Austin's reputation for building successful tech companies is growing. Part of that reputation comes from a number of standout companies valued around $1 billion or more. Here are five Austin-based tech companies that are valued over $1 billion, or we believe could be (based on market capitalization or funding amounts). The below tech companies have either IPO'd or have raised private capital. Companies that have been acquired have not included at time of publishing.
HomeAway: $2.9 billion market capitalization
HomeAway is a vacation rental marketplace for lodgings like cabins, condos and beach houses. The company’s focus on renting whole units, instead of a single room, differentiates it from Airbnb. Also, the company’s strengths tend to be in vacation spots rather than in the heart of cities. Now with over one million paid listings of vacation rental homes in 190 countries HomeAway is fighting for a big piece of the vacation rental industry. Homeaway has been acquired by Expedia, along with Vrbo.
Local Employee Count: 993
Founded: 2005
Funds Raised: $505 million in private investment
RetailMeNot: $928 million market capitalization
Though RetailMeNot’s market capitalization has recently dipped below $1 billion the company’s valuation is typically above that. The company operates the world's largest digital coupon website network, giving away coupons for everything from Lands’ End clothing to Domino's Pizza. In 2014 alone nearly 700 million people visited RetailMeNot's websites and the company estimates $4.4 billion in paid retailer sales were attributable to that traffic.
Local Employee Count: 350
Founded: 2009
Funds Raised: $3000 million in private investment
Spiceworks: Near $1 billion (speculative)
Spiceworks is an online professional network for IT professionals. Because IT management is a complex field, it is fitting that an online space was built for IT professionals to meet, discuss and learn about best practices together. In addition to being an online network, Spiceworks also provides a number of tools to help IT professional manage their work for free. If IT administrators want more, the site also sells IT software through an online marketplace.
Local Employee Count: 325
Founded: 2006
Funds Raised: $111 million in private investment
SolarWinds: $3.76 billion market capitalization
SolarWinds provides IT management software for network management, system management, IT security, database management and IT help desk work. Focused on delivering “unexpected simplicity” the company tries to make typically overly complex IT management software a little bit more intuitive. Using that strategy Solarwinds has grown to over 1500 employees worldwide and in fiscal year 2013 had total revenue of $335 million.
Local Employee Count: 500
Founded: January 1999
Funds Raised: $104 million in IPO
Mozido: $1 billion plus (speculative)
Mozido is a mobile commerce tech company, which means its technology helps companies with online and mobile payments, rewards programs and business-to-business payment processing. The online and mobile payments industry is exploding and so too is Mozido. The company has been aggressively growing and recently acquired a majority stake in another payments company called CorFire. Of the $307 million the company has raised, $288 million was raised during 2014.
Local Employee Count: 70
Founded: 2005
Funds Raised: $307 million in private investment
