Category: Austin (Page 83 of 318)

Convey’s executive team, courtesy photo.

The Austin-based startup received the investment from Silverton Partners, Techstars Venture Capital Fund, RPM Ventures, NextGen and others. To date, Convey has raised $25.75 million. The company plans to use the money to hire key sales, engineering and customer service staff and to expand its product features.

Convey makes software that help businesses ship items to customers easily. Its customers include four of the world’s top retailers and global carriers. Convey’s platform helps companies “proactively resolve shipping issues before they impact the customer experience.”

“Since implementing Convey, Bodybuilding.com has worked through more than 20,000 shipment issues and seen a 10 percent reduction in inbound inquiries related to delivery problems,” Greg Dahlstrom, director of global transportation at Bodybuilding.com, said in a news statement. “Not only have we greatly improved the user experience for our customers, we now also have access to valuable service provider data that can be used in carrier performance reviews and negotiations.”

Convey focuses on solving “last-mile delivery issues” for retailers and in other industries such as building and construction materials and industrial equipment and medical equipment.

“Our focus is to help businesses create amazing delivery outcomes for their customers, regardless of how large or complex a delivery might be,” Rob Taylor, CEO of Convey, said in a statement. “This latest funding will give us the resources and talent to continue expanding our capabilities beyond retail into B2B, where companies face similar last-mile visibility and performance challenges, and customers have equally heightened expectations.”

“Convey continues to demonstrate a unique understanding of the challenges shippers, carriers and consumers face in the delivery experience, and to develop innovative solutions to address these issues,” Morgan Flager, general partner at Silverton Partners, said in a statement. “The B2B market represents a wide open opportunity to apply Convey’s expertise in new and exciting ways. Given their past success and strong leadership team, I’m confident Convey will continue to exceed expectations and achieve great things.”

Earlier this month, Convey announced it had hired four key members of its executive team and the company moved into a new 7,700 square foot headquarters in the historic Hanning Row Building downtown. Convey has 46 employees right now, and plans to hire about 30 more by the end year, according to a spokeswoman.

The new hires include Kirsten Newbold-Knipp as vice president and chief marketing officer. She previously worked at HubSpot, SolarWinds and Big Commerce and she most recently served as research vice president at Gartner. It also hired Michael Miller, vice president of channels and alliances. He previously worked at Dell. Convey also hired Kellie O’Malley, director of people and experience, who previously worked at BlackLocus, Vast, Dell, Lombardi, Trilogy and others. And John Lebowitz has joined the company as a senior advisor. He previously worked at Stryker and Dell.

A city-wide celebration will be held Saturday at the George Washington Carver Museum, Cultural, and Genealogy Center on Saturday in honor of Juneteenth.

Google Fiber is hosting the event with the museum to celebrate Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day. It is a holiday that commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas on June 19th, 1865, as well as the emancipation of African American slaves throughout the Confederate South.

Google Fiber volunteers will staff the event, which features live music, crafts and activities for kids, food, a vendor marketplace and more. It takes place from noon to 4 p.m. at 1165 Angelina St.

The Carver Museum is also celebrating connectivity to free gigabit internet from Google Fiber as part of the City of Austin’s Community Connections program.

Lanham Napier, co-founder and chief executive officer, BuildGroup. Courtesy photo.

The Austin-based firm’s investors include “successful entrepreneurs and business leaders from Texas and the Rocky Mountains, with the founders contributing a significant portion of the overall funds,” according to a news release.

BuildGroup plans to use the money to invest in approximately 10 emerging software companies during the next five years.

Former Rackspace Chief Executive Officer Lanham Napier founded BuildGroup with Jim Curry, former senior vice president of strategy and corporate development at Rackspace, Klee Kleber, former Chief Marketing Officer at Rackspace and WP Engine and Peter Freeland, a venture capitalist from General Catalyst.

