Category: Austin (Page 43 of 318)

OJO Labs has acquired Digs, a Chicago-based personal finance app that lets people save for a down payment on a home, manage the equity in their home, and monitor their credit score.

It’s OJO’s fourth acquisition since launching in 2015. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

With the acquisition of Digs, OJO Labs expands into the financial technology market and it strengthens the company’s real estate platform that lets people buy and sell homes.

Now with OJO, people can do everything from saving for a down payment to finding a home loan.

“Through our relationships with millions of consumers and their trusted providers, we know that financial readiness is one of the biggest sticking points. We also know that once people buy a home the financial challenges shift from readiness to management,” Charles Myslinksky, Chief Product Officer of OJO Labs, said in a news statement. “The acquisition of Digs enables us to provide that much-needed, personalized guidance during the buying process and seamlessly transition the consumer to managing their home as an asset..”

Digs, founded in 2018 by Chad Johnson, Joseph Ahern and Pat McLoughlin, raised an undisclosed amount of funding, according to Crunchbase.

“Our mission is to help consumers reach their goal of homeownership and continue to build wealth,” said Pat McLoughlin, co-founder and CEO of Digs. “Access to financial resources is limited and often generalized, leaving many aspiring and current homeowners without guidance. This is a massive problem and OJO Labs recognizes it. They are the perfect company to help us achieve our mission at scale.”

To date, OJO Labs has raised $138.5 million and Digs is its fourth acquisition. In June, OJO Labs acquired Movoto, a real estate search site. And last October, OJO Labs acquired Austin-based RealSavvy to create an even bigger platform for real estate brokers, agents, and teams and the customers they serve. And in 2018, OJO Labs merged with real estate data giant, WolfNet Technologies, based in St. Paul, Minn. 

Preparing to buy a home requires savings, credit monitoring, and more and Digs helps people meet those needs, according to OJO Labs. It is particularly helpful to Black and LatinX consumers who report financial readiness as the top barrier to homeownership, according to OJO Labs research.

“We recognize that the decision to buy a home is one of the most significant decisions in life,” John Berkowitz, CEO, and Co-Founder of OJO Labs, said in a news release. “Yet many people are treated unfairly along the journey, and not everyone has access to the same resources. “Solving for inequity in home buying is a massive undertaking, and we firmly believe everyone deserves a place to call home, build wealth, and live out their dreams. This acquisition marks the first step of many to level the playing field by meeting people where they are, providing clarity and guidance at just the right time, and helping eliminate barriers that stall progress.”

By OMAR L. GALLAGA, Freelance Contributor to Silicon Hills News

Jane Ko, the Austin food and lifestyle blogger, needs a break.

Ko built her “A Taste of Koko” brand on her website, Instagram and an Austin guide book to she self-published last year, working for 10 straight years to evolve from one of the city’s many bloggers to a one-woman influencer business.

As many in Central Texas were hunkered down during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ko continued to post video reports on social media, crusading to help Central Texas restaurants from financial dire straits. But she was in the same situation many creative workers based in Austin were feeling in March through May of 2020: she lost many of the work contracts that pay her bills and when South by Southwest was canceled, found herself without a huge amount of work she’d been expecting.

“I lost all my projects,” she said, “I had no idea what was gonna happen. But then, over a series of about 72 hours, I had hundreds of restaurant owners, business owners, and most importantly, service industry workers reach out to me over email, phone calls, texts, direct messages, they flooded me.”

For days, Ko says, she agonized over stories of businesses in jeopardy and work lost, donating hundreds of dollars to GoFundMe campaigns, despite her own precarious finances.

Then, she got to work. Ko teamed up with Chelsea McCullough-Hughes, owner of lifestyle PR and digital media firm MYLK Collective to create Hundred for Hospitality, a relief effort for service industry workers in Austin and Houston. Ko built a website for the campaign, which raised $15,000 and serviced 100 meals per day over 40 days with the help of restaurants and donors in both cities.

In addition, Ko built Hire a Creative, an online matchmaking service for experienced artists, designers, event coordinators, and others to find freelance work.

