SiliconHills

By LAURA LOREK, publisher of Silicon Hills News In 2004, at the University of Texas at Austin, Denis Ignatovich and Grant Passmore met and became roommates soon after. They both enjoyed mathematics and solving difficult problems. Passmore received a bachelor’s in mathematics and Ignatovich received his degree in computer science and finance. “We spent a […]

By LAURA LOREK, publisher of Silicon Hills News Oracle held its inaugural U.S. Global Startup Ecosystem Showcase at its Austin Waterfront Campus on Tuesday. The event featured pitches from startups selected to participate in Oracle’s Startup Cloud Accelerator program in Austin. The six-month accelerator took place at Capital Factory in downtown Austin. Five of the […]

Mastercard announced Tuesday that it has acquired Austin-based Vyze, a cloud-based financial technology company. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Vyze, founded in 2008, has raised $48.1 million to date. Vyze works with lenders to provide consumer finance products like branded store credit cards, installment loans and lease to own payment plans. It […]

EverlyWell, the Austin-based healthcare testing platform, announced Tuesday that it has received $50 million more in venture capital funding. To date, the Austin-based company, founded four years ago, has received $55 million in total funding. Goodwater Capital led the Series B funding along with Highland Capital Partners. Other investors included Next Coast Ventures, NextGen Venture […]

By LAURA LOREK, Publisher of Silicon Hills News Zoho wants to keep things weird in Austin. The software company officially announced this week at its annual Zoholics conference that it is moving its headquarters from Pleasanton, Calif. to a 369-acre campus near the Austin airport. “I like Austin,” said Sridhar Vembu, Zoho’s founder and CEO, […]

University of Texas at San Antonio Associate Professor Arturo Montoya is a civil engineer and an expert on how earthquakes and hurricanes impact bridges and buildings. It’s that expertise that attracted Purdue University principal investigator Shirley Dyke to ask him to collaborate on the Resilient Extra-Terrestrial Habitats Institute for NASA to explore building homes and […]

By LAURA LOREK, publisher of Silicon Hills News Austin’s venture capital investments rose to $704 million in the first quarter of 2019, up 16 percent from the same quarter a year ago, according to the PwC/CB Insights MoneyTree report. However, the number of deals in Austin dropped almost 8 percent to 37 in the first […]

Zoho Tuesday announced plans to relocate its headquarters to Austin from California and to create a new 375-acre campus including a 100,000 square foot building in South-east Austin. The company, which is hosting its annual national users’ conference, Zoholics, at the Palmer Events Center, will release more details later this morning during a presentation along […]

LiveOak Venture Partners announced Tuesday that it has closed a $105 million fund, its second fund. The fund was oversubscribed, according to a news release. Krishna Srinivasan, Venu Shamapant and Ben Scott founded Austin-based LiveOak in 2013 and raised a $100 million fund to invest in early-stage Texas startups. The three founders met while working […]

Quantum computing is still in its infancy. But in Austin, Strangeworks, founded by William Hurley, aka, Whurley, is spearheading a venture focused on making quantum computing applications accessible to everyone. It is one of a handful of startups around the world focused on tackling the really big problem of creating quantum computing applications. On Wednesday, […]

It is tough to recover from March madness and South by Southwest. But Austin’s tech community is not disappointing in the month of April. There are so many interesting talks, pitch events, panel discussions and hackathons to attend. And Zoho is having its annual user conference: Zoholics in Austin for three days at the Palmer […]

Austin-based argodesign announced this week it has expanded to Europe with the opening of a new studio in Amsterdam. The team heading up the new Amsterdam studio is known to Rolston. He worked with them previously at frog design. Tjeerd Hoek and Joe Fletcher, who are leading the argo studio in Amsterdam, previously held leadership […]

OJO Labs, an artificial intelligence startup, has raised $45 million in additional funding. The Austin-based company plans to use the funds to accelerate its development and market expansion. It plans to hire more employees in the areas of engineering, data science, product and design. The Series C funding round is being led by LiveOak Venture […]

