[Corrected 1/15/14, 9:49 pm. See below.] To help boost San Antonio’s startup ecosystem, its entrepreneurs are looking south. To Mexico, that is, as part of an effort called San Antonio Mx Challenge— the “Mx” stands for Mexican Entrepreneurial Exchange. The challenge, which is officially being announced today, is the first offshoot of the HeroX competition, … Continue reading “San Antonio Launches HeroX Challenge By Targeting Mexican Innovators”
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.
Austin’s Volusion, WP Engine, and Main Street Hub Raise New Funds
Three business-to-business e-commerce companies in Austin, TX, said that they had raised a total of $64 million Tuesday. —Volusion, which helps retailers create online stores, secured $35 million in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank. The money will be used to further develop the company’s software platform for small and medium-sized businesses. It will also … Continue reading “Austin’s Volusion, WP Engine, and Main Street Hub Raise New Funds”
Roundup: Capital Royalty, Rebellion, Aeglea, PeopleAnswers
New funding and an acquisition round out the news this week for Xconomy Texas: Houston-based Capital Royalty announced Friday it had agreed to provide Biodesix up to $20 million through a structured debt financing. The Boulder, CO-based biotech company will use the money for ongoing development and marketing of VeriStrat, a serum protein test that … Continue reading “Roundup: Capital Royalty, Rebellion, Aeglea, PeopleAnswers”
Sports Apps, ‘Telemedicine’ for Business Among DreamIt Startups
DreamIt Ventures kicks off its second Austin program today with a slate of nine startups—some coming to the Texas capital from as far as Bangalore and Sweden. The international entrepreneurs will join their stateside peers for a 12-week accelerator program that includes a dedicated mentor matched to each startup’s niche. The DreamIt program invests $25,000 … Continue reading “Sports Apps, ‘Telemedicine’ for Business Among DreamIt Startups”
Houston’s MD Anderson Partners With Pfizer on Cancer Immunotherapies
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has a new partnership with Pfizer that moves forward a key component of the hospital’s year-old “Moon Shots” program aimed at dramatically improving survival of cancer patients. The hospital announced Monday it will work with the New York City-based pharmaceutical giant to develop immunotherapies, an approach that … Continue reading “Houston’s MD Anderson Partners With Pfizer on Cancer Immunotherapies”
Texas Roundup: Bellicum, Spredfast, People Pattern, Neos, Localeur
The start of the new year is proving to be fertile ground for Texas startups in the fundraising mode. Here’s the latest news from around the state. —Bellicum Pharmaceuticals said Tuesday it closed its Series B fundraising with an additional $14.7 million, bringing the total raised in this round to $34.4 million. Investors included Axia Ventures … Continue reading “Texas Roundup: Bellicum, Spredfast, People Pattern, Neos, Localeur”
Luminex Finds Growth in Diagnostics Along a Texas-Wisconsin Corridor
To paraphrase the self-help saying, the first step in curing a problem is knowing that you have it. And Austin’s Luminex (Nasdaq: LMNX), with the help of its R&D team in Madison, WI, says it has found a way to help clinicians and researchers diagnose disease faster and more efficiently by enabling them to look … Continue reading “Luminex Finds Growth in Diagnostics Along a Texas-Wisconsin Corridor”
Texas Roundup: Apollo Endosurgery, Pros Holdings, START
Before we head into the holiday week, Texas startups are wrapping up fundraising, acquisitions, and new expansions. Here is the latest news from Xconomy Texas: —Austin-based Apollo Endosurgery said it raised $60.7 million in a planned $63.7 million Series C financing. The medical device company had 11 investors in this round, according to a filing … Continue reading “Texas Roundup: Apollo Endosurgery, Pros Holdings, START”
How WARF Plans to Stay Relevant in Lean Times for Tech Transfer
Quick, name one of the oldest—if not the oldest—university tech transfer institutions in the country. If your brain automatically took you to a spot in New England or sunny California, think again. It’s the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, or WARF, which was founded nearly 90 years ago in 1925. What would become WARF started when … Continue reading “How WARF Plans to Stay Relevant in Lean Times for Tech Transfer”
Houston’s Decisio Crunches Patient Data for Better Care
Doctors and nurses in Houston’s Memorial Hermann Hospital scramble among hospital beds, making split-second decisions on treatment based on experience and a half-dozen blinking screens flashing different vital signs. “There are a lot of data sets—plus, blood on the floor,” says Bryan Haardt, chief executive officer of the Houston-based medtech startup Decisio Healthcare. It’s a … Continue reading “Houston’s Decisio Crunches Patient Data for Better Care”