“BuildGroup was designed as a holding company instead of a venture capital fund to free entrepreneurs from the expectations of quick exits, allowing their companies to pursue long-term greatness,” according to a news release.

“Venture Capital works for some but not for all. Five-year horizons are designed for growth at-all-costs and quick exits. We provide permanent capital from aligned investors that really get it, which means no forced exits,” Lanham Napier, co-founder and chief executive officer, BuildGroup, said in a news release. “We want to serve the teams that build great companies, and we believe that greatness resides at the intersection of a company’s people, product, customers, culture, and business model. The magic happens when these elements are designed to reinforce each other.”

BuildGroup has already invested $57 million of its $330 million in CDSC, Anaconda, Fiix, and Valkyrie Labs.

Zoe Schlag, managing director of Techstars Impact, photo by John Davidson.

“Nine months ago we set out to find ten world-class teams who like us, believe that our deepest problem sets represent our biggest opportunities, and that entrepreneurs should sit at the center of our strategy to build a better future,” Zoe Schlag, managing director of Techstars Impact, wrote in a Techstars post.

The ten teams arrived in Austin on June 4th and will spend three months in the program working on building their businesses. On August 23rd, they will pitch their ventures at Demo Day.

The companies come from the U.S., Mexico, Nigeria and South Asia. The companies include the following: (Descriptions provided by Techstars)

Better Living Technologies: A monitoring solution for patients and caregivers to better manage chronic disease at home, improving health outcomes and relieving caregiver stress.

Bridgecare Finance: Consumer lending platform offering financing to make childcare more affordable and provide working mothers with better options to maintain their career paths.

MDaaS Global: Low-cost diagnostic and primary care centers that provide high-quality, affordable care to Africa’s next billion.

Graviky Labs: Patent-pending technology that captures air pollution before it enters the environment and purifies it to make high-grade inks.

TommyRun: On-demand delivery platform for construction materials, reducing operational inefficiencies for contractors while increasing wage opportunities for day laborers.

Kutumbita: Communication and engagement platform for companies to manage, train and engage their factory workforce across supply chains

Base Operations: B2B security and risk management platform that visualizes crime in heat maps for teams in emerging markets

Haven Connect: Property management software to streamline the affordable housing application process

Pipeline Equity: HR tech platform that increases financial performance of companies by eliminating gender bias.

Troposphere: Low-cost environmental monitoring for companies and communities who need to know what is in the environment around them.

Derek Urbaniak is the Head of Ericsson’s Austin Design Center. Courtesy photo.

Decades ago, wireless deployment served only a narrow purpose for a narrow constituency. Today, it provides nearly limitless ways to make life easier for all people through the power of mobility. As we enter the next generation of wireless technology known as 5G, we know that mobility encompasses much more than telecommunications.

5G is expected to usher in advanced use cases that could significantly improve the lives of the residents of Austin. Applications of 5G are vast, and its applicability extends across countless industries including healthcare, energy and utilities, manufacturing, agriculture, automotive as well as enhancing traditional mobile broadband. Examples of 5G services include lifesaving technologies such connected health, safer transportation through autonomous vehicles, cloud robotics and real-time industrial control; the list goes on.

All these use cases will have one thing in common – the need for wireless connectivity with adequate capacity – something that Ericsson takes very seriously. With over 40 percent of the world’s mobile traffic solutions carried over our networks, we know how important innovation is, and we employ tens of thousands of team members and invest billions of dollars every year in research and development to continue providing ground-breaking solutions.

Now, more than ever, we must think beyond the coverage bars on our phones to bandwidth capable of streaming video, supporting wireless applications and connecting smart appliances. With every innovation comes the need for more wireless infrastructure in the form of small cells – low-powered radio access points that mobile operators use to extend service coverage and increase network capacity – on light and power poles, building facades, and even bus stops, all to provide the necessary connectivity on each city block. Today, small-cell technology will allow you to launch your favorite application or stream a video in busy downtown Austin, but in the future, it will be the key to 5G, which will enable an Austinite to hail an autonomous taxi, or a surgeon to diagnose a patient in an ambulance on the way to a hospital.

