had applied for a $15 million grant from … Continue reading “Rebooted Texas Cancer Agency Funds Biotech Firms”
IT Startups from Brazil, the UK, and Dallas Join Tech Wildcatters
PledgeCents is going back to school. The Houston-based education crowdfunding site has joined the latest class at the Dallas-based accelerator Tech Wildcatters, which began its three-month program this week. Two grade-school friends started the site, which aims to connect educational causes with donors beyond a localized geographic area, last August. Right now, the site features … Continue reading “IT Startups from Brazil, the UK, and Dallas Join Tech Wildcatters”
Austin’s SpareFoot, ‘Hotels.com of Self-Storage,’ Gets $10M to Grow
As a college junior in 2008, Chuck Gordon was headed to Singapore for a study abroad program but, first, he needed to find a place to store his stuff. Storage units near his school, the University of California at Los Angeles, were going to cost him about $1,000. “My dad told me he was not … Continue reading “Austin’s SpareFoot, ‘Hotels.com of Self-Storage,’ Gets $10M to Grow”
SecureNOK Rides the Wave With Cyberdefense for Energy Companies
Technology advances have made it easier than ever to install and monitor drilling platforms hundreds of miles out into the sea or deep into isolated parts of our planet. But it’s that very connectedness that makes these facilities so vulnerable to attack. Enter SecureNOK, a Norway-born and Houston-bred energy cybersecurity startup, which says its software … Continue reading “SecureNOK Rides the Wave With Cyberdefense for Energy Companies”
Austin’s Zello Finds Itself Key Tool Among Venezuela Protestors
An Austin startup is playing a starring role in anti-government protests in Venezuela. Zello, an app that essentially allows walkie-talkie style communication on a smartphone, was already a popular app in the South American country. But on Friday, CEO Bill Moore says he noticed a severe drop in users. The Venezuelan government had blocked the … Continue reading “Austin’s Zello Finds Itself Key Tool Among Venezuela Protestors”
BioHouston Life Science Forum Spotlights Texas Biotech Innovation
Life sciences leaders gathered last week in a Rice University auditorium for BioHouston’s Life Science Forum where they heard keynotes and panel discussions on Texas biotech’s challenges and promise. But the key work of boosting innovation may have been happening across the courtyard, where BioHouston had arranged a series of personal meetings connecting entrepreneurs with … Continue reading “BioHouston Life Science Forum Spotlights Texas Biotech Innovation”
Rice’s OwlSpark Creates Network of University-based Accelerators
Accelerators help startups succeed by leveraging their networks of successful entrepreneurs and investors, whose advice can be catalysts for growth. Now, Rice University’s OwlSpark accelerator wants to create its own network, one that can help make it—and other university programs—better at boosting student-run startups. “We plan to create a comprehensive database of university accelerators and … Continue reading “Rice’s OwlSpark Creates Network of University-based Accelerators”
Software startups from Houston to Australia Dominate New Surge Class
Houston cleantech accelerator Surge kicked off its third class Monday, with startups that aim to source and sell energy capacity and digitize oilfield operations, among other innovations. Surge, which launched three years ago, is the nation’s only accelerator geared to the cleantech sector. It has catered to startups in upstream imaging and modeling, digitizing operational … Continue reading “Software startups from Houston to Australia Dominate New Surge Class”
Houston’s 2nd.MD Digitizes Second Opinions to Empower Patients
Entrepreneurs often have very personal reasons for setting up shop. Clinton Phillips’s motivation was his daughter having a stroke at birth—and nobody realizing it until months later. “When a baby’s bundled, you don’t notice that they’re not moving around or kicking as they should be,” he says. Four months later, he and his wife noticed … Continue reading “Houston’s 2nd.MD Digitizes Second Opinions to Empower Patients”
Precision Medicine Healthcare Summit, Feb. 21: Saver Rate Ends Today
We’re just a week away from “Precision Medicine to Precision Management,” where we bring together healthcare investors, entrepreneurs, and innovators in an exclusive, invitation-only discussion that brings together advances in Big Data, mobile technology, and genomics. Healthcare—how it’s developed, delivered, and consumed—is being transformed from the lab bench to the ER. Yet one question that … Continue reading “Precision Medicine Healthcare Summit, Feb. 21: Saver Rate Ends Today”
