Austin Weekly Deal Highlights for November 05, 2018

From: “Mason Rathe” <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, 05 November 2018 03:27
To: [email protected]
Subject:Austin Weekly Deal Highlights 11-4-18

Austin Weekly Deal Highlights

By Mason Rathe – November 4, 2018

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Looks like we’ve snared ourselves another billion dollar business. Smart home tech maker Resideo Technologies (NYSE:REZI), which was recently spun out of Honeywell, is moving its HQ from Minnesota to Austin, and will become the largest publicly traded company in the Austin area (based on revenue), moving ahead of the current leader, chipmaker Cirrus Logic. Dell would of course take that title back if they return to the public markets, which has a shareholder vote set for December. In other news, daylight savings is still a thing.

Austin Financing Activity

• Wellvana, an integrated software platform intended to coordinate physicians across the continuum of care, raised $4.5M of venture funding from investors including Martin Ventures.
• Eventus Systems, a regulatory and compliance software provider, raised $649K in new equity funding. The company has raised approx. $8M to date.

Austin M&A Activity

• GitLinks—an open source risk management platform—was acquired by enterprise planning software provider Infor for an undisclosed amount. The company raised $612k in seed funding from investors including Morgan Stanley and Newark Venture Partners.
• Assembla, a developer of source code management software, was acquired by Houston-based database management provider Idera, via its financial sponsors HGGC and TA Associates Management, for an undisclosed amount. Assembla was previously acquired by San Antonio-based ScaleWorks in 2016.

Other Regional Activity

• Frisco-based aircraft maintenance software provider EmpowerMX raised $5M of venture funding from undisclosed investors. The company has raised approx. $14M to date.
• Elan Financial Services, an Irving-based provider of mobile and digital payments systems, sold its third-party debit processing solutions to Fiserv (NAS: FISV) for $690M.
• Geophysical Technology, a Houston-based developer of an autonomous seismic recording technology, raised $3M of angel funding from undisclosed investors. The company has raised $17M to date.

Austin People

• National Instruments (Nasdaq: NATI), the producer of scientific testing equipment, promoted Eric Starkloff to president and chief operating officer. He was previously executive vice president of global sales and marketing.
• Medici, an Austin telehealth and video chat company, added Anne Jude Hunt as its VP and head of product. She was previously director of product management and data intelligence platform at Castlight Health. Medici has raised over $50M to date from investors including Dell, Publix and Swordfish Investments.
• FirstClose, a mortgage software provider, appointed Patrick McClain as its chief financial officer and chief operating officer. McClain was most recently CFO at Xplore Technologies (NASDAQ: XPLR). Firstclose received a multi-million dollar investment from Dallas-based Cypress Growth Capital in September.
• Fluence Bioengineering, a maker of LED lights for indoor plant growing, appointed David Cohen as its new CEO. This follows their acquisition by German firm Osram Licht AG earlier this year. Previously, Cohen worked for more than 20 years as an engineer and executive in the lighting field.
• Absolute (TSE:ABT), an endpoint visibility and control company, named Christy Wyatt as its CEO. Wyatt was formerly the CEO with security company Dtex Systems. Absolute is headquartered in Vancouver and has its U.S. HQ in Austin. • The Top Austin Tech and Startup Hires and Departures in October 2018

Austin News

•  Resideo Technologies (NYSE:REZI), a company recently spun out of Minnesota-based Honeywell, is establishing its HQ in Austin, and will move here in 2019. The company, which makes HVAC tech and security systems, is valued at $4.8B. Employing 14.5k people globally, and with 2018 projected sales of approx. $4.8B, it would be Austin’s biggest public company based on revenue. Resideo would employ about 100 people at its Austin headquarters.
• Austin Startup Funding, Acquisitions and Venture Capital Activity October 2018
• Apple is considering buying a stake in the largest U.S. radio group, San Antonio-based iHeartMedia, in a bid to boost its streaming service. iHeartMedia filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
• Activist investor Carl Icahn sues Dell over IPO plan. Last month, Icahn disclosed an 8.3% stake in a tracking stock for Dell Technologies’ position in VMWare, and said he will actively oppose Dell’s plan to return to the public markets via a $22B reverse merger with that tracking stock. Dell announced a December shareholder vote on the deal.
• HP Enterprise gives $10M to University of Houston’s Data Science Institute, which was launched a year ago.
• Austin-based dating app Bumble is dropping its $400M lawsuit against Dallas-based Match Group, which had claimed Match fraudulently obtained trade secrets during acquisition talks. However, Bumble is preparing to refile its suit at the state level. The two companies have been doing battle in the court system for some time after Match Group failed to acquire Bumble twice — once in a deal that would have valued it at over $1B.
• 2018 Fast 50 unveiled: Austin’s quick-growing companies
• The University of Texas, home to one of the most powerful lasers in the country, will receive $1.2M to fund its portion of a nationwide network of schools working with high-intensity lasers. It’s part of a $6.8M U.S. Department of Energy project.
• E-Discovery platform DISCO is expanding in the United Kingdom, with a new European data center and office. The company last raised $20M in December from Bessemer and LiveOak Venture Partners.
• Why VC firm Quake Capital Partners moved its headquarters from NYC to Austin.

Upcoming Events

• November 5-9th, Austin Design Week
• November 6th, Genesis Fireside Chat with Founder of Palantir, 8VC and OpenGov
• November 6-7th, Time Machine, the annual summit held by cognitive computing analytics SparkCognition
• November 8-9th, Global Corporate Venturing Venture Houston conference
• November 14th, The State of Texas Venture Capital
• November 15th, Final deadline for 2019 SXSW Pitch Event

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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