Hypergiant Industries is beefing up its staff with some heavy hitters from the technology industry.

Hypergiant has announced that Brian Beard and Gary Gattis will join as Global Chief Strategy and Legal Officer and General Manager in Residence respectively.

Hypergiant, which came out of stealth mode last year, has launched two new divisions, Hypergiant Galactic Systems and Hypergiant Sensory Sciences. The company is focused on building AI-powered solutions for its customers.

“Hypergiant’s business model is designed to spark innovation, collaboration, and growth in a way I’ve never seen before, and I’m excited to help accelerate that business model,” Beard said in a news release. “CEO Ben Lamm has a vision for the AI industry that’s unmatched — and my role is to facilitate that vision at the highest level and with the same speed and precision that Ben has come to be known for.”

Previously, Beard served as managing partner of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Austin. He came out of retirement to work for Hypergiant. During his career, he served as outside corporate counsel to public and private companies, advising them on a wide range of significant corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, and private equity and venture capital financings.

With Hypergiant Industries, Beard will help manage M&A transactions, develop strategic plans for joint ventures, and execute on the long-term vision of the company with speed and precision.

“Hypergiant’s vision is a powerful testament to our need to move beyond technology for the sake of technology. We have been stuck in a vicious cycle of making products that we think will make money, versus the products we need to create a better world for us all,”  Gattis said in a news release. “As General-Manager-in-Residence, I’ll be focused on finding ways to bring a new standard of user experience to several internal R&D AI products, further enabling the data manipulation and analysis that is going to not only drive modern business, but our entire world.”

Previously, Gattis co-founded and served as CEO of Austin-based Spacetime Studios, the leading mobile games studio. “Spacetime Studios designed and developed the world’s first cross-platform 3D mobile massive multiplayer online game, “Pocket Legends”. The subsequent Legends titles have since amassed over 50 million downloads on Android and iOS. Previously, Gattis has also served as a Senior Producer for Sony Online Entertainment, Director of Enterprise Software at Bowstreet, and was co-founder of Human Code (acquired by Sapient),” according to a news release.

 “Both Brian and Gary have been absolutely transformative in their careers up until this point, and I can’t wait to see how they can further our mission” Hypergiant CEO, Ben Lamm said in a news release. “We designed our business model to fuel innovation, and Brian’s expertise is going to help our entire ecosystem of companies thrive. Gary is by nature an interdisciplinarian, so we’re especially excited to see what he works on at Hypergiant. He’s great at building up and motivating teams, and keeping the mission and long-term vision front and center. They’re both going to play a big role in the future of Hypergiant.”

Austin-based Bumble announced this week that it has completed its second round of investments into women-led startups.

Through its “Bumble Fund” Bumble, which is a women-focused dating and social network with more than 50 million users, has made early stage investments in women founders. The latest round includes an investment in Houston-based Alice, an AI-powered platform that provides entrepreneurs with resources they need to build their business.

In addition, Bumble has opened applications for its third round of investments with the details available through Bumble Bizz.

Bumble has also partnered with Alice to allow founders interested in the Bumble Fund to apply through Alice’s website.

”The partnership marks the first time every applicant of a venture fund will receive education, support, mentorship and guidance to grow their companies, no matter if they qualify for investment at that moment,” according to a news release.

Bumble Fund, which launched in July of 2018, is open to all entrepreneurs in the U.S. who identify as women, prioritizing those with diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. It provides early-stage investment ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.

The latest round of investments include the following: Alice, founded by Carolyn Rodz and Elizabeth Gore: an AI-powered technology helping entrepreneurs find the right path to start and grow their companies:  Gixo – founded by Selina Tobaccowala: a fitness app founded to improve global health and activity rates by democratizing access to live workouts with professional trainers: Translator – founded by Natalie Egan: the world’s most advanced diversity & inclusion training system for corporations, schools and non-profits and Promise – founded by Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins: a technology company that creates cost-effective, equitable, and humane alternatives to incarceration with a mission to get people out of jail and provide ongoing support to help them stay out.

