Posts Tagged ‘kyle cox’

ihiji, a Provider of Cloud-Based NMaaS Platforms for Remote Monitoring and Support of IP-Enabled Devices, Joins the Austin Technology Incubator

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

The Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a not-for-profit unit of the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas at Austin, welcomes ihiji to its IT portfolio as a full member company. ihiji, (ī hē΄jē), is a provider of cloud-based Network Management as a Service (NMaaS) platforms for remote monitoring and support of IP-enabled devices, and has been a part of ATI’s Landing Pad Program since 2010.  

The Landing Pad Program supports early stage technology companies by leveraging ATI’s network and community insight to accelerate that company’s acculturation into the Austin business ecosystem. ihiji founders, Stuart Rench, President; Michael Maniscalco, Vice President of Technology; and, David Rench, Vice President of Finance, started a residential design-build home automation company with the idea that home electronic systems could be simplified using better engineering and application of technology. In 2010, after building a successful integration firm in West Palm Beach, Florida, they sold their company to focus solely on ihiji invision, a cutting-edge network management solution, and moved to Austin to be part of ATI. In 2011, the company hired Seth Rubenstein as Director of Sales and Business Development. In 2012, ihiji completed development of a more scalable, flexible and secure architecture and decided to apply the platform into other bigger markets, such as IT markets focused on IT Value Added Resellers (VAR) and corporate IT departments who manage a large number of branch locations. Ready to go on the fundraising circuit, ihiji decided the timing was right to move into full membership at ATI to take advantage of its additional benefits, such as deeper engagement with ATI directors and further access to ATI’s established network of peers, mentors, businesses, and investors.

“Not only is Texas a great state for businesses, but Austin is on the rise, has a wonderful tech community and is also very livable. The structure of ATI was a good fit for our company and the Landing Pad Program helped us easily relocate from out of state and not miss a beat,” said Stuart Rench, President of ihiji; adding that “ATI staff has been great. They’re there when you need them for ideas, thoughts, reviews and introductions. We’re also able to take advantage of multiple directors depending on our challenge, which is nice because they each have their own perspectives and areas of expertise.”

ihiji’s new NMaaS platform is based on the same cloud-based architecture as its award-winning remote monitoring and support solution, ihiji invision, and lowers its clients’ capital and operating expenditures, increases productivity, and improves profit margins by minimizing equipment and network outages.

“ihiji is a classic example of a services business successfully morphing into a scalable product company providing enterprise software solutions. ihiji fits perfectly into the sweet spot of Austin’s tech ecosystem and ATI’s IT portfolio. In working with the ihiji team as they transitioned from the Landing Pad Program to a full member company, the team continually impresses with their vision and discipline as they have shifted gears and moved into the next phase of their growth strategy,” said Kyle Cox, ATI IT/Wireless Director.

ihiji’s NMaaS platform is in private beta, and the company is seeking participants from the Small to Medium Businesses (SMB) and/or IT Value Added Resellers (VAR) channels. To learn visit http://itbeta.ihiji.com/, email itbeta@ihiji.com, or call 512.538.0520 ext. 2003.

Contact:

Laura Beck for ATI

laurabeckcahoon@gmail.com

512-786-1098

 

 

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Austin Technology Incubator Graduates Seven Wireless Companies Including Axelo, Famigo, GameSalad, Nitero, RFMicron, Unwired Nation and Wimax.com

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Tonight, at a special graduation and alumni event, the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a not-for-profit part of the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas at Austin (UT), will graduate 21 companies.  Of those 21, seven companies were part of ATI’s Wireless portfolio, including Axelo, Famigo, GameSalad, Nitero, RFMicron, Unwired Nation and Wimax.com.  These companies have collectively achieved impressive business successes, such as garnering $20 million in funding and collaborating on an international scale.

Over 20+ years, ATI has developed and refined industry specific capabilities, currently organized into Information Technology, Wireless, Clean Energy and Bioscience sectors. In each industry sector, ATI brings its portfolio companies deep domain expertise and market- and technology-specific networks of advisors and investors. Tonight’s graduation event showcases successes in all four sectors, including seven amazing companies in wireless.

