Sputnik ATX has announced the latest group of six startup companies accepted into its Summer 2019 cohort.

This is the fourth cohort selected for Sputnik ATX, an Austin startup accelerator focused on growth companies since its founding in 2017.

More than 300 companies applied for the program, and Sputnik ATX selected 22 finalists. From that group, Sputnik ATX chose the six companies.

“Of note, all six companies chosen have either female or minority founders,” according to a news release.

“We start this process by looking for the best companies with the greatest potential, and I am thrilled that this cohort ended up being either female or minority-led,” Oksana Malysheva, CEO and Managing Partner of Sputnik ATX, said in a news release. “When you apply to Sputnik ATX, no matter your gender, race, ethnicity or background, you get a fair shot. This group of startup founders has shown us that they have what it takes to build successful companies, and we are proud to help them on their startup journeys.”

The three month long accelerator program provides mentoring, education and support to the startups as well as a $100,000 investment.

The companies include (descriptions provided by Sputnik ATX):

• Elite Sweets – Elite Sweets makes delicious, high quality donuts that are gluten-free, low carb, and baked with 15g of protein per donut. They offer a healthier alternative to traditional sweets. The mission of Elite Sweets is to promote an active and healthy lifestyle while redefining the way people think about sweets.

• Datum – Datum is a mobile advertising platform that allows small businesses to micro target messaging to the audiences they’re trying to serve. Their proprietary mobile data warehouse aggregates billions of data points into easily understood and defined audiences to solve real world communication and transportation challenges.

• OpenTeams – OpenTeams connects open source developers and projects with organizations that use that code in everyday life. Currently, 96% of proprietary apps contain open source components, which creates a management and maintenance time bomb. Open Teams fixes this problem by making it easy for organizations to connect and transact with the people that write and lead open source projects. Open source contributors showcase their contributions, get recognition and compensation for their work; organizations find and fund open source projects they depend on.

• Signum City – Signum City is a fantasy stock market gaming app designed to help every young adult beat his or her parents in stock market investing. The game allows users to play with fake money to win real prizes while gaining stock market know-how and strategies of accumulating wealth. Signum City is bringing financial literacy to future generations.

• Tradiies – TRADiiES is a B2B mobile marketplace, LinkedIn-style platform built for modern day beauty professionals. TRADiiES is the first professional beauty network. For beauty pros, it’s a place to build a digital portfolio, apply to jobs and find hands-on education. For salon owners, it’s a tool to post jobs, find quality candidates and manage their hiring process.

• Uconnect Esports – The competitive gaming, or esports, industry is the biggest thing you’ve never heard of, despite the fact that it has already gripped the attention of half a billion young adults around the world. The $1B industry is exploding at 26%YOY revenue growth, with brand sponsorships accounting for almost half of that growth. The Uconnect platform is the first to provide the infrastructure to allow brands to sponsor the previously unreachable massive ecosystem of esports communities.  

Sputnik ATX has also chosen one company founded by a UT Austin student to participate in its Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) Program. POP – POP is a mobile software company with a mission to combat societal feelings of loneliness and isolation. The POP platform enables users to create long-lasting and meaningful connections. POP’s platform facilitates real-time and scheduled meet-ups based on shared interests, passions and personality matches in order to build authentic connections.

Just a few years ago, ScaleFactor graduated from the 2017 Austin TechStars program and raised a few million dollars.

On Thursday, the Austin-based company announced it has raised $60 million in a Series C round of funding, just seven months after closing its $30 million Series B round. To date, the company has raised a total of $103 million.

ScaleFactor is one of Austin’s fastest-growing startups. Silicon Hills News named it one of the top 25 hottest Austin startups to watch this year.

Coatue Management led the round with participation from existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Canaan, Broadhaven Ventures and Firebrand Ventures. New investors include Vulcan, Stripes Group and NextPlay Capital.

ScaleFactor makes an online financial software platform for small to medium-sized businesses to handle tasks such as payroll and bookkeeping. The company plans to use the new funding on product development and sales.

“Listening closely to our customers over the years, we’ve learned small business owners care about three factors above everything else: saving time, saving money and scaling their businesses,” Kurt Rathmann, founder and CEO of ScaleFactor, said in a news release.

With the additional funding, ScaleFactor plans to branch out into a new area by providing financial resources to small and medium-sized businesses.

ScaleFactor helps small and medium-sized businesses organize financial data in one place and extract value from that data. It’s a software as a service platform that starts at $399 a month.