As all that was happening, she was one of the first Austin restaurant bloggers to venture into the COVID landscape of slow reopenings. In her Instagram Stories, Ko, wearing a facemask, helped guide diners to safe options for eating before many restaurants were opening dining rooms or even outside dining areas.

As restaurants in Texas struggled with how to safely continue their businesses, she visited takeout stands and food trucks to help drum up businesses, particularly for Asian restaurants that were being avoided by some diners early in the pandemic. For that, she says, she was harassed on social media and made the target of abusive comments and direct messages. “I had people who had followed me for years suddenly say, ‘How dare you encourage takeout! If I order takeout and I get COVID, I’m going to sue you. You are so tone-deaf.’ They wanted me to just stay in the house and do nothing.”

In 2020, Ko has done far less traveling than she did in past years, and she has started to outsource some of the work that she used to do herself. She now has a CPA to handle bookkeeping and a talent agency fielding promotional calls. But the bulk of her work, from shooting and editing photos and videos, to attending restaurant events and writing, remains in her own hands.

Ko says she’s now ready to take more time for herself after 10 years of nonstop work, putting out her own content as well as partnership posts with brands including IKEA, Target, KitchenAid, AT&T, and PayPal. She got out of a bad relationship in the summer, Ko says, and for the first time since she began A Taste of Koko in 2010, she’s ready to take some personal time. But she acknowledges that even when she’s not working on “A Taste of Koko,” she’s very likely to take on other projects, such as a recent pop-up restaurant event she co-organized at 101 By Teahaus, or working with BEAM, an angel investment network from Women@Austin. 2020, Ko says, has taught her to embrace her own ability to do great work under pressure.

“I’ve really been pushed to my limits,” Ko said, “and I think it just comes from me doing this for so long and having resilience I didn’t realize I had.”

The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce has announced its A-List award winners for 2020.

The A-List winners were revealed during a three-part online series hosted by the Chamber and SXSW on October 7^th and 8^th.

On Wednesday, the Chamber announced its Spotlight Award winners: Daniel Barnes, founder and CEO of Treaty Oak Distilling, Angell Tsang, Founder and CEO of Tso Chinese Delivery and Roman Gonzalez, Founder and CEO of Gardenio.

In addition, the Chamber named its winners for tech innovation, companies with 11 to 50 employees: Compass, Rocket Dollar, Future/Proof and Skygrid.

On Thursday, the Chamber gave out its awards for tech innovation, companies with 51 to 199 employees: The Helper Bees, ActivTrak, AlertMedia, Literati, and Dosh.

And the Chamber reported tech and innovation award winners for companies with 1 to 10 employees: The Etho, Measure, Texas Innovation Center, Biomedical Music Solutions, and Laundris Corp.

Also, the Chamber revealed A Cloud Guru as the winner of the Ace in the Hole award and Double A Labs as the winner of the Top Tech Team award.

The Chamber also hosted online panel discussions with startup founders and entrepreneurial leaders in Austin. Kendra Scott gave the keynote address to kick off the event.

Three Austin-based startups received a total of $200,000 in cash awards from Google for Startups’s Black Founders Fund.

The Austin startups are Laundris Corp., Tankee and Varuna Tech.

Google announced Tuesday that 76 startups led by black founders received a total of $5 million nationwide.

In addition to the money, the startup founders also receive technical resources, mentorship and more through Google for Startups programming. Google first announced the Black Founders Fund in June as part of its company-wide racial equality commitments.

“We are committed to helping Black founders who have been deeply impacted by COVID-19 and who are disproportionately locked out of access to the funding they need to succeed,” Jewel Burks Solomon, Head of Google for Startups US, said in a news statement. “By combining cash awards with Google for Startups mentorship and programming, we hope to help create a more level playing field for these founders, who are building amazing companies and making an impact on their communities.”

Laundris Corporation, a digital linen inventory and assert platform for hotels, hospitals and other businesses. Don Ward founded the company in 2017 and serves as its CEO. He was named one of 30 U.S. black founders to watch in 2021 by Google. The company operates a smart factory in Manor and has patents pending on its technology.