ATI, in partnership with UT’s Wireless Networking and Communications Group (WNCG) and the City of Austin, launched its Wireless program in 2006, ahead of the smart phone/iPhone/Android explosion. Now, as the world approaches 50 billion connected devices, ATI continues to build on the wireless expertise in Austin with its current companies and these seven successful graduates. ATI-Wireless and WNCG also co-host the Texas Wireless Summit and works with the Central Texas Angel Network to host the Wireless Seed-Stage Forum annually. In addition, ATI-Wireless has a special relationship with the Wi-Fi Alliance, the international wireless standards and certification organization, which moved to Austin in part due to support from ATI and was housed at ATI until it outgrew its facilities in 2010.  ATI-Wireless also works closely with MobileMondayAustin, the second oldest chapter in North America of the global MobileMonday network.  The seven Wireless graduates include:

Axelo is developing breakthrough hardware and firmware solutions for 3D motion-sensing products. Axelo, Inc. patented the first 3D motion-based PC controller, which led to a successful solution for spatial disorientation and motion sickness. Currently, Axelo is embedding its technology into sports headwear to provide a preventable solution for contact sports traumatic brain injuries. ‘Letters of Intent’ have been procured from two leading manufacturers of sports equipment.

Famigo makes mobile technology work for families. Famigo creates a better mobile experience for parents and kids by providing them will the tools to discover, manage and enjoy content & apps on smartphones and tablets. Famigo simplifies app discovery through our reviews and recommendations on Famigo.com and makes Android devices kid-safe with our free app, Famigo Sandbox. Famigo’s proprietary technology captures and crowdsources user behavior to provide the best reviews and recommendations available. Famigo’s products have received praise from outlets like Forbes.com, WSJ Online, Killer Startups, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Vator News, VentureBeat, Austin Chronicle, and Famigo Sandbox was rated CNET’s 2011 Best App of the Year for Parents.

GameSalad is an online community that empowers everyone to express and share their ideas through games. GameSalad provides a platform used by creators to rapidly design, publish and distribute original games that have been played by millions of people worldwide. It is currently the number one platform for iOS development and boasts 300,000 developers. 30,000 games have been built with the GameSalad Creator since its 2007 founding. Now at 60 employees and growing, all this was accomplished with just a little over $7 million funding since inception.

Nitero, a fabless semiconductor company with a design center in Melbourne, Australia and headquarters in Austin, Texas, has developed a standards-based, next-generation 60GHz Wi-Fi solution for smartphone, tablet, Ultrabook™ and gaming platforms, bringing multi-gigabit-per-second video and data transfer with extreme low power and latency. Nitero is a great success story demonstrating the power of collaboration between experienced Austin entrepreneurs and top Australian universities and research institutions, such as the University of Melbourne and National ICT Australia. In 2011, Nitero raised an additional $1.6 million after receiving a $1.4 million grant from Commercialisation Australia.

RFMicron is the first in the wireless tracking industry to offer a complementary hardware and software package, consisting of RFVlink, a web-based software platform and RFMicron’s own passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip, configured with RFMicron’s proprietary Chameleon technology; allowing any reader to read RFMicron tags from 30 feet on any material, and anywhere in the world. RFMicron joined ATI in 2007, and in 2010 garnered $1.5 million in funding and added three directors to its board. RFMicron was named one of the Most Promising IT and Web Companies at the 8th Annual Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship IT and Web Venture Forum in Houston in 2010.

Unwired Nation has evolved ahead of the wireless space since its founding in 2004. Today, Unwired’s platform helps B2B web application companies with unique customer branding requirements transition to native apps across all major mobile platforms. Unwired Nation’s ability to rapidly deploy mobile apps leveraging customer’s existing web applications and customer relationships has attracted companies like VoiceTech and Q2ebanking, leaders in pharmacy and financial services, respectively. It also attracted $6.5 million in funding, which closed at the end of 2011.

WiMax.com provides equipment, resources and tools that enable operators to deploy high-speed 4G wireless broadband networks. The company is technology agnostic and works with most fixed broadband wireless technologies. The company also provides news, analysis, expert opinions and case studies on the industry at www.wimax.com.

