Want to stay up to date on the latest startup fundings, launches, and expansions in Austin? Startup Over Coffee’s weekly roundup of startups to watch in Austin will keep you in the loop on the latest Austin tech news. 

DISCO

Last month, DISCO announced the completion of it’s $100 million fourth-quarter financing. The financing consists of a $40 million debt investment from Comerica and a $60 million equity investment from Georgian, LiveOak Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, the Stephens group, and Byer Capital. According to the press release, DISCO’s total amount raised is $235 million, including the $100 million financing. The Austin legal tech startup is now valued at $785 million. 

DISCO uses AI technology and cloud computing to help lawyers and legal teams save time and energy by sorting through thousands of documents and deciphering which ones are important to a case. The legal tech startup offers software products DISCO Ediscovery and Disco Case Builder in addition to its cloud technology platform. DISCO plans to use their new funds to continue investing in advanced technology so that ultimately, their system can address the entire litigation process.

ReturnSafe

With the global pandemic still raging on, some organizations and individuals have adapted to working from home while others are ready to get back to the office. ReturnSafe is an Austin startup founded to assist people with contact tracing, symptom screening and vaccine programs. Through these programs, ReturnSafe is dedicated to helping people return to work in the safest way possible. 

The latest addition to ReturnSafe’s platform allows employees to share their vaccination record charts. Employers can then have a greater understanding of workplace safety and liability and give the okay to any vaccinated employees to come back to the office. In addition to its vaccine management program, ReturnSafe is able to provide a daily symptom checker, a testing dashboard to quickly log results and quarantine management tools. According to Austin Inno, ReturnSafe recently announced it has raised a $3.25 million funding led by Fifty Years and Active Capital, to support it’s workplace safety integration efforts. 

Qualia

Austin’s newest unicorn Qualia recently raised a $65 million Series D funding round at a valuation of over $1 billion, bringing the startup’s total funding to $160 million, according to Built In Austin. Qualia is a real estate tech company that aims to completely digitize all aspects of the closing process. In a post-covid world, where people are more inclined to doing things remotely, Qualia’s business is thriving. Qualia’s team nearly doubled last year and the company is currently looking for positions to fill as we enter the new year. 

In addition to Qualia’s new unicorn status and its significant funding round, the real estate tech company announced it acquired Adeptive Software, the developer of a title and escrow production software called ResWare. 

Gawq

Serial entrepreneur, Joshua Diabiak, recently launched a new startup called Gawq. Gawq is a news app that aims to provide people a more diverse and informed perspective on the news. Diakiak got the idea for Gawq through his own experience when he served as the CMO for insurtech startup The Zebra and he was trying to get marketing content on the right social platforms and in front of the eyes of the right market. He learned that the content that gets the most attention is the content that gets the most clicks and vice versa. So when a startup has a quality product or service and is trying to get their message out into the world, the feat seems almost impossible. 

Gawq allows users to filter out whatever information they don’t want to receive such as celebrity news, opinions, and non-news such as profiles or other pieces not related to current events. The app also lets users compare news stories across a variety of sources as well as rate and review articles. According to Austin Inno, several thousand users have registered for Gawq. 

About Savannah Burns: Savannah is a Business Development Associate for Swyft, which is a tech PR agency in Austin and Houston and a top digital marketing and PR agency in Denver since its founding in 2011. Swyft recently opened a satellite office where it offers tech PR in San Francisco. Swyft was also listed as one of the top tech PR agencies in Texas by the B2B services review site, Clutch.co.