Posts Tagged ‘WNCG’

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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Texas Wireless Summit Showcases Austin as Premier Wireless Innovation Hub

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

tws_logo_squareMore than 250 wireless industry leaders piled into the AT&T Conference Center Tuesday to see the forefront of wireless research and startup innovation, gain insight on industry trends, and for the first time in the Texas Wireless Summit’s eight-year history, see Austin’s hottest wireless-application startups compete.

With 16 on-the-move startups and more than 20 thought leaders taking the stage to speak, TWS managed to display under one roof the full breadth of Austin’s wireless innovation community, demonstrating the city’s position as one of the key global innovation hubs in the wireless industry. The Austin Technology Incubator’s Wireless Incubator partnered with UT’s Wireless Networking and Communications Group to host the Summit, taking support also from the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and the City of Austin.

The keynotes and panels drove the day’s content, giving attendees the edge on the overall trajectory and potential pitfalls the industry faces in years to come. Speakers from leading industry players Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs and Qualcomm and leading research institutions UT-Austin, Virginia Tech and NYU Poly took on hot-button topics like “The Too Much Data Paradox,” “Augmented Reality,” “Smart Grid” and “The Future of Cognitive Radio.” Leading wireless venture capitalists — from Sevin Rosen Funds, Qualcomm Ventures and New Enterprise Associates — also weighed in through a panel discussion, representing together nearly $4 billion of investment experience and funds.

Further contributing to the conversation, four of Central Texas’ most promising startups took five minutes each to present their innovations to the Summit audience. Together representing more than $100 million of investor backing, Austin-based startups Blacksand Technologies, Unwired Nation and Nitero, along with Dallas-based Mavenir Systems, took the stage to complement the big-name industry veterans like Huawei Technologies and Paratek Microwave.

In addition to providing front row seats on the industry’s direction, TWS partnered with MobileMonday Austin and App Circus to create the first-ever MobileMonday Austin Showcase. The interactive competition pitted against one another 12 of Austin’s front-of-the-pack wireless application innovators, five of which have closed their VC series-A round and five others an angel round to represent nearly $15 million of investor capital on one floor.

TWS attendees interact with Austin’s most innovative wireless application developers in the first-ever MoMo ATX Showcase.

TWS attendees interact with Austin’s most innovative wireless application developers in the first-ever MoMo ATX Showcase.

Famigo Games, maker of a set of tools and services to help mobile-game developers build for families, took first prize and earned a trip to Barcelona, Spain, in February to compete at the Mobile World Congress, edging out location-based mobile marketer QRANK, who placed second. Famigo is an ATI-Wireless member company whose leaders emerged from UT’s student-entrepreneur community, meeting for the first time at the spring of 2009 edition of 3 Day Startup, a weekend-long company-building lock-in for UT students.

The same lobby space spent the earlier part of the day occupied by some of UT’s most innovative as 22 of WNCG’s student research groups lined the room to display their findings. The research shown at the summit represents a grand total of $21 million in commitments to the WNCG group.

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Texas Wireless Summit hosts Texas’ hottest wireless startups

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

tws_logo_squareMore than industry-expert keynotes and trend-predicting panel discussions, the Nov. 16 Texas Wireless Summit will put the spotlight on Central Texas’ most compelling wireless startups by bringing the CEO’s to you. The following four companies will have seven minutes of exclusive stage time to present to the entire summit audience.

  • Blacksand — CEO John Diehl will pitch his Austin-based fabless semiconductor company, which specializes in combining analog with digital circuits in silicon to optimize both sensitivity and power for wireless devices.
  • Nitero — CEO Pat Kelly will present for the Austin-based semiconductor company, which is currently running in stealth mode. Come to TWS for an exclusive peek at what they’re doing under the radar!
  • Unwired Nation — CEO Eric Smith will pitch for his Austin-based and ATI-Wireless-member company, which boasts in Kinita™, a platform that leverages a customers existing web apps to deliver native apps across major smartphone platforms.
  • Mavenir Systems — CEO Pardeep Kohli will present for his Dallas-based company, whose products and services enable telecomm carriers to handle more voice, video and text data.