Texas Roundup: New Funding in Austin and Dallas; Tate’s Transition
For some Texas startups, the holidays came a little early with new funding. Also, Houston’s Capital Royalty announces a management transition. Here’s the latest innovation news from Texas. —Datical, a technology startup based in Austin, TX, said Monday it has raised $3 million in Series A funding. The money will be used by Datical to … Continue reading “Texas Roundup: New Funding in Austin and Dallas; Tate’s Transition”
E-Retail Startups Aim to Make Holiday Shopping Easier, Texas Style
It doesn’t seem like the “most wonderful time of the year” when you’re trapped in a slow vehicular death march in a mall parking garage, looking for that one available spot—as the radio station blares “The Little Drummer Boy” for the 4,349th time. It’s enough to bring out the Scrooge in all of us. But … Continue reading “E-Retail Startups Aim to Make Holiday Shopping Easier, Texas Style”
Austin’s Zebra Imaging Closes $5M Loan to Boost Retail 3-D Holograms
Zebra Imaging closed on $5 million in a planned $5.2 million debt financing obtained, in part, to see the company through the budgetary chaos of the federal government’s two-week shutdown in October. Chuck Scullion, Zebra’s CEO, called the deal “a bridge loan to ease over that timing.” The cash is important since Zebra’s primary customers … Continue reading “Austin’s Zebra Imaging Closes $5M Loan to Boost Retail 3-D Holograms”
Apollo Endosurgery Highlights Austin’s Growing MedTech Cluster
The startup spotlight in Austin has long focused on the city’s techie scene of software startups, app developers, and the like, but a medtech community has been developing, too. And Dennis McWilliams, who currently runs Apollo Endosurgery, has been along for much of that growth. From his days working at the University of Texas’ IC² … Continue reading “Apollo Endosurgery Highlights Austin’s Growing MedTech Cluster”
Fallbrook Technologies Gets $35M To Boost Its Transmission System
Fallbrook Technologies, a suburban Austin automotive cleantech company, announced Wednesday it had secured a $35 million loan. The company is initially drawing down on $25 million of the total and will use most of this to continue development and licensing on its NuVinci transmission, which it says is a greener and more fuel-efficient transmission technology … Continue reading “Fallbrook Technologies Gets $35M To Boost Its Transmission System”
Houston’s Rebellion Photonics Helps Spot Dangerous Leaks
It’s not every startup that gets a Twitter endorsement from MC Hammer. But that’s the sort of year it’s been for Houston-based Rebellion Photonics, which makes a real-time hyperspectral camera that can detect poisonous or potentially explosive gas leaks from oil refineries or rigs. While the startup has been selling its camera since its founding … Continue reading “Houston’s Rebellion Photonics Helps Spot Dangerous Leaks”
Xenex’s Bug-Fighting Robots Gain Traction with Hospitals
In the war against microscopic pathogens, some hospitals are turning to drones. But the weapons in these robots, made by San Antonio’s Xenex Disinfection Services, are not bullets, but pulsating xenon-based UV light capable of neutralizing microbes that kill about 100,000 people each year. “We can show beyond a reasonable doubt that using Xenex reduces … Continue reading “Xenex’s Bug-Fighting Robots Gain Traction with Hospitals”
Cleantech Startup Optimitive, a Surge alum, Lands Series A Round
Optimitive, a Spanish startup and alum of Houston’s Surge Accelerator, announced Tuesday it has raised €1.4 million, or about $1.9 million, from a Luxembourg venture capital fund. GGM Venture Capital, which invests in early-stage European tech startups, led the Series A investment into Optimitive. Cleantech accelerator Surge co-invested $50,000, which is the typical amount it … Continue reading “Cleantech Startup Optimitive, a Surge alum, Lands Series A Round”
San Antonio MedTech Startup’s “Clamp” Aims to Stop Bleeding Faster
For Dennis Filips, entrepreneurial inspiration came from the grim battlefields of Serbia, the Golan Heights, and Afghanistan. A trauma surgeon with the Canadian Forces until 2008, Filips experienced firsthand the difficulty in stemming blood loss of injured soldiers as he attempted to stabilize them for hospital care. Those insights led him and his co-founder Ian … Continue reading “San Antonio MedTech Startup’s “Clamp” Aims to Stop Bleeding Faster”
Franco-Texas MedTech Firm Looks to Innovate in Spinal Therapies
As Christophe Lavigne puts it, back in 2000, he and his co-founders were “three guys out in the middle of nowhere trying to create the gold standard of spine surgery.” The three entrepreneurs were in Troyes, France, a town in the Champagne region known more for its half-timbered homes than its medical innovation. But that’s … Continue reading “Franco-Texas MedTech Firm Looks to Innovate in Spinal Therapies”