“We are looking to invest in entrepreneurs whose company purpose solves a problem that disproportionately affects women,” Sarah Jones Simmer, Chief Operating Officer at Bumble, who leads Bumble Fund’s investment strategy, said in a news release. “While we can’t fund every promising business and entrepreneur, we strongly believe these companies and founders deserve access to grow, evolve, and thrive. Through community, access to experts, how-to guides, and more, Bumble and Alice are committed to helping women founders find the support and resources they need on their path to success.”

As an equity investor in Alice, Bumble joins Melinda Gates, Jean Case, Zaw Thet and others, in supporting Alice’s unique AI platform designed to tailor early stage business support to diverse founders and business owners.

“For the last several years, only 2% of venture capital went to women founders. At Alice and Bumble, we see that as a 98 percent opportunity,” Carolyn Rodz, Alice, founder, and CEO, said in a news release. “The Bumble Fund, powered by Alice, is that opportunity in action; together, we’re going to rewrite the rules of venture capital to be more accessible, more transparent and more supportive for women founders.” Bumble’s first round of investments were in Beautycon, Cleo Capital, Female Founders Fund, Mahmee, and Sofia Los Angeles, a winner of the inaugural Bumble Bizz Pitch Comp.

In addition, the latest investments, Bumble is hosting the Bumble Hive from March 8th through March 18th at Jo’s Coffee Shop in downtown Austin on 2nd Street. The space will be transformed into one of Bumble’s famous, photo-friendly Bumble Hive. The Bumble Hive will be open to the public every day during SXSW from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. It will serve complimentary coffee throughout the day and breakfast tacos from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. to those who show their Bumble Date, BFF or Bumble Bizz profile. It will also feature special programming throughout SXSW. For more information, visit Bumble’s SXSW site.

And on International Women’s Day, the Bumble Hive will feature a special concert performance Friday night starting at 8 p.m. by Princess Nokia.

Adam Lyons, founder of The Zebra, is going to be starring in a new reality TV show focused on entrepreneurs.

Lyons is teaming up with Pilgrim Media group on the new show which will showcase Lyons working with business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs to develop their ideas into full-fledged, high-growth businesses.

Lyons founded The Zebra, the most visited car insurance search engine in the nation. Investors in The Zebra include Mark Cuban, Accel Partners, and Floodgate.

Pilgrim Media Group produces TV shows including American Ninja Warrior, Dirty Jobs, Ultimate Fighter, and American Chopper. Its work has been distributed by Discovery, History, A&E, Lifetime, TLC, Syfy, OWN, CMT, WEtv, and National Geographic Channel.

On the show, Lyons will mentor entrepreneurs with the hopes of landing a venture capital investment.

“As much as people celebrate entrepreneurship, it’s still not very accessible to the average person,” Lyons said in a news release. “If you have a business or an idea for a venture, the hardest part is taking that next step and executing to bring your idea to the masses. I’m looking forward to working with business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs to help them create the next billion dollar company.”

Lyons left The Zebra last year.

In 2012, Lyons launched The Zebra, an aggregation and comparison site for insurance, in Pittsburgh, his hometown.

Lyons’ took an unusual path to entrepreneurship. At 15, he dropped out of high school. A year later, he left home and worked several odd jobs and had no idea what he wanted to do. Eventually, he got into community college and then transferred to  Temple University. He graduated and got an internship in London and ended up working in insurance. He saw the industry was ripe for disruption.

“There are thousands of other entrepreneurs out there just like me, ready to make something out of nothing,” Lyons said. “The show gives us a platform to meet those folks, and do whatever we can to help. I feel an enormous duty to pay it forward. Of course, if I’m going to invest, I have to see that x-factor, that ceaseless hustle that all great entrepreneurs have, no matter where they come from or what they’ve been given.”

The name, network and and air date of the new show have not yet been announced.

Jeremy Rossmann, co-founder of Make School, a computer science and software engineering school, based in San Francisco is disrupting higher education.

Make School offers a two-year Bachelor’s Degree to students accepted into its computer science program.

Rossmann founded Make School in 2012 with his high school friend, Ashu Desai. Rossmann dropped out of MIT and Desai dropped out of UCLA to create Make School.

