Convey, a Techstars Austin graduate, announced Wednesday it has raised $4.5 million in Series A funding.

To date, the company has raised $6.9 million.

Silverton Partners led the latest round with participation from Techstars Ventures, Capital Factory and Corsa Ventures.

Rob Taylor is the CEO of Convey and Dan Bebout is the founder and vice president of customer experience. Convey’s team also includes Chris Richter, vice president of revenue and Oliver Modica, vice president of engineering. Taylor and Richter previously founded BlackLocus, a software as a service company aimed at data analysis for retailers, which Home Depot acquired in 2012.

Convey handles the logistics of moving large items from the store to homes and businesses. The company creates fulfillment software for retailers. Its customers include Jet.com, Build.com and Living Direct. Convey reports its software saves retailers approximately 11 to 22 percent, on average, on freight costs and increases on-time delivery.

“Customer retention and satisfaction are critical priorities for online retailers. Our research shows that 70 percent of consumers will abandon a retailer after a single bad delivery experience. The Convey solution allows retailers to dramatically improve the entire fulfillment process,” Rob Taylor, CEO, Convey, said in a news statement. “This Series A funding round will allow us to continue developing our platform’s capabilities to help retailers provide their customers with exceptional customer delivery.”

The company, previously known as Pivot Freight, moved from Arizona to be part of the Techstars Austin program. After the program, the company, founded in 2013, decided to relocate permanently to Austin.

By SUSAN LAHEY
Reporter with Silicon Hills News

It has been an almost surrealistic couple of weeks for Fred Schmidt. First, the director of international for Capital Factory learned from the British Consulate in Houston that he had been named a Most Excellent Member of the British Empire for his services to U.K.-U.S. relations, a royal honor which includes a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

“This is the award the Beatles received in 1965,” he explains passionately, still clearly overwhelmed. “I am unworthy.”

Next, Schmidt led an Austin delegation on a trade mission to London Tech Week—the kind of thing that got him the award in the first place. For years he’s been working to build bridges between Austin and Hackney—London’s tech borough—so that British entrepreneurs could make Austin their launch point into the U.S. market and Austin entrepreneurs could use Hackney as their entrée into the European market. He had just announced the formation of the Austin chapter of Tech London Advocates, an international group that supports London’s tech growth and moves Austin into a wider playing field beyond Hackney, when suddenly and unexpectedly, Brexit happened. Great Britain voted by a narrow margin to leave the European Union, prompting everyone inside the tech world and out of it to ask “Now what?”

What Brexit Means for U.S. Entrepreneurs

If Great Britain is no longer part of the E.U., does that mean that launching an office there locks a company into U.K.’s borders rather than providing a portal into Europe as a whole? What will the new trade, employment and other agreements comprise? How will this impact financial agreements? No one knows and the uncertainty has proved costly. The British stock market dropped 3.2 percent by late Friday, the British pound slid 7.6 percent against the U.S. dollar.

Anecdotally, many investors have backed off of deals until the dust clears.

Tech growth has outpaced the rest of the U.K. economy by more than 30 percent. London is a financial hub for Europe and prolific center for fintech. It has always been a logical place for U.S. companies to begin European expansion because of the close ties between the U.S. and U.K and the common language. But if England will no more be part of the EU, what becomes of all the relationships Austin and London have been cultivating? If the U.K. actually does exit the EU, it will have to renegotiate all its trade and other agreements with the rest of Europe and be in a position to create its own trade agreements with the U.S. Schmidt believes this could ultimately be a great thing for both U.S. and U.K. entrepreneurship. He describes E.U. as a behemoth, created over generations and weighed down by bureaucracy.

But in the short term, Schmidt said, he may use his “backup plan,” diverting Austin-based entrepreneurs to Dublin which has a tighter relationship with the E.U. and a similarly symbiotic relationship with Austin. Capital Factory already has a reciprocal arrangement with Gravity Hub, a new incubator/co-working and event space in Dublin.

“The Austin-London-Dublin relationship has built great momentum in recent years and this gives our members and community a broad set of options to leverage talent, funding and expertise in all three cities, regardless of the changes that may come down the line,” said Cian O’Cuilleanain, co-founder of Gravity Hub. “As tech entrepreneurs building global businesses we don’t shy away from running the gauntlet of change, whether that’s via the market or the political process.”

