Earlier this month at the Google Fiber space downtown, Tarmac TX held its Demo Day for the companies in its 2017 cohorot.

Now the accelerator, based at Galvanize, is accepting applications for its 2018 program, which starts in mid-April. The free program lasts nine months and includes mentorship and help with issues facing early-stage companies. CALSO, a nonprofit organization, in partnership with 3M, puts on the program.

The program includes classes, workshops, mentorship with 3M employees, events and networking opportunities and office space at Galvanize.

The 2017 startups that participated in Tarmac TX’s program included:

AquaSprouts which combines hydroponic gardening with fish tanks to keep an aquarium clean and low-maintenance.

Care2Rock which offers online music lessons via live video with teachers from around the world. It also provides lessons to children in foster care for free.

CoachTube which provides access to online training from the world’s best coaches.

GrubTubs which picks up compost from restaurants for a free and recycles it into feed livestock feed.

ShowerStream which invented a shower device that saves waters in hotels.

Think and Zoom created a technology solution for the visually impaired using the Google Glass technology to create hands-free visual magnification powered by the human mind.

TrashBots makes low-cost science and engineering kits that allow kids to build robots and use recycled materials.

YanEngines is developing the D-Cycle piston to save on fuel costs and increase performance on existing internal combustion engines.

The deadline to apply for Tarmac TX’s 2018 program is March 15th.

Two women-led startups from Austin are among the top ten finalists in the nation for the sixth Women Startup Challenge: Emerging Tech.

The startups include Astral AR, a drone piloting system that uses the Internet of the Things and helps law enforcement stop bullets, and detect guns and bombs through walls. Leah La Salla is the founder of Astral AR, which is based at Capital Factory in Austin.

The other startup is re:3D: Creators of Gigabot, an industrial human-scale 3D printer that prints from plastic recyclables creating access to local and sustainable manufacturing material, which decimates costs and scales barriers in additive manufacturing. Samantha Snabes, CEO and co-founder, recently won $1 million in the WeWork pitch competition.

The startups will pitch on March 6th at Google’s New York campus, for a chance to win $50,000 in an event sponsored by Women Who Tech in partnership with Craig Newmark Philanthropies. The finalists were selected from nearly 300 applications nationwide.

“A meager 7 percent of investor money goes to women-led startups. Through the Women Startup Challenge, we aim to shakeup a culture that has made it exceedingly difficult for women entrepreneurs to access capital,”Allyson Kapin, founder of Women Who Tech, said in a news release. “We’re excited to showcase top early-stage women-led startups that are at the forefront of technological innovation: building drones and holographic displays, developing cutting-edge healthcare to save lives, creating renewable energy sources, and improving environmental sustainability.”

The Women Startup Challenge has worked with over 1,700 women-led startups, awarded over $1 million in cash and prizes, and seen alumni collectively raise over $20 million, according to a news release.

Ten Austin entrepreneurs have joined the WeWork, Bunker Labs and Patriot Boot Camp’s new Veterans in Residence program in Austin.

The new program provides space, community and services to Veteran-run startups to help them to grow their business for six months.

Last week, at a kick-off event at WeWork Domain, the first ten veteran entrepreneurs gave a 60-second pitch to the audience.

“As both a veteran and an entrepreneur, I understand firsthand how uniquely prepared veterans are to build a successful company,” Nathan Lenahan, Head of Operations for WeWork’s southern region. “During your time in the military, you experience the power of overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles through the incredible communities you build. Unfortunately, long hours, demanding clients, and lean staffing often leaves entrepreneurs feeling like they’re building their business alone, missing the communities that helped them overcome their toughest challenges. WeWork is grateful for this opportunity to partner with Bunker Labs and Patriot Bootcamp to support our nation’s heroes with the space, skills and community needed to create their life’s work.”

“We’re thrilled to continue to support the military community through the WeWork Veterans in Residence program powered by Bunker Labs here in Austin because it is a game-changing force-multiplier to join with the existing WeWork community and accelerate and expand the impact for innovators, entrepreneurs, and creators who have or are serving in uniform,” Sabrina Wojtewicz, Director at Bunker Labs, said in a news release

Bunker Labs and Patriot Bootcamp also plan to host monthly events at WeWork.

“Patriot Boot Camp is pleased to partner with WeWork and Bunker Labs to create a connected community of entrepreneurs and startup resources to help veterans advance as business owners and community leaders,” Charlotte Creech, CEO Patriot Boot Camp, said in a news release. “We know veterans have the skills, aptitude, and innovative spirit needed to succeed as entrepreneurs, and we look forward to supporting them as they launch the next generation of great American businesses.”

Veterans or military spouses in the Austin area may apply for the next cohort.

Wellnicity, which makes home health test kits and supplements, announced it has received $3.6 million in seed-stage funding.

Austin-based Capstar Partners led the investment into the company.

Wellnicity plans to use the funds to further develop its software platform, sales and marketing and to invest in packaging and fulfillment functions.

“We chose to invest in Wellnicity for two reasons. First, as a customer I experienced first-hand the positive effects it has had on my body and overall well-being. In short, I’m hooked. What I appreciate about Wellnicity is that it empowers people to take their health into their own hands with customized and convenient solutions that provide a simple way to feeling their best,” Steve Hicks of Capstar Partners, said in a news release. “Second, we believe it’s the future of personal health and wellness and we’re excited to be behind this project. Because their products, procedures and programs are so effective, retention rates are high, and lives are improved.”

Wellnicity focuses on providing tailored at-home test kits and vitamins to its customers by using quizzes to find out about a customer’s symptoms and concerns.

“Wellnicity brings a new approach to health and wellness. No more ‘one-size-fits-all’ promises. No more guesswork about what supplements – and what dosage – may or may not work for you. Wellnicity is where clinical science meets personalized wellness and convenience,” Wellnicity’s CEO Kerry Brooks said in a news release. “Wellnicity grabbed hold of the idea that if more people had access to information about what was going on in their own bodies, we could help them achieve their optimal health through customized vitamin regimens – and we tackled it.”

Pam Machemehl Helmly, a clinician, founded Wellnicity.

“Wellnicity’s story began because there were many families who chose not to do medications, or they had failed medication therapies. These clients suffered from sleep disorders, anxiety, depression and focus,” Helmly said in a news release. “Through neurotransmitter testing, we could see when the levels were imbalanced and we could create a customized supplemental and dietary solution to bring levels back into optimal ranges. There was a profound effect on patients’ health and well-being. We are excited to bring our science-backed process and premium, professional-grade supplements to more people through the help of Capstar Partners.”

Something new is coming to Austin on Monday.

Office Depot is opening BizBox, a brick and mortar component of an online service it launched last November. BizBox will be located at the 14 Office Depot locations around Austin. BizBox offers everything from logo and website design to finance and accounting services. The location will also provide personal support and mentorship to local businesses, according to a news release.

Austin is the first market in the country to get BizBox in a store. It signals Office Depot’s shift into business services. The BizBox service is tailored to startups and small businesses. BizBox offers a subscription-based service starting at $99 a month.

Office Depot decided to launch the BizBox platform following a survey it did that showed nearly one-third of 1,500 small business owners didn’t have a website and more than half didn’t do any kind of social media marketing.

“BizBox is a platform designed to help reduce some of the stress and barriers that prevent entrepreneurs from turning their ideas into reality, and is the first service of its kind backed by the business expertise of a multibillion-dollar enterprise,” Office Depot Chief Digital Officer Kevin Moffitt said in a news release.

On the year of its 10th anniversary, SpareFoot, a storage marketplace, moved this month to new headquarters at University Park.

Sparefoot has raised $49.4 million since its founding in 2008, according to its Crunchbase profile. SpareFoot’s last round of funding came in 2015 led by Revolution Growth, founded by Steve Case, founder of America Online.

SpareFoot has 100 employees in its Austin headquarters, after moving it’s call center offshore in 2015.

“We’ve come a long way from our first offices inside Capital Factory, to the Perry Brooks Tower across the street at 720 Brazos, and now to our current space,” co-founder and CEO Chuck Gordon, said in a news release.

SpareFoot’s new location provides lots of amenities including a “gym and yoga room; free covered parking and indoor bike storage, and is dog-friendly — an absolute must for SpareFoot employees’ “SparePups,” according to a news release. It also has a kitchen with an in-house chef and culinary team and a gaming area.

SpareFoot has participated in the Startup Games since it began and the company has won gold four times, more than any other company. This year, SpareFoot won a silver medal and raised $10,000 for Breakthrough Central Texas. To date, the company has raised more than $100,000 for nonprofit organizations.

SpareFoot was named to the Top Company Cultures list in 2017 by Entrepreneur Magazine.

Correction: An earlier version of this story had the incorrect headcount for Sparefoot at the time of its last funding round. The company had 200 employees. We regret the error.

Catering to small business can mean big business.

Just ask the folks over at Main Street Hub, which sold Tuesday to GoDaddy for $125 million in cash plus up to $50 million more in future earnouts, according to a news release.

The transaction is expected to close by June pending regulatory approval and other requirements.

Matt Stuart and Andrew Allison, Stanford graduate students, moved Main Street Hub to Austin in 2011 after visiting the city during South by Southwest. The company now has more than 500 employees in Austin and New York.

Main Street Hub helps small businesses market themselves and interact with customers on popular social networks. The company has more than 10,000 small business customers.

Main Street Hub, which has raised $93 million of equity and debt financing according to Crunchbase, made the list of Silicon Hills News’ 20 hot Austin-based startups to watch in 2017. And its founder, Stuart, and Allison, are featured in the Silicon Hills News 2018 Austin Startup Calendar.

The acquisition of Main Street Hub, lets GoDaddy provide more professional services to small business owners and helps them to build their online presence, according to a news release.

“GoDaddy’s 17 million small business customers come to us because they know their online presence can help them reach their customers and grow their businesses, but even with the right tools, customers struggle to find the time or know-how to effectively manage their social media presence,” Lauren Antonoff, Senior Vice President at GoDaddy, said in a news release. “Joining forces with Main Street Hub better enables us to help our customers reach their goals, while saving them time and offering peace of mind.”

“Main Street Hub and GoDaddy both share the same unrelenting passion for helping small businesses succeed,” Stuart, co-CEO and co-founder, Main Street Hub, said in a news release. “We complement each other strategically, culturally and across our products and services. We now have the scale and resources to help millions more business owners realize the value of having an optimized social media presence – our team can’t wait to get started.”

Stuart and Allison will join GoDaddy in leadership positions and GoDaddy will mains Main Street Hub’s offices in Austin.

After working in stealth mode for two years in China and Austin, Wanchain launched its digital currency platform this week at a Bitcoin conference in Miami.

“Tokenization of assets is at its inflection point. With cryptocurrencies now worth over $700 billion, the digital economy is growing wildly, but there is a problem,” Jack Lu, Founder, Wanchain, said in a news release. “Digital assets are isolated in their respective blockchains. Wanchain is the first and only platform to unlock the real potential of global digital assets by placing them on a single blockchain. Mainnet is the fundamental first step towards the digital asset hub of tomorrow.”

Wanchain seeks to become the banking platform for all digital currency and plans to enable decentralized exchanges, lending platforms and asset management tools in one place.

The company plans to rollout more products to support additional public and private blockhains throughout this year and next.

Founder and CEO Lu’s previous venture was Austin-based Factom, a top 30 global cryptocurrency. “Registered in Singapore as a non-profit organization, the Wanchain Foundation was initially funded by Wanglu Tech, a for-profit enterprise with investors including River Capital and Fenbushi Capital,” according to a news release.

The Texas 5G Alliance launched this week to advocate for 5G telecommunications technology and infrastructure in Austin and statewide that is needed to bring smart city applications to life.

The alliance seeks to educate people about the technology for rapid deployment statewide and to make Texas a leader in telecommunications infrastructure.

Why is it needed? By 2020, there will be 20.4 billion connected devices worldwide. In North America, data traffic per smartphone will grow nearly 5 times from 5.1 gigabytes per month in 2016 to 25 gigabytes per month in 2022.

“We are on the cusp of groundbreaking technology that will change our everyday lives for the better,” Scott Dunaway, spokesperson for the Texas 5G Alliance, said in a news release. “Texas is setting the pace for innovative and life-changing technologies, such as autonomous vehicles, the internet of things, robotic deliveries, traffic flow solutions, and dedicated public safety and first responder networks, all of which will be dependent on small cell infrastructure that provides broad-scale 5G connectivity. We will aim to ensure Texas is a national and global leader in this pursuit.”

The alliance is made up of innovative companies, infrastructure providers, trade associations and more and includes Crown Castle, Dell, T-Mobile, Google Fiber, Ericsson, Bypass Mobile, Carnegie Technologies, SmartAustin, VERTICOM, Tech Titans and the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

5G Technology is the fifth generation of high-speed wireless technology. It provides vast improvements to 4G technology and is 40 times faster and provides at least four times more coverage worldwide. That kind of telecommunications network powers autonomous vehicles, smart homes, robotics and all kinds of Internet of Things applications.

“Our goal at Dell is to transform the Internet of Things from 100 billion connected devices to a network of 100 billion more intelligently connected devices, and 5G is integral to achieving this goal,” John Howard, Director of Public Policy, Dell, said in a news release. As Michael Dell recently said, “IoT is fundamentally changing how we live, how organizations operate and how the world works. … The implications for our global society will be nothing short of profound.”

Sputnik ATX announced this week it has chosen four startups to join its inaugural class for its accelerator program.

Those startups include YouPei.me, a cash-back platform for credit and debit cardholders to get Bitcoin rewards with more than 5,000 partner brands, Redenim, a data analytics platform for women to find the perfect pair of jeans, Backtracks, a podcast analytics and hosting platform and Meowtel, a platform to connect cat owners with pet sitters.

The Austin-based Sputnik ATX received 207 applications for its program from the U.S. and nine other countries.

“We not only selected startups with innovative concepts, we selected entrepreneurs with outstanding passion and grit,” Oksana Malysheva said in a news release. “The founders we chose exhibit the skills and vision necessary to defy the odds. We are excited to partner with these creators, innovators, trailblazers, and entrepreneurs to get their ideas off the ground and to the public where they can change the world. We are confident that the Sputnik ATX program will help these entrepreneurs reach their full potential and will continue to drive innovation in Texas.”

Each startup gets $100,000 in seed stage investment in exchange for an equity stake in the company by Sputnik ATX. The startups will participate in a three-month program that kicked off this week. The program includes classes, mentoring and funding information. Mentoring is focused on helping the entrepreneurs increase product and market fit and increase sales.

The program culminates with a Demo Day in which the startups pitch to a panel of investors for additional funding.

“At Sputnik, we believe early-stage investing is a team sport,” Joe Merrill, co-founder of Sputnik ATX, said in a news release. “In other words, entrepreneurs only succeed when they have a collaborative network to support one another. That’s why at the end of their time with us, we want our cohort members to graduate with a solid network of mentors, peers, and other investors.”

Sputnik ATX plans to open its next application round for its summer cohort in May.

“Entrepreneurs living within a 300-mile radius of Austin (including San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston), or those who agree to move their businesses within that radius if accepted into the program, are eligible to apply,” according to a news release. “Applicants are required to have a minimum viable product and at least one paying customer.”