SiliconHills

“That’s right, you’re not from Texas, but Texas wants you anyway” to quote Lyle Lovett. And Austin wants the second Amazon headquarters. City leaders officially submitted Austin’s bid to Amazon on Wednesday, a day before the deadline. On Sept. 7, Amazon announced the Seattle-based tech giant was looking for a second North American headquarters, Amazon […]

Techstars on Wednesday morning announced the launch of the Techstars Impact Accelerator, its first program aimed at for-profit startups that are tackling social and environmental problems. The accelerator will be based in Austin. Applications open in December. The program kicks off in June of 2018. Zoe Schlag, the program’s Managing Director. Since 2014, Schlag has […]

Certain Affinity announced Monday Leyou Technologies Holdings Limited of Hong Kong has made a $10 million investment for a 20 percent stake in the Austin-based game development company. The international investment follows a $5 million investment in Certain Affinity by Capstar Partners, an Austin-based private investment firm. Under the agreement with Leyou Technologies, Certain Affinity […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher of Silicon Hills News MassChallenge Texas kicked off Monday evening with a big crowd at the Bullock Texas State History Museum in downtown Austin. “I want Texas to be the place where startups come to innovate,” said Mike Millard, managing director for MassChallenge Texas. The global accelerator is now accepting applications […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher of Silicon Hills News Austin made a major push to cultivate relationships with other countries during the first International sessions at Austin Startup Week. Representatives from Australia, Colombia, Mexico, Pakistan, Ireland and the European Union made presentations at Capital Factory on Thursday. Capital Factory has had 20 international startups set up […]

AlertMedia, a communication software provider, announced Wednesday that it has raised $8 million Austin-based Next Coast Ventures led the Series B round with continued investment from ATX Seed Ventures. To date, the Austin-based company has raised more than $17 million from investors including Silverton Partners and angel investors. AlertMedia plans to use the funds on […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher of Silicon Hills News At Galvanize this morning, I presented Content Creation for Entrepreneurs to Drive Engagement. More than 180 people signed up for the presentation, which kicked off at 8 a.m. following last night’s Austin Technology Council’s Battle of the Bands. About half of those people showed up. And we […]

It’s the Seventh Annual Austin Startup Week. Silicon Hills News started in September of 2011, the same month the first Austin Startup Week took place. Back then, the event was much smaller and the tech community in Austin was a whole lot smaller too. Austin Startup Week is still led by the two founders, Jacqueline […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher of Silicon Hills News In remote and impoverished areas of the world, teaching children science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM skills can involve a lot of expensive resources. It requires computers, labs, buildings, high-speed Internet, power supplies, and pricey robotics kits with trained instructors. That’s a problem Rohit and Sidharth […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher of Silicon Hills News Ericsson announced Thursday plans to open a design center in Austin with 80 employees by next June. The center is focused on microelectronics and creating products for the 5G telecommunications marketplace. “This R&D center will be one of our key centers when it comes to 5G ASIC […]

TrustRadius, founded in 2012, announced Wednesday it has raised $5.5 million in additional funding for its technology review platform. The Austin-based company reported LiveOak Venture Partners led the Series B round with participation from existing investor Mayfield. To date, TrustRadius has raised $13 million. In addition to the funding, the company added Bill Macaitis, former […]

Next Coast Ventures announced Wednesday that it is has added two technology venture partners and its first entrepreneur in residence. The Austin-based venture capital firm has added Paul Rogers and Jim Dunham as Technology Venture Partners, which will serve as mentors to the firm’s tech entrepreneurs in its portfolio and advisers to the fund’s leadership. […]

BY LAURA LOREK Publisher with Silicon Hills News From the outside, 500 W. 2nd street might look like any new skyscraper in downtown Austin. But inside, it’s got that Google flair with scooters in the lobby, a swing, balance boards, a ceiling made of recycled canoes, an Airstream trailer food truck, outdoor movie theater, dog […]

