Startup

DI People: Jacobs, Southwest Airlines, AT&T, Sunwest Communications, KKR, Comerica, and More Make Moves

by | Mar 18, 2022
In this week's roundup of hires, promotions, and accolades in North Texas, you'll also find news from Ecobat, Wingstop, ActivePure Technologies, Communities Foundation of Texas, Texas Health Resources, and other area organizations.

Plus, meet the UT Arlington professor helping to lead a NASA mission.
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Why A Payments Platform Moved its Global HQ to Dallas, with Plans to Become a Unicorn
by | Mar 17, 2022
Jordan Olivas moved from Texas to Pakistan to launch QisstPay, a one-click checkout platform. Today it processes about 10% of all e-commerce transactions in that country—and Olivas has moved its global HQ to North Texas.

Qisstpay expects to process more than $1 billion in payments this year. With $15 million raised in October and U.S. expansion underway, the startup is now aiming for another raise. “I want to be a unicorn by the end of 2022,” Olivas told us.
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Fort Worth Founders Launch Platform to Tie Concert Tickets to NFTs
by | Mar 16, 2022
Led by co-founders of Fort Worth's annual Fortress Festival, DeFy Tickets contracts with event organizers to offer smart concert tickets sold as NFTs. The blockchain-based tickets provide greater security, can prevent scalping, and enable "augmented experiences and engagement" between fans and artists, the co-founders say.
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Dallas Invents: 119 Patents Granted for Week of Feb. 15
by | Mar 16, 2022
Dallas-Fort Worth ranked No. 10 for patents out of 250 metros. Patents granted include: ArchAngel Fire Systems' suppression of fire growth, Auris Health's axial motion drive for a robotic medical system, Bank of America's real-time authenticated obfuscation of electronic data, UT Systems' wireless tissue stimulation devices, C-Bond Systems' compositions for strengthening glass, Crown Holdings Management's cowboy hat with interior head protection, Kyndryl's autonomous vehicle detection, Textron Innovations' takeoff power boost, and Toyota's driver swapping.
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State of Entrepreneurship 2022: More Than $2 Billion Invested in North Texas Entrepreneurs Last Year

by | Mar 14, 2022
It's the second year in a row to surpass $1 billion, said Trey Bowles at the Dallas Entrepreneur Center's annual State of Entrepreneurship event.
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Local Innovators Take Home Awards at Dallas’ State of Entrepreneurship 2022 Event
by | Mar 14, 2022

At the Dallas Entrepreneur Center’s State of Entrepreneurship event last week, individual innovators and local startups were recognized for their accomplishments over the past year. And, according to the numbers, there was a lot to celebrate....

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Sundance Square
Fort Worth’s Sundance Square Is Seeking Entrepreneurs with the ‘Next Big Idea’
by | Mar 14, 2022
Sundance Square is looking for entrepreneurs and artisans with a passion for their craft and for the Fort Worth community. Entrepreneurs can apply through April 18 for the chance to win a one-year lease, interior design and marketing help, and potential seed money to help build out their space.
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L.A.’s Two Bit Circus Expands to Dallas with Arcade Games, VR and AR Experiences, Robot Bartenders, and More
by | Mar 14, 2022
With investors including Capital Factory and TopGolf's executive chairman, the venue will feature 35,000 square feet of tech-enhanced entertainment. Attractions will include arcade games; VR, AR, and "extended reality" experiences; "story (escape) rooms"; reimagined carnival games, and more.
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Al Gore to Keynote Dallas Unicorn o9 Solutions’ Annual Digital Transformation Event in April

Former Vice President Al Gore will be a keynote speaker at o9 Solutions’ annual digital transformation event, aim10x global 2022. Gore, who is co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management, will join 70-plus top presenters, o9 Solutions announced.

The virtual event—o9’s largest to date—features C-suite executives from Google, Walmart, New Balance, Pepsico, Kraft Heinz, Starbucks, Pirelli, Crocs, and many more....

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Arlington’s First Rate Ventures Makes Second Investment from $25M Fintech-Focused Fund
by | Mar 10, 2022
Arlington-based First Rate, which provides technology and services to wealth management companies, launched its corporate venture arm First Rate Ventures in December. Now it's made its second investment—in New York-based RegAlytics, a regulatory data analytics company.
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Real Estate Entrepreneur Rogers Healy Launches RHA Land and Lake for ‘All Things’ Rural Texas
by | Mar 10, 2022
The pioneer in real estate social media and branding is launching his fifth company: RHA Land and Lake. Already owning the largest independent real estate firm in North Texas with a long list of celebrity clients, Healy relocates clients worldwide. Now he aims to place more people in down-to-earth rural properties across Texas, and "Texahoma" too—with a projected $50 million under contract by this spring.
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Dottid
Dallas Proptech Pioneer Kyle Waldrep on the ‘Massive Opportunity’ to Drive Tech Adoption for CRE Owners
by | Mar 10, 2022
Kyle Waldrep's SaaS proptech platform Dottid sits in one of the most critical functions for a commercial real estate owner: leasing and asset management.

The future of CRE will be powered by simple tech that helps people and organizations be more efficient and quicker to action, he says. But collaboration is the key to the future in proptech.
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Mammoth Project: Dallas’ Colossal Raises $60M to Advance Genetic Engineering and ‘De-Extinction’ Technologies

Colossal launched last September with a plan to "de-extinct" the woolly mammoth by using CRISPR genetic engineering to create a mammoth-elephant hybrid. With a total raise of $75 million to date, the startup aims to have its first set of mammoth-elephant hybrid calves "in 4 to 6 years," co-founder and CEO Ben Lamm told us. But Colossal's goals extend much further—with the potential "to advance human health, enhance food production, reduce environmental impact, and optimize animal health and welfare."
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‘A Healthy Eating Ecosystem’: Dallas Startup Aims to Help People Stay Healthy While Eating Out and In
by | Mar 9, 2022
The personalized meal planning startup, bitewell, is launching soon in Dallas with an app that offers "menu transparency" on around 600 local restaurants to help users find meals that meet their needs. It also offers a wide range of recipes for making personalized meals at home.

“Our mission as a business is to make healthy eating simple and accessible for all,” says co-founder and CMO Samantha Citro Alexander. Next up: Chicago, and then the world, the team says.
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The Shadow CEO:
Stock Classes and Raising Capital
by | Mar 9, 2022
Entrepreneur, investor, and corporate governance authority Dennis Cagan shares insights on seldom-taught things an entrepreneur needs to know about equity and governance—before making needless mistakes—in The Shadow CEO series. Part 7: Stock classes and raising capital
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Dallas Invents: 85 Patents Granted for Week of Feb. 8
by | Mar 9, 2022
Dallas-Fort Worth ranked No. 10 for patents out of 250 metros. Patents granted include: 7-Eleven's scalable position tracking system for tracking position in large spaces, Conduent Business Services' video-based automated detection of double-parking violations, Facebook Technologies' modifying a safety boundary for virtual reality systems, Magic Leap's object interactivity in virtual space, TI's protecting memory against unauthorized access, Toyota's sensor cleaning system and sensor cleaning method for vehicle, and Wells Fargo's processing nuances in natural language.
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