Author: LauraLorek@gmail.com (Page 25 of 352)

At the UnidosUS Conference in San Antonio on Monday, Google announced the 50 recipients selected for its first-ever Google for Startups Latino Founders Fund.

Among the recipients, Google chose three startups based in Austin including Handsome, Kiss & Tell, and Lena Health.

Two startups, CodersLink, and Irys were from San Antonio.

And four others were chosen from El Paso and Houston.

All of the founders selected will receive $100,000 each to help grow their business. The founders will also receive hands-on support from Google employees across the company, $100,000 in Google Cloud credits, and access to mental health therapists at no cost.

The goal of Google’s fund is to increase economic opportunity for promising Latino startup founders in the U.S., who receive a disproportionately low percentage of investment, according to Google.

“We are excited to support these talented Latino entrepreneurs as they build innovative solutions and solve tough problems,” Daniel Navarro, U.S. marketing lead with Google for Startups, said in a news release. “I hope the launch of our inaugural Google for Startups Latino Founders Fund not only catalyzes the growth of these incredible Latino-led startups, but also inspires other Latino entrepreneurs, and ultimately generates wealth within the community.”

In addition to the Latino fund, “Google for Startups has provided $10 million in cash awards to 126 Black founders in the U.S. through its global Black Founders Fund,” according to a Google blog post.

The Austin founders selected included April Dominguez, founder of HANDSOME App, which is a career and advice sharing platform for the $190 billion beauty and barber industries to find coaching, techniques and earn more income.

“HANDSOME’s mission is to bring equal career opportunities for women in this industry, as well as to be a leader in diversity,” Dominguez said in a news release. “This support from Google for Startups allows us to put fuel on that fire and to continue pouring into the advancement of inclusion in our industry.”

Amy Jarczynski, founder of Kiss & Tell, a private social network and event planning site, based in Austin, also received a $100,000 Google grant.

“The Google for Startups Latino Founders Fund means an opportunity to launch our 2.0 product and rebuild our wedding and group travel bookings that were demolished during COVID,” Jarczynski said in a news release. “The support will be used to execute our go-to-market strategy”.

Alex Harb, founder of Lena Health, a personal assistant for concierge care navigation, based in Austin, also received a $100,000 Google grant.

Instead of calling the clinic and dealing with call centers, patients can now send an SMS text to their Lena Assistant and request a task. A customer study showed that Lena reduced avoidable costly care by reducing ER visits, hospitalizations, and 30-day readmissions.

“We’re honored to be selected for the Latino Founders Fund and be included with a prestigious group of Latino founders,”  Harb, founder of Lena Health, said in a news release. “The financial support allows us to accelerate our growth while we leverage the Google network to continue to transform the health experience with a tech-enabled Care Concierge.”

Two entrepreneurs from San Antonio also received Google Latino Founders Fund grants including Jesus Salas, founder of CodersLink, a platform that empowers global companies to recruit, manage, and develop their LATAM tech teams, on-demand. Beto Altamirano, the founder of Irys, based in San Antonio, also received a grant. Irys is an innovative and collaborative two-way engagement tool that helps to drive community inclusion and infrastructure projects, improving project workflows and optimizing outcomes.

“Though the current economic conditions are complex, there’s never been a better time to invest. History has shown that the best companies are often created in difficult times, and we remain committed to serving extraordinary entrepreneurs. We’ll keep investing and delivering exceptional results for our partners.”

Silverton Partners plans to allocate $177 million to Fund VII and $71 million to Silverton Opportunities II, which is earmarked as follow-on funding for existing portfolio companies.

To date, Silverton Partners has more than $950 million in assets under management. It has had 30 acquisitions and four Initial Public Offerings including SailPoint, Ping Identity, and Vacasa.

Silverton Partners is led by partners Kip McClanahan, Mike Dodd, Roger Chen, and Flager.

In addition, Silverton Partners announce the promotion of Matthew Saitta to Principal, Alyssa Dadoly to CFO and Operating Partner, and the addition of Aneesh Desai as an Associate on the investment team.

