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

Olea Edge Analytics

As more and more people struggle with sufficient water access year after year, many companies are focused on creating easily accessible water resources and sustainability. One of those companies is Austin-based startup Olea Edge Analytics. 

According to Austin Inno, Olea Edge Analytics has recently raised a $35 million Series C funding round led by New York-based company Insight Partners. In addition to finding new ways to help stimulate its renewed focus on water sustainability, Olea Edge will use its new funding money to hire 50 employees over the next year. 

Founded in 2014, Olea Edge uses AI technology to monitor city water systems and manage critical utility assets. Currently, this startup has an office in West Austin, where 70 percent of its employees are based and has raised $50.6 million since its launch.

LOOP

According to Silicon Hills, car insurance company LOOP has closed on a $21 million Series A funding round after only being launched in Texas for a few weeks. This funding round was led by Foundry Group and 01A, with contributions from Freestyle VC, Blue Fog, Uprising Ventures, and Concrete Rose. 

Typically, car insurance companies factor in credit score, income, and education to determine the price of your insurance. These are all details that have nothing to do with driving but make insurance more expensive. LOOP uses AI technology to provide customers with honest, transparent, and reasonably priced car insurance without using credit scores or occupation. 

Just nine months ago, LOOP closed on a $3.25 million seed-stage round funding. With the massive support of investors LOOP has got in the past couple of months, co-founder John Henry expects to see an aggressive acceleration of growth. The startup is already looking to boost its employee headcount from 30 to 1,000 within a year and plans to expand its coverage to an additional 10 states over the next year.

MoToGo

In Austin, a group of engineers, consisting of Phil Chidester, David Ruth, and Roy Stedman, have created a solution for last-mile delivery. MoToGo is an at-home package system that supplies customers with an affordable, simple, secure, equitable, and sustainable delivery method. Although the company is bootstrapped, it has seven U.S. patents that have been distributed on the hardware and software behind the delivery system. 

According to Silicon Hills, the system consists of a black metal box and metal railing installed on the side of your house that’s controlled through your smartphone. Although the business model continues to be a work in progress, MoToGo is still an active company. Subscribers, such as pharmacies and grocery stores, are using its services to ensure well-delivered packages. 

The Fund

According to Austin Inno, several Austin founders are launching a Texas branch of The Fund, a venture capital firm that focuses on backing gritty, diverse startup founders. The Fund will invest in pre-seed startups; however, these Austin founders have taken a specific interest in SaaS, CPG, and health technologies. In addition to taking an interest in tech startups, one of the main purposes of creating this funding firm is to focus on diversifying venture capital funding. 

Although Andy Ambrose, one of The Fund’s Texas branch partners, has said that this capital venture funding firm will raise $2 million to $3 million, the percentage of deals hasn’t been decided yet. Ambrose explains that The Fund is looking to write initial checks later this year. With the help of investors like Dan Graham, Holly Techovsky, Eric Starkloff, and more, the network effect created by the Fund will heavily impact new Austin startups.

About Michelle Vernaza: Michelle is a Business Development Associate Intern 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 also has a small satellite office where it offers tech PR in San Francisco. Swyft has been listed as one of the top tech PR agencies in Texas for two years running by the B2B services review site, Clutch.co.