On Wednesday, June 6th, Ericsson will continue this commitment to leading the way in 5G by officially opening our 5G Design Center in Austin, representing a continued and significant investment in the state, where we already employ thousands of Texans. This new Center will focus on innovations that will accelerate the path to commercialization in the next generation of communications technologies.

Ericsson selected Austin for this 5G Design Center after a thorough, global analysis because of the unmatched telecommunications and semiconductor talent here as well as the city’s technology ecosystem. Austin’s strong technology sector has played a significant role in powering the local economy, with recent reports showing the monthly unemployment rate slipping to 2.8 percent in April as well as rapid job growth of 3.4 percent last year and a whopping 39 percent since 2006.

As Austin considers regulatory measures in this area, we encourage our City leaders to continue work with us to promote innovation by removing barriers to broadband deployment. This could come in many forms, include advancing a regulatory approach that standardizes application processes and allows for the quick deployment of small cells in metropolitan jurisdictions, implementing new strategies for complex environments like stadiums, and providing relief from onerous city requirements that lack technical descriptions.

The Austin Design Center is truly the brain for Ericsson’s mobile infrastructure and will be at the forefront of 5G technologies. We are very excited to be here and are committed to delivering solutions which in turn will help drive continued efficiency, job growth, and entrepreneurship in the city.

Looking ahead, the future in Austin is exciting, and our mission remains clear – to transform networks which will in turn transform businesses and communities, nations and governments, and most importantly, lives.

Joe Kelly, Co-Founder and CEO of Unchained Capital, courtesy photo.

The company reports the funding will go to hiring new employees and working on its financial services and wealth management offerings.

Unchained Capital’s investors include Michael Komaransky, formerly of Cumberland Mining; Brian Spaly, prolific angel investor and co-founder of Bonobos and Trunk Club; Mike W. Erwin and Whurley of Ecliptic Capital; and Ezra Galston of Starting Line, an early venture investor in the crypto sector. In addition to making investments in the seed round, Komaransky, Erwin and Galston will join Unchained Capital’s board.

“Crypto assets are now a nearly $500 billion asset class, but are functionally invisible to the existing financial system,” Galston, Founder of Starting Line, said in a news release. “Holdings won’t enable consumers to obtain a mortgage, gain credit or serve as collateral. Unchained is bridging that gap.”

“Crypto-finance is redefining the concept of the traditional long-term investment thesis,” Erwin, Co-founder of Ecliptic Capital, said in a news release. “Unchained Capital is building the financial infrastructure for the wealth management of tomorrow, yet available for savvy crypto investors today.”

In addition to the funding announcement, Unchained Capital announced it has expanded its lending capabilities by providing Ethereum-collateralized (ETH) loans in addition to its previous ability to lend against Bitcoin.

“Accepting ETH as collateral has been high on our priority list since the beginning—lots of customers have asked for it,” Joe Kelly, CEO, Unchained Capital, said in a news release. “When it comes to accepting new forms of collateral, our first thoughts go toward security. Unlike other crypto-lenders out there who utilize exchanges, third parties or single sig addresses for collateral storage, we wanted to make sure we offered the most secure storage solution possible before opening up lending publicly.”

Dave Hendricks, Founder and CEO of SeriesX, courtesy photo

The Austin-based company plans to use the money to further develop its customer relationship management platform, Vertalo, which is built using Ethereum blockchain technology. It also plans to add to its technical team.

The company’s investors include Shasta Ventures, Next Coast Ventures, Capital Factory Fund 5, Yeoman’s Capital, Hampstead Park Capital, Rigel Asset Holdings, Array.VC, 11-11 Ventures, and Insiders.

In March, the company was a runner up in Capital Factory’s 100K Blockchain Challenge at South by Southwest.