“These seven wireless companies continue the incredible legacy of wireless technology innovation in Austin and demonstrate that ATI-Wireless retains a prominent role in the next wave of technologies – whether hardware or software,” said Kyle Cox, Wireless Director.  “ATI-Wireless has a great partnership with UT from its relationship with WNCG to its support of several courses and events for students.  ATI-Wireless has also helped the Austin community to become a prominent source of innovation while the wireless industry has rapidly evolved in the last several years.”

Contact:

Laura Beck for ATI

laurabeckcahoon@gmail.com

512-786-1098

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The 9th Annual Texas Wireless Summit Provides an Interactive Forum on Wireless Innovation

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

The 9th annual Texas Wireless Summit (TWS), co-hosted by The University of Texas at Austin’s Wireless Networking and Communications Group (WNCG) and Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), continues its tradition again this year as an interactive event for leaders in the wireless industry to discuss emerging technologies and new business models, changing the industry over the next few years.

Register to attend the event on Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center at The University of Texas at Austin at www.twsummit.com. The early bird special ends October 7, 2011. TWS 2011 is also still in need of sponsors. Review our sponsor program on our site and then contact ATI-Wireless and ATI-U Director Kyle Cox at kcox@ati.utexas.edu to start process.

Leading business and wireless technology execs, research academics, venture capitalists, corporate investors and high-potential startups will inform and engage attendees on disruptive innovations and trends in the wireless industry. TWS 2011 will also include the MobileMonday Austin showcase, an interactive showcase of innovative mobile applications. Additionally, WNCG will host two break-out poster sessions to show their latest research in wireless innovation and answer audience questions.

“Austin is at the nexus of wireless: research and commerce, and so we are excited to once again co-host the 9th annual Texas Wireless Summit, bringing together the latest from industry and academia to explore and discuss trends affecting the industry,” said Kyle Cox, Director of ATI’s Wireless and University incubators.

The TWS 2011 keynote speaker is Roberto Padovani, Executive Vice President, Qualcomm, Inc. Others speakers include Dr. Jim Truchard, Co-Founder & CEO, National Instruments, Jerry Pi, Director, Samsung Telecommunications, Brian Modoff, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Tom Crowe, CEO, Virginia Diodes, Ted Rappaport, WNCG, Founding Director, NSF WICAT Center at UT Austin, Dr. Mike Knox, NYU Polytechnic, and Dr. Fa Foster Dai, Professor, IEEE Fellow, Assoc. Dir. of AMSTC, Auburn University. Topics to be discussed include, “Terahertz Wireless Devices”, “The Data Explosion Continues” and much more.

Dr. Bob Metcalfe, Professor of Innovation at UT Austin, will moderate the Venture Capital Panel. Panelists include Eric Zimits, Granite Ventures, Ned Hill, DFJ Mercury, Al Schuele, Sevin Rosen, and KP Wilska, BRV Ventures. Jeff Andrews, Director of WNCG, NSF WICAT Center at UT Austin, will moderate “The Rapid Evolution of Cellular Networks: Femto, Pico and all that” panel discussion. Panelists include David R. Wolter, AT&T, Amitava Ghosh, Nokia Siemens Network, Tingfang Ji, Qualcomm, and Phil Kelley, Crown Castle.

Jeff Andrews, WNCG Director said, “We are happy to continue to co-host the Texas Wireless Summit. The quality of the TWS 2011speakers, WNCG academic poster sessions, and the panel discussions forecasting the upcoming trends in the wireless industry and the challenges of today and tomorrow will make this year our strongest event yet.”

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Austin Technology Incubator Names Robert Reeves Director of IT Portfolio

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

The Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a part of the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas at Austin is pleased to announce the addition of Robert Reeves to head up its IT and Wireless Portfolio as Director.  Reeves joins ATI after being part of the incubator as a portfolio company, working with ATI to take Phurnace, the company he co-founded with Daniel Nelson, from inception to acquisition by BMC, in less than five years.