The Zebra, an insurance comparison marketplace, announced Tuesday that is has closed on $40 million in financing and hired Former Kayak Executive Keith Melnick as its new Chief Executive officer. The Austin-based startup reported Accel Partners led the Series B financing round, the largest Texas Series B financing this year. Melnick, former president of travel […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher of Silicon Hills News Sputnik ATX is one of Austin’s newest startup incubators and accelerators. “We’re in a bit of a stealth mode right now,” said Oksana Malysheva, President, and CEO of Linden Education Partners and CEO of Sputnik ATX. Sputnik ATX, which fashions itself after a Y-Combinator incubation model, will […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher of Silicon Hills News It’s going to take the mass consumer market years to catch up to all the innovation in the augmented reality and virtual reality marketplace, according to a panel of experts at the University of Texas at Austin on Thursday. One of the challenges for virtual reality and […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher of Silicon Hills News A huge gap exists between what colleges are teaching students and what a company like Apple needs, an Apple executive said Thursday. “I don’t consider myself an expert on education technique, what makes great curriculum or any of that. I’m sort of like a big user of […]

The Austin-based on-demand delivery service, Favor, announced Thursday that it has reached profitability and raised $22 million in venture funding. S3 Ventures led the Series B financing round, which included existing investors. “Scaling a high-touch, hyper-local logistics business is no easy task, and all the credit goes to our team’s relentless focus executing on our […]

Hurricane Harvey hit South Texas hard and with billions of dollars in losses, it is proving to be one of the costliest natural disasters in our nation’s history. Houston, Beaumont, and the Port Arthur area received more than 50 inches of rain in a short amount of time flooding many houses and businesses and wreaking […]

On Monday morning following the landfall of Hurricane Harvey, Johnathan Wojtewicz headed to Houston in his truck towing a Jet Ski equipped with a boat deck capable of rescuing nine to ten people and animals. But on the way to Houston, he ended up rescuing about 40 people stranded in their vehicles along the highway […]

Earlier this month, in the basement of the Ernest Cockrell Jr. Hall at the University of Texas at Austin campus, James McGinness worked with his team to put the final touches on a transportation pod for Texas Guadaloop. McGinness, team lead for Texas Guadaloop, graduated with his Masters in Mechanical Engineering from UT in May, […]

Email is still the backbone of an effective marketing campaign, said Karen Gragg, vice president of marketing at Emma. Marketers report email generates the most return on investment with a 47 percent return, compared to the next highest platform, social media, with a 19 percent return, according to Gragg. Emma held an event Thursday afternoon […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher of Silicon Hills News The technology industry has a problem. Its workforce isn’t diverse enough. That means not enough women and not enough people of color, but it also means not enough people of varying ages, faith, sexual orientation, disabled, military veterans and other differentiators. Why is that important? Because studies […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher of Silicon Hills News “Entrepreneurship is essential to our standard of living and economic growth,” said Stephanie Breedlove, co-founder of Care.com Homepay. “Entrepreneurs create new wealth and new jobs,” Breedlove told several hundred people attending Capital Factory’s Women in Tech Summit Wednesday afternoon in downtown Austin. Yet entrepreneurship has been shrinking […]

Vyze, a cloud-based financial technology company, has raised $13.1 million in venture capital to accelerate its growth and expand into new markets. Austin Ventures with additional investment from Fathom Capital and Starvest Partners led the Series C financing round. The company, founded in 2008, has raised $48.1 million including the latest funding round. As part […]

Nobody likes to do laundry. But we all need clean clothes and many of us are too busy to fetch our dry cleaning and laundry. That’s where Austin-based Press comes in. The startup, based at Capital Factory, just raised $500,000 in seed stage funding to expand its business. The company, which began as a Longhorn […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher of Silicon Hills News Heather Hoover, executive vice president of operations at uShip, joined the company in 2005, a year after its founding. At the time, uShip, the online shipping marketplace and freight automation software provider, didn’t have a formal office. Nick Parker, chief technology officer at uShip, and the founders […]

The biggest challenge for Austin and the Texas Legislature is tackling school finance, according to Austin District 7 Council Member Leslie Pool. “More than half of the property taxes that are paid by Austin homeowners, commercial properties and businesses go back to the state under recapture,” Pool said. That’s more than $400 million this year […]

