Savara Pharmaceuticals Tuesday announced it has closed on $20 million in Series C financing.

The Austin-based company plans to use the funds to test AeroVanc, an antibiotic that can be inhaled to treat Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, also known as MRSA, lung infection in people with cystic fibrosis.

“The new financing will help support the AeroVanc Phase 3 trial, and expanding our pipeline with other new drugs for serious and life-shortening rare respiratory diseases,” Rob Neville, Chief Executive Officer of Savara Pharmaceuticals, said in a news release. “Research shows that people with CF have a more rapid decline in lung function when infected with MRSA, as well as a reduction in overall survival. Our efforts will hopefully result in the FDA approval of the first inhaled antibiotic for use in MRSA infected people with CF.”

Savara plans to launch its Phase 3 clinical trial to test AeroVanc at 80 sites in the U.S. and Canada. It plans to begin enrolling patients in the study in the fourth quarter of 2016. Phase 3 trials are the last step before a drug goes to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for review.

To date, Savara “has raised $39 million since inception from angel investors, as well as early stage life science investors and family offices,” according to the company.

Correction: This article has been updated to correct the total amount raised by the company. Information originally included from Crunchbase was incorrect.

GoPro on Monday announced it has acquired Splice, a video editing app developed by Vemory, an Austin-based startup.

The San Mateo-based company also acquired Replay, another video editing app, and plans to merge them to deliver mobile editing solutions to GoPro customers and other smartphone users, according to a news release.
GoPro paid $105 million in cash and stock to acquire the two companies, according to Forbes.

Vemory, founded in 2012, acquired Splice a year ago from Path 36, which launched Splice in 2010. Splice is one of the most popular photo and video editors for iOS. Replay, developed by Stupeflix in Paris, France, is an award-winning app that allows users to quickly select video clips and photos and automatically combines them into a single video complete with transition effects, graphics, and synchronized music.

“Splice, Replay and GoPro will combine to deliver what we believe will be the fastest and most enjoyable mobile editing experience,” Nicholas Woodman, founder and CEO of GoPro, said in a news release. “We believe the accessibility, speed and efficiency of mobile will make it the predominant editing platform of the future.”

Both apps are currently available on iOS with Android releases planned for later this year. Both teams will maintain operations in their current locations, Paris and Austin.

WigWag, the maker of a platform for connecting devices in the home through the Internet, announced this week it has raised $3.175 million in seed funding.

The Austin based startup, founded in 2011, received the funding from Palo Alto-based CSC Venture Capital. It plans to use the money on product development and to hire more sales and marketing staff and to launch its platform and consumer products. The company is also hiring for software development and testing.

“According to Gartner, by 2022 the typical U.S. household will contain over 500 connected devices,” Ed Hemphill, WigWag co-founder and CEO, said in a news release. “As we enter into a Jetson-esque age of true smart environments, the world of traditional Internet protocol networking will merge with IoT technologies. That massive change, which involves more intelligence being placed at the network edge, creates a tremendous challenge for traditional network equipment manufacturers and a tremendous opportunity for us.”

In 2013, WigWag raised $454,976 from 1,694 backers on Kickstarter. The company began shipping products to its customers this month, according to its Kickstarter update.

WigWag’s platform lets consumers connect all kinds of devices in their home including lights, thermostat, security system and more.

“CSC Venture Capital invests in companies that have the capacity to radically transform new markets and where we see major trends on the cusp of significant adoption,” Veronica Wu, President of CSC Group International Corp. said in a news release. “We believe the timing is right for the Internet of Things. However, navigating the plethora of standards/protocols pose significant challenge for adoption. We believe WigWag’s technology could dramatically simplify go to market for companies wanting to deliver intelligent and secure IoT solutions to consumers.”

The Austin Chamber of Commerce Thursday began accepting nominations for the 2016 Austin A-List.

The awards, put on by the chamber and South by Southwest Interactive, seek to showcase Austin’s most innovative startup companies at three different stages of development.

• Emerging (Early/Seed Stage) – Raised under $1 million;
• Growth (Mid-Stage) – Raised $1 million to $10 million; and
• Scale (Later Stage) – Raised above $10 million.

The list is now in its sixth year. The chamber encourages any “scalable, high-impact, pre-IPO startups to apply.” Nominations will be accepted through Friday, April 8th. An invite-only ceremony will be held on May 12th to reveal the A-List winners.

To date, Austin A-List companies have collectively reached $1 billion in funding and exit proceeds to date and 19 A-List companies have seen successful exits via acquisition or initial public offering, according to the Chamber.

“We are excited to raise the profile of our region’s most innovative companies that help cultivate investment and attract the next generation of entrepreneurs and talent,” Michele Skelding, senior vice president of Global Technology and Innovation at the Austin Chamber, said in a news release. “The Austin region continues to increase its innovation pipeline through a steady stream of funding deals, nationally renowned accelerator programs, and one of the top angel networks in the country.”

By HOJUN CHOI
Reporter with Silicon Hills News

Entrepreneurs from around Austin gathered at WeWork downtown for the second stARTup Studio of 2016, and had a chance to hear about innovations being developed at The University of Texas at Austin.

The event, which began in 2013, is co-sponsored by WeWork, the Austin Chamber of Commerce and the Office of Technology Commercialization at UT Austin.

The meeting is meant to mimic an artist studio, where people can bring their work for others to critique, said Bob Metcalfe, professor of innovation at the Cockrell School of Engineering. He also serves as faculty director of the Innovation Center, which puts on the monthly stARTup Studio events.