By LAURA LOREK, Publisher of Silicon Hills News Wearing a red cowboy hat, jeans, a button-down white shirt, a jade necklace and a necklace of crystals, Adeo Ressi doesn’t look like the typical startup founder. And he’s not. Ressi, who has founded and sold two $1 billion companies, now serves as CEO of Founder Institute, […]

By LAURA LOREK, Publisher of Silicon Hills News In 2011, Joseph Lubin, CEO of ConsenSys and co-founder of Ethereum, read Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper on Bitcoin. “And it clicked for me,” he said. “We can start to build something on a new trusted infrastructure and potentially build it on a better trust system.” He believed […]

By LAURA LOREK, Publisher of Silicon Hills News The path to national legalization of marijuana is underway. That’s the conclusion from cannabis experts at South by Southwest, which hosted its first-ever Cannabusiness track this year with 60 panels. In the U.S., 95 percent of the population believes in the medicinal value of cannabis and believes […]

By Laura Lorek, publisher of Silicon Hills News South by Southwest Interactive, Film and Music continue to go on with fascinating keynote and panel discussions as well as film screenings and live performances. Here are a few observations from this year’s SXSW so far: ANALOG CARS – I’ve never heard a car referred to as […]

By SUSAN LAHEY, Senior Writer with Silicon Hills News You know that movie scene where all the people who have been victimized realize there are more of them than there are of the bad guy? That’s kind of what’s happening with women and marketing these days as a panel called Girl Culture pointed out in […]

By SUSAN LAHEY, Senior Writer with Silicon Hills News “People aren’t interested in push-button art. It’s much more interesting to watch people struggle and find something to say,” said Douglas Eck, Sr Staff Research Scientist at the Google Brain team and a self-identified “failed musician.” The SXSW panel was on AI and the Future of […]

By LAURA LOREK, Publisher of Silicon Hills News Austin-based ICON on Monday unveiled its new “Vulcan II” 3D printer that can print up to a 2,000 square foot house quickly at half the cost. “It’s four times as big, it’s twice as fast, and it’s going to start shipping to customers next month,” said Jason […]

In an ironic twist, Roger McNamee, author of Zucked: Waking up to the Facebook Catastrophe, is taking out ads on Facebook to sell his book. “This is guerilla warfare,” McNamee said. Facebook is a powerful social network and his book exposes the flaws in the social network and Facebook is also a way to get […]

“The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley,” is a story about storytelling, said its Academy Award Winning Director Alex Gibney. The documentary is about how a couple of veteran journalists got fooled along with a lot of investors into believing Elizabeth Holmes just might be the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Instead, Holmes, […]

By LAURA LOREK, Publisher of Silicon Hills News Self-driving cars are the future, but there is still some uncertainty on how long it will take to get there and what that future looks like. That’s the conclusion from a panel discussion at South by Southwest Saturday morning. Hundreds of people showed up for the 9:30 […]

By SUSAN LAHEY, Senior Writer with Silicon Hills News One of the best moments at SXSW Release It pitch competition was when CEO and co-founder of the winning company, Lumos Helmet, admitted that he had no idea how the company’s first product wound up on Oprah’s favorites list. “I was afraid to ask,” Lumos Helmet […]

Sharing a pint takes on a whole new meaning at South by Southwest this year. At the HBO Game of Thrones event at SXSW, participants are asked to bleed for the throne – literally. HBO has joined with the American Red Cross to combat a worldwide blood shortage by harnessing the power of Game of Thrones fans, HBO […]

Hypergiant Industries is beefing up its staff with some heavy hitters from the technology industry. Hypergiant has announced that Brian Beard and Gary Gattis will join as Global Chief Strategy and Legal Officer and General Manager in Residence respectively. Hypergiant, which came out of stealth mode last year, has launched two new divisions, Hypergiant Galactic […]

