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. 

Jungle Scout

Austin based company, Jungle Scout, recently closed another funding round bringing their total valuation to $110 million to date. According to Austin Inno, the amount of the recent funding led by Summit Partners, a Boston based investment firm, was undisclosed. 

Jungle Scout’s platform assists companies seeking to sell on Amazon and continues to help them build their business using Amazon. With the increased adoption of e-commerce platforms, Summit Partner’s backing will enable the company to help merchants and big brands alike who are seeking additional help online. 

Jungle Scout has already allocated a portion of the capital investment toward the acquisition of Downstream Impact Inc., a Seattle based startup focused on Amazon advertising. Another portion of the capital will go toward extending the SaaS platform to facilitate selling through Walmart. In addition, the capital raise will contribute to the growth of the company’s advertising and brand management capabilities. 

Cardlytics acquires Dosh

Cardlytics, an Atlanta based company, recently announced its plans to acquire Dosh, an Austin based startup whose platform provides cashback for millions of consumers from thousands of merchants. What sets Dosh apart from the competition is its ability to individualize each customer experience by providing the right offer to the proper person at the perfect time. Since its launch, Dosh has expanded its product offering by enabling financial institutions like Venmo, Betterment and Ellevest to use Dosh’s platform on their own digital channels. 

Cardlytics, on the other hand, aims to help marketers obtain new clients and increase brand loyalty. With the acquisition of Dosh, the now singular company will be equipped to give advertisers the ability to engage with customers through some of the world’s most well known financial institutions, neobanks, and fintech companies. According to The Fintech Times, Cardlytics is acquiring Dosh for $275 million. 

MP Cloud Technologies

Geekdom Fund, a San Antonio based venture capital firm has raised $1.17 million in a sidecar equity funding round for Austin startup MP Cloud Technologies. A sidecar investment is when one investment group makes decisions for a larger pool of investors. 23 investors were involved in the MP Technology capital raise, with the largest investment amount being $5,000.

MP Cloud Technologies creates billing, claims and dispatch software for ambulance companies, according to Austin Inno. MP’s software is compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act as well as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. With the recent capital raise, the cloud technology companies total amount raised is $3.37 million to date. 

SpaceX

Aerospace manufacturing company SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, announced on March 2nd the company will break ground on a state of the art facility based in, you guessed it, Austin. The new facility will be closely related to the beta stage project, Starlink. According to Austonia, Starlink is a high-speed, low-latency broadband internet system powered by a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites. It is suitable for rural areas or areas that receive little or no internet connectivity. 

The Austin SpaceX facility will manufacture products such as Starlink dishes Wifi routers, and mounting hardware. The facility location is still unknown. The SpaceX announcement comes after Elon Musk’s move to the Capital City and the building of Tesla’s Gigafactory located in Southeast Travis County.

About Savannah Burns: Savannah is a Business Development Associate for Swyft, which is a tech PR firm 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.