Reeves will primarily focus on bringing his real world entrepreneurial expertise to ATI member companies in the IT space, as well as supporting ATI wireless companies.  He, along with the full ATI team, focuses on aiding in market validation, product development, talent acquisition and fundraising efforts.  Reeves joins a strong ATI team that has 22 years of proven experience working with over 200 start-up companies, helping them raise over $750 million in capital.  Over just the past three years, 50 ATI member companies have received over $75 million in funding, and ATI alumni companies have had over $300 million in positive exists through acquisitions by large technology players such as IBM and BMC, which acquired Reeves’ company Phurnace.

Reeves, along with co-founder Daniel Nelson, brought their start-up, based on a unique Java development tool, to ATI after winning UT-Austin’s business plan competition.  Along with ATI, they grew and developed the company, solidifying the solutions, securing growth capital and bringing in experienced industry talent to help manage the business.  Phurnace was sold to BMC Software in 2009 for an 8x return to investors.  Phurnace Deliver, invented by Reeves, is an active product of BMC, providing middleware infrastructure management to companies such as Aetna, Bank of America and Wal-Mart.  

“My ATI experience was fantastic, and such a great success story all around of how the process should work, and what the results can be,” said Robert Reeves, Director, IT and Wireless Portfolio at the Austin Technology Incubator.  “The support that surrounds you and the energy in the halls is just infectious and I’m thrilled to be going back to ATI, to help pass on all I learned and experienced to other technology companies.” Beyond being an ATI portfolio company with Phurnace, Reeves was also an intern at ATI way back in the early 1990’s, so his ATI roots run deep.

The ATI IT Portfolio supports companies in as broad of categories as silicon metrology, chip architecture, server architecture, chip design and build tools, enterprise software, robot control systems, social network platforms, “enterprise 2.0” tools, gaming environment platforms, and “big data”/semantic web tools and platforms. There is also significant collaborative work with the Clean Energy and Bioscience portfolios.  Reeves will also provide support to ATI’s Wireless Portfolio, in concert with another new ATI addition, Kyle Cox, who leads ATI’s on campus activities, such as 3 Day Startup and the ATI-SEAL program (Student Entrepreneur Acceleration & Launch).  Reeves and Cox jointly replaced Bart Bohn, who formerly led these areas, and recently departed ATI to be COO of another ATI portfolio company, Ravel, which is focused on Big Data.

“I’m so thrilled to have Robert back at ATI, now on the “other side,” in a leadership role for our IT companies,” said Isaac Barchas, ATI Director.  “As we dive into our third decade, things are extremely bright at ATI.  We are growing our areas of focus and the value we provide, to levels that require expansion of our team and the addition of talent like Robert and Kyle Cox.  And we are watching our former colleagues move on to wonderful opportunities ATI helped foster, such as Bart’s role at the fast growing Ravel.”

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To Go or Not To Go, That is the Question for ATI’s SEAL Teams

Monday, July 18th, 2011

The Austin Technology Incubator’s (ATI) 3rd annual Student Entrepreneur Acceleration and Launch (SEAL) program is well underway and teams are already reaching some critical milestones on their way to validating their business models and assessing the viability of their entrepreneurial ventures.

This summer’s teams include:

  • ARC Chemicals has developed a novel waste treatment process that generates high-value nitrogen compounds from current anaerobic digestion models.
  • PHeir Health is disrupting the healthcare IT space with a scalable, cloud-based SaaS solution targeted at helping prevent medication errors.  
  • ShapeScan is commercializing a 3D body surface scanning technology that quickly combines weight and scanning inputs to immediately determine subject’s BMI and body fat percentage.
  • Vecturalux has developed ParaLux™, a fiber optic technology yielding 15x speeds and 3x distance over multimode fiber; vital for bandwidth growth in data networks, consumer electronics and telecommunication.
  • Virtegrity is developing a suite of information security tools focused on the difficult and burgeoning area of virtualized servers.

It began quickly at SEAL Kick-Off day, June 7, 2011, as each team gave 15-minute quick-pitches to a packed room of ATI advisors and industry mentors, highlighting their technology and presenting their startup’s three most threatening potential deal killers. The subsequent 5 weeks have entailed many late nights, countless face-to-face strategy sessions with mentors, and hundreds of phone calls, emails, and meetings with potential customers and strategic partners as they continue to validate and iterate their initial assumptions and business models.