Austin-based Bumble announced this week that it has completed its second round of investments into women-led startups. Through its “Bumble Fund” Bumble, which is a women-focused dating and social network with more than 50 million users, has made early stage investments in women founders. The latest round includes an investment in Houston-based Alice, an AI-powered […]

Adam Lyons, founder of The Zebra, is going to be starring in a new reality TV show focused on entrepreneurs. Lyons is teaming up with Pilgrim Media group on the new show which will showcase Lyons working with business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs to develop their ideas into full-fledged, high-growth businesses. Lyons founded The Zebra, […]

Jeremy Rossmann, co-founder of Make School, a computer science and software engineering school, based in San Francisco is disrupting higher education. Make School offers a two-year Bachelor’s Degree to students accepted into its computer science program. Rossmann founded Make School in 2012 with his high school friend, Ashu Desai. Rossmann dropped out of MIT and […]

March is women’s history month and Friday is International Women’s Day, which happens to coincide with opening day of South by Southwest in Austin. And while the tech industry is still heavily-male dominated and women-led startups only get 2 percent of all venture capital funding in the U.S., the industry is starting to change. And […]

Austin-based ClearBlade won the first place prize of $100,000 in the Comet Competition contest sponsored by Ingram Micro. Other Austin-based winners included re:3D, Sempulse and The Mentor Method. The Comet Competition, funded by IT distributor Ingram Micro, set out to uncover, fund and bring to market the next wave of business to business software innovators […]

Claimbot announced this week it has raised seed stage funds to expand its artifical intelligence powered virtual chat engine. The company, founded in 2016, announced it has raised $615,000 with participation from the Google Assistant Investments program, Notley Ventures, Social Starts and several angel investors. Claimbot plans to use the funding to accelerate the development […]

Cruising around the Internet, it’s difficult to know how much data is being gathered at the various websites a person visits. Of course, many have privacy polices but many of those documents are so long that few ever plow through them. And what’s being done with all that data? That’s an issue Osano plans to […]

QuotaPath, which makes a compensation management platform, announced this week it has raised $3.5 million. The company, which is based in both Austin and Philadelphia, plans to use the funds to hire more employees and launch the QuotaPath platform to the public during the next three months. QuotaPath’s software allows anyone to track their sales […]

Austin is the new headquarters of Khoros, the combined company of Spredfast and Lithium. Khoros announced the rebranding on Tuesday. The combined company resulted from Lithium’s merger with Spredfast last year. In September, when the two companies announced their merger, they reported the headquarters would be in San Francisco. Now, under the rebranding, the headquarters […]

Ryan Merket, a two-time founder, has also worked for Facebook, Reddit and Amazon. And now he’s becoming a venture capitalist and joining Firebrand Ventures as a partner and opening its second office in Austin. Firebrand’s focus is investing in seed stage companies in Austin and the Midwest. Firebrand, which was founded by John Fein in […]

Datical, which helps companies automate databases, Thursday announced it has received $10 million in funding. River Cities Capital Funds led the Series C funding round with participation from existing investors S3 Ventures and Mercury Fund.  As part of the deal, Adam Midkiff, vice president at River Cities, has joined Datical’s board of directors. Austin-based Datical, […]

By Laura Lorek, publisher of Silicon Hills News Author and Journalist Malcolm Gladwell is the latest speaker to join the lineup at South by Southwest. Gladwell is leading a documentary look at self-driving cars in the film “Autonomy,” which is set to debut at the SXSW Film Festival. The film examines the world of automated […]

In 2014,  Chris Shonk co-founded ATX Seed Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, based in Austin. ATX Seed Ventures has three partners: Danielle Allen, Brad Bentz and Shonk.   Shonk said they saw the demise of Austin Ventures, the largest local venture capital firm which sunset that year, as an opportunity. ATX Seed Ventures raised […]