Via email, Flager answered a few more questions about the new fund.

Q. You’ve raised Fund VII just two years after your last Fund VI, which was $148 million, this one is $248 million – the largest ever.  The fund size is getting bigger and bigger, why has Silverton Partners’ fund size grown so big?

A. Flager: First we are excited to announce SPVII and Opportunities ii because of what it means for Austin. The local ecosystem is growing quickly, and the increasing set of world-class entrepreneurs here need more capital to compete and win. As the most active and longest-standing firm in the region, we want to ensure we can meet that need and help take Austin to the next level.

While we have grown assets under management, we haven’t changed our strategy since we started investing in 2006. We are still focused on being the first institutional investor and want to roll up our sleeves and serve as a true partner to our founders. We still invest early, primarily at the seed stage, and continue to support our companies as they grow.

Q. A lot of capital from a variety of VCs has flowed into the Austin market in the past few years, why do you think that is happening now?

A. Flager: Capital flows to where the best opportunities are…..Austin has proven itself as a leading destination for top-quality entrepreneurs and investors have followed the talent. Since I moved to Texas from California in 2006, Austin has been growing, but the past couple of years have seen that growth accelerate dramatically. While some elements of growth always pose challenges, it is hard to not be excited about what is in store for this city.”

Q. In the news release, Silverton states that the firm plans to use the bulk of the fund to invest in Texas-based startups. Are there any particular industries that Silverton is focused on investing in?

A. Flager: We tend to back the best entrepreneurs and focus on people, rather than verticals, we have been particularly active in SaaS software, Fintech/Insuretech, HealthTech, Web3, and many digital marketplaces.

Q. What is the $78 million Silverton Opportunities II fund?

A. Flager: “Our Opportunities fund allows us to continue to invest in existing portfolio companies as they scale. We’ve been fortunate enough to have been involved in several exciting companies from the seed stage that have gone on to grow quickly and raise large, growth rounds. Historically, we’ve sat those rounds out because the focus of our flagship funds is and has always been early-stage investments. Our Opportunities fund allows us to continue to invest in these exciting projects. We raised our first $27 million Opportunities fund and started investing out of it in 2019. Due to the success we had with that fund and the volume of interesting deals we have access to, we decided to increase the size up to $71 million in Opportunities II.

Q. How many companies did you invest in with Fund VI?

A. Flager: We invested in 22 companies in SPVI.

Q. How many companies do you plan to invest in with Fund VII?

A. Flager: We expect to have a similar number of portfolio companies in SPVII as we’ve had in prior funds. I’d anticipate we’ll make 18-25 new investments.

Q. Do you see any major trends developing in Austin as the tech industry continues to flourish here?

A. Flager: The biggest trend is the growth and increasing diversity of the tech ecosystem. When I moved here in 2006, Austin was primarily a B2B software and semiconductor town. Today, the city has market-leading companies in Fintech/Insuretech, HealthTech, Web3, CPG, PropTech, and many other verticals. We have been fortunate enough to back some of the companies that paved the way in these sectors like Self, The Zebra, TurnKey/Vacasa, and Wheel. Also, there is a lot more B2C and marketplace expertise in Austin now-which is great to see. The more diverse the talent pool here, the stronger and more resilient Austin will be to market changes and different economic cycles.

Q. How many employees does Silverton Partners have now? Do you plan to add more staff?

A. Flager: We currently have 11 employees. We are actively looking for an executive assistant. We also expect to add to the investment team later this year.

Next fall, South by Southwest Conference and Festivals plans to expand to Sydney Australia.

SXSW Sydney will feature technology, film, and music sessions from October 15^th to October 22, 2023.

It’s the first annual Asia Pacific installment of SXSW in collaboration with TEG, The NSW Government & Destination NSW.

“We couldn’t be more excited and honored to work with TEG and the New South Wales QAGovernment via Destination NSW on an event that brings to Australia the professional opportunities and unexpected discoveries that make SXSW unique,” Roland Swenson, CEO & Co-founder of SXSW., said in a news release.  “The purpose of SXSW is to help creative people achieve their goals, and Sydney is the ideal city to serve as a home for the cross-collaboration that exists within the many industries we bring together.”