It may be the heart of the summer and the Texas heat is going strong, but that doesn’t mean technology activity has slowed down in Austin. Silicon Hills News has highlighted five events to attend in Austin this week. TUESDAY– WeWork and the Austin Tech Alliance will host a tech town hall meeting with Councilwoman […]

In the first ever Austin WeWork Creator Awards, seven Austin entrepreneurs won $845,000 in financial grants and now head to New York City fo the final event. The biggest winner, GrubTubs, took home $360,000 in the scale category, the top prize at the event held at Austin City Limits Live at Moody Theater Tuesday night. […]

Austin-based Mood Media Corp. announced Wednesday its acquisition by several investors including Apollo Global Management and GSO Capital Partners. Mood Media, the parent company of Muzak, is now privately-held and its stock will no longer trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The investors paid 17 cents per share Canadian for Mood Media’s stock. The deal […]

AT&T on Tuesday announced the second trial of its ultra-fast 5G network throughout more locations in Austin. Last year, the Dallas-based company completed the industry’s first wireless 5G business customer trial in Austin. The company’s second trial delivers “an ultra-fast internet connection to residential, small business and enterprise customers using Ericsson’s 5G RAN and the […]

Austin-based SparkCognition, a startup focused on artificial intelligence, announced Monday that it has closed on $32.5 million in funding. Verizon Ventures led the Series B funding round with participating from The Boeing Company, through its Boeing HorizonX unit. “SparkCognition has pioneered the use of artificial intelligence to bring unparalleled advancements to many of the world’s […]

Austin-based HomeAway announced it has signed a lease to occupy a new 16 story office tower in The Domain in the first quarter of 2019. The vacation rentals company reports the new 315,000 square foot location will be able to accommodate more than 2,000 employees. “As a global company headquartered in Austin and as the […]

This week, WeWork announced 11 Austin companies have been selected as finalists for The Creator Awards South Regional Final, which will be held next week at ACL Line. WeWork selected the finalists from more than 2,000 applications from all across the south. The event is Tuesday, June 27 at ACL Live at The Moody Theater, […]

One of the latest startups to spin out of the University of Texas at Austin, GenXComm has received a $1.5 million seed round of financing. The Austin-based startup is focused on doubling the amount of traffic a wireless network can handle. Its patent-pending technology is called S-SIX. FAM Capital Partners led the investment with investments […]

Rishi Bhilawadikar created the movie, “For Here or to Go?” to tell the story of H1-B Visa workers in the U.S. living in limbo. He knows the story firsthand. For 12 years, Bhilawadikar, a native of India, has been in the U.S. first under a graduate student Visa at Indiana University and later as a […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher and reporter with Silicon Hills News Creating a great company culture isn’t just about having perks like free lunches, Ping Pong tables, and nap rooms. “They are important in a sense,” said Courtney Branson, head of culture at Square Root in Austin. “Having a Ping Pong table does bring people together […]

Amazon announced Friday plans to buy Austin-based Whole Foods Market in a deal valued at $13.7 billion. “Millions of people love Whole Foods Market because they offer the best natural and organic foods, and they make it fun to eat healthy,” Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder, and CEO said in a news release. “Whole Foods Market […]

Procore Technologies, which makes construction management software, is hosting a Summer Solstice Kick-Off party next Thursday. And you’re invited. The event takes place at Procore’s Austin office at 221 W. 6th Street on the 18th floor starting at 5:30 p.m. It features light dinner and drinks, but you must RSVP. “It’s not often that we […]

Since launching in 2012, Eagle Eye Networks has become the largest cloud-based video surveillance provider in North America. It’s also the largest cloud-based video surveillance provider in Asia. And now, it’s set its sights on becoming the largest cloud-based video surveillance provider in Europe. On Thursday, Eagle Eye Networks announced the acquisition of Panasonic Cloud […]

CognitiveScale announced Tuesday that is has received an additional $15 million in venture capital for product development of its augmented intelligence products. Norwest Venture Partners, Intel Capital, Microsoft Ventures, the Westly Group and USAA provided the investment. To date, the Austin-based startup has raised $50 million. “We are excited about the future AI-enabled enterprise, and […]

