Weekly Roundups: 4 Austin Startups to Watch


Michelle Vernaza
Weekly Roundups: 4 Austin Startups to Watch

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.

Devolver Digital Inc.

According to Austin Inno, Devolver Digital, a gaming company established in Austin in 2009, has gone public on the  London Stock Exchange. Through offerings, the company raised $261 million in funds and has reached $950 million in valuation. In addition to the company’s major public offering, Devolver Digital also acquires gaming companies Croteam, Dodge Roll, Nerial, and FireFly Studios. 

Devolver Digital publishes digital entertainment made by independent artists worldwide. Not only will the company’s recent accomplishment be a massive milestone for improvements in its overall product execution and customer experience, but Austin’s gaming ecosystem will see a positive change as well. 

ZenBusiness Inc.

Austin-based ZenBusiness raised a $200 million funding round led by Oak HC/FT giving it a making its valuation of $1.7 billion and allowing it to reach unicorn status. According to Austin Inno, contributing investors include SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Cathay Innovation, and Greycroft. 

Founded in 2017 by Ross Buhrdorf, ZenBusiness assists small businesses in starting, running, and growing a successful business. This company is committed to supporting millions of small businesses by providing worry-free services, world-class support, and an all-inclusive platform that gives companies information that’ll help them through their business lifecycle. 

Although a large part of its fundraising efforts and all of its employee work is done remotely, Buhrdorf explains that ZenBusiness is close to being one of the fastest-growing companies in Austin.

Elevate Brands

Elevate Brands, a company that resells other brands and businesses on Amazon, has recently announced raising a total of $372 million in debt and equity funding this year.

In 2019, CEO of Elevate Brands Ryan Gnesin  bought his first Amazon company. As he progressively started launching his own brand and acquiring others, the company now has 25 brands under its name. 

Now that Elevate Brands is headquartered in Austin, the company expects to hire more employees and grow its team of 20. According to Built in Austin, Elevate Brand is currently in the process of owning its own office space in downtown Austin, where it’ll have space for 30 employees. Gnesin plans on doubling down on Austin and is looking forward to growing across the city. 

Code42

With the global cybersecurity market continuing to expand year after year, many cybersecurity companies are doing everything they can to stay on track with this rapid growth. Code42 is one of these companies. According to  Built in Austin, Minneapolis-based Code42 has recently announced opening new office spaces in Atlanta and Austin. A  company spokesperson explained that the decision to open offices in both of these cities was due to them being  up and coming tech hubs in the U.S. that will  allow the company to develop into the more diverse and innovative side of tech. 

Along with its move, Code42 deals with over 50,000 organizations worldwide and will continue to see growth in these upcoming years. The company plans to expand its team in departments such as front-end web development, talent acquisition, field marketing, web experience and strategy, product management, software development, sales, and customer support. 

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.

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