 “The Google for Startups Black Founders Fund will have a considerable impact on the growth of Laundris Corporation” Ward said in a statement.  “This capital and support comes at a critical time and will be used to add resources (technical, sales, and operations) that will enable our team to scale in Austin and beyond.”

Tankee is a media company founded by Gerald Youngblood. He created an on-demand mobile entertainment platform for gaming content for kids and their parents. The company, founded in 2017, is a member of Capital Factory, a Google for Startups partner.

“Tankee will build on the 700 percent growth experienced since the COVID-19 lockdown with support from the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund,” Youngblood, Founder of Tankee, said in a news release. “This capital and support comes at a time when many parents need safe, high-quality, family-friendly entertainment and will be used to launch our redesigned Tankee.com website, extend distribution on mobile and Connected TV platforms, and increase our portfolio of Tankee Original shows.”

Varuna Tech Inc,  is a software platform that helps cities measure and analyze water quality that Seyi Fabode after his son faced health issues from drinking contaminated tap water. The company has contracts in New Jersey and Louisiana. It is also a member of Capital Factory.

“The Google for Startups Black Founders Fund is coming at a critical and important time for Varuna,” said Fabode, cofounder, CEO, said in a statement. “We have a few critical deployments of our water quality monitoring, insights, and analytics platform. The funding will enable us to add the required resources, especially as water quality issues are gaining more importance across the U.S.”

In addition to the three companies from Austin, Google also awarded four companies in the Dallas area a total of $300,000.

Funding Black startup founders fuels generational change

Across the U.S., incredible Black founders building promising startups are consistently locked out of access to capital that is critical to growing their businesses. The Google for Startups Black Founders Fund will provide hands-on support and up to $100,000 each in non-dilutive funding to inspiring Black startup founders across the country.

Correction: Headline updated with the correct award amount of $200,000

The 10^th Annual Austin Startup Week is in full swing with lots of panels and virtual networking at the virtual venue Hopin.

And tonight the first Austin Startup Crawl will take place virtually using a platform called Sococo from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

“Each startup will have their own room where you can chat with the founders and employees face to face from the comfort of your couch,” according to an email.

The startups participating include Black Swift Technologies, Ellodee, Tankee, Parasanti, Shep Travel, Choose Health, Decent, Vesta eCommerce, Opslock, Team Topia, Gembah, EQO, Union, HOPZERO, Liquibase, Localeur, Waldo Photos, TaxTaker, Revealix, Juuk, Workify, Valen Energy, SchooLinks, ReturnSafe Inc, Maidbot, Big Wheelbarrow, Cratejoy, Petal, Splashmetrics, Fathom5, ZipcodeXpress Inc., and Ruckit.

More than 1,000 people have signed up to participate in the Austin Startup Week online events with sessions on entrepreneurship, consumer packaged goods, COVID-19 innovation, funding, pivoting, mental health and so much more. In addition, there is virtual networking between events where people are matched for one on one meetings with each other.

Capital Factory also released a video on Monday on Austin’s State of Entrepreneurship quoting key players in the Austin technology industry about how they are faring during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Austin Startup Week is free, but registration is required. All of the sessions are being held virtually so it is possible to join from anywhere.

State of Entrepreneurship | Austin Startup Week 2020

Interested in a general Capital Factory overview?: Check out one of our monthly AMA events or reach out to our Sales Coordinator, Nelson Tao, at nelsontao@capitalfactory.com to learn more about being a member at Capital Factory. ————————————————————————- About Capital Factory: Capital Factory is the center of gravity for entrepreneurs in Texas, the number one startup state in the U.S.

Austin Startup Week kicks off Monday with a focus on women in technology.

But this year, instead of gathering at Capital Factory in downtown Austin, everyone is joining remotely from home offices everywhere.

It’s the 10^th annual event and no one could have imagined that a decade later this event would need to take place in the virtual world because of the COVID-19 pandemic that has caused a lot of us to go on lockdown.