Make School is disrupting higher education. Make School only gets paid when its students land a job after graduation making $60,000 a year or more. Many of its students make far more than that. They have landed jobs at Facebook, Google, Tesla, Amazon and more. Rossman was in Austin to speak at SXSWEdu about “Rethinking College to Diversify the Tech Workforce.” Make School seeks to educate a diverse and underrepresented student population, Rossmann said. Forty-five percent of its students are Latino or Black, he said. It also does not admit students solely based on grades and SAT Scores, Rossmann said. It takes a student’s work history, and family obligations into consideration too, he said.

Following his discussion at SXSWEdu, Rossmann spoke with Silicon Hills News for its Ideas to Invoices podcast.

Make School, a B-Corp startup, has raised $10 million to date from
Y Combinator, Tim Draper, East Ventures, and other investors.

For more on Make School, listen to the Ideas to Invoices podcast.

March is women’s history month and Friday is International Women’s Day, which happens to coincide with opening day of South by Southwest in Austin.

And while the tech industry is still heavily-male dominated and women-led startups only get 2 percent of all venture capital funding in the U.S., the industry is starting to change. And that is evidenced by all the programming focused on women in tech on the 2019 SXSW schedule. And it’s not all happening on International Women’s Day but throughout the conference.

For example, on Saturday, a panel of speakers which include Alex Williams of Austin-based Bumble will host a session on “How Women are Rebuilding a Man-Made Internet.”

When: Saturday, 3:30 p.m.

Where: Hilton Austin Downtown, Salon G

Looking for a variety of female focused programming from investment to diversity and inclusion? Then Women2.0 has got it covered. Women2.0 put together a comprehensive list of events at SXSW focused on women.

Among the events listed is a discussion on Friday on Equitable Growth Ecosystems for Entrepreneurs.

When: Friday, 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Where: Hilton Austin Downtown Salon K

And Springboard Enterprises Dolphin Tank – a pitch competition featuring female tech founders.

When: Saturday, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Where: Palm Door, 401 Sabine St.

“Fighting for Funding as a Female Entrepreneur” 

When: Sunday, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

Where: Austin Hilton, Salon ABC – 500 East 4^th Street

International Women’s Day EU@SXSW – The European Union partnering with UN Women to be the official host of SXSW’s International Women’s Day celebration.

When: Friday, 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Where: Palm Door on Sixth, 508 East 6th Street

There are also events taking place outside the convention center.

#Women4WomenATX: An interactive event celebrating all women in business is hosted by four female-led fashion and lifestyle brands, Rank & Style, Katie Kime, Maggie Louise and Packed Party.

When: Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Where: Katie Kime Store downtown, 500 N. Lamar No. 150

The Bumble Hive: Bumble is taking over Jo’s coffee shop on Second street from March 8^th to March 18^th with special programming.

On International Women’s Day, the Bumble Hive has free breakfast tacos from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and free coffee all day. It’s also offering speed mentoring with Bumble from noon to 4 p.m. and it is hosting a special International Women’s Day performance by Princess Nokia from 8 p.m. until 11 p.m.

When: Friday, March 8th – Monday, March 18th

7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day Special after-hours programming: March 8, 12, 15

Where: Jo’s Coffee on 2nd Street at 242 W 2nd St.

ACLU Kicks Off Its 100^th Year Anniversary Tour at SXSW

At noon, the ACLU will host a Women’s Rights Brunch and Lightning Talks featuring the following speakers:

• Michele Moore, ACLU Chief Communications Officer
• Monica Poindexter, Lyft Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion
• Jessica Massa, Buzzfeed Supervising Producer
• Zulima Espinel, Starbucks Vice President of Global Public Policy
• Lauren Johnson, ACLU of Texas Criminal Justice Outreach Coordinator

When: Friday, 12 p.m.

Where: 313 Red River St.

Smash the Glass Ceiling on International Women’s Day

ADP partnered with WIRED to create the activation and give SXSW attendees the chance to break down the barriers that stand in the way of realizing their full potential.

When: FridayMarch 8 – Sunday March 10, 12 PM – 6 PM.

