April 01, 2025

First Up

Before we begin...

Brent: Good afternoon and happy Friday, y'all!

A new report from Crunchbase shows that funding for Black founders is headed in the wrong direction. In the first half of the year, Black-founded startups in the U.S. raised just $228M, or less than half a percent of the $79B in funding the organization tracked. That's a 60% drop from the first half of last year.

A few big deals later in the year might help turn that around, but it seems clear that many of the efforts to help Black founders find funding in the past few years still haven't produced big results in the stats.

Alright, let's kick a Beat and cruise into the weekend...

The Big One

A breakdown of the day's biggest story

AI startup lands seed round and expands to Austin

Brent: Statt Inc., a startup that uses AI to provide real-time insights and risk assessment from a wide array of public policy documents, research and data, has raised a $2.8M seed round led by Austin-based Moneta Ventures. 

Other investors included Austin's Clutch VC and Next Coast Ventures, as well as Baltimore-based NextGen Venture Partners.

The new money adds to the $1.6M pre-seed round it raised in 2020. It was also part of the Microsoft for Startups Pegasus Program, Google for Startups Program and the NVIDIA Inception Program, which have collectively given Statt $700K in cloud computing credits.

Statt is based in the Washington, D.C., area. But its co-founder and CEO, Steve Glickman, lives in Austin, and the company plans to expand its footprint here.

Glickman is a former senior economic advisor for the White House National Security Council and was previously co-founder and CEO of the Economic Innovation Group. Co-founder Andrew Platt is a former congressional leadership staffer and served in the Maryland General Assembly from 2015 to 2019.

“With this new funding, we will scale our team, grow our first-to-market data stream, and expand our analytics solutions to empower our customers to proactively navigate and shape the policy landscape," Glickman stated.

Making Moves

Local tech news to know

AR startup acquired

Austin-based AR customer experience startup New Thing Co. has been acquired by New York-based Benjamin Capital Partners for an undisclosed price.

New Thing Co. was founded by Aubrey Johnson and Jason Bender who were early members of Austin-based cash-back startup Dosh, which was acquired by Cardlytics for $275M in 2021. They will join Benjamin, with Johnson as EVP of product strategy and Bender as EVP of technology.

New Thing Co. was founded in 2023. It developed an augmented reality customer rewards tool that allows people to find rewards and prizes using their smartphone. For example, one of its demo reels shows someone scanning around a coffee shop with its web-based platform to discover an AR floating coffee cup that unlocks rewards.

That tool will be integrated into the Benjamin app that allows consumers to generate cash rewards on purchases, mobile games and ads.

X cites Bastrop as its HQ

The ABJ's Bob Sechler and Justin Sayers report that Elon Musk's X has named Bastrop as its headquarters — at least temporarily. It cited a location near the small city southeast of Austin as its official address in a recent California court filing.

Musk's Hyperloop Plaza at 865 FM 1209 already houses manufacturing and office spaces for a number of his companies. Local facilities of The Boring Co. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., both of which he founded and leads, are there, and last month X also began setting up its new safety support center at the rural Texas location. Read more.

Texas Venture Fest plans statewide startup party

Texas Venture Fest this week outlined its statewide celebrations for Oct. 3. The festival, formerly called Texas Venture Crawl, will happen across 12 cities. It also includes 20-plus co-hosts, such as Austin venture firms Silverton Partners, S3 Ventures and LiveOak Ventures. This year's fest will also include the Texan's Choice Awards where attendees will vote for their favorite investor, startup or community leader. 

The Fest, as well as its sister event the Texas Venture Gala & Forum, are supported by the Texas Venture Alliance's Texas Venture Newsletter.

Featured Jobs

To post a job in this newsletter, read more.

• Senior Demand Generation Manager - Otto
• Material Operator - ICON
• Fund Operations Analyst - Capital Factory

In the Know

The tech stories you need to read today.

• 23andMe directors resign as the CEO of the genetic-testing company seeks to take it private - AP
• Venture Funding To Black-Founded Startups Remains Stagnant - Crunchbase News
• Indian ed-tech startup Physics Wallah bags $2.8B valuation amid sector troubles - CNBC

Elsewhere in Inno

Stories from the Inno network we think you'll enjoy. 

• JPMorgan tech chief on value creation in AI hype - Tampa Bay Inno

• National, 'deep tech' focused VC eyes investments in NM after closing $150M fund - New Mexico Inno
• Marc on Mark: Benioff presses Cuban to reveal revenue from his low-cost drug company - Bay Area Inno
  

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Keeping Austin Weird & Wired

A lil bit extra...

A chance to see Willie Nelson

Austin City Limits will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a free outdoor concert on the lawn of the Long Center. It features Willie Nelson, who was on ACL's pilot episode, and Asleep at the Wheel.

But you'll have to throw your name in the digital hat for a chance to attend. Registration for a chance to get a ticket runs through 10 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 23. Those who are selected will be notified Sept. 26 and 27.

Team up with the Beat

Want to learn about sponsoring the Beat?

Reach out to sales@americaninno.com for more information and opportunities.

Got a news tip to share? Reach Brent Wistrom at bwistrom@bizjournals.com.