2015 was a booming year for Austin. We saw startups hit big milestones, companies raise some serious dough and there were a few huge acquisitions. It's no secret that Austin's booming, and growth is happening across everything we cover. Austin companies have raised over $1 billion this year which even more than the halcyon days of the late 90's ($800 million in 1999). So we'll break it down, Sesame Street style, and give you the A to Z of what's been booming in ATX.
A. Series A Gap: With Austin Ventures failing to raise another fund, many in Austin were wondering what's going to happen to the Series A rounds for companies here. In 2015, we did see companies raising series A rounds with Austin investors, but many of them needed to get help from New York and Silicon Valley. Silverton Partnters and LiveOak Ventures -- both founded by former Austin Ventures partners -- are helping close the gap with some good success.
B. Biotech: Austin biotech companies raised a good chunk of change in 2015, with companies like Chiron Health ($2.3 million), AptimiR Therapeutics ($3 million) TVA Medical ($15 million) and Savara Pharmaceuticals ($18.5 million) getting growth funding from near and far.
C. Cleantech: Following the Paris meetings, we saw a renewed focus on clean energy. Austin's in a position to succeed, contributing 13 startups to the cause, generating roughly $2.5 billion to the local economy. Now that's some serious green. Illumitex and Treehouse are among the companies leading the charge in Central Texas.
D. Density: Austin's startup density is higher than that of any other city, according to a report published by the Austin Technology Council and Austin Chamber of Commerce. This bodes well for our startup future as many of these companies will hopefully grow to into game-changing companies. We'll have to wait and see how well they do in the future, but from here it looks bright.
E. Ed Tech: Ed Tech in Austin saw big fundings, coming from Aceable raising a $4.7 million seed round and Civitas Learning raising $60 million in growth equity from PE firm Warburg Pincus.
F. Fundings: Austin companies brought in over $1 billion dollars in total funding this year. Not too shabby.
G. Gamergate: In October, SXSW received online threats focused on their panel discussing harassment in gaming. They responded by canceling the panel. Then they caught heat from the press and advocates, admitting their mistake. While all this was going on, the discussion became about the role of women in tech and gaming. All the drama surrounding those couple of weeks showed just how impactful online threats are and while SXSW is supposed to be the paragon of open communication in the tech community, they were concerned for their panelists' safety. But in the end, they made the right decision, stepping up security measures around the panel so we can discuss in depth the role of harassment in an all-day summit.
H. HomeAway: This year one of Austin's biggest tech companies was acquired by global travel booking site Expedia for $3.9 billion. As the on-demand booking space heats up with the sky-high valuations of Airbnb, HomeAway was a good way for Expedia to compete in the hotel and growing on-demand rental markets. It's also proof that Austin can build and grow a B2C company not only to IPO but to multi-billion dollar acquisition.
I. IPO: Austin saw 3 IPO's last year with Xbiotech, Mirna Therapeutics, and Skinnypop going public. Our guesses for 2016 include Spiceworks, Civitas Learning, TabbedOut, Mozido, and DrillingInfo if financing rounds and key hires prove to be any indication.
J. Jobs: Covering jobs this year, we learned that data analysts have the best jobs, software engineers are getting PAID, Indeed is letting engineers compete for jobs, Oracle is hiring a ton of people here, and Austin just passed 2 million residents. Growth is gonna happen with all these high-paying jobs here, but lets just hope everyone rides their bike.
K. Kickstarters: We got to peek at a bunch of cool stuff coming from Austin creators on Kickstarter and the physical products we saw were great. Some of our favorites were the Makerarm, Minim, Studio Neat's cat laser/babysitter, Supermechanical's smart thermometer and of course the mini kegerator.
L. Learning: This year we covered a lot of what's going on in Austin's education space, from high school future entrepreneurs to Acton building them from the inside out. And there's a bright future for students in entrepreneurship -- MOOC's are gaining steam and in our Education Innovation panel, St. Edward's Business School Dean Nancy Schreiber made a point that diplomas should last a lifetime, not just until new technology usurps what people have learned.