By LAURA LOREK, Publisher of Silicon Hills News The biggest problem Mark Phillip encountered in building a technology business in Austin was finding funding. The founder and  CEO of Are You Watching This, a sports data and analytics company, got told no by everyone, he said. Phillip spoke on the “Building a Business” panel at […]

By LAURA LOREK, publisher of Silicon Hills News Austin is known as a high-tech hub of innovative startups. But it’s also the birthplace of many consumer-packaged goods like Siete Family Foods, a Mexican-American food brand, that just landed $90 million in funding. It makes grain free chips, grain free tortillas, hot sauces, cashew queso and […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher of Silicon Hills News Athena Security showed off its gun detection system at the official opening of the Defense Innovation Center Thursday at Capital Factory. The startup uses existing security cameras coupled with its specialized software that relies on machine learning and artificial intelligence to identify guns in a public setting. […]

By LAURA LOREK, Publisher of Silicon Hills News The median net worth of a black family in the United States is projected to reach zero by 2053. Today, the net worth of a black family is about $17,000, said Rodney Sampson, co-founder, and CEO of Opportunity Hub. While white wealth will continue to grow, black […]

DivInc, the Austin-based early stage accelerator for women and people of color, on Thursday announced it is partnering with Notley Ventures. In addition, Notley is making a major philanthropic investment in DivInc. “This transformative gift provides us with the resources to grow out capacity and capability, expand our accelerator programming and scale our community impact,” […]

By LAURA LOREKPublisher of Silicon Hills News The Founder Institute opened in Austin a little over a year ago and has already graduated three classes and helped dozens of entrepreneurs. Martin Martinez, managing director, joined with fellow directors Elisa Sepulveda and Paul O’Brien to launch Founder Institute Austin. They thought Austin needed more founders and […]

By LAURA LOREKPublisher of Silicon Hills News Imagine a nickel-sized device implanted in the brain to help treat chronic and severe mental disorders like schizophrenia, which affect how a person thinks, feels and behaves. It’s not science fiction but a real device that is being developed in Austin. The medical device is the brainchild of […]

Silicon Hills News’ 2019 Austin Tech Calendar Party took place on January 24th at Opcity in Austin. At the party, Silicon Hills News gave away a desktop or wall calendar to 175 guests. To order additional calendars please visit our Eventbrite form for our lunch and learn event on February 24th. You don’t have to attend the event […]

It’s no secret that driving in Austin, especially for downtown workers, has become one of the biggest aggravations about working or living in the city. Austin ranked 14th among the most congested cities in the U.S. in 2017 with commuters spending 11 percent of their driving time in congestion, according to a study last year […]

While working at another fintech startup, Chris Doyle saw a major problem with commercial subcontractors not being able to pay suppliers in time for their projects. He left that startup to found Billd, which acts as a bill me later service for commercial subcontractors to buy materials and pay for them over time. Austin-based Billd […]

DISCO, which makes software for the legal industry, announced Thursday that it has raised $83 million in additional funding. The startup, which moved to Austin in August of last year from Houston, has raised $135 million to date. Georgian Partners, based in Toronto, led the latest round with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, LiveOak Venture Partners, The […]

Chicago-based Cision announced Wednesday that it has acquired Austin-based TrendKite for $225 million. Cision, a public relations software and services provider, paid $94 million in cash and approximately 10.2 million shares of Cision for TrendKite. “The addition of TrendKite’s award-winning application platform, known for its innovation and dynamic user experience, gives our customers additional ways […]

Techstars is one of Austin’s oldest and most recognized accelerator programs. This week, Amos Schwartzfarb, its managing director, kicked off the 2019 program with 10 new startups. The companies come from Los Angeles, Chattanooga, TN, Toronto, Canada, Houston, TX, and Austin. The three month long program culminates with Demo Day on April 10th. Here are […]