If you’re an entrepreneur, you know getting a small start-up operation successfully up and running requires a watchful eye on the bottom line. Maybe you can spring for a ping pong table in the snack room, but you can’t imagine footing the bill for health insurance for you, your employees and families. You might be […]

By Nicholas White Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief and CEO of The Daily Dot Reprinted with permission from ATLAS, a quarterly publication on entrepreneurs from Acton School of Business If you don’t live by your values even when doing so can hurt you, then you don’t really have values. I don’t remember where I first read that, but […]

Digital Pharmacist announced Tuesday that it has closed on a $6.5 million round of financing. Activate Venture Partners, based in New York, and LiveOak Venture Partners in Austin led the Series B financing round. The Austin-based startup plans to use the money on marketing and product development. Digital Pharmacist, founded in 2012, provides digital, communications […]

Everfest, a festival aggregation and promotions site, announced this week it has raised $3.6 million in funding. Live Nation co-led the series A round along with ATX Seed Ventures. Other investors included Red Frog Events, Chip Conley and Bob Kagle. The company plans to use the funds to hire key employees and on product development […]

Governor Greg Abbott on Monday signed House Bill 100 which provides statewide regulation of popular ride-hailing companies. And Lyft and Uber both began providing rides in Austin once again. The law is effective immediately. It overrides local laws passed by cities like Austin to govern ride hailing companies. “Texas has longtime been the home for […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher and Reporter with Silicon Hills News More than 800 people turned out Thursday night at ACL Live at the Moody Theater to celebrate 17 companies that made the Austin Chamber’s 2017 Austin A-List of the Hottest Startups. “In many ways, A-List is a lot like SXSW in that it helps shine […]

Uber and Lyft, the ride hailing companies, that rode off into the sunset a year ago when they couldn’t reach agreement with local officials, have announced plans to return to Austin on Monday. “Austin is an incubator for technology and entrepreneurship, and we are excited to be back in the mix. Our local team is […]

Billionaire Mark Cuban is leading a $1.5 million seed round investment into Austin-based Meta SaaS, which runs a platform for managing software as a service subscriptions for companies. The startup announced the investment this week which also includes Bazaarvoice and data.world Founder Brett Hurt and participation from Barracuda Networks, Capital Factory, Deep Space Ventures and […]

Austin is known for innovative startups. And the Austin Chamber of Commerce shines a spotlight on the best and brightest every year at its annual A-List Of Hottest Startups Awards. The event, which takes place next Thursday from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at ACL Live at the Moody Theater, is one of the city’s […]

A bill that would let the state of Texas govern transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft passed the Texas Senate this week and is now awaiting Gov. Greg Abbott’s signature to become law. Texas HB 100 would regulate all transportation network companies, also known as ride hailing companies, operating in Texas and require them […]

Usabili.me this week officially launched its app that lets companies remotely moderate conversations online with customers in a few simple and easy steps. The Austin-based startup is aiming the product at the design and research community that wants to improve website performance and other products. The cloud-based subscription service provides fast and easy feedback from […]

Google announced Wednesday in a blog post that it has acquired Austin-based Owlchemy Labs, a virtual reality game developer. “Together, we’ll be working to create engaging, immersive games and developing new interaction models across many different platforms to continue bringing the best VR experiences to life,” according to the Google blog post. The financial terms […]

Opcity, which has created a data and analytics driven technology platform for real estate agents and brokers, Wednesday announced it has raised $27 million in funding. Icon Ventures, based in Silicon Valley, led the Series A round with participation from Georgian Partners and LiveOak Venture Partners. As part of the funding deal, Tom Mawhinney, of […]

Dropoff, the same day delivery service, announced this week it has raised $8.5 million in additional funding. The Austin-based startup, founded in 2014, plans to use the money to expand to 35 additional markets in North America, according to a news release. Last week, Dropoff announced it had entered three new markets: San Diego, Fort […]