But thanks to its organizers, Jacqueline Hughes and Joshua Baer, the show does go on in a virtual venue called Hopin. And the lineup is pretty spectacular. It even features a Startup Crawl showcasing dozens of startups that will take place on Tuesday evening using the virtual platform Sococo.

On Monday, the women in tech summit features an hour-long fireside chat at 12:05 p.m. with Courtney Caldwell, co-founder and CEO of ShearShare and Nancy Fecnay, angel investor and entrepreneur in residence at Notley Ventures.

And at 2:20 p.m., an event organized by DivInc called Sistas on the Rise: The Challenges and Successes of Women of Color Founders featuring Janice Omadeke, founder of The Mentor Method, April Dominguez, founder of Handsome App,  Zawadi Bryant, CEO of Nightlight Pediatric Urgent Care and Rima Imad Fadlallah, Founder of Thawra Network.

At 3:15 p.m. Gordon Daugherty of Capital Factory will do a Fireside Chat with Nicole Glaros, Chief Investment Strategy Officer of Techstars.

And at 4 p.m., a Women in Tech Startup Showcase takes place featuring Mollie Duckworth, partner at Baker Botts, Jim Breyer, Founder and CEO of Breyer Capital, Brittany Hill, Founder and CEO of Accelerist, Ari Palmer, Founder and CEO of TaxTaker, Wei Escala, CEO of Eggschain, Monica Landers, Founder and CEO of StoryFit, Toni Portmann, Walkabout Collaborative and Kerry Rupp, general partner of True Wealth Ventures.

The day concludes with more than a dozen speakers from throughout Austin’s technology ecosystem talking about The 2020 State of Entrepreneurship.

NASA wants to go to the Moon and Mars and stay there awhile.

And it’s contracted with Austin-based ICON to begin research and development of a space-based construction system.

ICON is known for its massive 3-D printers that can build a home in less than a day using a concrete substrate.

“Building humanity’s first home on another world will be the most ambitious construction project in human history and will push science, engineering, technology and architecture to literal new heights,” Jason Ballard, Co-founder and CEO of ICON, said in a news release.  “NASA’s investment in space-age technologies like this can not only help to advance humanity’s future in space, but also to solve very real, vexing problems we face on Earth. We are honored to begin our research and development on ICON’s “Project Olympus” and the “Olympus Construction System.”

ICON received a government Small Business Innovation Research contract through the U.S. Air Force and funding from NASA to build the Moon settlement.

“To be successful in our future missions, we have to invest in new, cutting-edge technologies today,” Niki Werkheiser, NASA’s Game Changing Development program executive, said in a statement. The program is part of the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. “Near-term research and development will help ensure we can expand building capabilities on other worlds when the time comes.

Through its Artemis program, NASA wants to establish a habitat on the Moon by the end of the decade.

“For a permanent lunar presence to exist, robust structures will need to be built on the Moon that provides better thermal, radiation, and micrometeorite protection than metal or inflatable habitats can provide,” according to ICON.

ICON is working on the project with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “The new partnership builds upon technology ICON demonstrated during NASA’s 3D Printed Habitat Challenge in 2018,” according to ICON.

“We want to increase the technology readiness level and test systems to prove it would be feasible to develop a large-scale 3D printer that could build infrastructure on the Moon or Mars,” Corky Clinton, associate director of Marshall’s Science and Technology Office, said in a news statement. “The team will use what we learn from the tests with the lunar simulant to design, develop, and demonstrate prototype elements for a full-scale additive construction system.”

ICON is also working with BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, renowned for its iconic international architecture and SEArch+ (Space Exploration Architecture), a company recognized on a global scale for their innovative ‘human-centered’ designs for space exploration.

ICON’s Project Olympus – Off-world Construction System for the Moon

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MassChallenge’s Austin accelerator has announced its top 12 startup finalists for 2020.

The startups will compete for $500,000 in cash prizes with winners announced on Thursday, Oct. 22 during a virtual awards ceremony.

