First Up
Brent: What’s up, y’all! I went to the Cubs vs. White Sox Crosstown Classic up here in Chicago. And I noticed that Draft Kings is wasting no time using its big budget to reach fans with scoreboard ads — even through it’s still something like 18 months before the online portion of Illinois new sports gambling law goes into effect.
But, as you can imagine, it’s a big opportunity for startups. Will Texas ever open that door? The business potential (and state revenue) has to be tempting …
Now, let’s place a big bet on the Beat …
The Big One
A breakdown on the day’s biggest Inno story.
Data.world Makes Its First Acquisition
I’ve had little doubt that Data.world would make big moves since I first met its founding team. Part of that is because sharing datasets has been a significant part of the investigative journalism world. But, of course, it has big business applications that go far beyond reporting.
The startup, led by CEO Brett Hurt, has raised more than $45M since its 2015 founding. And, today, it announced its first acquisition, and it just happens to be a hometown story.
Data.world acquired Capsenta Inc., an Austin data analytics startup that spun out of the University of Texas, for an undisclosed amount. As the ABJ’s Mike Cronin reported, Capsenta develops software that integrates disparate databases using semantic-web technology. The deal will allow businesses to securely access, view, and work with on-premises databases in the cloud.
“Enterprise data management and analysis is operating across two different paradigms — cloud and on-premises — and for Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies, it’s going to be a hybrid world for a long time,” Hurt said in a news release.
Hurt and Capsenta co-founder Juan Sequeda are both UT alumni, and they collaborated on Data.world’s enterprise product for large companies.
Capsenta’s 12 employees now work at Data.world’s office in North Austin. Sequeda’s role has shifted to Data.world’s principal scientist. And Capsenta CEO Wayne Heideman will manage Capsenta products and act as the company’s general manager. UT Austin computer science Professor Daniel Miranker, who co-founded Capsenta with Sequeda, will advise Data.world.
Capital Factory founder Joshua Baer, who is a Data.world advisor, applauded the deal
“This is a homegrown success story that touches every part of the Austin startup ecosystem,” he said.
Making Moves
Inside the people, companies and organizations making moves today.
Q2’s Big Day
Locally based fintech company Q2 Holdings’ secondary stock offering brought in $527M-plus via 3M shares sold at $69.50 and convertible bonds, a new ABJ story notes. Big investment banks Morgan Stanley and J.P Morgan Securities underwrote the deal, with BMO Capital Markets Corp buying convertible bonds. The deal could fuel some acquisitions. Q2’s market cap is now at about $3.6B.
Forcepoint’s New COO
Austin-based cybersecurity company Forcepoint today announced it has added Shayne Higdon as COO. He’ll be based in Austin. He was most recently senior VP of ESO strategy and operations for BMC, which was acquired by KKR.
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