“SXSW is an event without equal internationally that has launched the careers of so many creative professionals,” Geoff Jones, Group CEO TEG, Event Producer for SXSW Sydney. Said in a news “Through showcasing the creator industries of the Asia Pacific to the world, SXSW Sydney will establish a new SXSW touchpoint, enabling the international and cross-sector connections that deliver the most innovative products and content. I would like to welcome Colin Daniels as the Managing Director of SXSW Sydney and thank the NSW Government, Destination NSW, and the team at SXSW for their foresight and support.”

For more information, visit sxswsydney.com.

Austin’s only venture fund run by women; True Wealth Ventures has closed on its second oversubscribed $35 million Fund II.

The firm, founded in 2015 by Founding General Partner Sara Brand and General Partner Kerry Rupp, focuses on investing in women-led companies in the healthcare and environmental industries.

True Wealth Ventures closed its first $19.1 million fund in 2018. It was the largest fund ever raised at that time with an explicit gender diversity strategy.  And Fund 1 was backed by 80 percent women limited partners.

To date, True Wealth Ventures has about $60 million in assets under management. True Wealth Ventures’ investment thesis is that women-led companies perform better financially yet they remain an untapped market.

Despite statistics showing how well women-led startups perform, just 2.3 percent of total capital invested in U.S. venture-backed startups in 2021 went to companies solely founded by women and only 14.8 percent of that capital went to companies co-founded by women, according to a May Pitchbook report.

“While our primary mission continues to be getting early-stage capital to female founders whose core value proposition is improving environmental or human health, our secondary mission has been to facilitate more women investing into this asset class as LPs,” Brand, True Wealth Ventures founding general partner, said in a news release. “We not only believe this is the fastest way to change the gender inequality in the VC ecosystem, we also believe it is critical for our country’s innovation economy with the wealth shifting to women.” 

Since closing the first part of Fund 1 in May of 2021, True Wealth Ventures has already made three investments including in  Aeromutable, a San Diego-based startup that applies aerospace technology to the trucking industry. It also invested in De Oro Devices, a company headquartered in California, which makes mobility devices to assist people with mobility disorders to walk safely and confidently, and Flourish, an Austin-based startup that educates women on how to build sustainable habits in nutrition, hydration, sleep, stress, relationships, and movement.

Overall, True Wealth Ventures intends to invest in 15 women-led companies from Fund II.

About 80% of U.S. assets will be controlled by women by 2030, but women largely aren’t active in investing in VC funds today.

“Investing in women-led companies personally resonates with women who know their peers have potential and should be backed much more than a mere 2.3%,” Rupp, True Wealth Ventures general partner, said in a news release. “There’s a feeling of, ‘If not us, then who?’ Women are twice as likely to invest in companies that will have a positive social impact, and 10 times as likely to invest in companies with diverse teams.”

The U.S. Supreme Court Friday morning struck down a woman’s right to an abortion, overturning Roe v. Wade, which became law 50 years ago.

The court voted 5 to 4 to overturn Roe v Wade. The ruling does not make abortion illegal but does not make it a constitutional right. That allows states to pass laws banning abortion.

Texas’ trigger law automatically bans most abortions in the state. It goes into effect 30 days after the U.S. Supreme Court issues its judgment. Attorney General Paxton also released an official advisory setting forth Texas law in light of the Supreme Court’s decision. 

In Austin, hundreds of people marched to the Texas Capitol building to protest and celebrate the ban on abortion. Other protests and celebrations occurred at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

Hundreds of Texas companies see “restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens the health, independence, and economic stability of our workers and customers,” according to a statement by Don’t Ban Equality. The statement was created in 2019 in response to the trend of states restricting access to abortion. To date, more than 350 business leaders have signed the statement.

Don’t Ban Equality in Texas was created when S.B. 8 was passed in Texas in 2021. At that time, more than 60 companies denounced the law’s stringent restrictions and railed in support of access to abortion care.

