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. 

Bumble

Bumble, a popular dating app known for empowering women to make the first move, has filed plans to go public. According to Crunchbase, the Austin based company is targeting an initial public offering (IPO) in February, possibly around Valentine’s Day. 

The company reported nearly 42 million active users as of the third quarter of 2020 and around 2.4 million paying customers as of September 2020. Furthermore, Bumble reported a revenue of about $377 million between the end of January 2020 and the end of September 2020. Investors include Accel, Greycoft and Blackstone Group.

Literati

Book club subscription startup, Literati, recently announced a $40 million Series B funding round, according to Austin Inno. The recent funding was led by managing partner of Felicis Ventures, Aydin Senkut. Other investors include former CEO of Twitter and co-founder of 01 Advisors, Dick Costolo, co-founder and managing partner of 01 Advisors, Adam Bain, Silverton Partners, Springdale Ventures, Founders Fund, General Catalyst and Shasta Ventures. 

The recent funding round brings Literati’s total amount raised to $55 million. In addition to hiring new people and developing new departments such as business development, sales, advertising, IT and support, CEO Jessica Ewing has a few other goals that the new funding will help to actualize. First, Ewing is working towards using machine learning technology to promote a love for reading amongst children. The AI approach would sift through millions of books and pick five best suited for each individual child. A second goal for the book subscription startup is developing a one of a kind Literati app. 

Darwin Homes

Darwin Homes recently announced a $15 million series A funding round, bringing the total valuation up to $19 million. The funding round was led by Canvas Ventures followed by VC firms Camber Creek, Khosla Ventures and Wave Capital. Darwin Homes plans to use the new capital to expand their markets beyond Austin. According to Built In Austin, the property management tech startup has its eyes set on Florida, Ohio, Tennessee, Colorado and North Carolina. 

Darwin Homes aims to make property management easier for homeowners and renters alike. The startup pairs its property management software platform with local property managers to provide users with any help they might need throughout the leasing and management process. To successfully provide this service, Darwin Homes employs Origin as its management automation software. With Origin’s software, Darwin Homes is able to act as the central hub for all things home related, including accounting, inspection, maintenance, repairs and more. 

Sapphire Ventures 

Palo Alto venture capital firm, Sapphire Ventures, not only announced 10 new hires and 8 significant promotions, but also a company expansion into four new markets across the U.S. and Europe. The four new offices will be in Austin, San Francisco, New York City and London. According to the press release, Nino Marakovic, CEO and Partner of Sapphire Venture, and Beezer Clarkson, Partner and Head of Sapphire Partners have spearheaded the process of opening the Austin office. 

The eight promotions were: Cathay Gao and Laura Thomson both promoted as Partners to Sapphire Ventures and Sapphire Partners, respectively (both Gao and Thomson were investors prior to their promotions); Ashley Calwell promoted to General Council; Annalise Dragic and Nate Leung both promoted to Principal of Sapphire Ventures and Sapphire Partners, respectively; Thomas Moon was promoted to Vice President of Sapphire Partners; Phillip Seifert and Casper Wang both earned promotions to Vice President of Sapphire Ventures. 

Blackstone LaunchPad

A $5 million grant from the Blackstone Charitable Foundation will support the Blackstone LaunchPad program. According to Austin Inno, the program will give students at UT campuses across the state access to mentoring, fundraising networks and events that will enable students to develop products and attract the attention of potential investors. 

While Blackstone LaunchPad already exists on UT Austin and UT Dallas campuses, the program will be expanding to UT El Paso, UT Permian Basin, UT Rio Grande Valley, UT San Antonio, UT Medical Branch in Galveston and UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Each campus will focus on unique markets. For Example, UT Permian Basin will focus on energy, water use and other climate related ideas while UT Rio Grande will focus on trade, logistics and distribution activity. Furthermore, each campus will have its own discretion on how to use the allocated funds. 

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.