Austin Chapter of Tech London Advocates

Schmidt says Austin is still full-steam-ahead on its relationship with Tech London Advocates. While Austin’s original bid in London was to partner with the borough of Hackney, companies like Whole Foods, Homeaway, Dell, Spredfast and Indeed have set up headquarters outside of Hackney.

“We thought, ‘Why don’t we take the tech portion of Austin-Hackney United and start to add some more people from these other companies?” said Schmidt, interviewed from London. “Why don’t we stand this thing up with some really important people who qualify in terms of their backgrounds and wrap our heads around the whole of the opportunity over here?”

Among the new members of Austin TLA are Fabio Torlini, head of EMEA for WP Engine, Whurley (William Hurley), former Founder of Honest Dollar and now Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, and Jim Kendall, Chief Technologist at the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. But Schmidt, who will head the Austin chapter, said he expects it to soon be the largest chapter outside of the U.K.

During Tech Week, the City of Austin Economic Development Department and Capital Factory announced a new, one-year pilot program to expand on Capital Factory’s Touchdown Austin program for international entrepreneurs. The program targets 20 international cities and 7 market sectors. The initial fund is for $45,000 to help support six-to-eight companies for three-to-six months while they establish themselves in the U.S., based in Austin. The program will establish reciprocal arrangements in qualifying cities for U.S. entrepreneurs seeking to expand in global markets.

In the meantime, Schmidt has to decide whether he’d like to receive his MBE honor at New Year’s or on the Queen’s birthday next June. He can work it out….

At the Global Entrepreneurship Summit held at Stanford University in Palo Alto, 1776 and Dell announced a partnership with Microsoft and Capital Factory to create Union, an international startup platform.

The platform is based at Startup Federation, a worldwide network with more than 30 startup campuses and mega-hubs.

Union is designed to help entrepreneurs worldwide take their ideas “from seed to scale,” according to a press release. The platform has informatioon on building a business along with an elite mentor network that entrepreneurs can tap into for advice on marketing, sales, engineering, human resources and other topics.

Capital Factory is one of the entrepreneurial hubs that plans to share tools and advice with entrepreneurs worldwide.

“Many cities lack a robust networks of local mentors and investors to help startup companies grow,” Joshua Baer, Executive Director of Capital Factory in Austin, said in a news release. “With the Startup Federation and Union, every city can give their startups access to the best help and programming from around the world. We’re thrilled to be the first to join.”

“Entrepreneurs power our global economy, creating 70 percent of all new jobs in the world, and up to 90 percent in some emerging markets,” Karen Quintos, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Dell, said in a news release. “Dell and 1776 are partnering to enable entrepreneurs by creating avenues for entrepreneurs, wherever they are in the world, to access the experts, channels, customers and investors they need to take their ideas to scale and drive job creation in their communities.”

In January, Spiceworks turned 10 years old and Jay Hallberg, its CEO and co-founder, said the Austin-based company planned to hire 100 new employees this year.

But things changed and this week Hallberg, in a post on the company’s community site, now reports Spiceworks plans to layoff 12 percent of its workforce. In January, the company had 450 employees. That means 54 people lost jobs.

“This decision did not come lightly,” Hallberg wrote in the post to its customers, which he refers to as “Spiceheads.”

“As we previewed during SpiceWorld London last month, we’re embarking on a strategy we believe will add even more value to your day while positioning us for more focused growth,” Hallberg wrote. “You’ve told us you need more standalone, purpose-built tools that provide impact more quickly. You’ve also told us we can help you by aligning content, apps and community better so you can solve tech problems more quickly. We’re going do both of those and more.”

The London event, held in the Spring, is one of two major customer events Spiceworks holds each year. It also hosts Spiceworld in the Fall in Austin.

The company has been growing steadily for a decade. Last August, Spiceworks moved into much larger headquarters at 3700 North Capital of Texas Highway to accommodate its growing workforce.

The company has also raised $111 million in venture capital funding in five rounds from six investors. It last raised $57 million from Goldman Sachs in 2014. Other investors include Adams Street Partners, Tenaya Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Shasta Ventures and Austin Ventures.

Spiceworks makes money by selling advertising on the products it offers customers like its Help Desk solution, IT Asset Manager, Network Manager, Mobile Device Management, IT Concierge and the Spiceworks Community.

Lightspeed Systems, which makes education software, announced plans to relocate all of its operations and employees from Bakersfield, Calif. to Austin.

