Austin, Texas. Image: f11photo/Shutterstock
If you are going to SXSW in March, be sure check out these amazing local start-ups in Austin.
Some of the best start-ups in the US aren’t in Silicon Valley. They are in places such as Austin in Texas, home to the annual SXSW tech and culture fest, which takes place from 10-19 March and is one of the hottest tickets on the global tech calendar.
Ahead of the event, which will no doubt be scoured by investors and entrepreneurs keen to discover the next big thing, we recommend that you get a taste for the local start-up scene, too.
Famous start-ups that have emerged out of Austin include HomeAway, Bazaarvoice, RetailMeNot, Spiceworks, SolarBridge Technologies, SpareFoot, UShip, Rooster Teeth, Spredfast, Pivot and Volusion.
Just this week, Austin-founded Indeed revealed that it was doubling its workforce in Dublin to more than 1,000 people in the next two years.
So here they are, some of the many start-ups worth checking out in Austin.
Skills Fund
We're proud to introduce our newest quality partner in Portland, @TheTechAcad. Together, we'll make sure everyone has a seat at the table! https://t.co/NxIvZaPhaI
— Skills Fund (@Skills_Fund) February 16, 2017
Skills Fund believes that student loans should work just like investments. It is a student financing and quality assurance platform for outcomes-based skills training programmes. The company raised $11.5m in a seed round in 2015.
Verb
Verb runs massive social entrepreneurship competitions to accelerate thousands of ventures around the world with funding, by connecting large corporations and foundations to social entrepreneurs. The company raised $2.3m in seed funding in 2015.
Yonomi
Dual-headquartered in Austin and Boulder, Yonomi is a mobile app and cloud service company that automates the user’s interactions with connected devices. The company connects devices like Sonos, Jawbone, Nest and others. Founded in 2013, it raised more than $745,000 in funding from Deming Centre Venture Fund.
Atlas Wearables
Atlas Wearables is a fitness monitor that identifies your exercises, counts your reps and sets, calculates the calories burned and evaluates form. It emerged from Techstars in 2013 and has raised $2.3m in equity funding so far.
YouEarnedIt
9 Ways to Motivate High Performing Employees — According to Them – HR Daily Advisor https://t.co/wkOPV5sR9C pic.twitter.com/7lCWJrgr0o
— YouEarnedIt (@youearnedit) February 17, 2017
A peer-to-peer recognition platform that allows employees and employers to recognise workers for a job well done, YouEarnedIt could be a culture-changer in the workplace. The company has raised $8m in funding so far, with its most recent $6.5m fund closing in January.
TrendKite
TrendKite transforms how brands and media companies measure the impact of their PR campaigns. The company has raised $36.6m in investment to date.
Javelin Networks
Javelin Networks’ all-in-one, AI-driven platform could define the future of IT security. The company’s technology neutralises hackers by hiding the entire real network topology. The company raised $5m in Series A funding earlier this month.
Factom
Factom is a system for securing millions of real-time records in blockchain with a single hash. This gives businesses the tools to build apps with all the security of blockchain without the cost, time or size limitations. The company has raised $6.4m in funding to date, with the most recent $750,000 Series A funding coming in earlier this month.
Continuum Analytics
Continuum Analytics is the company behind Anaconda, an open data science platform powered by Python. It has been downloaded more than 11m times so far, and the company has raised $29.5m in funding to date.
Favor
Favor uses runners to do your shopping for you and aims to be the fastest and easiest way to get anything you want – food or shopping – delivered to your door. The company has raised $15.6m in funding to date.
Liveoak Technologies
Liveoak Technologies is a real-time collaboration, communication and e-signature platform that helps to make paperwork simple. The company has raised $1.74m in funding so far.
LawnStarter
LawnStarter is an online landscaping service that allows users to schedule lawn mowing, fertilisation, trimming and other services from vetted local providers. The Techstars graduate has raised $7.2m in funding to date.
Broomly
Broomly makes managing and maintaining your home easy through its handy scheduling app. The company raised $1.3m in seed funding in 2015.
Localeur
Localeur is aimed at travel junkies, providing them with useful information provided by locals on things such as places to eat, drink and stay. The company has raised $5.3m in funding to date.
Dropoff
Dropoff is in the business of reinventing on-demand same-day delivery for businesses with powerful APIs and last-mile logistics at its core. The company has raised $7m in funding to date.
