Featured Archives - StartupsSanAntonio.com

Mind Science Awards $30,000 to BrainStorm Pitch Winner from Stanford Univ.

21Oct

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

Mind Science Awards $30,000 to BrainStorm Pitch Winner from Stanford Univ.

Mind Science, a San Antonio-based nonprofit organization, announced the winner of its virtual 2021 neuroscience pitch competition Wednesday evening. Ben Rein, a Stanford University neuroscientist, won the first-place prize of $30,000 for his research on how social development impacts brain development.Launched in 2018, the BrainStorm Neuroscience Pitch Competition is designed for early‐career neuroscientists teamed with senior primary investigators. The equity-free funding helps support pilot studies so young researchers can demonstrate a proof of concept when applying for grants that can support further investigation. Rein's Ph.D. dissertation focused on autism and the brain. The researcher was "studying genetic risk factors for autism, but now I'm focused on how social experienc...

Rackspace Co-Founder Launches Jobward App For Job Seekers

12Oct

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

Articles, Featured

Rackspace Co-Founder Launches Jobward App For Job Seekers

The demand for talent is real, yet the hiring process isn't nearly as efficient and effective as it needs to be. That challenge to make job hunting easier for qualified candidates is what has been keeping Rackspace co-founder Dirk Elmendorf busy in building Jobward, a new startup for job seekers.Working alongside his brother and long-time collaborator Brett Elmendorf, Natalie Karney, and Drew Hicks, the co-founders seek to help job applicants match their resume to a job posting. The team's research and app-building have taken about two years, as their earlier iteration last fall didn't quite fit the bill.The founders announced Jobward's official launch during a San Antonio Startup Week panel."I had the idea originally when unemployment was at about 4%, before the pandemic," Dir...

Texas Venture Firm Capital Factory Launches Location at Port San Antonio

1Oct

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

Articles, Featured

Texas Venture Firm Capital Factory Launches Location at Port San Antonio

Capital Factory, an Austin-headquartered venture capital firm that helps technology innovators scale their growth via strategic partners and investors, has signed an agreement with Port San Antonio to open its latest location in the Port's Tech Port Center + Arena.The Port's 130,000-square-foot innovation center is located at the corner of General Hudnell Drive and 36th Street and is slated to open in April 2022. The new facility will be home to the expanded San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology, a 24-hour state-of-the-art e-gaming arena, and a collaborative technology research and development (R&D) laboratory for innovators.In addition to its office space, Capital Factory will also operate the Tech Port Center's collaborative tech R&D lab. Capital Factory members working on...

San Antonio’s Newest Business Incubator Emerge and Rise Teaches Small Businesses How to Succeed

22Sep

By Guest AuthorNo Comments

Articles, Featured, Guest Posts

San Antonio’s Newest Business Incubator Emerge and Rise Teaches Small Businesses How to Succeed

Lina Rugova is the founder of the nonprofit Emerge and Rise business incubator, while John Knotts is the co-founder. Their guest post shares about Emerge and Rise incubator resources available for small business owners.New businesses are the economy’s lifeblood, but starting one can be difficult for entrepreneurs who have big ideas but little experience or funding. For starters, service-based businesses are not the same as product-oriented businesses and require different strategic thinking. A service-based business is one that provides an intangible product performed by a team or an individual.To support these small business owners, San Antonio's Emerge and Rise nonprofit small business incubator offers training in business skills, marketing, legal issues, and accounting to give t...

Dry Line Partners Backs Jungle Disk Acquisition of 3 Tech Companies

21Sep

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

Articles, Featured

Dry Line Partners Backs Jungle Disk Acquisition of 3 Tech Companies

The new San Antonio and Austin, Texas-based private equity fund Dry Line Partners LLC has announced its first business acquisitions that will help grow an Alamo City cybersecurity company. Dry Line worked with Porthcawl Holdings LLC to back Jungle Disk’s purchase of three businesses from parent company J2 Global, Inc., a leading internet information and services company with a portfolio of brands. The acquired businesses, KeepItSafe, LiveVault, and OffsiteDataSync., will bring these three "global backup and disaster recovery businesses under a common ownership, increasing the capabilities for us [Jungle Disk] to meet customer needs," said Bret Piatt, CEO of Jungle Disk, a San Antonio online backup software service and data security company.Piatt is an entrepreneur and investor wh...