“ScaleFactor is building the most comprehensive financial SaaS platform on the market for SMBs,” Thomas Laffont, Coatue’s co-founder, said in a news release. “ScaleFactor is the back-office connection point that simply makes it easier to run a business. We are very pleased to invest in and support ScaleFactor on their path toward market leadership in the fintech sector.”

Firefly Aerospace has been on one wild ride to get its rockets built in Texas.

“We have been building for the last several years and we’re going to fly our first rocket in the next six months,” said Tom Markusic, Firefly’s founder and CEO.

But the road to the launch pad and has been a rough one.

Firefly Aerospace and its predecessor, Firefly Space Systems, collectively have spent $110 million so far, and the company hasn’t even had a Series A round of venture capital funding yet, Markusic said. He spoke Tuesday night at an Austin Forum event on Technology, Space and Humanity at the Austin Central Library downtown. More than 300 people turned out for the free event to hear presentations from Markusic and Rick Tumlinson, founding partner of SpaceFund, a venture capital firm focused on the space industry.

Tumlinson gave an overview of what he and Markusic refer to as New Space, a commercial effort to launch rockets, ferry payloads and people and eventually help to colonize Mars.

Tumlinson mentioned efforts by billionaires behind the new ventures creating space rockets. Two of them already have operations in Texas. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, has a suborbital launch facility located in West Texas, near the town of Van Horn. Blue Origin, founded in 2000, is developing a variety of rocket-powered vertical takeoff and vertical landing space vehicles.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has developed a test launch facility in South Texas in Boca Chica. It’s developing its Starship rocket to take people to Mars there, according to a Business Insider article.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is also developing rockets.

And in Cedar Park, north of Austin, Firefly Aerospace’s Markusic is developing launch vehicles and spaceships. It also landed a contract with NASA in November of 2018 to provide lunar payload services.

And Markusic, who worked at NASA and the United States Air Force, before joining SpaceX and then Blue Origin and Galactic, has worked hard to make sure Firefly Aerospace will be one of the major players in New Space.

The main goals of New Space are to lower costs and provide easier access to space, Markusic said.

Firefly Aerospace focuses on designing, building, testing and breaking things fast and rebuilding and retesting fast, Markusic said.

“There is no fear of breaking things if iteration is fast,” he said. “There is no fear of failure.”

Markusic calls Firefly the  “SpaceX of small to medium launch market.”

Firefly’s long-term vision is to build reusable rockets that launch from runways with airline like operations. NASA led the way with the Apollo 11 mission 50 years ago, which landed Astronaut Neil Armstrong and Astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Now the New Space companies want to build on that legacy to help the U.S. return to the moon and eventually Mars.

New Space will be a $2.7 trillion industry by 2045, Markusic said.

“This is going to touch all of our lives – this access to space – the things that are going on in the lower-earth orbit will affect our lives in profound ways,” Markusic said. “You can think of New Space as the next frontier of the information revolution. That’s where the big gains are going to be made.”

In 2013, Markusic saw an opportunity for small space satellites and quit Virgin Galactic to found Firefly Space Systems with the vision to provide the world’s most economical and convenient small satellite launch services. But that first version of Firefly encountered some problems. And on Sept. 29^th of 2016, the company furloughed its workers. It ended up bringing them back on Oct. 31^st but had to shut down again on Dec. 1^st, 2016 and file for bankruptcy.

But six months later, Firefly Aerospace returned and started the company back up.  On May 17, 2018, the company had a successful engine test.

Firefly Aerospace has raised about $70 million in the last two years, Markusic said. Firefly also announced plans for a new launch facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Hypergiant Industries, the artificial intelligence startup in Austin, announced a big partnership Tuesday with Booz Allen Hamilton, a huge government contractor.

The deal involves Hypergiant and Booz Allen Hamilton working together to create artificial intelligence solutions and products for companies and government agencies. They plan to announce those products shortly, according to a news release. The two companies did not disclose the financial details of the deal.

Hypergiant Industries, founded in 2018, has 186 employees and offices in Austin, Dallas, and Houston. And now it’s establishing an office in Washington, D.C. 

“While AI holds significant opportunity, organizations often struggle to effectively implement the technology in a way that delivers real, repeatable value,” Josh Sullivan, a Booz Allen senior vice president, said in a news statement. “Our work with Hypergiant will help clients bring AI out of the lab faster, building explainable and transparent outcomes.”

Booz Allen Hamilton, based in McLean, Va., had annual revenue of $6.7 billion last year, and employees 26,400 people. It also has an office at Capital Factory in Austin.