Lightspeed originally moved its corporate headquarters to Austin in 2013 and the company’s founder, Rob McCarthy, moved to Austin a year later. The Bakersfield Californian reports Lightspeed has about 80 employees and most of them will join the company’s 29 employees in Austin. A few employees will remain in Bakersfield and work remotely and the company expects the transition to be complete by late next year, according to a news release.

The company makes web filtering software, mobile device and classroom management products used in 5,500 schools districts in the U.S. and 25,000 schools globally.

The Austin location is centrally located and is close to customers, partners and other key technology companies, according to a news release.

“Right now, Austin is the most innovative and dynamic place in the country for technology,” Lightspeed Systems President and CEO Brian Thomas, said in a news release. “Bakersfield was an incredible place to found and build our business, and we will always have ties to the community. But we’re excited about our future in Austin so we can continue growing and achieving new goals.”

Austin’s “thriving start-up scene, culture of innovation and excellent barbecue make Austin an ideal home for Lightspeed Systems’ staff,” according to a news release.

Savara Pharmaceuticals, which creates drugs focused on rare respiratory diseases, announced it has acquired the assets of Serendex Pharmaceuticals.

The addition of Serendex adds new drugs to its portofolio including Serendex’s flagship product, Molgradex, an inhaled drug in later stage clinical trials in Europe and Japan to treat autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis.

The acquisition is subject to Savara’s shareholder approval and regulatory approval.

Serendex, founded in 2008 in Copenhagen, Denmark, makes inhalation therapies to treat patients for rare respiratory conditions. The compay went public on the Olso Stock Exchange in 2014 and was delisted in May.

“The acquisition is a transformational milestone for Savara, expanding our pipeline of orphan respiratory drugs with an exciting product for a highly debilitating disease with no approved medicinal treatments,” Rob Neville, Chief Executive Officer of Savara Pharmaceuticals, said in a news release.

Austin-based Savara Pharmaceuticals makes drugs to treat serious and life-threatening rare respiratory diseases. Its lead product is AeroVanc, an antibiotic being developed for the treatment of persistent MRSA infection in people with Cystic Fibrosis. The drug’s Phase III clinical trials are expected to begin later this year.

Austin lost its bid to become the winner of $50 million in the Smart City Challenge from the U.S. Department of Transportation and Vulcan Philanthropy to Columbus, Ohio, according to a report in The Columbus Dispatch.

Columbus beat Austin, Denver, Portland, Oregon, Kansas City, Missouri, Pittsburgh and San Francisco to win the first Smart City Challenge.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx visited Austin last month and met with Austin Mayor Steve Adler and other city leaders to support its bid. Foxx also met with all of the other finalists. And all of the cities recently went to Washington, D.C. to give their final presentations.

The Columbus Dispatch wrote that federal officials will be in town on Thursday to officially announce the city as the winner.

“The city also has about $90 million in local matching commitments lined up, including $19 million in public money,” according to The Columbus Disptach. “That gives it a total of $140 million to upgrade Columbus’ transportation network.”

NSS Labs, an information security research and advisory company, announced it has raised $16 million in new equity and bank financing.

The Austin-based company plans to use the funds to finance the growth of its security products and cloud-based security and risk management platform.

Delta-v Capital led the round with participation from LiveOak Venture Partners. As part of the deal, David Schaller, managing director of Delta-v Capital, will join the board.

Last year, NSS Labs raised $7 million from LiveOak Venture Partners and Chevron Technology Ventures.

“We were early believers and are thrilled to be reaffirming our investment in NSS Labs,” Venu Shamapant, General Partner of LiveOak Venture Partners, said in a news statement. “With rapidly evolving threats and security products, the need for a tool that allows a security organization to quickly assess whether new exploits can attack them and if so whether their existing security can stop the attacks, is critical. NSS has successfully leveraged its stellar reputation as a trusted source for security product assessments by delivering a first-in-class SAAS offering that is giving enterprises visibility on their cyber security risk.”

NSS Labs gives businesses the tools they need to manage cyber security risks. It has created the “Cyber Advanced Warning System” that is cloud-based software that monitors networks for attacks and tests security prodcuts against those attacks.

“NSS Labs has been on a rapid growth trajectory, and with this new investment from Delta-v Capital, we are thrilled that we can further accelerate our unique offerings to customers around the world,” Vikram Phatak, CEO of NSS Labs, said in a news release.