ZS Pharma Passes Key Test With Drug for Hyperkalemia
[Corrected 11/22/13, 1:55 pm. See below.] Chronic kidney disease affects 26 million patients in the U.S., and they spend a lot of money trying to manage the condition. Fort Worth, TX-based ZS Pharma is betting that it might have one more new option to help many of these patients. ZS Pharma reported earlier this month that … Continue reading “ZS Pharma Passes Key Test With Drug for Hyperkalemia”
Dallas’s HipLogiq Raises $7M to Expand Twitter Marketing Software
Dallas’ HipLogiq announced Monday it has raised $7 million in a Series B round to expand its sales and marketing staff. Hadron Global Partners, a division of Connecticut private equity firm Carriage House Partners and RLB Holdings, led the round. The social media marketing startup says its products use the popular social media service Twitter … Continue reading “Dallas’s HipLogiq Raises $7M to Expand Twitter Marketing Software”
TechStreet, a Houston-Style SXSW, to Showcase City’s Startups
For Kim Evans, boosting the Houston startup scene is personal. In 1999, she left BMC Software to found her own startup, Covasoft, but venture capitalists told her she would have to relocate to Austin before they would invest. “My VCs felt Houston was a poor choice for a tech startup because of the lack of … Continue reading “TechStreet, a Houston-Style SXSW, to Showcase City’s Startups”
Austin’s MapMyFitness Charts Digital Fitness Course to $150M Exit
2007 wasn’t that long ago, but at that time when Robin Thurston and Kevin Callahan founded what was then called MapMyRun, using digital devices to enhance one’s fitness routine was still largely the domain of ultra-athletes. Smartphones were new and everyday use of GPS was uncommon. Six years later, the rechristened MapMyFitness has gone from … Continue reading “Austin’s MapMyFitness Charts Digital Fitness Course to $150M Exit”
Austin’s MapMyFitness Bought by Under Armour for $150M
MapMyFitness, an Austin, TX-based workout app company, is being acquired by the athletic apparel company Under Armour (NYSE: UA) for $150 million. The Austin startup, which was founded in 2007, has about 20 million users for its most popular apps, MapMyRun and MapMyRide. By using GPS and other technologies, fitness apps like MapMyFitness help users … Continue reading “Austin’s MapMyFitness Bought by Under Armour for $150M”
Pumps & Pipes Symposium
Pumps & Pipes 7 Symposium will be held at the Houston Methodist Research Institute on December 9. The theme of this year’s annual conference is Explorations. The program will feature cutting-edge presentations, demonstrations and live video feeds from energy, cardiovascular medicine, NASA, academia and education. The organization hosts networking opportunities, problem-solving by exploring ways to … Continue reading “Pumps & Pipes Symposium”
Rice University 11th Annual Information Technology & Web Venture Forum
The Information Technology & Web Venture Forum brings almost 40 of the most promising emerging information technology, web, and software companies pitch their companies to more than 400 venture capitalists, investors, mentors, business and corporate leaders, and industry experts. Rice says that more than 30% of the start-up companies pitching at past Rice Alliance Technology Venture Forums have … Continue reading “Rice University 11th Annual Information Technology & Web Venture Forum”
Dallas’s Naya Ventures Targets Investments in Telecom Startups
Dayakar Puskoor wants you to know that North Texas’s telecom scene is not dead yet. More than a decade after the region’s telecommunications industry busted, leading to company closures and layoffs numbering around 100,000, Puskoor hopes to be part of its resurrection. The software engineer turned entrepreneur and investor believes so much in the region’s … Continue reading “Dallas’s Naya Ventures Targets Investments in Telecom Startups”
Austin’s Pivot3 Taps Board Chairman, Tech Vet, As New CEO
Ron Nash, the newly appointed CEO for Austin’s Pivot3, brings with him a particularly intimate familiarity with the data storage company’s operations: He has been its chairman of the board. “We’re making the transition between startup and being a small company,” he says. “This is a time when the company should have a breakout period.” … Continue reading “Austin’s Pivot3 Taps Board Chairman, Tech Vet, As New CEO”
New Austin Fund to Focus on Early Stage Technology Startups Locally
Silverton Partners, an Austin venture capital firm, announced today it has launched a new $75 million fund. The fund, which is the firm’s fourth, will focus on making early-stage seed investments in technology companies in the Austin area. It’s a market that is especially attractive to Silverton’s group of investors, many of whom are repeat … Continue reading “New Austin Fund to Focus on Early Stage Technology Startups Locally”