Some of the areas Hypergiant and Booz Allen Hamilton plan to work together include in the healthcare industry. They plan to use artificial intelligence to mine vast amounts of data to enable first responders and emergency care workers to better assess and address emergency situations including buildings following a national disaster.

Another area where they will work together is on catching fraud. AI, data mining and machine learning can help the U.S. government and the I.R.S. identify patterns of fraud. Those same methods can also be used to help financial services firms identify fraudulent activities on its customers’ accounts.

Other areas include predicting fake domains that can act as delivery vehicles for malware. Also, Hypergiant and Booz Allen are working on analytics and artificial intelligence techniques to defend against malware.

“Booz Allen Hamilton has the kind of reach, scale, and knowledge that we get excited about,” Hypergiant Industries’ Chief Executive Officer Ben Lamm said in a news release. “They also have a shared mission to help companies and people change the world. Together, we will be able to leverage great technology and enable groundbreaking ideas, to tackle the world’s biggest problems.”

Even though we’re in the dog days of summer, there’s plenty to do in Austin this month.

And if you’re planning ahead, make sure to snag a ticket to our ContentATX3 event next month at Galvanize. It’s a great event for entrepreneurs in the tech industry to learn about ways to communicate better with investors, media, customers, and more.

August 5th

Close the Gap – MVP to Market & Scale

When: 6:30 p.m.- 8:30 p.m.

Where: General Assembly @ WeWork, 600 Congress Ave., 14^th floor, Austin, TX

Why: This event is co-hosted by The Product League and Collective – a MediaTech Ventures Incubator. The event features Tanja Horan, Principal at Tacosa 360 Consulting. She works with organizations to develop and manage their product portfolio for scale & growth. For more info.

August 6th

Technology, Space and Humanity  

When: 6:15 PM – 7:30 PM

Where: Austin Central Library, 710 West Cesar Chevez Street, Austin, TX 78701

Why: The Austin Forum on Technology & Society in partnership with Austin Public Library presents:
Technology, Space & Humanity with Speakers Tom Markusic of Firefly Aerospace and Rick Tumlinson of SpaceFund. For more info.

August 7th

Dog Days | Female Founders TX x The Riveter

When: 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Where: The Riveter, 1145 West 5^th Street, Austin, TX 78703

Why: On August 7th, join us at The Riveter for our monthly Female Founders brown bag lunch.  For more info.

August 8th

Digital Entrepreneur Meetup Austin

When: 4:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Where: Proof – Company Headquarters, 200 E 6th Street Suite 310, Austin, TX 78701

Why: This event is hosted by Chris Yates, Founder of Rhodium Weekend. Chris acquires, invests in, grows, and sells online businesses and organizes events for others who do the same.

Chris is on a 1,500 mile road trip hosting 7 meetups along the way and this is one of the stops on the journey. Questions can be directed to Chris at chris@rhodiumweekend.com. For more info.

August 8th

Trends 2019 – The Improv Edition

When: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM 

Where: Capital Factory, 701 Brazos Street, 1st Floor – Voltron, Austin, TX 78701

Why: Join Accenture, in collaboration with ColdTowne Theater, on August 8th to explore Fjord Trends and Accenture’s Technology Vision along with some light-hearted improv comedy to help bring the trends to life. This event will dive into emerging trends that are expected to affect business, technology and design over the next few years. Lite bites and refreshments will be provided. For more info.

August 13th

50 Ways to Fight Bias in the Workplace

When: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Where: Atlassian, 303 Colorado St #1600, Austin, TX 78701

Why: Are you interested in what you can do to help build equity in the workplace on a day-to-day basis? Join Lean In ATX on August 13th for “50 Ways to Fight Biases in the Workplace” to learn how to address gender biases in a professional manner. For more info.

August 14th

Startup Grind with Mark Phillip

When: 6 p.m.

Where: Capital Factory 701 Brazos St., Suite 150, Austin, 78701

Why: Interview with Mark Phillip, founder of Are You Watching This?, a business to business sports excitement analytics company that uses patented algorithms to identify the top sports moments in real time. For more information.

August 14^th

Andy Roddick Foundation Finding Your Passion Speaker Series

When: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM 

Where: Tamale House East, 1707 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Why: This event will feature a panel-style interview of two of the most incredible small business owners here in Austin: The Valera family (Diane and Juan) of Tamale House and Jason Fox of Earbuds Music. For more info.

August 14th

Sip & Learn: The Future of Online Privacy with Arlo Gilbert

When: 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Where: Wright Bros. Brew and Brew 500 San Marcos Street #105, Austin, TX 78702

Why: Join the Austin chapter of America’s Future Foundation and the Freedom in Tech alliance for a rousing conversation with tech founder and data privacy expert, Arlo Gilbert. Rachel Kania will be leading the conversation. For more info.

