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.

Homeward 

Homeward, an Austin real estate startup has landed a $371 million investment, which includes $136 million in series B equity funding and $235 million in debt, according to Austin Inno. The funding was led by Northwest Venture Partners, with the help of Javelin, Adams Street, Blackstone Alternative Asset Management, LiveOak Venture Partners, and Breyer Capital. Homeward’s main focus is to transform traditional real estate into an easier and more modern way for homeowners to sell their homes. Founded in 2018 by a local real estate agent, Homeward enables real estate agents to assist buyers with purchasing houses with cash offers. 

With a consistent increase in funding and a valuation of over $800 million, Homeward is hiring in different areas such as the marketing and finance departments. Home purchases and customer interactions with the startup are growing, which creates a promising outlook for Homeward in the years to come.

Beam 

According to Austin Inno, Beam, an Austin nonprofit organization supporting women startup founders, has recently made Leigh Christie their new CEO and executive director. 

Founder Jan Ryan created Beam in 2014 to support women-led businesses. Beam’s primary objective is to help women build up their name and skills to help improve their startup company. Leigh Christie, previously a senior VP of Greater Austin Area Chamber of Commerce, makes her debut as two-year-long CEO of Beam, Jess Gaffney steps down. Christie will continue to support building women companies, specifically in terms of funding. With the help of angel investors, Beam has raised $1 million in funding, has attracted 46 investors, and has received over 170 job applications to its fund. 

Virtuix 

Austin-based virtual reality startup, Virtuix, has raised more than $19 million in funding with the help of over 6,500 investors. In hopes of creating a video game requiring users to stand and move around, this funding will go towards Omni One, a multi-directional treadmill aimed at creating a virtual world for users, according to Built in Austin. Omni One has already been installed in different entertainment venues such as Dave & Buster’s, and has been used by over 2 million people around the world. It’s said that Omni One will be ready to purchase for at-home use later this year, retailing at $1,995.

Rev.com 

Rev.com, a startup that offers speech-to-text services, is planning a major job expansion in Austin, according to Austin Inno. Founded in 2010 by five MIT students, Rev.com supplies the world’s largest group of speech-to-text freelancers and the best automatic speech recognition artificial intelligence. 

Due to the rapid growth in the tech scene in Austin, Rev.com plans on opening 130 new jobs in their engineering, product, marketing, and sales departments in their Austin location, effectively doubling their employee count. Since Rev is the biggest speech-to-text company in the world, many businesses are looking forward to Rev’s expansion in Austin and hope to be a useful resource for tech companies around the area.

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 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.