“The Texas Wireless Summit has consistently showcased a unique mix of researchers, startups, and thought leaders from large wireless companies, not to mention venture capitalists and wireless regulators,” said Jeff Andrews, director of UT’s Wireless Networking and Communications group and TWS keynote speaker. “This year for the first time, we’ll have a dedicated startup session featuring four dynamic Austin-area startups, and another with venture capitalists, that will highlight the strength of the industry during the economic downturn.”

More than 10 other Austin-based wireless startups will demo and display their innovations as MobileMonday Austin, a group that exists to connect wireless consumers to industry and academia, is partnering with TWS this year to create the MoMoATX Showcase, a forum for Austin’s most interesting mobile applications to interact with the Summit audience.

The MoMo showcase still has slots available. Participating companies will receive one complimentary registration and discounts on additional registrations. Email Enrique at MoMo Austin for more information.

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Eighth Annual Texas Wireless Summit Provides Open Door to the Core of Wireless Innovation

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

The Austin Technology Incubator, a not-for-profit commercialization unit of the University of Texas, is partnering with UT’s Wireless Networking and Communications Group to host the eighth annual Texas Wireless Summit, Nov. 16 at the AT&T Conference Center in Austin, Texas.

The Summit will highlight technologies emerging from industry players, startups and research groups at the core of the wireless industry’s continued innovation explosion. Keynotes, panels and presenting companies will drive the day’s discussion.

Speakers will represent industry leaders — from Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs to Grid Net to Texas Instruments — and academic institutions at the forefront of wireless research — from The University of Texas to Polytechnic University of New York to Virginia Tech University. The conversation will cover the industry’s most pivotal topics, including “The Too-Much-Data Paradox,” “Inside Out: The Future of Mobile Broadband,” “The Future of Multi-band Wireless Devices,” “Smart Grid,” “The Future of Cognitive Radio” and others.

“Texas Wireless Summit provides an intimate college campus setting where attendees can spend quality time with influential technical and business leaders to learn the future of the wireless industry. Attendees will learn about all of WNCG’s research activities and see the most promising wireless startup companies in Central Texas. Simply put, the Summit provides access to wireless research and product leaders that cannot be found anywhere else in one place,” said Ted Rappaport, WNCG Founding Director and TWS 2010 panel moderator.

In between the keynotes and panels, four premier Central-Texas wireless startups — Blacksand, Nitero, Unwired Nation and Mavenir Systems — will take the stage to present their technologies to the Summit audience.

More than 10 other Austin-based wireless startups will display their innovations as MobileMonday Austin, a group that exists to connect wireless consumers to industry and academia, is partnering with TWS this year to create the MoMoATX Showcase, a forum for Austin’s most interesting mobile applications to interact with the Summit audience. Participating companies will receive one complimentary registration and discounts on additional registrations.

WNCG will present the group’s latest research and compelling wireless innovations in two demonstration and poster sessions, in which they will line the Summit floor to exhibit their research and field questions from interactive attendees.

“In addition to the wealth of expertise we’re able to draw in through our speakers, WNCG’s research showcase and the startup presentations have established themselves as distinctive features of the Summit. The trend-predictive technologies unveiled by both WNCG and the selected startups year-after-year make TWS the go-to event for all interested in the trajectory of the wireless industry,” said Bart Bohn, ATI-Wireless Director.

There will be around 200 leading members from all areas of the mobile industry in attendance, including many investors and business development representatives from key potential partners. In addition, RCR Wireless, the premier news source for the wireless communications industry, has come on as a TWS partner to provide built in media connectivity.

You can follow and join Texas Wireless Summit conversation on Twitter with #TWS.

About the Austin Technology Incubator

The Austin Technology Incubator is a nonprofit unit of The University of Texas at Austin that harnesses business, government and academic resources to provide strategic counsel, operational guidance and infrastructure support to its member companies to help them transition from early stage ventures to successful technology businesses.  Since its founding in 1989, ATI has worked with over 200 companies, helping them raise close to $750 million in investor capital.  ATI is a key program of the IC2 Institute at The University of Texas at Austin.  For more information, visit www.ati.utexas.edu

About Wireless Networking and Communications Group

The Wireless Networking & Communications Group (WNCG) is an interdisciplinary center for research and education at The University of Texas at Austin with an emphasis on industrial relevance. WNCG exists to create a collaborative environment which supports basic research and promotes technical innovation, imagination and entrepreneurship in wireless networking and communications and applications thereof. In addition, WNCG seeks to provide a highly relevant education and opportunities for students wishing to pursue careers in wireless networking, communications and related areas. For more information, visit www.wncg.org.