Dallas Men’s E-Retailer Need Launches With “Curated” Collection
Dallas entrepreneur Matt Alexander wants to make it easier for men to shop better. So, he’s launched the e-retailer Need, which he says cuts through Web’s retail clutter and offers a “curated” selection of men’s clothing and accessories to appeal to a discerning customer. “There are hundreds of millions of dollars in the men’s wear … Continue reading “Dallas Men’s E-Retailer Need Launches With “Curated” Collection”
eRecycling Corps Finds Niche as Broker of Used Cellphones
Think of it as “Sanford and Son” 2.0. Turns out, those outdated devices you have taking up space in the junk drawer are worth a great deal, a fact that eRecycling Corps is finding lucrative. The company, which is based in the Dallas suburb of Irving, TX, raised $105 million recently on a simple premise: … Continue reading “eRecycling Corps Finds Niche as Broker of Used Cellphones”
Austin Startup Gravitant Finds Market as “Expedia” of Cloud Services
Companies are increasingly turning to the cloud to manage IT systems, but executives don’t necessarily know which services work best for them. That’s where Gravitant comes in. Think of the Austin startup, which recently raised $10 million in venture capital, as the Expedia of IT, says its founder and CEO Mohammed Farooq. “What do you … Continue reading “Austin Startup Gravitant Finds Market as “Expedia” of Cloud Services”
BioHouston Breakfast Forum
Over the past year, a number of new organizations have been formed to spur commercialization of research taking place in Houston’s universities. The BioHouston breakfast forum features a panel discussion with some of these leaders and what they hope to bring to the life sciences community. Register here.
San Antonio Medtech Firm Vidacare Sold for $262M
Vidacare, a San Antonio medical device company, is being acquired by Teleflex (NYSE: TFX) in a $262.5 million, all-cash deal. The Texas company produces a driver-and-needle system to access spaces inside bones for diagnostic and therapeutic treatments in vascular and emergency medicine, as well as in cancer. “I believe that this merger represents a unique opportunity … Continue reading “San Antonio Medtech Firm Vidacare Sold for $262M”
Austin’s Boxer Raises $3M in Quest to Better Manage E-mail
The information overload of e-mail is here to stay. Austin startup Boxer says it can help process the messages better. Boxer, which recently raised $3 million in seed funding, focuses on mobile mail, the e-mail we receive through our smartphones. It makes sense, since we are now more likely to access messages via our phones … Continue reading “Austin’s Boxer Raises $3M in Quest to Better Manage E-mail”
Houston’s Alert Logic Thrives Bringing Security to the Cloud
Insecurity in the cloud is big business for Alert Logic. The company, whose niche is “security-as-a-service,” had about a dozen employees and less than $2 million in annual revenue when it received its first venture funding in 2005. Today, Alert Logic dominates the U.S. cloud security market, taking in almost $50 million a year, and … Continue reading “Houston’s Alert Logic Thrives Bringing Security to the Cloud”
Austin Startup Savara Wins Research Award for CF Therapy
Savara Pharmaceuticals, an Austin, TX-based startup, said today it has received a $1.7 million research award from Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics, a subsidiary of the nonprofit Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The award is the latest in a total of $6 million granted to Savara by the cystic fibrosis group and the National Institutes of Health in … Continue reading “Austin Startup Savara Wins Research Award for CF Therapy”
Researcher Probes Science to Building a “Bio-Artificial” Heart
Most of our organs contain enough stem cells to repair and regenerate themselves after injuries. But not the heart, that most central of muscles. And finding a way to compensate for that fact has become a life’s mission for Doris Taylor, a new arrival at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston. Taylor is a pioneer … Continue reading “Researcher Probes Science to Building a “Bio-Artificial” Heart”
Chevron To Invest $90 Million in Fund to Support Energy Startups
Chevron Technology Ventures has rolled out a new $90 million venture capital fund to invest in new technologies in the oil and gas business. The fund, which is its fifth and is called CTV Fund V, will fund early to mid-stage startups innovating in ways that would improve Chevron’s business performance or create new opportunities … Continue reading “Chevron To Invest $90 Million in Fund to Support Energy Startups”