Austin technology companies backing Don’t Ban Equality Texas include OJO Labs, WP Engine, Bumble, Capital Factory, Spot Insurance, QuestionPro, Thinktiv and others.

“When S.B. 8 was enacted in Texas in 2021, more than 60 companies once again stood in solidarity to support access to abortion care and denounce the law’s stringent restrictions,” according to the organization.. “Now, as Roe has been overturned in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the corporate community must rally again. Following the Court’s decision to strike Roe down, 24 states have laws on the books that could outright ban or severely limit access to abortion for tens of millions of women, and only 14 states have passed laws that would explicitly protect the right to abortion.”

On Twitter, Max Hoberman, founder and CEO of Certain Affinity, a gaming company based in Austin, showed a letter he sent to his employees offering to pay for them to relocate to a state that provides comprehensive reproductive care.

“As a business leader it’s exceptionally difficult to navigate highly politicized issues like transgender and abortion rights. But I’m not content to sit back and say or do nothing,” Hoberman wrote.

“The economic losses from existing abortion restrictions, including labor force impact and earnings, already cost the State of Texas an estimated $14.5 billion annually,” according to Don’t Ban Equality.  “Nationally, state-level restrictions cost state economies $105 billion dollars per year.”

Sana, a health care insurance company, Wednesday announced it has closed $60 million in venture capital financing.

Trust Ventures and Gigafund co-led the Series B funding round with participation from existing investors American Family Ventures, mark vc, Breyer Capital, JAM Fund, and Liquid 2.

To date, Sana, founded in 2017 by Will Young and Nathan Hackley, has raised $107 million.

“Trust Ventures and Gigafund have been investors since our seed round,” Young, Sana co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “They believe in Sana’s mission and have been valuable partners over the last three years. They’ve seen the opportunity that lies ahead and have supported us every step of the way.”

Sana provides health care options for small businesses. The company reports that Sana’s customers often save up to 20 percent compared to legacy insurers. It also provides telehealthcare and low co-pays.

“Health insurance is a critical way employers can support their employees, but small business health care has been stagnant for decades,” Salen Churi, Trust Ventures’ general partner said in a news release. “Sana delivers dramatically better care at lower prices that meets users where they’re at.”

“Gigafund has now led four separate rounds of investment in Sana because the team continues to impress us with their phenomenal vision and execution,” Stephen Oskoui, Managing Partner of Gigafund, said in a news release. “Sana empowers small businesses to cut costs and help their employees become happier and healthier. The company is improving the health care system and eliminating inefficiencies that strangle the economy.”

Sana plans to use the funds raised to hire new employees with a focus on customer service.

Sana operates in eight states and plans to expand to additional states in the coming months.

“We’re excited to use this funding to bring Sana and reliable, affordable health care to more small businesses and their employees,” Young said.

In January, the company opened Sana MD in Austin. It is Sana’s first primary care health center for members. Demand for appointments has surpassed expectations, spurring Sana to increase hiring staff for the center. In addition to in-person office visits, Sana gives employees access to virtual care with providers specializing in primary care, pediatrics, maternity and mental health.

More than half a dozen panels at Consensus 2022, a cryptocurrency conference that kicked off last Thursday in Austin focused on the regulation of cryptocurrency.

Among those sessions, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, talked about the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, a landmark bipartisan bill she introduced last week along with Cynthia Lummis, R-WY, and a member of the Senate Banking Committee.

The bill seeks to create a complete regulatory framework for digital assets, Gillibrand said, during a Friday afternoon session titled “Washington’s Crypto Awakening: The Lawmaker Town Hall.” Lummis also served on the panel discussion along with Republican Senator Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania and Patrick McHenry, a Republican Congressman from North Carolina.

The bill is the most substantial and comprehensive bipartisan effort to provide certainty and clarity to the growing digital asset and blockchain industries, according to Gillibrand.

The regulations come at a time when Bitcoin is down 52 percent this year to $21,173, and Ethereum is down 70 percent this year to $1,155.