NarrativeDX, an artificial intelligence platform that lets healthcare providers communicate with patients, announced Tuesday it has raised a round of funding. The Austin-based startup, founded in 2014, didn’t reveal the funding amount but reported it was led by LiveOak Venture Partners, Cultivation Capital and HealthX Ventures. Last year, in a profile on the company by […]

Austin-based eRelevance Corp, which makes a marketing platform for small to medium sized businesses to engage customers, Tuesday announced it has closed a $5.1 million round of funding. The company, founded in 2013, plans to use the funds to accelerate its growth by hiring more sales and marketing staff and to further develop its marketing […]

By LAURA LOREK Reporter with Silicon Hills News Plato said: “Those who tell the stories rule society.” That is why fake news is so harmful to everyone. At Silicon Hills News, the news is real. For the past six and a half years, I’ve worked without a paycheck to bring technology news to the people […]

Lepide announced Wednesday that it has selected Austin for the site of its new global headquarters. The company, founded in 2005, also has offices in London and New Delhi and employs 236 people worldwide. It expects to have more than 50 people in its Austin office located at 600 Congress Avenue within the next 18 […]

EverlyWell, the Austin-based healthcare testing platform, announced Wednesday that it has received $2 million more in venture capital funding. The company, founded two years ago by Julia Cheek, the company’s CEO, has received $5 million in total funding. NextGen Venture Partners led the round with participation from Jack Novak, SoGal Ventures, Full Tilt Capital and […]

Bitfusion, an Austin-based startup, announced Tuesday that it has received $5 million in venture capital funding. Vanedge Capital led the Series A round with participation from new investor Sierra Ventures and existing investors Data Collective, Resonant VC and Geekdom Fund. Bitfusion, which participated in the 2015 Techstars Cloud program in San Antonio, makes specialized software […]

The Central Texas Angel Network, known as CTAN, is once again one of the most active angel investment networks in the country, by number of deals done in 2016, according to the 2016 HALO report. The Angel Resource Institute, along with PitchBook, released the annual report last week. In 2016, the most active angel groups […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher and reporter with Silicon Hills News The latest presentations at the Innovation Center’s monthly StARTup Studio at the University of Texas at Austin show the variety of problems professor led startups are tackling. They included an acoustic monitoring technology to improve coffee roasting, a handheld laser device to shape bones and […]

By LAURA LOREK Publisher and Reporter at Silicon Hills News At South by Southwest, Guy Goldstein came up with the idea for WriterDuet when meeting with screenwriters and filmmakers. Goldstein created a platform, similar to Google Docs, to allow writers to collaborate on projects. Today, WriterDuet has more than 25,000 monthly users with 2,000 new […]

Optimizely, based in San Francisco, announced Wednesday it has purchased Austin-based Experiment Engine. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Experiment Engine, a graduate of the Austin Techstars program, creates tools and services that help companies test products online. Claire Vo, Experiment Engine’s CEO and Founder, will join Optimizely and continue to manage […]

CM First Group, a software company, announced it has raised $1.2 million in funding. The Austin-based company plans to use the funds for the expansion of its software tools and services. The Central Texas Angel Network and Lone Rock Technology Group with Capital Factory participating led the investment. CM First appointed Clint Whitaker of CTAN […]

Factom, a blockchain technology company, announced Tuesday that it has closed on $8 million in funding. The Austin-based startup closed its Series A round with additional investment from Peeli Ventures, Harvest Equity and a number of Austin investors. In October, Factom announced it had closed its Series A round with $4.2 million in investment from […]

The Central Texas Angel Network reported its members invested $14.2 million into 43 companies in 2016. CTAN members made 15 new investments and 28 follow on investments into existing portfolio companies. That compares to $13.3 million invested in 43 companies in 2015. The nonprofit organization also saw a 40 percent increase in 2016 in the […]

Austin-based LeanDNA, a data and analytics platform for factories, on Monday announced it closed on a $4.5 million round of funding. Austin-based Next Coast Ventures led the Series A round. LeanDNA received a seed stage investment from Rony Kahan, co-founder of Indeed. LeanDNA, founded in 2011, plans to use the funding to expand sales, marketing, […]