“The emergence of the Security Token Offering is the next phase of the democratization of investment and investor liquidity. As organizations continue to evolve and decentralize, maintaining connections and contracts with stakeholders is becoming more challenging, and more important,” Dave Hendricks, SeriesX CEO, said in a news release.

“SeriesX and Vertalo are a perfect fit for our portfolio as part of our strategy to invest in impactful blockchain businesses,” Nitin Chopra, partner at Shasta Ventures, said in a news release. “We are convinced Vertalo and its unique model will contribute significantly to the coming convergence of HR and Fintech. As the tokenization of cap tables and hard assets become a global phenomenon, I look forward to advising the team to help transform the world of work and finance.”

SeriesX plans to launch Vertalo later this year.

ALTR, an Austin-based cybersecurity platform built with blockchain technology, officially launched in Austin on Wednesday.

The company, which has been in stealth mode for four years, released its first commercial software package to provide secure data access and storage on its ALTR platform.

ALTR has raised $15 million in funding from institutional and private investors in the cybersecurity, information technology and financial services industries. It also includes participation by angel investor John Stafford III, current CEO of Ronin Capital. ALTR plans to use the money on marketing and sales and to develop other products.

David Sikora, a software industry veteran and former executive chairman at Stratfor, a global research, and intelligence platform, is the CEO of ALTR.

“Sikora is noted for executing the first internet software IPO in Texas with The ForeFront Group, and previously served in key leadership roles at Digby, Motive and Pervasive Software,” according to a news release.

ALTR’s board of advisors includes Mike Maples Sr., a former software executive at IBM and Microsoft, Fred Burton, former deputy chief of the counterterrorism division at the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service and Michael Hermus, a software entrepreneur and emerging technology expert who recently served as CTO of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It also includes John Swainson, former Dell executive and past CEO at CA and Scott Abel, co-founder of Spiceworks.

“Network-focused security isn’t enough because it never really puts a dent in the sheer number of vulnerabilities,” Sikora said in a news statement. “Rather than patching the existing attack surface, ALTR has found a way to significantly reduce it. In fact, with ALTR’s full solution in place, the threat vectors for data move to nearly zero. Digital trust can finally be restored.”

ALTR’s platform consists of an ALTR monitor, ALTR govern and ALTR protect. It integrates into existing computer networks and supports Microsoft, Oracle and open-source database platforms. ALTR has 12 patents and more than 30 pending.

HeatGenie, an Austin-based startup with an innovative way to heat up beverage cans, has raised $5.9 million of a $6.7 million round of funding, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company, founded in 2007, has previously raised $3.6 million, according to CrunchBase. ARTIS Labs led the latest round of funding with participation from Almanac Investments and private investors.

HeatGenie plans to use the funding to complete product development and launch into the marketplace, according to a news release.

HeatGenie has a patented technology that allows consumers to heat drinks in a can simply by twisting the lid causing a solid-state thermal reaction and after a few minutes the beverage is hot. The company reports its technology is environmentally safe and recyclable.

“We have always had an incredibly positive response to our technology from CPG brands, many expressing early interest in embedding HeatGenie into products,” Mark Turner, HeatGenie CEO, said in a news release. “Now, with a commercialized and scalable solution ready for market, we are already partnering with beverage companies eager to give consumers a simple way to instantly heat coffee, tea, soup, broth, or sake, wherever and whenever they please.”

“As the first and only self-heating technology to meet the rigorous standards set by the industry’s biggest beverage brands, we see great potential for HeatGenie to disrupt and bolster multiple markets,” Stuart Peterson, founder of ARTIS, said in a news release. “We believe HeatGenie, its team, and platform will create new ways for all of us to enjoy instantly hot beverages, meals and more.”

HeatGenie reports its first products will be available this summer.

Walter Robb, former co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, is an investor and is on the company’s board of directors.

Heat Genie Promo from Sean Lane on Vimeo.