Adding to the turbulence, Terra, an algorithm stablecoin, and its sister token Luna, crashed recently leading to an estimated $60 billion in losses. The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Terraform Labs Pte Ltd, the company behind Terra and Luna, and Do Kwon, its founder.

In addition, on Sunday, Celsius Networks, a trading platform with 1.7 million members, halted withdrawals. “Due to extreme market conditions, today we are announcing that Celsius is pausing all withdrawals, Swap, and transfers between accounts.” The network is still dormant and its members cannot do anything but wait.

“As this industry continues to grow, it is critical that Congress carefully crafts legislation that promotes innovation while protecting the consumer against bad actors,” Senator Lummis said in a statement.

The proposed legislation “creates regulatory clarity for agencies charged with supervising digital asset markets, provides a strong tailored regulatory framework for stablecoins, and integrates digital assets into our existing tax and banking laws,” Sen. Lummis said.

“Digital assets, blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies have experienced tremendous growth in the past few years and offer substantial potential benefits if harnessed correctly,” Senator Gillibrand said. “It is critical that the United States plays a leading role in developing policy to regulate new financial products, while also encouraging innovation and protecting consumers.”

Digital assets that meet the definition of a commodity, such as bitcoin and ether, which comprise more than half of digital asset market capitalization, will be regulated by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.

The bill also provides rules for issuing stablecoins by banks and credit unions. The bill does not require all payment stablecoin issuers to become depository institutions.

The bill creates an advisory committee from industry, advocacy groups, federal and state regulators, and subject matter experts knowledgeable in consumer protection, consumer education, financial literacy and financial inclusion. It also has provisions for consumer protection.

The bill also requires a study on digital asset energy consumption.

 The bill directs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to analyze and report on energy consumption in the digital assets industry. Virtual currency mining, like other mining, can be an energy-intensive endeavor. It is important to study this issue to determine the best ways in which we can leverage this technology to help us move closer to our common climate goals by deploying more renewable and clean energy and reducing energy waste.

Other mandates call for looking at establishing a self-regulatory organization and for existing regulators to create guidance for cybersecurity for digital asset intermediaries.

The bill provides a regulatory sandbox for state and federal regulators to collaborate on innovative financial technologies. 

The bill also creates a workable structure for the taxation of digital assets. It also examines investing retirement savings in digital assets. And it examines the security implications of the digital yuan, China’s central bank’s digital currency.

Consensus 2022 kicked off in Austin this week.

It’s a conference put on by media company, CoinDesk, which focuses on Web 3, cryptocurrency, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, known as DAOs, Nonfungible Tokens, or NFTs, Metaverses, and more.

A few hundred people attended the first Consensus in 2015, and this one has more than 17,000 registered ticketholders. A general admission ticket is nearly $1,600 and the more expensive ProPass and Piranha Passes are both sold out.

Consensus features more than 600 speakers on 23 stages and is spread throughout the Austin Convention Center, Hilton, Fairmount, and various other venues downtown. It has a feel of South by Southwest on a smaller scale.

There is a definite feeling of FOMO with all the programming and exhibitions going on at once along with dozens of happy hours, parties, gallery shows, DJs, bands, and even a casino night.

The event is also taking place during a volatile time in the U.S. economy with the COVID-19 pandemic still lingering, inflation soaring, skyrocketing gas prices, and tensions created from the war between Russia and Ukraine, said Michael Casey, Chief Content Officer for CoinDesk, during his Friday opening remarks. Cryptocurrency, like the stock market, is also experiencing some turbulence. Bitcoin is hovering around $29,333, down from its all-time high of $68,990 in November of 2021. And Ethereum is down to $1,676, from its all-time high of $4,865, also in November of 2021.

On top of that, there have been cryptocurrency failures and scams, Casey said.

Recently, the collapse of the Terra project, “led to combined losses of about $60 billion between the stablecoin, also known as UST, and its sister cryptocurrency luna,” according to CNBC. A few sessions at Consensus examine what went wrong.

