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.

Royal 

Earlier this year, Royal, an Austin-based startup, raised $16 million in its seed funding round. Now, this startup recently announced raising a $55 million Series A funding round, according to Built in Austin,  The funding was led by Andreessen Horowitz and had contributions from prominent artists such as The Chainsmokers and Logic and additional investments from Coinbase Ventures, Founders Fund, Paradigm, and Creative Artists Agency. 

Buying CDs and physical copies of albums isn’t as common as it used to be because of online streaming services. Due to this, less than 15,000 musicians, out of the 8 million artists on streaming services, make more than $50,000 per year from streaming royalties. Luckily, Royal has found the perfect solution. This startup allows online music streamers to purchase ownership and earn royalties directly from their favorite artists. 

With its new capital, the company will use it towards growing its network, as more than 120,000 users have signed up to Royal and more continue to pile their way in.  

Uplevyl 

Shubhi Bhonsle-Rao, a former senior executive of Alphabet Tesco, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Ford Motor Company, has been involved in the tech industry for over 20 years. According to Silicon Hills, she explains that the lack of women representation in Silicon Valley has bothered her for some time now. So, she decided to do something about it. Last Tuesday, Bhonsle-Rao announced the launch of her new company Uplevyl at the Hotel Van Zandt in downtown Austin.

Uplevyl will offer ad-free original content, like videos and podcasts, that’ll provide members with valuable information from global industry experts, leaders, and mentors. Although people can find informational content like this on other platforms, Uplevyl is different because it is specifically tailored towards women. 

Samsung Electronics

Samsung recently announced building a $17 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility in Taylor, where chips for mobile devices, 5G, high-performance computers, and artificial intelligence will be made. The company plans to build this plant in the first half of next year and projects to complete it by the second half of 2024. 

With a total investment of $47 billion and over 20,000 employees in the U.S., big companies like Samsung continue to build plants and expand in Texas due to the state’s thriving business climate. According to Silicon Hills, the new plant is predicted to bring more than 2,000 high-tech jobs. 

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.