Category: Texas

Xconomy Bookclub: A Child Genius Makes His Mark in Nuclear Physics

Are innovators born or made? In Tom Clynes’ book on young genius Taylor Wilson, the answer seems to be both. Clynes begins with Wilson as a precocious 9-year-old, one who had already mastered the science of rocket propulsion, giving an impromptu lecture before a gaggle of fellow tour-takers at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center … Continue reading “Xconomy Bookclub: A Child Genius Makes His Mark in Nuclear Physics”

Fe3 Medical Secures $3,500,000 Series B Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=a0b37e4d-3dc8-4b85-a2cc-49d0dfc4ea3d Date 8/16/2016 Company Name Fe3 Medical Mailing Address 12500 Network Blvd. San Antonio, TX 78249 USA Company Description Fe3 Medical develops a drug delivery technology for non-toxic iron transportation across the skin for patients with iron-deficiency anemia. Website http://www.fe3medical.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $3,500,000 Transaction Round Series B Proceeds … Continue reading “Fe3 Medical Secures $3,500,000 Series B Funding Round”

Disruptors 2016

Texas has long drawn innovators to call it home. Building on the region’s strong foundations in energy, financial services, and medicine, today’s innovators are leveraging technology to change the way we live our lives. These entrepreneurs seek energy deep below the ground or beyond the ocean floor, broaden our knowledge of the human body and … Continue reading “Disruptors 2016”

Houston Materials Startup Aidant Navigates the Energy Downturn

Houston—It’s probably not a good sign when you’re leading an energy startup and one of your customers asks you for a job. “He was telling us, ‘I can’t buy anything. This is my wife sitting next to me and I have to lay her off tomorrow,’ ” says Lauren Thompson Miller, CEO and co-founder of … Continue reading “Houston Materials Startup Aidant Navigates the Energy Downturn”

Bio Roundup: Precision Med and Google, Heron, Lilly, Sarepta & More

The wait continues. An FDA ruling on a Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug from Sarepta Therapeutics—which could be the first ever approved for the disease—has been imminent for a while now, yet Labor Day is fast approaching and still the saga drags on. Speculation abounds, from analysts and pundits, each giving different opinions as to whether … Continue reading “Bio Roundup: Precision Med and Google, Heron, Lilly, Sarepta & More”

From Drugs to Data, Student Founders at Rice, UH Make Their Pitches

Houston—For the Bayou Startup Showcase, the third time proved to be the charm. Wednesday evening’s demo day of the student startup programs from the University of Houston and Rice University showed a certain maturity, a gelling of operations both in terms of the joint summer accelerator and in the startups themselves. The pitches this year … Continue reading “From Drugs to Data, Student Founders at Rice, UH Make Their Pitches”

As U.S. Looks to Launch Precision Health Study, Google’s Role Emerges

The U.S. government has ambitious plans for a long-term health study with one million Americans, and one of the world’s most powerful tech companies has a big part to play, including the storage of all the data on its “cloud” servers. Google’s parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GOOG]]) and its wholly owned biotech R&D group, Verily … Continue reading “As U.S. Looks to Launch Precision Health Study, Google’s Role Emerges”

Alafair Biosciences Receives $2,000,000 Series A Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=dd8c7417-afdd-4074-a79a-cd71b71870e0 Date 8/11/2016 Company Name Alafair Biosciences Mailing Address 3925 West Braker Lane Austin, TX 78759 USA Company Description Alafair Biosciences creates products that solve the post surgical tissue adhesion problem. Website http://www.alafairbiosciences.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $2,000,000 Transaction Round Series A Proceeds Purposes This funding will support the launch … Continue reading “Alafair Biosciences Receives $2,000,000 Series A Financing”

Heron Gains FDA Support For Nausea Drug After A Year Under Review

The decision that Heron Therapeutics has been waiting on for almost a year is finally in: The FDA has approved the Redwood City, CA-based company’s drug for nausea and vomiting associated with certain chemotherapy regimens. Heron (NASDAQ: [[ticker:HRTX]]) first submitted a new drug application for the treatment, granisetron (Sustol), to the FDA in September 2015. … Continue reading “Heron Gains FDA Support For Nausea Drug After A Year Under Review”

