Austin Weekly Deal Highlights(1-13-19)

Austin Weekly Deal Highlights

Austin Weekly Deal Highlights for January 13, 2019

From: “Mason Rathe” <[email protected]>
Sent:Sunday, 13 January 2019 23:06
To: [email protected]
Subject:Austin Weekly Deal Highlights 1-13-19

Austin Weekly Deal Highlights

By Mason Rathe – January 13, 2019

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Tossing some fast facts at you, so keep up! Texas is the #1 state for female entrepreneurs, Austin raised $1.5B across 219 deals in 2018, and our Q4 VC funding was up almost 75% year over year. I’d say that’s how you finish a year strong! This week, we saw Houston legal software company Onit pull in a $200M investment, and a ton of high profile hiring and promotion announcements in Austin. Now, check out Westlake alumni Drew Brees and Nick Foles face off against each other in the NFL playoffs!

Austin Financing Activity

  • Envirocon Technologies Investments, which makes the Lemi Shine brand of dish soaps and household cleaning products, raised $10M in equity funding.
  • Infinitum Electric, which makes high-efficiency electric motors, raised a $1.8M Series A led by Cottonwood Technology Fund. The company has raised $2.7M to date.
  • PhyzData, a platform to streamline the specialty drug prescription process, raised $5M in seed financing from undisclosed investors, according to Pitchbook.
  • Phoenix Biotechnology, a San Antonio company specializing in the development of drugs used in the treatment of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, raised $1M of angel funding from undisclosed investors. The company has raised approx. $15M to date.

Austin M&A Activity

  • Austin managed cloud services company Hostway is merging with Denver managed cloud firm HOSTING. The combo gives them 14 data centers in five countries. Emil Sayegh will serve as CEO and president. And investors Littlejohn & Co. and Pamlico will continue to back the organization. Though combined, the companies will keep their separate brands for a while — a new brand will emerge in about a year after the companies integrate.
  • CMIT Solutions, an Austin IT services company, has been acquired by Dallas-based private equity firm Craftsman Capital. CMIT CEO Jeff Connally and all the company’s employees will remain in Austin in its current office. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
  • Asure Software, the developer of human resources software, acquired Payroll Maxx, a developer of enterprise workforce management technology, for an undisclosed amount.

Other Regional Deal Activity

  • Onit, a Houston -based provider of enterprise legal management software, raised $200M from K1 Investment Management. Previously, the company had raised approx. $17M to date from investors including Austin Ventures, Houston Angel Network, and Level Equity.
  • Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: MSI) acquired VaaS International Holdings, Inc, a Dallas-based data and image analytics company, for $445M in a combination of cash and equity. Previously, the company had raised approx. $66M.
  • BrainCheck, a Houston neurocognitive testing platform with offices in Austin, raised a $1.5M round led by Austin-based True Wealth Ventures, with participation from Tensility Venture Partners, XFactor Ventures, and S3 Ventures. They have raised $6M to date.
  • LiquidFrameworks, a mobile field operation management software, was acquired by Luminate Capital Partners, for an undisclosed amount. LiquidFrameworks is a Houston Ventures and RedHouse Associates portfolio company.
  • Centre Technologies, a Houston-based provider of IT hardware and software products, received an undisclosed amount of development capital from Main Street Capital.