Algae Biomass Advocates Push Past Exuberance, Aim for Sustainability
Ice shut down Houston for the second time in five days recently, a weather event that, in its sheer strangeness, seemed a fitting backdrop for a gathering of alternative fuel advocates in Big Oil’s backyard. I drove on an unusually empty Interstate 45 to Montgomery, TX, about 60 miles north of Houston, where the leaders … Continue reading “Algae Biomass Advocates Push Past Exuberance, Aim for Sustainability”
Space Toilets, Astronoms: Houston Hackers Join to Innovate for NASA
It’s not a stretch to say that NASA is on the vanguard of innovation. Still, even an innovative pioneer occasionally could use a little help from friends. This past weekend, more than 100 hackers—including one man who came down to Houston from Michigan—spent 36 hours at Rice University’s BioScience Research Collaborative tackling challenges aimed at … Continue reading “Space Toilets, Astronoms: Houston Hackers Join to Innovate for NASA”
Austin’s Lumos Pharma Gets $14M for Creatine Disorder Therapy
A malfunctioned gene, a blocked pathway, and a lifetime of neurological and behavioral problems. That’s the reality for about 42,000 people in the U.S. with creatine transporter deficiency, a metabolic disorder people are born with. Austin, TX-based Lumos Pharma believes it has a therapy that could turn this debilitating disease into a more manageable condition. … Continue reading “Austin’s Lumos Pharma Gets $14M for Creatine Disorder Therapy”
Precision Medicine Healthcare Summit on Feb. 21: Here’s the agenda
Let’s get personal: about medicine, healthcare, and how it’s delivered, that is. Join us for “Precision Medicine to Precision Management,” where we will bring together healthcare innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors who will share how they are transforming the way our care is being developed and consumed. This elite, invitation-only summit will feature an interactive discussion … Continue reading “Precision Medicine Healthcare Summit on Feb. 21: Here’s the agenda”
Heads Up, Silicon Valley: UT Innovators Headed Your Way, Want Cash
For years, Silicon Valley capital has come to Austin in search of innovation. Now, a group of University of Texas professors are headed there to showcase campus-based innovations they think are worthy of investment. UT has some embedded help familiar with the local terrain: the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Texas Exes alumni … Continue reading “Heads Up, Silicon Valley: UT Innovators Headed Your Way, Want Cash”
Austin’s ClearBlade Seeks to Better Connect Mobile and Enterprise
On TV commercials, the Geico insurance pig touts how easy it is to check on claims via an app on his tablet. But getting to that one-click functionality requires costly specialized software, says Eric Simone, a longtime Austin developer. That’s because large companies like those in insurance or banking must develop mobile apps that can … Continue reading “Austin’s ClearBlade Seeks to Better Connect Mobile and Enterprise”
Austin’s Capital Factory, VC Firms Launch New Funding Match
Capital Factory in Austin today announced an investment matching program with two venture capital firms that could bring in an additional $100,000 for startups. The program requires that a startup joins the Austin-based co-working space and incubator, and that the entrepreneurs can convince two Capital Factor partners to personally invest $25,000 each. Then, Capital Factory … Continue reading “Austin’s Capital Factory, VC Firms Launch New Funding Match”
London Medtech Firm Buys Austin’s ArthroCare for $1.7B
Smith & Nephew, a London-based medical technology business, announced today it has purchased ArthroCare, an Austin medical device company, for $1.7 billion. The deal, which is one of the biggest for a Texas company this year, shines a spotlight on a growing medical device industry in Austin, which is usually more known for its IT … Continue reading “London Medtech Firm Buys Austin’s ArthroCare for $1.7B”
Houston’s OrthoAccel Mouthpiece Can Make Braces Work Faster
Sometimes an entrepreneur comes up with an innovation. Sometimes the innovation finds the entrepreneur. The latter certainly seems to be the case for Michael Lowe, president and CEO of Houston-based OrthoAccel. His story beings with an orthodontic technology sitting in a tech transfer office in Chicago that would eventually win an award at the Rice … Continue reading “Houston’s OrthoAccel Mouthpiece Can Make Braces Work Faster”