During the final 3 weeks of the program, the teams will be stretched to their limits as they execute against their task lists, validate their assumptions, and strive to reach their identified critical milestones. For some, that is completing SBIR grant applications and identifying initial funding sources, others that is landing their critical first pilot customer, and yet others are faced with exploring new markets and reassessing their initial thesis as the results of initial trials have come in.

The SEAL program provides facilitated contact with industry and the real world by delivering:

  • Coaching and mentoring by ATI Directors and Industry Advisors
  • Structured problem solving with an ATI senior associate & interns
  • An enforced timeline and clear deliverables
  • A co-working environment at the heart of the Incubator 

During the program the teams develop team-specific roadmap, milestones, and analysis where they:

  • Breakdown business issues into specific analyses
  • Perform primary research through facilitated introductions with industry and technology experts by ATI leadership and relevant industry advisors
  • Vet conclusions and recommendations from analyses with ATI leadership and relevant industry advisors

Don’t miss this year’s SEAL Decision Day, set for August 2, 2011, 4-6 p.m. in the ATI auditorium. (WPR Building, 3925 West Braker Lane, Austin, 78759)

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ATI Announces 2011 Summer SEAL Participants

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

The Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a nonprofit unit of The University of Texas at Austin, announced the kick-off of the 3rd annual Student Entrepreneur Acceleration and Launch (SEAL) program today to follow-up on the successes with previous participating startups Mutual Mobile, Solavicta, Wibole, Ordoro and SpectraPhase. 

In both 2009 and 2010, five startups participated and several went on to be successful startups. Mutual Mobile has garnered millions of dollars of revenue, Solavicta won MOOT Corp 2010, Wibole and SpectraPhase are spinning out UT Austin IP and are members of ATI, and Ordoro is also a new member of ATI and has ramping revenue.

This summer’s SEAL program includes the following early-stage ventures:

Azotergon delivers a novel waste treatment process that generates high-value nitrogen compounds. MedMa has a SaaS solution to help nursing homes prevent medication errors.

The Body Browser offers a 3D body surface scanning technology initially targeted at fitness tracking in health clubs. Vectralux provides an optical transceiver vendor that enhances signal performance over multimode fiber. Virtegrity is a novel security software startup tackling the difficult virtualization market.

Kyle Cox, the new ATI – On Campus Assistant Director, said “this 2011 SEAL class is extraordinary in terms of their technical sophistication and focus on solving specific, well-defined problems with technology-based breakthroughs.”

Recently at UT Austin, there has been increased interest in entrepreneurship spurred on by several new programs like the Idea to Product Competition (I2P), the Texas Venture Labs Investment Competition, 3 Day Startup and the Hatchery Class. Courses, competitions, student organizations and UT departments serve students as they progress through the first three stages of a startup: develop innovation, light-touch market validation and business validity. However, as a student progresses through the entrepreneurial process, the last step of making the decision to significantly invest in the new business does not have institutional support at UT Austin, but ATI’s SEAL program does just that.

Each summer, ATI hosts the SEAL program, a two month accelerator for five select UT Austin student-led startups, sourced from other student entrepreneur programs at UT, to make the “Go / No-Go” decision. In order to determine whether their business can develop into a successful startup and to look at the possible roadblocks, the five SEAL teams participate in multiple strategy sessions, interview prospective customers and partners, create financial models, write a high-level pitch, and develop leadership and organizational skills along the way. At the end of the program, each team delivers their ‘Decision Day’ pitch to an audience of potential angel investors, venture capitalists, UT Austin faculty and members of the Austin startup community.

This year’s Decision Day is set for August 2, 2011 at ATI, located at the West Pickle Research (WPR) Building, 3925 West Braker Lane, Austin, Texas 78759. ATI is currently looking for mentors and sponsors for the event.

Bart Bohn, ATI IT/Wireless Director and Founding Director of the SEAL program said, “the continuing evolution of the SEAL program is critical to sustaining the momentum of student-led innovation and entrepreneurship.”

SEAL program partners include 3 Day Startup and the Hatchery Class.

For the full press release view:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/6/prweb8531048.htm

Contact:

Kyle Cox

ATI – On Campus

kcox@ati.utexas.edu

(512) 305-0011

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