Where: The Empire Control Room, Room 606 East 7^th Street, Austin, TX, 78701

Also be sure to check out Austin-based Blnded Media’s Complete List of Diversity Focused Tech Events at SXSW.

Austin-based ClearBlade won the first place prize of $100,000 in the Comet Competition contest sponsored by Ingram Micro.

Other Austin-based winners included re:3D, Sempulse and The Mentor Method.

The Comet Competition, funded by IT distributor Ingram Micro, set out to uncover, fund and bring to market the next wave of business to business software innovators in the region. The finalists were chosen based on a number of criteria including future vision, potential in the channel and ecosystem readiness.

ClearBlade has created a platform for companies to deploy Internet of Things solutions to make their operations safer, more efficient and easier to manage.

“It’s great when a company like Ingram recognizes brilliance,” said Eric Simone, Founder and CEO of ClearBlade. “For me it’s more about the recognition and the partnership with Ingram than the cash prize. The 100k will not move the needle for the company, but the partnership with Ingram Micro will.”

ClearBlade has a standard system for deploying Internet of Things, also known as IoT, solutions. It has customers in the railroad industry and real estate.

“Customers need solutions that are easily delivered,” Simone said. This partnership with Ingram Micro will bring its technology to many more industries and companies, he said.

 ClearBlade brings hardware and software together to provide Internet of Things solutions that can be easily instituted by customers, Simone said. It’s platform is like getting a Sonos sound system delivered to a residence. It’s easy to setup and put into action.

“IoT is nothing like that today,” Simone said. “But the combination of ClearBlade and Ingram Micro will now give customers out of the box solutions when it comes to IOT.”

The Mentor Method has developed a proprietary algorithm that matches mentors and mentees within a company with a focus on creating and maintaining greater diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Ingram Micro is partnering with The Mentor Method to use its technology in its business. Sempulse has created a smart patch that can be attached behind the ear and it can quickly and easily read vital signs in emergency situations. And re:3d has created large scale 3-D printers that use recycled plastic as feedstock.

Ingram Micro also held competitions in Boston and Tel Aviv, Israel. All three of the grand prize winners will be showcased on the mainstage at Ingram Micro’s Cloud Summit, which takes place in San Diego from March 11 – 13.

Fortune 500 Company Ingram Micro is the world’s largest hardware and software distribution system with revenue of more than $54 billion annually, said Michael Kenney, vice president of strategy and business development for Ingram Micro.

“One of our big initiatives is to drive programs to help early stage companies and entrepreneurs to realize the value of going to market with a partner ecosystem,” Kenney said.

“As a business, we’ve been doing this for a long time,” he said. Now Ingram Micro is looking at it from an entrepreneurial perspective, he said.

“How do we help embrace these different entrepreneurs – Comet was an approach for us to reach these early stage ecosystems to leverage some of our assets,” he said.

Ingram Micro initially partnered with Mass Challenge, one of the biggest accelerators in the world, to create the competition to help find the next great business to business software companies, Kenney said.

“The competition was an overwhelming success,” he said.

In addition to Austin, the Comet Competition held events in Boston and Israel with 370 applications across these three cities, Kenney said. The judges narrowed the field of competition down to 15 finalists in each city. Those startups then pitched for cash prizes.

The winners in each city received a cash prize of $100,000 and the runners up got a go to market package including tickets to Ingram Micro’s cloud summit and introductions to thousands of reseller partners, Kenney said.

 “Some of these technologies were flat out amazing,” Kenney said. “Some of these technologies we can help commercialize”

In February, Ingram Micro held its pitch competition in Austin at the WeWork Barton Springs location.

Ingram Micro,  based in Irvine, Calif., is looking at developing its own accelerator program with six to eight more global events with $2.5 million in cash prizes, Kenney said. The accelerator could be based in Austin, he said.

“We want to keep the excitement going and maintain the momentum,” Kenney said.  “We are literally there to help companies we think we can help commercialize faster.”

Claimbot announced this week it has raised seed stage funds to expand its artifical intelligence powered virtual chat engine.

The company, founded in 2016, announced it has raised $615,000 with participation from the Google Assistant Investments program, Notley Ventures, Social Starts and several angel investors.