Life Sciences Innovation Key for UT’s New Medical School Dean
It’s always been a little odd that the University of Texas at Austin—one of the nation’s largest universities and known for its top-tier research—does not have its own medical school. The absence of one came about in a bit of political horse-trading toward the end of the 19th century. Texas voters agreed to allow the … Continue reading “Life Sciences Innovation Key for UT’s New Medical School Dean”
Houston Entrepreneur Starts Microfinance Program to Boost Startups
[Updated 1/27/14 7:49 am] Entrepreneurship is an intensely personal business. Customers and investors must have faith in you, not just your product. A decade ago, Prasad Menon met a would-be entrepreneur, who not only fixed his wonky garage doors but also called days later just to check that all was well. “He seemed like the … Continue reading “Houston Entrepreneur Starts Microfinance Program to Boost Startups”
Texas Biotech Leaders Doubt CPRIT Will Get Its Groove Back
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas is back in business again, and is seeking a fresh start after a well-documented scandal. But many in the life sciences startup community are skeptical that the once-ambitious state agency will ever become a catalyst for creating high-impact biotech companies that could build on the state’s momentum … Continue reading “Texas Biotech Leaders Doubt CPRIT Will Get Its Groove Back”
Early Bird Ends Soon for Feb. 21 Healthcare Summit: Get Your Invite
Innovations in the lab, in software, and in how doctors, hospitals, patients, and scientists view the world and relate to each other are transforming the way healthcare is delivered and consumed. Join us for a very special event as we bring together approximately 75 leaders in drug development, healthcare, venture capital, big data, and more … Continue reading “Early Bird Ends Soon for Feb. 21 Healthcare Summit: Get Your Invite”
LiveOak Ventures’ Launch Points to Stronger Texas VC Climate
Two years ago, Venu Shamapant, Krishna Srinivasan, and Ben Scott, all veteran venture capitalists in Austin, decided to follow their own entrepreneurial path and launch a new VC firm. “It was absolutely the hardest environment to raise a fund in,” Shamapant says. “People were running away from non-liquid asset classes post-bubble. That, coupled with a … Continue reading “LiveOak Ventures’ Launch Points to Stronger Texas VC Climate”
MD Anderson Expands “Moon Shots” Immunotherapy Partnership to J&J
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Tuesday announced its second commercial partner, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, as part of its “Moon Shots” program aimed at dramatically improving the survival of cancer patients. “This is a way to maximize the value of drug pipelines already existing at the company,” says Ferran Prat, MD Anderson’s … Continue reading “MD Anderson Expands “Moon Shots” Immunotherapy Partnership to J&J”
Digitizing the Law: Houston’s CS Disco Aims to Reinvent E-Discovery
The legal profession is not usually associated with innovation. But one Houston computer scientist-turned-attorney saw an opportunity to reinvent a key part of a lawyer’s trade: finding and organizing the millions of documents that can be unearthed during business litigation. “We can fix the way the law is practiced by introducing great legal technology,” says … Continue reading “Digitizing the Law: Houston’s CS Disco Aims to Reinvent E-Discovery”
Announcing Our Exclusive Healthcare Summit Feb. 21: Request an Invite
Advances in genomics, mobile technology, and data collection and analysis are poised to transform healthcare from drug development to patient care and hospital management. But what will it take to realize their promise in the age of the Affordable Care Act, and what does this require of payers, providers, and patients? How can we utilize … Continue reading “Announcing Our Exclusive Healthcare Summit Feb. 21: Request an Invite”
Blackboard Buys Austin Edtech Startup MyEdu for Student Profiles
MyEdu, an Austin, TX-based edtech firm, was purchased by education software giant Blackboard Wednesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 2009, MyEdu makes a free online platform where students can create profiles that highlight their coursework, job experience, and skills, such as languages or participation in mock trials, in Pinterest-like boxes. Employers … Continue reading “Blackboard Buys Austin Edtech Startup MyEdu for Student Profiles”