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. 

Featured image by Airtable.

AlertMedia

Built In Austin announced that Austin based startup, AlertMedia recently hired former CNN executive Sarah Pratly as vice president of global intelligence. Pratly worked at CNN for 12 years where she recently served as the vice president of national news for the domestic news-gathering unit. At AlertMedia, Pratly will lead a team responsible for monitoring and communicating wildfires, terrorist attacks, and other emerging threats to AlertMedia customers. 

AlertMedia, an emergency communication platform, allows businesses to send mass notifications to employees during critical events such as severe weather, terrorist attacks, and network outages. After sending an alert, the organization is able to communicate with employees via two-way communication systems. 

Data.world

Data.world, an Austin based startup, recently received a $26 million funding round led by Tech Pioneers Fund. The funding round brings the company’s total valuation up to $71.3 million. The new capital will be used towards accelerating Data.world’s agile governance initiatives and scaling to meet market demands for its enterprise platform, said Austin Inno. 

Data.world’s platform allows users to link, query, catalog and analyze different sets of data. Its open data community enables users to share data and statistics about a wide range of topics from fantasy sports to the Covid-19 pandemic. Founder, Brett Hurt, stated that revenue is up by 100 percent in 2020 and the recent funding round was oversubscribed. 

Sprinklr

Sprinklr, the customer experience management platform with a large presence in Austin, just secured $350 million in a recent funding round, bringing the company’s valuation up to $2.7 billion. $200 million of the funding comes from equity firm Hellman & Friedman, while $150 billion comes from Sixth Street Growth in the form of convertible securities. 

Sprinklr’s customer experience management platform provides businesses with a variety of channels to communicate with customers including 23 social media channels, 11 messaging channels, chat, SMS, and email. In addition, Sprinklr provides marketing, advertising, research, care, and engagement assistance. Built In Austin reported that Sprinkler is planning to use the new funding to continue building its platform. 

Orchard

Austin based real estate startup, Orchard, received a $69 million Series C funding round led by Revolution Growth. The funding round brings the total valuation up to $138 million, according to Built In Austin. Orchard plans to use the funding to expand its product offerings and triple their number of employees. 

The real estate company allows people to use Orchard’s cash to buy a home before their old one is sold. Orchard makes sure that people are not responsible for their new mortgage until the sale on their old home is final. Without Orchard, people may sell first then move twice, or they buy as a contingent buyer and rink not getting the home they want. Orchard aims to eliminate unnecessary stress and modernize the real estate industry. 

Airtable

Airtable, a San Francisco based unicorn startup, is planning to hire more people for its Austin office after a $185 million funding round. The funding round will help propel Airtable in competing with industry giants Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, according to Austin Business Journal.

The funding round was led by Thrive Capital and joined by Benchmark and Coatue Management, Caffeinated Capital, D1 Capital, and CRV. The company’s total valuation is now $2.5 billion. In addition to expanding its Austin office by about 100 people, Airtable plans to use the funding to support the next stage of Airtable product features. Now, users will be able to create custom applications using a simple Java script coding. 

Nanospectra

Nanospectra Biosciences Inc., a medical device startup, recently received a strategic investment from healthcare giant Sirtex. In exchange for the equity investment, Sirtex received preferred shares in Nanospectra’s initial closing of a series B-1 round in addition to appointing a board of director member and having the exclusive right for negotiating use of Nanospectra’s product, Aurolase, is select countries.

According to PR Newswire, Nanospectra’s product, Aurolase, is designed for prostate cancer tissue ablations. Auralase is the first and only cancer tissue ablation therapy designed to maximize treatment efficiency and minimize side effects associated with surgery, radiation and more. It uses AUroshells, Nanospectra nanoparticle technology, to thermally destroy solid cancer tumors which in turn, minimizes damage to adjacent healthy tissue. 

Nanospectra is pioneering the patient-centric use for selective thermal ablation. The recent investment will provide Nanospectra with the resources it needs to further development for Aurolase.

About Savannah Burns: Savannah is a marketing and communications intern for Swyft, which is a PR firm in Austin and Houston and a top digital marketing agency in Denver since its founding in 2011. Swyft recently opened a satellite office where it offers PR in San Francisco.