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. 

Euphoria

With a recent $250,000 series A funding in their pocket, tech startup Euphoria is aiming to further their mission of helping individuals in the transgender community make their gender transition as easy and seamless as possible. Euphoria’s platform currently has three prongs, Clarity, Bliss and Solace. Each prong is designed to provide resources for different aspects of the transition process. 

Clarity is a self tracker and helps keep track of elements like gender identity, gender expression and gender attraction. Bliss on the other hand is a saving tool designed specifically for the transgender community, offering both saving and goal itemizing tools. Solace, meanwhile, provides information and resources to guide individuals through whatever trangender process they seek. 

Euphoria is currently the largest app in the U.S. dedicated to the trans community, and is backed by investors like Chelsea Clinton and Gaingels. With the recent series A funding, Euphoria seeks to grow its team, move its office to Austin, and develop a new prong: Catharsis. According to Built In Austin, Catharsis will be an emotional and mental health platform. 

Interplay Learning

Austin-based startup, Interplay Learning recently earned a $18 million Series B funding round. The capital raise was led by Owl Ventures and S3 ventures with additional investments from Strada Education Network, The Ventures Reality Fund, SJF Ventures, Holt Ventures, Wild Basin Ventures and Shelter Capital Partners. The virtual reality training startup plans to use the new cash to expand into new markets according to their press release. 

Interplay Learning is an online provider of online and VR training for skilled trades such as HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Solar, Multi-family Maintenance and Facilities Maintenance. Using VR and 3D simulation, Interplay is able to offer individuals hands-on experience. Where most trade licenses can take years to acquire, Interplay learning guarantee job-ready status within weeks after the start of training. 

Katana Graph

Katana Graph, a startup that uses graph computing to analyze unstructured data, recently received $28.5 million in a Series A round. The funding round was led by Intel Capital followed by Dell Technologies Capital, WRVI Capital, Nepenthe Capital and Redline Capital. According to Austin Inno, Intel Capital investment director Vijay Reddy will join Katana Graph’s board. The startup has raised $33 million to date. 

Currently, Katana Graph’s platform serves customers in the pharmaceutical, financial security, identity and security sectors. Founders Keshav Pingali and Chris Rossbach founded the company in the spring of 2020. Both founders are professors at UT. Pingali teaches computer science while Rossbach is a computer science assistant professor and previously served as the senior affiliated researcher at VMware research group. Katana Graph plans to use their new funding toward developing new product lines and hiring more employees. 

Sunroom Rentals

Favor Delivery founders, Ben Doherty and Zachary Maurais, founded a real estate tech company in 2018 called Sunroom. Last week, Sunroom earned a $11 million Series A funding round led by Gigafund. According to Techcrunch, Sunroom’s mission is to boost the profitability of mid-size property managers and apartment owners by providing them a means to outsource their leasing operations.

Essentially, Sunroom enables renters to find, tour, apply for and lease a unit online rather than in person. The app is free to use for renters as the company charges landlords and property owners to post on the Sunroom site. Sunroom leases units five times faster than the market average and has signed over 2,000 leases since its launch. 

Episode Six

Fintech startup Episode Six reported on February 24th a $30 million capital raise. The recent funding comes nine months after a $7 million Series A funding round, bringing the company’s total amount raised to $40 million. Investors for the recent capital raise include HSBC, Mastercard, SBI Investment Co. Ltd., and Anthos Capital. 

Episode Six enables financial institutions, fintech companies and other businesses in creating new digital payment journey’s that are not obliged to legacy systems or third parties to implement. According to FinExtra, Episode Six will be using the new funds to further global expansion, expand their team, and grow their key financial markets. Episode Six currently operates in the US, Tokyo, Singapore and London.

Rollick

Rollick closed an $8.5 million capital investment last week bringing the total amount invested to $22 million. Investors in the recent capital raise include Sandbox Insurtech Ventures, TechNexus Venture Collaborative, Dallas Venture Capital, Alumni Ventures, London Technology Club, LiveOak Venture Partners, Silverton Partners, Autotech Ventures, ManchesterStory, Anthem Venture Partners, and Capital Factory.

Rollick operates GoRollick Powersports, RV and Boat Buying Program Marketplace. According to the press release, Rollick executed initial program rollouts in 2020 with strategic partners in the finance and insurance space as well as the power sports manufacturers space. Rollick plans to use the new investment to expand these programs and secure new programs from players in the recreation industry seeking to tap into Rollick’s expanding customer base. 

More Fundings

Austin Business Journal reported in a roundup a $1.5 million capital raise for Austin based Handsome App. Handsome App is a platform designed to provide beauty professionals with equal career opportunities. The roundup also reported a $2.5 million capital raise for Heart Genie Inc., a startup that has developed technology to heat up canned beverages in two minutes. In addition, Realstuff Inc. raised $2.5 million of a planned $7.5 million offering in an amended regulatory filing. 

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.