August 14th

ATX: You’re graduating from an early stage accelerator – What’s next?

When: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Where: Industrious Austin – 5th & Colorado, 201 West 5th Street #1100, Austin, TX 78701

Why: If you’re an early-stage founder considering an accelerator or graduating from one soon, join MassChallenge Texas at Industrious and hear our panelist’s insights into the paths they chose for their businesses, and the lessons they learned along the way. The takeaways from this conversation will help prepare you for future milestones. For more info.

August 14th

Hack The Future: AR, VR and XR Unlocking Real Value

When: 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Where: The Riveter Austin: 1145 West 5th Street, Austin, TX 78703

Why: Join us on August 14 for an event focused on the transformative power of immersive technologies for businesses and organizations. Through a set of mini-TED talks, product demonstrations, and a panel discussion, diverse game-changers in data analytics in WebXR, mobile AR, immersive entertainment, and organizational transformation will share their perspectives and best-practices. For more info.

August 15th

The Creative Mindset: How to Value What You Make

When: 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Where: The Riveter Austin: 1145 West 5th Street, Austin, TX 78703

Why: How can I give myself permission to make the things I want? What’s standing in the way of getting my project off the ground? In this two-hour workshop, we will look at these questions and other ideas around creative output and value. For more info.

August 15th

PowerUp Austin: Driving Change with Innovation

When: 4:00 to 6:00 PM

Where: WeWork Barton Springs, 801 Barton Springs Rd, Austin, TX 78704

Why: Hosted by ATI and the Austin Chamber of Commerce. Christina Churchill, Principal with RSM US LLP’s Technology and Management Consulting, will discuss how to overcome the fear factor, drive innovation and innovate in finance and accounting. For more info.

August 20th

Galvanize Founders Breakfast

When: 8:45 a.m.-10:00 a.m.

Where: Galvanize 119 Nueces Street, Austin, TX 78701

Why: Join Galvanize in collaboration with Silicon Valley Bank and AutoThink for the August Founders Breakfast! In this event series for early stage founders, we’ll be gathering for tacos and mini-talks from some of the tech industry’s best. For more info.

August 20th

Austin Capstone WeWork Veterans in Residence Powered by Bunker Labs

When: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Where: WeWork Domain 11801 Domain Boulevard, 3rd Floor, Austin, TX 78758

Why: Join us to celebrate and showcase our 2019 WeWork Veterans in Residence Powered by Bunker Labs tribe of entrepreneurs! Learn about their companies and where they are headed next. For more info.

August 21st

Big Ass Social Happy Hour in Austin

When: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Where: Hangar Lounge, 318 Colorado Street, Austin, TX 78701

Why: “BASHH is Austin’s relaxed mixer filled with professionals of all backgrounds that feel awkward knowing each other online but not offline. The ties come off a 6:00 pm, and there are no speakers or panels, no lame pitches, no egos; all are welcomed to relax and have happy hours!” For more info.

August 21st

Female Founder Series with Kathy Terry

When: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Where: The Riveter Austin, 1145 West 5th Street Austin, TX 78703

Why: The Riveter Austin is excited to kick off our Female Founders Series with Austinite, Kathy Terry, founder of charitable app InLieu and co-founder of P. Terry’s and Taco Ranch. For more info.

August 22nd

Austin Mosaic Awards

When:  6:00PM – 10:00PM

Where: Google Austin, 500 W 2^nd St, Austin, TX

Why: The event, brought to you by The Mentor Method, and BLNDED Media, will recognize companies in categories such as “Best Tech Company” and “Best Inclusive Workspace.” For more info.

Upcoming Events:

Sept. 9^th – Austin Fast Start Pitch Competition: Mobility Innovation

Sept. 10^th – Austin Forum: The Internet of Things

Sept. 14^th – ContentATX3

Sept.  16^th – Health Care Startup Boot Camp

Nov. 13-14 – Time Machine 2019

Next Coast Ventures, an Austin-based venture capital firm, announced this week that it has hired Jonathan Kaplan as its chief operating officer.

“I’ve known Jonathan for nearly a decade here in Austin and have seen how his diligence and focus on operations have been game changing for entrepreneurs and companies,” Thomas Ball, co-founder and managing director of Next Coast Ventures, said in a news release. “We are building out a firm for the long term and have been very thoughtful about creating an infrastructure that best serves our mission, our investors and our portfolio. We believe that Jonathan will be a highly accretive addition and we look forward to leveraging his extensive scaling expertise from an administrative perspective to grow NCV.”

