Startup

UT Dallas Draper Pitch Competition Awards Record $330K to Student, Alumni Startups

by | Apr 28, 2026
Nine student and alumni teams made the finals in three tracks: undergraduate, graduate student, and alumni. Winning ideas ranged from AI sales coaching to radiation mapping and noninvasive brain drug delivery as the university’s entrepreneurship push continues to scale.
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41 North Texans Named Among EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2026 Southwest Award Finalists
by | Apr 23, 2026
Now in its 41st year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program “celebrates the bold leaders who disrupt markets through the world’s most ground-breaking companies, revolutionizing industries and making a profound impact on communities,” EY said. Here's who made this year's Southwest finalists list.
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Patented: Verizon’s Signal Spoof Detection at Base Stations and More North Texas Inventive Activity
by | Apr 22, 2026
Dallas-Fort Worth ranked No. 8 for patent activity out of 250 metros for the week of March 24 with a total of 171 patents granted.
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The Last Word: Cuban on His ’80s Deep Ellum Days and Throwing ‘Epic Parties’ in a Chuck E. Cheese Storage Space
Mark Cuban, Billy Bob Thornton, and 1980s Deep Ellum denizens appear in "Round Pegs Square Holes," a documentary screening at the 2026 Dallas International Film Festival.
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Caruso, an Australia-Based Platform for Private Markets With an Office in Dallas, Closes $6.5M Series A

by | Apr 16, 2026
The Sydney-based, AI-native fund administration platform for private markets has closed a $6.5 million Series A round and secured a $55 million valuation following "rapid growth and large enterprise customer wins," Caruso said.
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The Last Word: DLA Piper’s Danny Tobey on the Shift From Chatbot AI to Agentic AI

“The old human-in-the-loop rules really don’t work as well when you’re looking at ubiquitous, automated AI agents that are acting 24/7 as digital workers.”

Danny Tobey, M.D., J.D.
Chair, AI and Data Analytics
DLA Piper
…speaking at Convergence AI Dallas on March 31

We’re moving “from an era of chatbot AI, where there is always a human at the receiving end of recommendations, to agentic and physical AI,” a world, Danny Tobey said, where AI “takes actions and makes decisions on behalf of humans” and “does so in ways that don’t always stop for human intervention, permission and understanding.”...

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The Last Word: USPTO Director on the Patent Backlog’s ‘Tipping Point’ Toward Applicants
Shorter patent application wait times translate to company value, according to USPTO Director John Squires.
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Patented: AT&T’s Quantum Security and More North Texas Inventive Activity
Dallas-Fort Worth ranked No. 9 for patent activity out of 250 metros for the week of March 17 with a total of 140 patents granted.
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Brothers Behind Dallas-Based Psychedelic Games Raise $3.5M for Pirate MOBA Golden Tides

by | Apr 9, 2026
The multiplayer online battle arena genre has played by the same rules for 15 years, CEO Devin Richman says. This pirate-themed game throws them overboard.
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The Last Word: Mark Cuban on AI—and 6 More Takeaways From His Dallas Talk
by | Apr 8, 2026
Cuban didn’t hold back at Convergence AI Dallas, where his onstage conversation with Alex Kantrowitz delivered blunt advice and unfiltered insights.
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Mark Cuban: CEOs Who Don’t Embrace AI Won’t Be CEOs for Long
by | Apr 8, 2026
Mark Cuban has a message for any CEO still treating artificial intelligence as something to dabble in: You’re going to be left behind.
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Patented: Badge Inc.’s Privacy-Preserving Biometric Authentication, Plus More North Texas Inventive Activity
Dallas-Fort Worth ranked No. 8 for patent activity out of 250 metros for the week of March 10 with a total of 155 patents granted.
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Dallas-Fort Worth Economic Development 2026: Your Guide to Doing Business in the Region
by | Apr 2, 2026
Explore and discover why Dallas-Fort Worth is one of the fastest-growing regions in the U.S. in this comprehensive guide.
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Patented: Topgolf’s Golf Ball With Electrical Components—and More North Texas Inventive Activity
Dallas-Fort Worth ranked No. 10 for patent activity out of 250 metros for the week of March 3 with a total of 102 patents granted.
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Nominations for AI 75 2026 are open now. Deadline: Dec. 19, 2025.
Meet the 2026 AI 75 Innovators: From the C‑Suite to the Lab Bench in Dallas-Fort Worth
Dallas Innovates and our partners at the Dallas Regional Chamber spotlight the names you need to know in Dallas-Fort Worth's AI economy.
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