“While the world continues to settle into the digital environment, business owners, executives, and governments are seeking innovative ways to operate fully, get people back to work, and meet the needs of their customers,” Mike Millard, managing director of MassChallenge Texas in Austin, said in a news statement. “The startups in this year’s MassChallenge Texas in Austin program have solutions that can address these issues head-on.”

MassChallenge Texas held its four-month accelerator for 58 startups online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2020 MassChallenge Austin Finalists:

At Ease Rentals Corp. of Round Rock: temporary housing for military and federal employees.

Civic Champs of Bloomington, Indiana: creates a mobile platform for nonprofit organizations to organize and engage with volunteers.

Class2Class of Bryan: A collaborative learning platform that brings together universities, businesses, and other organizations to work on projects.

Code 1 Medical Devices of St. Petersburg, Florida: A medical device that prevents aspiration of stomach contents into the lungs.

CUE Audio of Franklin, Tennessee: CUE transmits data between any microphone and speaker using sound waves.

DanceFight of Austin: DanceFight is a mobile dance competition platform.

Locker Lifestyle of Orland Park, Illinois: created a wearable wrist wallet to stash cash, keys, phone, ID, and other objects.

Muxy of Austin: created software that allows broadcasters to interact with viewers.

RealKey of San Francisco: a mortgage processing platform.

Weeve of Austin: a platform for employee surveys and feedback so employers can retain their top talent.

WriterDuet of Austin: A real-time collaboration platform for writers, filmmakers, game developers, and other creative teams.

Xpan of Toronto, Canada: It has developed a less invasive universal port that aims to maximize the safety and efficiency of minimally invasive surgery.

For 2021, South by Southwest is launching SXSW Online.

“The challenge of building a new future is one that we’re excited to tackle,” Roland Swenson, CEO, and Co-Founder of SXSW said in a statement. “This has been such a year of change and we, like the entire world, are reshaping our perspective on how we connect.”

The dates for SXSW Online take place from March 16 through March 20^th. And SXSW EDU will precede it from March 9 through March 11. The digital event will feature conference keynotes and sessions, screenings, showcases, networking, and exhibitions.

SXSW is accepting PanelPicker entries for its SXSW, SXSW EDU, and the film festival beginning Tuesday, Oct. 6^th.

SXSW also plans to curate programming for its music festival by its staff with a priority on those selected for the 2020 event.

In addition to the online event, SXSW is working with the City of Austin and public health authorities for an in-person event. It will provide more details in the future. Large in-person gatherings are still prohibited in Texas due to the threat of spreading Coronavirus.

For 2020, Austin City officials canceled SXSW a week before the event was set to take place. At the time, there were no COVID-19 cases in Austin yet and only a handful of cases in Texas overall. But the virus had already taken hold in Asia and Europe and was beginning to spread in the U.S.

The cancellation of SXSW was a huge blow to the Austin economy. In 2019, SXSW attracted 417,400 people to Austin including participation from more than 100 countries. It also had an impact on the Austin economy of $355.9 million, according to SXSW.

Babson Diagnostics has closed on $13.7 million in funding.

Siemens Healthineers, Prism Ventures, Genesis Merchant Capital, and Lago Consulting Group led the Series A funding.

In addition to the funding news, Babson has also appointed David Stein, Ph.D., former head of global strategy and innovation at Siemens Healthineers to CEO. Eric Olson, Babson’s founder, and former CEO will assume the roles of chairman of the board and chief operating officer.

Babson Diagnostics, incubated at Siemens Healthineers, has created technology that analyzes blood samples using a small sample from a finger prick.

“With our strategic partnerships, clinical studies, and research and development programs in place with key retail partners, this financing moves our company into a crucial commercialization phase,” Olson, Babson’s founder, said in a news release. “Together with our growing team and a strong network of strategic partners, we will realize our mission to improve our customers’ health by making diagnostic blood testing more convenient, accessible, and human.”

The company plans to roll out its technology at retail locations throughout the country.

Babson’s first-generation SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody test received FDA emergency use authorization in June. The company’s antibody test is offered free of charge to essential front-line pharmacy and grocery workforces and is currently in use in clinical studies with leading research centers such as Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin.