TX Roundup: LiveOak, Ridescout, The food Lab, SeedInvest, Ambiq Micro

November 14, 2014

Texas flag

cold arctic air blasted its method from Canada south to the Gulf of Mexico, but innovation information in Texas has now not slowed down. New funding used to be introduced for startups, food-tech finalists competing for $ 30,000 in prize money had been unveiled, and a veteran entrepreneur gave again to others who may follow in his direction. right here is the Xconomy Texas news roundup: —Austin, TX-based totally LiveOak undertaking companions introduced it made two separate investments in cyber safety and surveillance startups. Some $ three.5 million went to Razberi technologies, a Dallas house firm that makes a plug-and-play surveillance machine. in the meantime, $ 500,000 was once invested in San Antonio, TX-based totally Infocyte, whose founders had been inspired via their experience hunting malware within the U.S. Air force. —Joseph Kopser, founder and CEO of Austin’s Ridescout and an U.S. army veteran, created a $ 70,000 entrepreneurship endowment for pupil veterans. The seed fund’s first investment will go toward the James D. Pippin Veteran Entrepreneurship Award, a prize within the Texas project Labs funding competition. —The national crowdfunding platform SeedInvest opened a Houston-based branch to herald Texas startups, the Houston industry Journal stated. —The meals Lab on the college of Texas at Austin this week introduced 21 finalists for its meals Lab problem Prize, which has a high award of $ 30,000. The startups, which generally hail from Texas, function initiatives that are seeking to make use of expertise to support the distribution, security, and cooking of meals. —YourCause, which makes internet-based totally instruments to strengthen corporate social responsibility programs, raised $ four million, The Dallas Morning news mentioned. Vocap investment companions of Vero seashore, FL, and Atlanta led the funding, which will be used to enlarge advertising and marketing efforts in addition to new product construction. —Former IBM Watson chief, Manoj Saxena sees the Texas capital as the house to a cognitive computing innovation middle. And at his new perch at The Entrepreneurs Fund, Saxena spoke final week about two investments in promising startups in that niche. —Ambiq Micro, an Austin-primarily based firm that makes ultra-low energy integrated circuits, said it raised $ 15 million in a collection C round led by using Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The funds will likely be used to boost building of its “SPOT” platform, which it says reduces the vitality consumption of semiconductors. —The Houston area Translational analysis Consortium, or HATRC, is winding down operations, a little bit over two years after its founding. but advocates say, even in its brief lifestyles, the initiative helped spark biotech entrepreneurship in Houston.  

Xconomy

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