Houston Startup Hopes to Create Tech Cluster, Rebuild Neighborhood
When Gaurav Khandelwal opened the doors to Start Houston last year, its neighbors included a carpet outlet warehouse, food-distribution companies, and an industrial tool supplier. The gritty environs of warehouses and out-of-service railroad tracks in the optimistically named “EaDo” neighborhood—presumably hipper than “East of Downtown”—are not the sort you usually associate with a hotbed of … Continue reading “Houston Startup Hopes to Create Tech Cluster, Rebuild Neighborhood”
Capital Factory Founder Sets up Syndicate to Fund E-mail Startups
Ambiguities around the new regulations for crowdfunding and general solicitation for startups aren’t preventing Joshua Baer, founder of the Capital Factory in Austin, from starting his own syndicate on AngelList, the top website for young companies seeking early investment. “This fits right between angels and VC firms,” he says. “We’re living in a time of … Continue reading “Capital Factory Founder Sets up Syndicate to Fund E-mail Startups”
Haul Brings In Mark Cuban’s “Shark Tank” Startups as First Customers
A Dallas Internet startup has signed on one of Texas’s most high-profile entrepreneurs as one of its clients. Haul, a sort of talent management agency that connects shopping haulers—typically young women who model clothes or demonstrate products in homemade YouTube videos—with advertisers and retailers in an online marketplace, is working with the Mark Cuban Companies, … Continue reading “Haul Brings In Mark Cuban’s “Shark Tank” Startups as First Customers”
Texas Cleantech Startup Acquires Chicago Rival, Boosts Energy Marketplace
Choose Energy, a suburban Dallas online energy marketplace, has acquired a Midwest competitor. The cleantech startup, which is based in Plano, TX, announced Monday that it had purchased Power2Switch, another online energy marketplace based in Chicago that had recently expanded its operations into New Jersey, Texas, Ohio, and New York. “We will now be able … Continue reading “Texas Cleantech Startup Acquires Chicago Rival, Boosts Energy Marketplace”
Boulder Startup Founder Seeks to Build Stronger Ecosystem in Dallas
Michael Sitarzewski wants to bring a little bit of Denver to Dallas. After seven years in the Mile High City, the founder and CEO of Epic Playground recently returned to Dallas, where he has become the entrepreneur-in-residence at the Dallas Entrepreneur Center. “In Denver, a lot of my time outside of my company was spent … Continue reading “Boulder Startup Founder Seeks to Build Stronger Ecosystem in Dallas”
Austin Travel Startup Digitizes Holiday Rentals For a Hotel Alternative
For TurnKey Vacation Rentals, there’s no place like your home. The Austin startup offers second-home and vacation home management services for property owners looking for short-term tenants. “That’s a big ticket in travel,” says T.J. Clark, TurnKey’s co-founder and CEO. “We think it’s the largest travel ticket there is.” Clark estimates the vacation rental market … Continue reading “Austin Travel Startup Digitizes Holiday Rentals For a Hotel Alternative”
VIPorbit Offers Apple Users Apps to Manage Their Digital Lives
A suburban Fort Worth, TX, startup has raised $1 million in angel funding in order to promote its Apple-based contact management software. VIPorbit Software is a series of apps that can be downloaded onto the Apple iPhone, iPad, and desktops, as well as laptops and MacBooks to manage contacts, calendars, and tasks across all social … Continue reading “VIPorbit Offers Apple Users Apps to Manage Their Digital Lives”
VC 101: Houston Fund Gives Students Startup Investing Experience
The University of Houston has waded into the venture capital market. Administrators have launched the new Cougar Venture Fund this fall as part of its entrepreneurship curriculum for graduate business students. “The goal is to teach students in an entrepreneurial finance class about raising money for a startup, what the options are, how to evaluate … Continue reading “VC 101: Houston Fund Gives Students Startup Investing Experience”
Dallas GiveCamp
Dallas GiveCamp is a weekend-long event where software developers, designers, and project managers donate a weekend to create apps for charities and non-profit organizations. These apps could range from the development of a new website, a small data-collection application to keep track of members, or whatever else the nonprofit needs. Register here.
Annual Luncheon Celebrating Women in Science
BioHouston’s annual lunch to honor women in Houston who have demonstrated extraordinary leadership in science and technology. This year’s honorees include: Annell Bay, Marathon Oil Company Janet S. Butel, Baylor College of Medicine Naomi Halas, Rice University Guillermina (Gigi) Lozano, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Registration deadline: October 28. Click here to register.