“Since the start of 2021, more than 46,000 people have reported losing over $1 billion in crypto to scams,” according to the Federal Trade Commission.

But despite the massive volatility, failed companies, and scams, cryptocurrency has gained a strong foothold globally and increasingly in the U.S. In September of 2021, the Republic of El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.  Consensus has some members of Congress and the Biden Administration in attendance and as speakers discussing regulation and consumer protection. But they are also talking about establishing a stablecoin and creating a digital dollar.

Recently China unveiled its digital yuan or e-CNY, a digital version of its sovereign currency that is not a cryptocurrency but is instead issued and controlled by the People’s Bank of China, according to CNBC.  

And NFTs have opened a whole new way for artists and creatives to make money in the digital age. Some major brands including Mastercard, Anheuser-Busch, Pepsi, and the NBA have also embraced NFTs as a way to engage with their audiences.

There’s also a lot of talk at the conference about the Metaverse, which wasn’t really a topic when Consensus held its last conference in New York in 2019.

Consensus organizers decided to move the event to Austin because it has the infrastructure to handle large crowds,  Casey said.

“It was a big decision to leave New York. But Austin made it a smooth transition,” he said.

Mayor Steve Adler said Austin is known as a city with a tolerance for risk-taking and that’s what creates innovation and drives progress.

“This is a city that is innovative, creative, and entrepreneurial to its core,” Adler said.

Pingboard became profitable during the COVID-19 pandemic by having the right product at the right time, said Bill Boebel its founder.

“We’ve grown the business to just over $6 million in revenue,” he said. “We’ve scaled from being an org chart to being a tool for employee engagement focused on companies that are fully remote.”

The Austin-based company creates employee engagement software for small to medium-sized businesses. Its interactive org chart helps companies onboard, interact with and celebrate employees. That has become increasingly important during the pandemic as many businesses went to remote workforces, Boebel said. It has more than 2,500 customers including The Motley Fool, Duolingo, The Linux Foundation, Meetup, Carta, Silvercar, Turo, and more.

“We built something the employees like to use,” Boebel said.

Founded in 2013, Pingboard has raised $7.5 million in three seed rounds, most recently in 2018. Investors have included Silverton Partners, Capital Factory, Active Capital, and Betaworks as well as many Austin-based angel investors.

Recently, Boebel decided to step down as Chief Executive Officer to pursue other interests in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries.

“About a year ago, I decided I’m not the best at this space,” Boebel said. “When we were smaller I had really good instincts. When you’re small, it’s easier to move fast and break things. I’ve found my instincts not to be that great as we scale.”

Some founders get a coach and scale the company to the moon, Boebel said. But he decided to hire a new CEO instead.

This year, Laith Dahiyat took over as CEO.  He previously worked as general manager of Weedmaps, the largest software and data company focusing on the legal cannabis sector. He also previously served as Chief Strategy Officer of Chargify, expanding the product into event-based billing and overseeing a successful exit to Battery Ventures in May 2021.

“He believes in the vision for Pingboard,” Boebel said.

The remote workplace sector is a white-hot market for software as service companies right now, Dahiyat said. And Pingboard has all the tools for employee engagement, recruitment, and retention, he said.

“It’s poised to become a rapid growth company,” he said.

The secret to retaining talent is that employees want to feel special, and unique, Boebel said. Pingboard can help companies recognize employees and reward them for their hard work, he said.

Pingboard has 36 employees and plans to expand to 50 by the year and 75 by next year. Pingboard did lay off some employees to get to profitability. It went from 40 employees to 25 during the pandemic and now it’s scaling back up again.

Boebel is remaining with Pingboard as a member of the Board of Directors and as an advisor. Pingboard Co-founder and CTO, Rob Eanes, will continue to lead engineering.

Pingboard, which used to occupy a building near Capital Factory in downtown Austin, moved recently to a remote-first workforce.

“It’s kind of in the DNA of Pingboard,” Boebel said. “We use our own tools. We have that advantage. We have a highly engaged collaborative workforce.”