Atmospheric Water Generation Tech To Debut At Port San Antonio

26Aug

By Iris Gonzalez1 Comment

Articles, Featured

Atmospheric Water Generation Tech To Debut At Port San Antonio

On track to open in spring 2022, Port San Antonio's forthcoming innovation center is already attracting promising advanced technologies to the Alamo City. The Port will be the first to acquire an atmospheric water generation (AWG) system from Genesis Systems, a developer of industrial technology that sustainably generates water. AWG technology produces potable water from the surrounding air by extracting water vapor from ambient air via condensation, rendering the water drinkable in the process. Each Genesis unit is about the size of a shipping container and can be moved easily by rail, truck, or cargo aircraft, converting moisture in the air into more than a thousand gallons of potable water daily.Genesis Systems will install a unit to supply water for the outdoor area at the Port's ...

Robotic Prosthetics Startup Alt-Bionics Raises $283K Seed Funding

16Aug

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

Articles, Featured

Robotic Prosthetics Startup Alt-Bionics Raises $283K Seed Funding

Alt-Bionics founder Ryan Saavedra announced Friday he had raised $283,000 in seed round funding. The investment will get Alt-Bionics closer to its goal of helping those seeking an affordable robotic hand.The amount raised came from angel investments, friends and family, city investment, and venture capital, Saavedra said. The City of San Antonio invested $50,000 from its SAMMI Fund to support medical military innovation, while the Alamo Angels contributed $25,000. Alt-Bionics is also participating in the San Antonio-based VelocityTx BioGlobal Accelerator and has received a $37,000 investment from the program. Alt-Bionics' first investment was $50,000 from participating in the Norfolk State University Innovation Center (NSUIC) incubator program in 2020. The University of Tex...

Legal Tech Startup Creates Platform for Virtual, Hybrid Court Hearings

13Aug

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

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Legal Tech Startup Creates Platform for Virtual, Hybrid Court Hearings

As COVID-19 infections surge in Bexar County, the judge again suspended jury service in early August, despite a backlog of 2020 cases.One San Antonio startup is looking to modernize the technology used in court hearings, capabilities that have changed little since Charles Dickens worked as a court stenographer in London in the early 19th century.BEINCOURT is an end-to-end software and technology platform that supports simultaneous interpretation in the courtroom. Founder and president Sean Nelson, with a long history of working on technology infrastructure, recognized even before the pandemic how courts needed more robust virtual capabilities for those who cannot attend a hearing. "We understood back in 2017 that there is a way to bring remote interpretation into the live cour...

Texas Biomed Levels Playing Field for Female Scientists

28Jul

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

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Texas Biomed Levels Playing Field for Female Scientists

The Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed), a global leader in infectious disease research, is taking concrete steps to level the uneven playing field for female scientists.Research has shown that diverse work teams lead to more impactful scientific studies. Yet, only one in three researchers in the world is a woman, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Add in the COVID-19 pandemic impacts on female scientists that have undone gender-equity gains from the past few decades, and it's clear there's still work to be done to ensure a level playing field for women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research.The 2020 documentary “Picture a Scientist” depicted the "leaky pipeline" or significant drop in women holding post-doctoral research ...

New Dominion Enterprises Wins Air Force Phase 2 SBIR Funding for Energy Innovation

27Jul

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

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New Dominion Enterprises Wins Air Force Phase 2 SBIR Funding for Energy Innovation

A San Antonio startup producing additives to make batteries safer and longer-lasting has gotten Air Force funding to improve the performance of military tactical radios.New Dominion Enterprises, Inc. (NDE), an energy technology company, won an Air Force Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 2 $750,000 contract in July for its battery additive innovation. The company won a Phase 1 $50,000 award in February in a highly competitive submission process. The Air Force Special Warfare program office, which oversees commands that use tactical radios, has signed a memorandum of understanding with New Dominion. Some of the military’s most difficult missions are carried out by specialists who operate in remote, often hostile areas.Acting as a one-person attachment to other spec...