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Austin Technology Incubator’s second class of SEAL’s hit full stride in basic training

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

seal logo9

Five new cadet companies are well into basic conditioning in the Austin Technology Incubator’s second annual Student Entrepreneurship Acceleration and Launch (SEAL) program. This year’s five SEAL teams, all founded and run by University of Texas students, got their feet wet Wednesday, June 9, day one of their formal training.

  • Wibole, Inc., boasts a technology to enable “multi-hopping,” or relaying radio waves across several mobile phones to establish a stronger signal with the nearest tower.
  • AstraSight is developing a pair of glasses equipped with ultrasound to sense obstacles the blind or vision impaired would miss with a standard cane.
  • SpectraPhase, an Idea2Product 2010 winner, looks to replace finger-pricking blood-glucose tests with a real-time glucose monitor that would connect to intravenous catheters, a critical issue in intensive care units where 40 percent of deaths are attributable to stress diabetes.
  • Ordoro provides a web-based order management platform for retailers to more efficiently process orders, organize inventory and manage purchasing.
  • RBK Instruments is developing a device to use optical detection to measure the thickness of body fat layers and give an overall body-fat-percentage reading.

On day one, each team took twenty minutes before their SEAL mentors to give an elevator pitch of their technology and present what they saw as their startup’s three most threatening potential deal killers. The presentation and introduction to their mentors is the start of their summer-long training. At the end of the summer each of the five SEAL’s will make a formal decision whether to continue building their company or officially withdraw from the race.

“The SEAL program is the mechanism to force entrepreneurs through a real-world go/no-go decision that would justify them doing this full-time,” SEAL director and ATI-IT and –Wireless director Bart Bohn said. “For some, this is the last time they can hear no without the opportunity cost being too high. I don’t expect them all to go forward.”

The mentors encouraged and objected throughout each presentation, stopping the student entrepreneurs to help them identify patterns and pinpoint what they saw as the primary threats to their success. Concerns ranged from intellectual-property attainability to whether or not the group’s market aim is on target to a simple need for a working prototype to test with end users.

The members that participated in the kick-off session are seasoned in counseling entrepreneurs and bring varied industry experience. The group included Santé Ventures senior associate Omar Khalil, UT associate professor and Wireless Networking and Communications Group director Jeff Andrews, former ATI-Bioscience director Jessica Hanover, senior bioscience executive Steve Andrade, Rapid Attainment founder Jeremy Friedlander, ATI director Isaac Barchas, ATI-operations director Aruni Gunasegaram, ATI-IT and -Wireless director Bart Bohn and ATI-Clean Energy director Mitch Jacobson. Over the course of the summer, each team will work with numerous other domain-specific mentors to assess the potential threats and make the go/no-go decision on their company.

On Thursday, July 29, each company will present and discuss with their mentors what they learned and hear their recommendations on moving forward.

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New ATI Member Company: Eonsil

Saturday, December 5th, 2009

eonsilATI just welcomed new ATI Member company Eonsil.  We first met Khursheed Hassan, founder/CEO, when ATI Wireless and UT’s Wireless Networking and Communications Group (WNCG) sponsored 5 students to attend the CTIA conference in Las Vegas in April 2009.  We brought Eonsil under our Student Accelerator Entrepreneurship Laboratory (SEAL) program designed especially for students and recently admitted them as a full ATI company!

We look forward to working with them!

Eonsil is creating the next generation of  solid state drives (SSD) for the enterprise market. Eonsil’s patent pending technology solves the key issues of cost and reliability that have  plagued the adoption of SSD’s in the server and data center storage. Eonsil’s technology not only significantly lowers the BOM cost and provides data recovery from SSD failures, but it also delivers on bandwidth that is several orders of magnitude higher than the market’s leading edge solutions.

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