On Tuesday evening, Andrea Thomaz, who teaches computer engineering, presented Diligent Droids, a company that seeks to provide aid to healthcare providers through robotic technologies.

“Being new to the Austin community, I was really looking to connect with potential strategic partners as well as people who can help advance the technology,” Thomaz said.

Thomaz said she hopes to apply her research in the field of artificial intelligence to help healthcare providers with their service.

“My work falls broadly into the world of artificial intelligence, but I’m interested in a really particular area,” Thomaz said. “I’m interested in social intelligence and how machines can fit appropriately into a human environment.”

Before joining the electrical and computer engineering department at UT Austin in January, Thomaz spent eight years researching and developing a robot that could learn from its surroundings.

“Social intelligence refers to the ability to react dynamically to the situation that humans are creating,” Thomaz said.

Recognizing the potential behind machines that can be taught to adapt to situations, Thomaz began researching how she could take the technology to market.

Thomaz said market research, which focused on healthcare providers, showed that nurses were often forced to spend a large portion of their time running around performing what Thomaz described as “hunting and gathering” tasks.

By providing hospitals with robots that can learn simple jobs, such as fetching warm towels or bringing supplies for procedures, Thomaz said nurses could spend more of their time tending to patients, and improving the quality of care.

Because every hospital functions differently, Thomaz said the machines would require time to “shadow” nurses to correctly learn their tasks properly.

“There is a lot going on in a hospital floor, and we need to have the robot adapt to how humans are currently getting a good job done,” Thomaz said.

The second presenter, Robert Crawford, professor of mechanical engineering, showcased his company, nVariate, with Ben Urick, a UT graduate student at the Cockrell School of Engineering. They said their service will help those who require computer-aided design, or CAD, for their businesses.

Crawford said computer-aided design currently faces many challenges in the realm of “surface-to-surface intersections” in which even the smallest gap or miscalculation can cause a huge design flaw.

For example, a design of a teapot may look good enough on a computer screen to have the design manufactured or created with a 3D printer. However, the teapot may have gaps that cause leaks due to the surfaces of the design not meeting at the seams correctly.

Urick, who also spoke to attendees at the event, said about 80 percent of the work that he performed as an engineer in the field required fixing these miscalculations, or “trim problems” by approximation and human calculation.

Rather than having to deal with human error and tedious calculations, Crawford and Urick said their process creates a “map” that can recognize flaws and fixes them in a way that does not require the manipulation of the design file itself.

“Our process identifies where these holes are, and it simply tells the graphic card simply not to show these parts,” Urick said. “Essentially, our technology identifies the math in the model, and does the rebuilding for you.”

Because each industry uses a different program to perform computer-aided design, Urick said nVariate’s process allows for designs to be fixed across these different platforms.

“A lot of times when you’re developing these technologies, you go down this ‘wormhole’ and you think everyone understands your industry, so it is really refreshing to hear from people who were not aware of these specific problems,” Urick said.

Shopgate, a German-based mobile ecommerce company, announced Wednesday it is moving its U.S. headquarters to Austin from Palo Alto and plans to hire 50 local employees.

Shopgate also announced Marc Biel as its Chief Executive Officer to lead its expansion into the U.S. market. Biel previously served as chief financial officer and chief operations officer since 2014.

The company, which raised $15 million in Series C funds in January, reviewed several U.S. cities before choosing Austin, according to the company.

“Austin is home to an incredibly robust eCommerce ecosystem, including some of our strategic partners like BigCommerce and Volusion,” Biel said in a news release.

A big factor in influencing its decision to locate in Austin is access to veteran talent in areas such a business to business sales and strategic marketing. The company recently hired Hass Johnson, vice president of sales, previously with BigCommerce and Casey Gannon, vice president of marketing, previously with Volusion.

Shopgate has more than 650 customers in the U.S. already including Gameday Merchandising, a sports and event merchandising company which sells brands such as the Golden State Warriors and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“We plan to roll out cutting-edge technology in 2016, including one that we think will make a big splash during our first-ever SXSWi in March,” Biel said.

The focus of the Innovation Center in the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin is to help professor led startups.

To that end, the Innovation Center formed a grant fund and Wednesday announced its first two grant recipients. The center awarded grants to Professor Luis Sentis, who runs a robotics startup Apptronik and Professor Richard Crawford, who runs nVariate, a software design startup. Both are in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

The Innovation Grants, which range from $10,000 to $100,000, are open to all UT Austin faculty members with early stage startups. More grants will be awarded throughout the year, according to the center.

Sentis will receive a $40,000 grant to commercialize robotics technology and Crawford will receive $20,000 to make better Computer Aided Design software, according to Professor Bob Metcalfe, faculty director of the Innovation Center and professor of innovation at the Cockrell School.

“The Innovation Center encourages and supports faculty and students in using startups to change the world with their research,” Metcalfe said in a news statement. “The center provides entrepreneurial tools, expert advice, entrepreneurship courses, mentorship and other commercialization resources.”

Raising funds to support the Innovation Grants is a major focus of Louise Epstein, entrepreneur and managing director of the Innovation Center.

“One of our key objectives in the Innovation Center is to identify and support the faculty who are eager to commercialize their research,” Epstein said in a news release. “We envision that promising research will progress into a startup, move off campus to recruit staff and leadership, raise additional capital, scale up and impact society.”