M. Merger: I'm not sure if y'all have heard, but Dell is set to acquire EMC software. While a lot of people have slung dirt on Dell about their lack of innovation, what we see is an opportunity for the company to change its appearance, both internally and externally. The deal cost a few bucks - $67 billion - and Dell is set to spin out a bunch of these pieces. Whether it's outright an sale or via IPO, Dell is using the funds to pay down debt taken out to pay for EMC as well as reduce it's bloat. This saga will continue to play out, but Dell wants to make sure it can fit in its wedding dress before the marriage and once they combine, we'll have to see how Dell's going to structure the combined company - are they going to continue to sell off non-core pieces or will they blaze forward with EMC as-is?
N. Nom nom: Food was a big winner in Austin in 2015. Stubb's BBQ sauce was bought by McCormick for $100 million, UberEATS launched, AmazonPrime Now Restaurant Delivery kicked off, Favor hit 1 million customers, Harvest launched, Snap Kitchen raised a ton of money, Skinnypop Ipo'd and Tiff's Treats raised big money. It sure seems like the future of Austin's startup success lies in the pits of our stomachs. We're looking forward to more of this next year when Porsche-racing Joi Chevalier's Cook Nook food tech incubator opens up in early 2016.
O. Offices: From WeWork to the newest coworking space Open Source, Austin's got some great offices opening up for early stage founders. In addition to the coworking spaces, we got to see some very super totally awesome houses and offices.
P. Public Companies: This year, public companies in Austin were struggling a liggle bit with Whole Foods, Retailmenot, and Solarwinds failing to surpass expectations. But there's a silver lining here: HomeAway was acquired, and so was Freescale Semiconductor. That will bring some big bucks to Austin and more money that will hopefully be reinvested in the ATX startup landscape.
Q. Quotes: My favorite this year, taken way out of context: "We're in someone's intimate space and want to be sure we do a really, really good job of servicing them."
R. Regulations: City Hall has been busy this year, passing new regulations on Uber/Lyft and Airbnb. While we're in the tech hub of a very low-regulation state, many of the residents here are decrying the role city hall is deciding to play in the process. There are definitely people on both sides of the debate and the impact of these "new economy" services operating freely. Whether it is safety with TNC's or rising rents caused by Airbnb/HomeAway, City Hall got busy and put rules in place for both types of services. The amount of change they produce, whether positive or negative, is yet to be seen.
S. Self-Driving Cars: Texas got an early Christmas present from California this year when Google decided that they'll be relocating more of their self-driving testing to the Lone Star State. The decision follows the California DMV proposing regulations that require drivers in the autonomous vehicles, something which Google has never explicitly said is their ultimate goal. So you'll see plenty of self-driving cars around Austin, and maybe in the future, cars with no drivers.
T. TNC's: Transportation Network Companies, namely Uber and Lyft, battled this year with City Hall over regulations to implement fingerprint-based background checks. The battle was heated and snarky, and now that the council passed the regulations 9-2, it may drive the companies out of town, but it may be up to voters.
U. Unemployment: Austin reported an unemployment of under 4% for the full 2015 year, which caused some issues for seasonal hiring. But this is a good thing! This is as good the unemployment rate has been since 1999 before that *ahem* pop we heard.
V. Virtual Reality: 2015 was the year that virtual reality turned the corner. Many hardware providers started revealing and selling their headsets, but Austin's Lynx Laboratories was quietly making cutting-edge technology for 3D scanning and virtual reality. They were acquired by Occipital in November.
W. Women in Tech: In November we got to attend a female entrepreneurs summit which revealed how differently (and maybe better) women work compared to men. We also put together a list of over 30 women-led companies in Austin, a number that's been growing steadily since we posted it.
X. X Marks the Spot: If you're looking for the end of that treasure map -- and I think we're all zeroing in on it -- it's the 512.
Y. YOU! You, our dear and lovely readers make this all possible. We appreciate all the support, content, ideas and well-wishes over our first year and we're looking forward to seeing you all in 2016!
Z. Zoe Schlag: She's done enough in her lifetime so far to make all of us feel like we could do a little bit more. Going from Boulder to Brazil, Guatemala, Chile, Argentina and India, she's been doing good everywhere along the way. Now that she's launched UnLtd USA in Austin, she's helping social impact startups in Austin get the mentorship and exposure to investors that they need to change the world. Now let's follow her lead with our New Year's resolutions.