Evonik, a German company, has acquired Austin-based Structured Polymers, a startup focused on 3D printing. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Structured Polymers, founded in 2012, raised $1.5 million from Microventures and holds three patents in the working of plastics category, according to CrunchBase. In addition, in the fall of 2017, Evonik made […]

Dosh, an Austin-based startup disrupting the advertising industry, on Tuesday announced it has closed on a $40 million round of funding. The funding includes $20 million in equity and $20 million in venture debt. Goodwater Capital and Western Technology Investment led the Series B round, with participation from investors  PayPal, BAM Capital and Anthem Venture […]

By LAURA LOREK, Publisher of Silicon Hills News Venture capital investments in Austin soared to $1.33 billion in 2018, the highest on record since the dot-com boom in 2000, according to the latest MoneyTree Report from PwC and CB Insights. Venture capital investments in Austin rose 70 percent in 2018, from $783.4 million in total […]

Ever wanted to rent an RV from a neighbor? Well, Outdoorsy, based in Austin, just raised another $50 million to make that transaction a reality. Greenspring Associates led the latest round of funding with participation from Aviva Ventures, Altos Ventures, Autotech Ventures and Tandem Capital. “We are interested in marketplace technology companies that challenge the […]

Drillinginfo, an energy software and data analytics company, has acquired Austin-based MineralSoft. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. MineralSoft, which graduated from the Y Combinator accelerator program in 2016, had raised $9.2 million in funding to date, according to Crunchbase. Its investors included Cottonwood Venture Partners, Blue Bear Capital, and Y Combinator. Drillinginfo, […]

South by Southwest Conference and Festivals, which is less than two months away, released its latest lineup of keynote and featured speakers Tuesday. The keynote speakers include Endeavor Chief Marketing Officer Bozoma Saint John, director, actress, producer and activist Olivia Wilde, and Instagram Co-Founder Mike Krieger joins Instagram Co-Founder Kevin Systrom in a talk moderated […]

By Laura Lorek, Publisher of Silicon Hills News RapidDeploy, a South African company that has created an emergency platform based on cloud technology, is branching out to Austin. The company officially opened its new U.S. headquarters at a private event at Galvanize Thursday night with Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Mninwa Johannes Mahlangu, the South […]

By Laura Lorek, Publisher of Silicon Hills News Austin is the hottest tech hub in Texas. That’s something Silicon Hills News has known for a long time since we have been writing about local technology startups since launching as an independent media startup in 2011. In 2018, the city had several big stories. Silicon Hills […]

Five finalists and four alternates from Austin made the list for the 11th annual SXSW Pitch event to be held at SXSW in March. Two startups from Houston and another from Missouri City, Texas also made the finalist list. “We had a record number of companies apply this year,” said Chris Valentine, event producer for […]

RetailMeNot appoints Marissa Tarleton as its new Chief Executive Officer. Cotter Cunningham, founder and CEO, will become the company’s chairman. Tarleton has served as RetailMeNot’s chief marketing officer since 2015. In that role, she has led the company’s brand, consumer, and business marketing and communications initiatives. She is responsible for “driving significant transformation for the […]

AlertMedia, an emergency alert notification system, Thursday announced it closed on a $25 million investment from JMI Equity. The Austin-based startup, founded in 2014, has raised more than $42 million to date from investors including Austin-based Next Coast Ventures and Silverton Partners and angel investors. Brian Cruver, chief executive officer of AlertMedia, announced the funding in […]

From climbing Mount Everest to diving the Great Barrier Reef, adventurous people can now get a short-term life insurance policy from Austin-based Life by Spot. “For the first time in the US, customers can quickly and easily obtain a short term life insurance policy to give them peace of mind as they live out a […]

This year, three of the startups featured in our 2018 Austin Tech Calendar were acquired by larger companies. H-E-B bought Favor for an undisclosed price. Go Daddy bought Mainstreet Hub for an undisclosed price. And News Corp. bought Opcity for $210 million. Now, Silicon Hills News has highlighted 25 startups we think will make some […]