Austin People

  • DISCO, an ediscovery solutions platform, named former Bazaarvoice VP of HR Aaron Trull as its VP of HR. Prior to Bazaarvoice, Trull worked at Dell, AMD, Hewlett-Packard and Ernst & Young. The hire is one of many for DISCO, which plans to add up to 150 Austin-based jobs in the next two to three years. The company last raised $20M in December ’17 from Bessemer and LiveOak Venture Partners.
  • Capital Factory, the Texas accelerator and co-working space, announced four big promotions: Gordon Daugherty, who is a CF co-founder and was previously managing director, became president. Chris Gillan was promoted to senior VP of corporate innovation. Bryan Chambers became VP of accelerator and partner in the CF fund. Abba Binns was promoted to VP of programming and events. CF also announced several new job openings and announced Georgia Thomsen is leaving her position as chief operating officer after four years.
  • YETI (NYSE: YETI) announced Melisa Goldie will serve as its first-ever chief marketing officer. Goldie’s career includes 15 years at Calvin Klein, where she worked her way up to global chief marketing officer.
  • RF Code, an Austin company making real-time asset management software for data centers, announced David Williams as its VP of strategy and business development. He was previously senior VP of portfolio strategy at CA Technologies. The company has raised approx. $60M to date from investors including Intel Capital and QuestMark Partners.
  • ESO, an emergency services software company, hired Remle Crowe as its research scientist and quality improvement manager. She was most recently a research fellow at the National Registry of EMTs. ESO has raised approx. $40M to date from investors including Accel-KKR and Austin Ventures.
  • Forcepoint, an Austin cybersecurity company, announced Matt Preschern as its new CMO. He was most recently senior VP of marketing at CA Technologies. Forcepoint was acquired by Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) for $1.9B in 2015.
  • Austin-based enterprise identity software developer SailPoint (NYSE: SAIL) added Heidi Melin to its board of directors. Melin is Chief Marketing Officer of Workfront.
  • Gary Keller returns as CEO of nation’s largest realty company, Keller Williams Realty. That means John Davis is out as the chief executive. He led the company for two years.
  • Praxent, a digital product development firm, announced several key hires. Deanna Dial, a former VP of product at Austin-based Modernize, joined the team in 2017 and is now principle of product strategy. Ryan Spanswick, a former senior manager of product design at Blackboard, became the director of product design. Jamie Gelo, formerly of Mutual Mobile and uShip, came on as director of product management. And David Moore, formerly of Trendkite, became marketing director.
  • 9 Austin tech companies name new executives

Austin News

  • Austin startups raised $1.5B in venture funding across 219 deals in 2018, closing the year strong with $422M across 53 venture capital deals in Q4. This is an increase of approx. 75% over Q4 2017.
  • For those paying attention, Phunware’s stock price is off to a dramatic start in 2019. The cloud software provider that manages the app development lifecycle, had its shares climb more than 2,000%, since its merger with Stellar Acquisition Inc. in late December, thrusting it into the public market.
  • Texas is No. 1 state for Female Entrepreneurs
  • WeWork just purchased another portion of downtown Austin. The company currently operates five local WeWork locations with a sixth on the way near the capitol building. They purchased 4.7 acres just to the southwest and southeast of the Red River and Cesar Chavez intersection
  • Austin Retains Crown As King Of Texas VC In 2018
  • According to WalletHub, Austin is the 4th best market for STEM Professionals. The data set ranges from per-capita job openings for STEM graduates to annual median wage growth for STEM jobs to projected demand for STEM workers by 2020.
  • RapidDeploy, an emergency dispatch cloud system founded in South Africa, has moved its headquarters to Austin as it looks to expand its presence in the United States
  • SXSW announced 50 finalists for its SXSW Pitch competition held March 9-10 during this year’s festival and conference.
  • 5 tech companies that recently expanded operations in Austin
  • Austin-area office rents hit record high at year-end
  • Juniper Square, an investment management software provider supporting real estate investments based in Austin and San Francisco, plans to double its Austin headcount this year. The company recently raised a $25M Series B.
  • Chariot, a San Francisco van transportation service, is shutting down all its transit services Feb. 1. It marks a rather abrupt end to the startup’s journey, which started in 2014 and included a 2016 acquisition by Ford. Chariot launched its app-based services in Austin in October 2016. We were its second market.
  • Austin wins Bloomberg climate change challenge

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Thank you!
Mason Rathe
Twitter: @mason_rathe

LiveOak Venture Partners

Think you might be a fit for LiveOak, if I missed a deal, or have feedback, you can reach me at [email protected] If your company is recruiting for a senior level position, happy to include a shout-out.

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Austin Weekly Deal Highlights · Austin, Texas · Austin, TEXAS 78731 · USA