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.

Elligo Health Research 

Austin-based startup Elligo Health Research is on a mission to make clinical trials more accessible. According to Elligo CEO, John Potthoff, 97 percent of physicians don’t participate in clinical trials. Not to mention, people of color and other minority communities tend to be left out and not represented in these trials. Elligo is changing that by using its Intelligo software to help expand the availability of clinical trials and testing amongst doctors and hospitals. According to Built in Austin, Elligo has recently announced raising a $135 million Series E funding round to boost clinical trial participation. 

The leading problem with clinical trials is finding participants outside the usual suburban residents living near university medical centers. However, having access to a diverse group of people can take a long time and become costly quickly. Elligo’s new partnership with Quincy, Massachusetts-based company ClinEdge will connect patients with Elligo’s clinical trials through supplying hospitals with ClinEdge’s administrative and technological resources. For example, if a company is searching for patients to participate in a clinical trial, Elligo will use its electronic health records containing 150 million patients. This database matches patients to physicians, allowing for a broader range of diverse communities to play a part in clinical trials. 

Infineon Technologies

Volkswagen is currently on a mission to break the Guinness World Record for the longest road trip in an electric vehicle. A blue Volkswagen ID.4 uses Infineon’s car chips that allow the car to perform functions such as adaptive cruise control, emergency braking system, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth communication. According to Silicon Hills, driver Rainer Zietlow and co-pilot Derke Collins have just completed their fourth stop on a 37,000-mile road trip at Infineon’s Austin manufacturing plant. 

Infineon is a San Jose-based company that arrived in Austin in April 2020 when it bought Cypress Semiconductor. The company’s Austin plant currently has 1,000 employees and 1.5 million square feet of space. Austin has a significant impact on electric and plug-in cars worldwide, as about 70 percent of the world’s cars contain chips made in Austin. Infineon is already looking to produce over 35 electric vehicles using its power semiconductor technology.

AlertMedia

According to Built in Austin, Austin-based emergency communication startup AlertMedia is expanding its headquarters office to a 70,000 square feet space on the top two floors of the RiverSouth office building. Due to the company’s growing revenue and increased employee headcount, a move was needed to help match AlertMedia’s fast growth. 

Founded in 2013 by CEO Brian Cruver, AlertMedia provides software that allows companies to alert its employees about emergencies such as severe weather, terrorist attacks, and wildfires. AlertMedia continues to see growing revenue year after year, as it’s already reached a client list of 3,000 organizations in 130 countries this past year.

Cruver explains how the pandemic has taught and shifted his perspective on work-life as the company looks to increase employee headcount with its new headquarters. Cruver sees this new space opening up as a new hybrid office culture symbol. Instead of work being a place of individual work, Cruver hopes that these new offices allow for a space for his employees to collaborate, brainstorm, and increase personal connections amongst colleagues. 

Ferry

Founded in July of this year, Ferry is an electric vehicle leasing company that gives customers easier access to leasing electric vehicles through its app. According to Silicon Hills, the way Ferry’s app works is that customers can browse through the app, and as soon as they see a vehicle they want to lease, all they have to do is provide a driver’s license, a bank account/credit card, and undergo a credit check. Customers get a car, the vehicle charger, and 1,000 miles a month on the vehicle through the subscription. 

According to CEO Kristian Russell, the primary goal of Ferry is to provide a cheaper and more accessible way for people to lease out electric vehicles. In addition, he hopes that this app will positively influence the environment and reduce carbon emissions.

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.