Welcome to the second installment of San Antonio Business Journal's inaugural Startups to Watch, part of San Antonio Inno, which was launched last year to add a new dimension and companion website to SABJ’s business coverage, focusing solely on startups, technology and innovation. Startups to Watch is a list of new local companies compiled by reporter Donna Provencher that are poised to make a big impact in the year to come. You can read part one here, and part three here.
MedCognition
A San Antonio startup founded in 2016 by emergency physician, educator and former Army brigade surgeon Dr. Kevin King, MedCognition’s goal is make high-fidelity patient simulations available to all medical care providers — from EMTs and doctors to nurses. Simulators have, in the past, been cumbersome and unrealistic. That’s why King was inspired to design PerSim, a realistic, transportable patient simulator that can provide valuable training to those on the frontlines of health care. PerSim is available for simulations of adult, pediatric, obstetric and geriatric patients, and online and remote simulation sessions can be streamed either in a classroom setting, at the site of an incident, or in the emergency or operating room. The company is currently helmed by interim CEO Russell Unrath, a nearly 20-year veteran of the IT solutions and integration industry. In 2020, MedCognition launched military-specific medical training modules for the U.S. Army to facilitate trauma training for battlefield settings and mass casualty incidents.
Irys Technologies
Irys Technologies was founded in 2017 by CEO Alberto Altamirano, Chief Operating Officer Alberto Gomez and Chief Financial Officer Eduardo Bravo with the intention of creating apps to help local governments, corporations and military bases improve communication with online communities. The fledgling company was awarded a contract in 2017 to revamp the 311 app for the city of San Antonio. The app — which enables the city and residents to communicate directly — provides information about community news that affect residents, such as vandalism, street repair and aggressive stray animals. It raised $1.2 million in capital in a funding round led by Good Growth Capital. Engagement soared when they began awarding points to those participating and interacting on the app. Use of the San Antonio 311 app has soared to 50,000 users and by the beginning of 2021 had received more than 150,000 message requests. It’s also expanded into cities like Mission and Hidalgo, and has contracts with Mexico City and the national tourism office of Mexico, among others. In 2018 CEO Altamirano was named to the Forbes “30 under 30” list.
Perytor Therapeutics
Perytor Therapeutics, a scientific research and development startup launched in 2020 by biomedical engineer and CEO Ramon Coronado, is developing a new kind of anti-inflammatory treatment it hopes to release to the U.S. retail market. Since the active agent in live stem cells is both anti-inflammatory and regenerative, Coronado made it his goal to produce the agent as a biologic — a drug product extracted from or biosynthesized from a living organism — as an alternative to the use of actual live stem cells for the treatment of various conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and degenerative joint disease. In 2020, Perytor Therapeutics was formally named one of Pepperdine University Graziadio Business School’s 20 Most Fundable Companies. In 2021, the company began raising a seed fund of $1.5 million to put toward its formal application for FDA approval.
Wholesome Meats
This San Antonio startup, founded in 2020 by CEO Kent Wuthrich, supplies sustainable beef to grocery stores — most notably H-E-B in a deal reached in 2021 — and is committed to animal welfare and nutrition. Before its H-E-B partnership, the company sold its products primarily online. Wholesome Meats’ other partnerships with independent ranchers enable the company to achieve its sustainability goals, since the ranchers grow biodiverse plants and raise high-quality cattle, feeding them only the top portion of the grass. The company also recently began supplying burgers to The Cove, a restaurant geared toward sustainable, organic offerings — and some of the proceeds are then donated to the San Antonio Food Bank.
Alt-Bionics
Alt-Bionics, a San Antonio-based medical device company, has a lofty mission: delivering low-cost, high-quality alternatives to typical high-cost prosthetic limbs. The company is currently developing A.I.-enhanced bionic prosthetic devices for amputees and those living with limb differences. San Antonio native Ryan Saavedra launched Alt-Bionics in June 2020, basing the company on a project he did at the University of Texas at San Antonio. In May 2021, Alt-Bionics was accepted into the San Antonio-based startup accelerator program VelocityTX Bioglobal Accelerator. The company also raised $279,000 in pre-seed financing in 2021 from investors including VelocityTX, the San Antonio Economic Development Committee and Alamo Angels. In October 2021, Alt-Bionics won $22,500 from the TechFuel pitch competition hosted by TechBloc. Upcoming plans for the company include converting it from an LLC to a Texas C Corporation, reducing device costs and expanding into the global market.
Braustin Homes
Siblings and San Antonio natives Alberto and Jason Piña founded Braustin Homes in 2017. Calling itself the “nation’s first virtual home dealer,” the company uses technology that enables people to tour and buy mobile homes or manufactured homes without having to visit the dealership. This streamlined process also helps lessen the price of the homes, which start at about $65,500 for a double wide and $40,500 for a single wide. Its headquarters is located at Geekdom in San Antonio’s downtown tech district. Braustin Homes opened its first hybrid in-person and virtual dealership in Atascosa County in July 2020, and in November 2020 raised a seed round investment of $1.875 million. In December 2021, it opened its second dealership in Odessa. Parent company Braustin Homes Inc. launched a new financial technology product, PorchPass, in November 2021, that opens up opportunities for homeowners that might not qualify for traditional mortgages by giving them the opportunity to rent their home while working toward qualifying for a traditional loan to own later.
Renovo Concepts
San Antonio biotech company Renovo Concepts Inc., founded in 2017 and currently helmed by CEO Mark Standeford, is focused on commercializing clinical tools to aid recovery from brain, heart and spine injuries. Its new invention? The Mechanical Tissue Resuscitation device, developed by Dr. Michael Morykwas and Dr. Louis Argenta, for the purpose of lessening inflammation and damage incurred after traumatic brain injury. With traumatic brain injury being a frequent cause of death in the active-duty military community, Renovo Concepts was one of the earliest recipients of seed funding from the San Antonio Military Medical Innovation Fund, receiving $50,000 from the city of San Antonio project. Last spring, Renovo Concepts closed its $6 million private equity funding round intended to facilitate the device’s evaluation by the Food and Drug Administration.