Claimbot plans to use the funding to accelerate the development of its virtual chat engine which uses artificial intelligence. It also plans to hire more employees for its sales and product development teams.

“Insurance and automotive companies waste billions handling customer service requests through archaic call centers that drive little satisfaction in return. We are leveraging emerging technology like artificial intelligence to automate and enhance the customer journey, delivering knowledge to end-users in a format they crave,” Miguel Fernandez, co-founder and CEO of Claimbot, said in a news release.

Claimbot is aimed at insurance and automotive companies. Its software allows those companies to communicate with their customers through a virtual chat engine powered by artificial intelligence. The chat bot allows them to handle filing claims, requesting roadside assistance, purchasing insurance coverage or paying a bill.

Claimbot’s system integrates with Zendesk, Braintree Payments, Stripe and other programs. Claimbot’s customers include Silvercar by Audi, Brightside Cover and Omadi Roadside.

“In today’s on-demand, time constrained, digital world, consumers no longer want to wait on hold to speak with a human customer service representative or get stuck in an automated menu selection flow that might not address their needs. They want to start solving their problems immediately,” Josh Rickel, partner at Notley Ventures, said in a news release.

Cruising around the Internet, it’s difficult to know how much data is being gathered at the various websites a person visits.

Of course, many have privacy polices but many of those documents are so long that few ever plow through them.

And what’s being done with all that data? That’s an issue Osano plans to shed some light on.

Osana has built a platform for data privacy transparency. And it announced this week it has launched and raised $3 million in funding.

The Austin-based startup has created Privacy Monitor, which is a free browser plugin and mobile app that helps people manage their privacy when dealing with websites, software vendors and other service provides.

Osano provides data analysis on the privacy policies of various websites through its Privacy Monitor app and browser plug-in. It allows users to determine how much data they want to share with websites and service providers.

“The average person doesn’t understand where their personal data goes in terms of how websites and service providers use and share it,” Arlo Gilbert, CEO and co-founder of Osano, said in a news release. “With data privacy at the constant forefront of tech industry and consumer conversations, greater transparency is desperately needed on the web to unlock the secrecy of convoluted privacy policies and give users control over their data again.”

LiveOak Ventures led the financing with participation from a team of notable investors including Next Coast Ventures, Capital Factory, Social Starts, Barracuda Networks and 345Partners Co-Founder Michael Perone, data.world and Bazaarvoice Founder Brett Hurt, and Indeed Founder Rony Kahan.

Osano operates as B Corporation.

Gilbert is a serial entrepreneur who previously founded Meta SaaS, which was acquired last year by Flexera. He also previously founded iCall, a VoIP provider for iPhone which was acquired in 2012 and affiliate marketing firm Click Feel Media.

Gilbert and other Osano executives will be participating in SXSW Pitch 2019 on March 9^th.

QuotaPath, which makes a compensation management platform, announced this week it has raised $3.5 million.

The company, which is based in both Austin and Philadelphia, plans to use the funds to hire more employees and launch the QuotaPath platform to the public during the next three months. QuotaPath’s software allows anyone to track their sales commissions, bonuses, quota attainment, or paychecks.

ATX Seed Ventures, based in Austin, led the investment. To date, QuotaPath, founded in 2018, has raised $5 million. The company first launched its platform last September in a pilot program. And since then, it has seen interest in adopting it from startups and Fortune 500 companies, according to a news release.

A.J. Bruno, formerly CEO and Founder of Trendkite, is now Co-Founder and CEO of QuotaPath.

“I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve done in such a short time and this new investment is going to accelerate what we can do,” Bruno said in a news release. “The next few months are going to be phenomenal.”

“The experienced team at QuotaPath has continued to execute at a high velocity in an underserved space and we are thrilled to continue the journey right along with them,” Chris Shonk, the Managing Director of ATX Seed Ventures, said in a news release.

QuotaPath is a paid software that integrates with existing customer relationship management software, but it also has a free option, Cole Evetts, Co-Founder and COO of QuotaPath, said in a news release.

“We know how stressful it can be to ensure you’re being paid properly and want to make it easier on everyone, regardless of your budget,” Evetts said.