Randy Harig Archives - StartupsSanAntonio.com

VelocityTX Innovation Hub Receives City of San Antonio Incentives for Development

14Feb

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

VelocityTX Innovation Hub Receives City of San Antonio Incentives for Development

The San Antonio City Council approved a package of economic development incentives Thursday for the ambitious Texas Research and Technology Foundation (TRTF) project on San Antonio's Eastside.Robert McDermott founded TRTF in 1982 as an economic development nonprofit with an endowment fund for investing in early-stage companies. The $5.7 million incentive package is earmarked for the renovation of the empty complex of Merchants Ice and Cold Storage Company buildings on the 1300 block of East Houston Street, as well as for the construction of TRTF's new Velocity Center within the complex.The Velocity Center will house the new VelocityTX biomedical sciences innovation center. The approved package included a $750,000 Chapter 380 agreement or economic development grant with the rest st...

San Antonio Hub To Foster Pediatric Medical Device Development

8Oct

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

Articles, Featured

San Antonio Hub To Foster Pediatric Medical Device Development

The San Antonio-Austin hub of a pediatric medical device consortium announced Monday it is actively looking for innovative pediatric medical device entrepreneurs in need of investment and development resources.The Southwest National Pediatric Device Consortium (SWPDC) recently received a U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) five-year grant for $6.75 million. Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH), the largest children’s hospital in the U.S., and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), one of the largest recipients for pediatric federal research funding in the U.S. anchor the consortium. The FDA grant went into effect Sept. 1. and will enable the consortium to support pediatric medical device innovators with product, technology, and business acceleration services both regionally and nationally....

Trinity $25,000 Stumberg Competition Yields A Winner AND Runner-Up

27Sep

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

Articles, Featured

Trinity $25,000 Stumberg Competition Yields A Winner AND Runner-Up

Trinity University student entrepreneur team Quick Sip, producer of a specialty cold brew bottled coffee, won the $25,000 grand prize in funding Thursday in the final round of the annual Louis H. Stumberg Venture Competition.But that is not the entire story.The competition was fierce among the four finalist teams. The Stumberg competition is a two-part pitch event hosted each spring and the fall. This year’s finalists emerged out of 10 original teams that competed in the seed round last fall and included the grand winner of the $25,000, Quick Sip cold brew bottled coffee. The four finalists each won $5,000 in seed funding in March and participated in Trinity’s accelerator program over the summer.Read more: Trinity University Awards Seed Money at Stumberg CompetitionOf the r...

VelocityTX Puts Ambitious Plans into Action for Innovation

10May

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

Articles, Featured

VelocityTX Puts Ambitious Plans into Action for Innovation

The latest architect renderings of the new home for VelocityTX , an innovation hub to be located in the former Merchants Ice building, was only one of Texas Research and Technology Foundation's (TRTF) announcements. TRTF president and CEO Randy Harig updated over 200 attendees gathered at the foundation’s quarterly Emerging Venture Pipeline event Thursday on its latest efforts in fostering San Antonio's innovation. Updates covered the spectrum of technology, life science, clean energy, and student entrepreneurship developments, as well as the launch of VelocityTX's programs.The first building to be completed in the Merchant Ice complex will be VelocityTX's new headquarters, with groundbreaking expected sometime in the next three weeks, Harig said. The building should be finished someti...

21Mar

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

Articles, Featured

VelocityTX Announces New Leadership

Jorge Varela has stepped down as CEO of VelocityTX as announced in a March 21 statement from Texas Research and Technology Foundation (TRTF).Varela was hired May 2017 to lead VelocityTX, the innovation arm of the longstanding TRTF. Both are tasked with promoting economic development and investing in San Antonio-based businesses. VelocityTX’s focus is to accelerate the process of commercializing ideas, products, services, or processes and guides both domestic startups and international companies entering the market in the U.S.Varela confirmed his departure with Startups San Antonio via text but did not provide further comment.Varela spent the last five years as the director of the startup incubator Tech Fort Worth and was the associate director of entrepreneurship at the UNT Hea...