Comcast, VCs Pour $56M Into Virtual-Assistant Firm Interactions

Here’s an interesting trend worth watching: investors are pumping money into a variety of technologies aimed at improving businesses’ customer service operations. It’s not the sexiest of industries, perhaps, but we’ll all be thankful if these bets help smooth out what’s typically a frustrating and time-consuming experience for consumers. What’s even more compelling is the … Continue reading “Comcast, VCs Pour $56M Into Virtual-Assistant Firm Interactions”

Inspyr Seeks Clinical Partner for Cash After New Name, Exec Hires

San Antonio — Inspyr is a biotech in need of a turnaround. Chris Lowe, the CEO who was officially hired this month to replace co-founder Craig Dionne, is hoping a deal with another drug developer can help make a U-turn in the business. The 12-year-old San Antonio-based company has results from a Phase 2 trial … Continue reading “Inspyr Seeks Clinical Partner for Cash After New Name, Exec Hires”

How Will Apple Innovate Beyond the iPhone 7? With Next-Gen Siri

Apple’s iPhone 7 is due out next month. According to the Wall Street Journal, PFWTMs (“people familiar with the matter”) say the new device will look pretty much the same as the iPhone 6s. The biggest change: no more headphone plug. Customers who want to listen to music or podcasts on their iPhones will need … Continue reading “How Will Apple Innovate Beyond the iPhone 7? With Next-Gen Siri”

Roundup: Owlchemy, TheWaveVR, Fe3 Medical, & Rackspace Buyout?

Let’s catch up with the latest innovation news from Xconomy Texas. —Rackspace Hosting, the San Antonio, TX-based cloud computing company, is reportedly nearing a sale to a New York-based private equity firm. Reuters has reported that Apollo Global Management (NYSE: [[ticker:APO]]) is considering a $3.5 billion offer for Rackspace (NYSE: [[ticker:RAX]]). In 2014, the company … Continue reading “Roundup: Owlchemy, TheWaveVR, Fe3 Medical, & Rackspace Buyout?”

Austin VR Gaming Startup Owlchemy Brings in $5M from Investors

Austin—Virtual reality startup Owlchemy Labs has raised $5 million in Series A funding from investors such as Qualcomm Ventures, The Venture Reality Fund, HTC, Colopl Next, and Capital Factory. The startup is best known for its “Job Simulator” game, which is paired with the HTC Vive virtual reality headset. CEO Alex Schwartz says the startup … Continue reading “Austin VR Gaming Startup Owlchemy Brings in $5M from Investors”

Texas Government Adds $3.5M to Fe3 Series B for Anemia Treatment

San Antonio — Fe3 Medical, a startup housed at the InCube Labs facility in San Antonio, has added $3.5 million to the Series B funding round it announced in March, bringing the total to $14.5 million. The add-on to the Series B came from the state of Texas, which also invested $2.8 million in Fe3 … Continue reading “Texas Government Adds $3.5M to Fe3 Series B for Anemia Treatment”

TheWaveVR Secures $2,500,000 Seed Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=35b91c7e-4a42-4f20-977d-1f5925b24618 Date 8/8/2016 Company Name TheWaveVR Mailing Address Undisclosed Austin, TX 73301 USA Company Description TheWaveVR is a platform for people who love music, enabling them to view, host, and socialize in shows world wide, anytime, anywhere. Website http://www.thewavevr.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $2,500,000 Transaction Round Seed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds … Continue reading “TheWaveVR Secures $2,500,000 Seed Financing Round”

Metis Foundation, Targeting Military Researchers, Plans Fund Raise

San Antonio — [Corrected 1:20 p.m. See below.] A San Antonio nonprofit that aims to help medical researchers earn grants is beginning to raise money for a program that it says may be able to provide funding to both researchers working on new cancer vaccines and patients who participate in early stage clinical trials. The Metis … Continue reading “Metis Foundation, Targeting Military Researchers, Plans Fund Raise”

Seeking to Bring Concerts Into the Virtual World, WaveVR Raises $2.5M

Austin—The WaveVR, which aims to connect fans with musicians and DJs in the virtual world, has raised $2.5 million in a seed round of funding. Investors in the virtual reality music platform include Presence Capital and Rothenberg Ventures, both in San Francisco; RRE Ventures in New York; The VR Fund; and Seedcamp. The funds will … Continue reading “Seeking to Bring Concerts Into the Virtual World, WaveVR Raises $2.5M”

Biotech Roundup: Biogen Rumors, Theranos, Electro-Drugs & More

Biogen was once again all over the biotech newswire this week. First came a positive surprise; data that could set the stage for the first-ever drug approved for spinal muscular atrophy, a rare and debilitating muscle disease. Then came the rumor mill: Companies may or may not be approaching Biogen about a sale, and Biogen … Continue reading “Biotech Roundup: Biogen Rumors, Theranos, Electro-Drugs & More”

New Schools Venture Fund Offering $7M More To Education Entrepreneurs

It’s still mid-summer, but in some districts where school starts in only a few weeks, teachers are already digging out their lesson plans and preparing to resume their classroom routines. But some of them would rather toss those lessons in the bin, and in fact, scrap the whole design of their schools and build new … Continue reading “New Schools Venture Fund Offering $7M More To Education Entrepreneurs”

Owlchemy Labs Obtains $5,000,000 Series A Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=8a78a78b-2b3d-40d2-a84b-680c06c06531 Date 8/5/2016 Company Name Owlchemy Labs Mailing Address Undisclosed Austin, TX 03867 USA Company Description Owlchemy Labs is an independent game development studio that offers silly, highly polished games for download. Utilizing the Unity Platform in its development activities, the company’s products are available for iPhone, iPad, Android, web, XBLA, and … Continue reading “Owlchemy Labs Obtains $5,000,000 Series A Financing Round”

At Third Birthday, the DEC Takes Stock of Its Impact on Startups

Dallas—Last night, the Dallas Entrepreneur Center threw itself a third birthday party of sorts, a fete that also introduced an expanded facility for startups that have grown to need more than a co-working desk. The gathering was also an opportunity for DEC co-founder and CEO Trey Bowles to give concrete examples of the center’s impact … Continue reading “At Third Birthday, the DEC Takes Stock of Its Impact on Startups”

Inspyr, Formerly GenSpera, Replaces Co-Founder Dionne With New CEO

San Antonio—Inspyr Therapeutics, a biotech company based in San Antonio formerly known as GenSpera, has hired Christopher Lowe as its new CEO and president, replacing co-founder Craig Dionne after he abruptly left the company in March. Inspyr announced its name change Monday. Lowe, who had been on Inspyr’s board of directors since March, is a … Continue reading “Inspyr, Formerly GenSpera, Replaces Co-Founder Dionne With New CEO”

Pawn Shops Finally Go Digital, Helping Underbanked Find Quick Cash

In May and June, the financial industries that serve low-income Americans began to change in big ways. First, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed new rules for payday lenders. The first banned lenders from withdrawing money directly from their customers’ bank accounts, while the second restricted their ability to lend by imposing credit limits. Then … Continue reading “Pawn Shops Finally Go Digital, Helping Underbanked Find Quick Cash”

Tour of Texas: CognitiveScale, Cariloop, Pageboy, CS Disco, Dropoff

Let’s catch up with the latest innovation news from Xconomy Texas. Austin: —CognitiveScale, an artificial intelligence/cognitive computing startup, announced it has raised $21.8 million in venture funding to promote global sales. The two-year-old startup has developed software to create a cloud-computing platform that uses machine learning to mine very large databases. —Most delivery startups have … Continue reading “Tour of Texas: CognitiveScale, Cariloop, Pageboy, CS Disco, Dropoff”

CS Disco Receives $18,750,000 Series C Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=1e1e6ddf-4f67-4021-97e6-3d08a97b588f Date 8/3/2016 Company Name CS Disco Mailing Address 4400 Post Oak Parkway Houston, TX 77027 USA Company Description DISCO makes cloud-based ediscovery software by uniting world-class engineering with a deep love and respect for the law. Website http://www.csdisco.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $18,750,000 Transaction Round Series C Proceeds Purposes … Continue reading “CS Disco Receives $18,750,000 Series C Funding”

CognitiveScale Obtains $21,800,000 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=f3bc94d7-fb0c-4a5d-ba4b-42620b852c0b Date 8/3/2016 Company Name CognitiveScale Mailing Address 9500 Arboretum Blvd. Level L-1 Austin, TX 78759 USA Company Description Our company is led by serial entrepreneurs and executives who have started, developed and scaled highly successful innovative companies. We have assembled the brightest technical minds from cloud, AI, cognitive computing, mobile and … Continue reading “CognitiveScale Obtains $21,800,000 New Funding Round”

With Linux for Ladies, Rackspace Aims to Bring More Women to IT

San Antonio—The tech industry is notorious for its boys’ club history, problems with misogyny, and gaps in pay equality between men and women. In San Antonio, cloud computing giant Rackspace is leading one effort to help turn around the persistent gender problem in tech. Three years ago, Rackspace opened a technical career school called Rackspace … Continue reading “With Linux for Ladies, Rackspace Aims to Bring More Women to IT”

Austin AI Startup Cognitive Scale Brings in $21.8M in Series B Funding

Austin—AI startup CognitiveScale has raised $21.8 million in a Series B round of funding. The startup, which makes software that has created a cognitive cloud platform that can mine very large databases, reported Tuesday that the funding comes from investors Norwest Venture Partners and Intel Capital. The two-year-old company said this round brings total financing … Continue reading “Austin AI Startup Cognitive Scale Brings in $21.8M in Series B Funding”

Houston’s CS Disco Raises $18.75M to Boost Legal IT Software

Houston—Legal IT firm CS Disco announced today it has raised $18.75 million in a Series C funding round, accounting for just over half of its total investment raised of $35 million. Private equity firm The Stephens Group in Little Rock, AR, led the round, with participation from existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners in Menlo Park, … Continue reading “Houston’s CS Disco Raises $18.75M to Boost Legal IT Software”

Ping Identity Acquires UnboundID for Undisclosed Sum

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=69e977c8-f7d7-4b9f-93e5-27240c47947c Date 8/2/2016 Company Name UnboundID Mailing Address 13809 Research Blvd Austin, TX 78750 USA Company Description UnboundID is a leading platform provider for identity services, enabling companies to dynamically manage, protect, and share customer data in real-time across cloud, mobile and social applications. Website http://www.unboundid.com Transaction Type M&A Transaction Amount Undisclosed … Continue reading “Ping Identity Acquires UnboundID for Undisclosed Sum”

Houston’s Pageboy App Brings the Beauty Salon to Your Home

Houston—Picture a beauty salon—or barbershop, for you guys. It’s one of the least digitized environments in our lives. And that’s the most challenging aspect of promoting a beauty app, says Libby Cagle, co-founder of Pageboy. “It has been interesting to train customers to use the app to cancel appointments through the app,” instead of calling, … Continue reading “Houston’s Pageboy App Brings the Beauty Salon to Your Home”

Gaining an Edge: Understanding Cyber Risk Appetite

Not long ago, companies prepared for cyber risks the way they might for a hurricane, flood, or other disaster situation: Brace for the worst, and hope for the best. Those days are over. Security breaches across industries have put cyber squarely on everybody’s risk agenda. But while they’re taking cyber threats seriously, many companies are … Continue reading “Gaining an Edge: Understanding Cyber Risk Appetite”

Health IT Startup Cariloop Creates Community for Elder Caregivers

Dallas—It’s a fundamental lesson for entrepreneurs: Sometimes your expectations for your product and its market don’t work out. “We had our sets of assumptions as far as what’s going to happen,” says Michael Walsh, founder and CEO of Cariloop, a Dallas startup whose software helps manage the care of seniors. “And then when you get … Continue reading “Health IT Startup Cariloop Creates Community for Elder Caregivers”

Biotech Roundup: Gilead Slump, Celgene Goes Trump, Hemo Data & More

Quarterly biopharma earnings added a little heat to the already high summer temperatures. Amongst several companies to report this week, the biggest news came from Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GILD]]), whose hepatitis C drugs have become some of the top revenue producers in the industry. But the company said this week that sales of Sovaldi and … Continue reading “Biotech Roundup: Gilead Slump, Celgene Goes Trump, Hemo Data & More”

At Alzheimer’s Meeting, Firms Take Page From Silver Linings Playbook

The big drug news from the annual Alzheimer’s Association meeting this week involved companies that have found silver linings in otherwise gloomy data—a recurrent theme in Alzheimer’s clinical work. The trials are expensive, so companies are loathe to write them off completely, and the social urgency of finding new treatments encourages data analysis that is … Continue reading “At Alzheimer’s Meeting, Firms Take Page From Silver Linings Playbook”

Allegis Capital Leader Co-Founds DataTribe To Tap Government Research

In 2015, Silicon Valley venture firm founder Robert Ackerman was helping the founders of Maryland startup Onyara to prepare for a fundraising round that would allow them to mine the commercial potential of advanced data processing technology developed at the National Security Agency. “I just found my next billion-dollar idea,” Ackerman says he was thinking … Continue reading “Allegis Capital Leader Co-Founds DataTribe To Tap Government Research”

At Big Hemophilia Meeting, More Data, and Promise, For Gene Therapy

This week’s World Federation of Hemophilia World Congress in Orlando, FL, where researchers gathered to present the latest updates in treatments for the chronic bleeding disorder, marked the latest step in a journey that dates back more than two decades for one particular treatment: gene therapy. Gene therapy provides the potential of a long-term treatment … Continue reading “At Big Hemophilia Meeting, More Data, and Promise, For Gene Therapy”

How Richard Branson and Snoop Dogg Use Social Media Vs. Social Unrest

Last month, I spent a week on Necker Island, where Richard Branson and a bunch of entrepreneurs were discussing how we could help address political upheavals, intolerance, violence, social inequality, and other issues. It’s almost like we’re in a war right now. Nations are split in half. On one side you have citizens who want … Continue reading “How Richard Branson and Snoop Dogg Use Social Media Vs. Social Unrest”

Austin Delivery Startup Dropoff Expands Beyond Texas to LA

Austin—Dropoff founder and CEO Sean Spector makes it a point to emphasize that the Austin, TX-based startup is a delivery service for businesses. “We are an extension of these businesses and their brands,” he says. “We deliver valuable medication, sensitive documents … parts for an airplane. These are these businesses’ everyday needs.” His insistence on … Continue reading “Austin Delivery Startup Dropoff Expands Beyond Texas to LA”

Clinton Versus Trump: Who’s Stronger on Innovation?

With the Republican National Convention behind us and the Democratic convention in full swing, it seems like a good moment to ask how a Donald Trump presidency or a Hillary Clinton presidency might affect the prospects for high-tech entrepreneurship and business growth in the United States. At this stage, both candidates have given major economic … Continue reading “Clinton Versus Trump: Who’s Stronger on Innovation?”

StackPath Garners $180,000,000 New Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=92b33ac6-f103-48e0-a4b8-cda179776ed8 Date 7/26/2016 Company Name StackPath Mailing Address 200 Crescent Court Dallas, TX 75201 USA Company Description StackPath is the intelligent web services platform for security, speed and scale. It is the first platform to unify enterprise security solutions by leveraging collaborative intelligence that makes each service smarter and more secure with … Continue reading “StackPath Garners $180,000,000 New Funding”

The Outbreaks Are Here, Where’s Our Response Plan?

The news of the first Zika case in Pierce County—the 14th in Washington State—reminds us that the spread of disease is inevitable. While we don’t have in our region the kind of mosquito that transmits Zika, the latest infected patient returned from a visit to Puerto Rico. Thanks to modern travel, whether by mosquitoes or … Continue reading “The Outbreaks Are Here, Where’s Our Response Plan?”

Roundup: StackPath, Houston Ventures, Seremedi, Climate Impact Capital

As we wind down Monday, let’s get caught up with the latest innovation news in Texas. —In an atypically large debut for a young company, Dallas-based StackPath came out of stealth mode with $150 million in funding and about 30,000 customers. The cybersecurity software firm was founded by Lance Crosby, who sold cloud-computing software company … Continue reading “Roundup: StackPath, Houston Ventures, Seremedi, Climate Impact Capital”

Dallas Cybersecurity Software Firm StackPath Makes $180M Debut

Dallas—StackPath, a cybersecurity software company based in Dallas, has come out of stealth mode with $180 million in investment and 30,000 customers, according to media reports. StackPath is led by Lance Crosby, former co-founder and CEO of SoftLayer, a Dallas software company that IBM acquired for an estimated $2 billion in 2013. “The Internet is … Continue reading “Dallas Cybersecurity Software Firm StackPath Makes $180M Debut”

Houston Ventures Founder on Investing in Energy Software Startups

Houston—Chip Davis founded Houston Ventures specifically to support what’s known as the “digital oilfield.” In the last five years since it was spun out of Houston-based money management firm Sanger Morris Harris (now Edelman Financial Group), Houston Ventures has nurtured a small portfolio of technology startups that focus on software, IT networks, and analytics targeted … Continue reading “Houston Ventures Founder on Investing in Energy Software Startups”