Kaplan previously worked as chief legal officer and general counsel at RetailMeNot, which Harland Clarke acquired for $630 million.

Kaplan has also worked at leading international law firms based in California and Austin including DLA Piper and Latham & Watkins.

Kaplan has a law degree from the University of California, Davis, where he was the editor in chief of the UC Davis Law Review, and an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“I was drawn to the opportunity to join Next Coast Ventures because of its differentiated commitment to supporting entrepreneurs in markets throughout the United States and the quality of the firm’s investments to date,” Kaplan said in a news statement. “I am delighted to join Next Coast Ventures, and I look forward to working with Michael, Thomas and the talented team to evolve the firm’s operational infrastructure to benefit entrepreneurs, portfolio companies, investors and our communities.”

Kaplan will be in charge of all operations of the firm.

“Since day one, our mission has been to provide our portfolio with the best resources in the industry and Jonathan’s addition to the team is a prime example of that,” Michael Smerklo, co-founder and managing director of Next Coast Ventures, said in a news release. “As entrepreneurs ourselves, we understand how immensely additive operational and legal expertise are to a company and its leadership as they scale, and we know Jonathan’s experience and hands-on approach are going to be an invaluable tool for our portfolio as they ramp up their growth.”

Hypergiant Industries, which is focused on creating new products using artificial intelligence for businesses, announced Friday that it has hired two key senior executives in Austin.

Mark Arnold, who previously worked as vice president of corporate development for Forcepoint, has joined Hypergiant as its vice president of corporate development.

And Marc Katz, who previously served as in-house counsel at Dropoff, is joining Hypergiant as Deputy General Counsel.

“We’re adding executives to our ranks who share our vision, and are passionate about our work,” Ben Lamm, CEO of Hypergiant Industries, said in a news release. “Mark and Marc are both extremely experienced in their respective backgrounds and bring a wealth of knowledge, creativity and savvy to Hypergiant and its business divisions.”

In this new role, Arnold will support the Chief Global Strategy and Legal Officer on mergers and acquisitions across the portfolio, including the recently formed Hypergiant Ventures. In addition to Forcepoint, he has also worked at Symantec, Wrightspeed and Cisco Systems. Arnold holds a BS and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Marc Katz joins the team as Deputy Legal Counsel supporting Hypergiant Industries. In addition to Dropoff, Katz previously worked at Newgistics, CareerBuilder and Jenner & Block. A UT Austin graduate, he received his law degree from the University of Illinois.

Hypergiant also recently hired Will Griffin as its vice president of ethics and diversity. To date, Hypergiant has 186 employees and offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and Washington, D.C.

OJO Labs, which uses artificial intelligence to help people buy homes, announced recently it has hired two top real estate executives.

Austin-based OJO Labs has hired Chris Heller, former CEO of Keller Williams, the largest residential real estate brokerage in the world, and most recently CEO of mellohome, as its Chief Real Estate Officer.

In addition, the company hired Karen Starns, who most recently led brand and customer experience at Amazon for Echo, Alexa, FireTV, Kindle, and the portfolio of Amazon smart home devices, as the company’s Chief Marketing Officer.   

“Karen and Chris are uniquely equipped to bring OJO to consumers in a natural and delightful way while enabling realtors, loan officers, and other service professionals to act as superheroes for their customers,” John Berkowitz, OJO Labs’ CEO said in a news release. “Hiring these two leaders is the perfect demonstration that due to the technology and strategy of OJO there doesn’t have to be a choice between obsessively serving consumers and helping the real estate industry thrive.”   

“What really makes OJO stand out is its leadership, team, and capability to execute on its vision,” Heller said in a news release. “OJO was the first company to come into the Real Estate industry and drive the innovation of an AI assistant for the benefit of consumers and agents alike. Since meeting the OJO team several years ago, I have seen them combine vision, operational excellence, creativity, and extremely talented leadership to bring an important and valuable product to market.”

Starns will develop scaled channels to continue to rapidly grow OJO’s user base while building a brand that consumers trust.

“We have an exciting marketing challenge of educating and introducing consumers to a technology that solves real problems by meeting them where they are and redefining how they search for, buy, and sell a home,” Starns said in a news release. “What ignited my enthusiasm about OJO was the organization’s empathy for customers and their authentic and differentiated approach to the real estate industry. Boiling it down, I am a brand marketer at heart, and the best and highest impact roles I’ve held have been centered on building a brand that people love and can’t live without. That’s what we intend to do with OJO.”   

f