Hypergiant Space Age Solutions announced Tuesday that it has acquired Seattle-based Black Pixel. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Black Pixel, founded in 2007, has a roster of Fortune 500 clients which it provides digital product strategy, design, and development services and builds sports, news, and media applications. Its customers include ESPN, […]

Hitch can hook riders up with a ride from Austin to Houston without ever putting a thumb in the air and no need to stand beside the road. The Austin-based startup wants to make hitching a ride from Austin to Houston easy and seamless and next year, it plans to expand to other cities. The […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher of Silicon Hills News In two seasons of the Ideas to Invoices podcast, Silicon Hills News has interviewed dozens of highly successful Austin entrepreneurs and many of them recommended books on their podcasts. The following list contains some of their book recommendations to aspiring entrepreneurs. So, if you’re looking for a […]

Sponsored Post By Swyft In an age of disruption, entrepreneurs have to constantly be on the lookout for technological change that will upend their business model. While the disruptions that garner the most attention tend to be sudden and radically transformative, just as important are the gradual changes that take place over an extended period […]

Apple Thursday announced a new $1 billion campus in North Austin with 5,000 additional jobs. Apple also reports the 133-acre campus, which is less than a mile from its existing facilities, could grow to 15,000 employees and is expected to make Apple the largest private employer in Austin. “Apple is proud to bring new investment, […]

Sponsored post by Zoho Integrated software can make or break your business, but it might not feel like that now. As your business grows, you’ll develop more business processes and eventually, you’ll need software to help automate and streamline those processes. But efficient processes are seamless, and integration isn’t always that easy. Too often we […]

Manufacturing companies rely on suppliers to get parts on time to fill production orders and deliver goods on time. Problems can arise when a parts supplier is late or doesn’t deliver the right item or doesn’t have enough inventory on hand to fulfill the order. That’s the problem SourceDay solves. The Austin-based company has created […]

Lyft launched its dockless electric scooters and bikes in Austin Tuesday. The ride-hailing company joins Uber which launched Jump, dockless electric scooters in October in Austin and bikes last summer. Other electric scooter companies operating in Austin include Lime and Bird. Austin is the fifth market where Lyft is offering scooters on the Lyft platform, […]

Aceable, a mobile-focused platform for certification and training courses, announced Tuesday that is has closed on $47 million in venture capital. Sageview Capital led the Series B investment. Aceable plans to use the funds to expand into new markets nationwide, according to a news release. As part of the funding deal, Dean Nelson and Mike […]

Laurie Felker Jones founded JuiceBox Hero to create a marketplace for parents to comparison shop for childcare. The childcare market is highly fragmented today. New parents often don’t know where to turn to find and compare what’s available in their neighborhood. Now they can turn to JuiceBox Hero. It’s like a Kayak comparison site and […]

Companies collect massive amounts of data from their operations every day. The problem is making sense of the constant stream of information and applying insights from the data to improve business operations. Today, Hypergiant Sensory Sciences launches with its “mission to deliver human perception at impossible scale.” The company is creating a software platform that […]

Big companies can struggle with how to engage their employees in cybersecurity training. Living Security, based in Austin, has a novel approach that focuses on behavioral design and gamification to educate employees about cyber threats in the workplace and how to avoid them. The startup has created the Cyber Security Escape Room training for employees […]

Capital One this week announced its acquisition of Wikibuy, an Austin-based online website that allows shoppers to compare prices for items. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Wikibuy, founded in 2016, has 20 employees, based at 3939 Bee Cave Road in Austin. Its free service has more than two million members. “We […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher of Silicon Hills News Kronologic has created software that turns sales leads into meetings automatically. Through automation, bots and artificial intelligence, Kronologic’s software moves the conversation to the calendar, said Trey Allison, the company’s co-founder. “Let’s get to the yes quick or let’s get to the no quick and let’s cut […]