The Austin tech scene was sizzling last week with new office openings, product launches and fresh funding for growth. Catch up on all the local tech news you may have missed last week with the Built In Austin Weekly Refresh.
VC firm FRAMEWORK announced a new Austin office. The Toronto-based VC firm wants to get in on the action of Austin’s tech scene by renting space in a coworking office. FRAMEWORK also announced the launch of its Startup Scorecard platform, which allows founders to compare their operational metrics to other startups and match with potential investors from FRAMEWORK’s Investor Network. [Built In Austin]
Smarter Sorting gained $7M. The funding from new investor Regeneration.VC comes as an addition to the $25 million round the greentech startup announced in March. The startup’s product intelligence software helps brands and retailers safely ship, store and dispose of products in compliance with environmental regulations while also helping companies maximize their donations to food banks. [Built In Austin]
austin tech quote of the week
The Desti dating app launched in Austin. Frustrated by the swiping, liking and dead-end conversations on other dating apps, the co-founders of Desti invented an app that gets singles to start planning their first date from the first message. Users are asked to choose from a menu of more than 100 date spot suggestions, all of which are brought to life by short-form videos that play in the background. They then answer one of the suggested prompts, serving as a conversation starter that other singles can reply to. [Built In Austin]
Robotic process automation experts formed an AI consultancy. Macami.ai co-founders Carlos Martin and Venky Cheluvaraj want to help businesses across a wide range of industries harness the power of software automation, which they say can help businesses be more efficient and scalable. The startup, which is based out of Hamlet Coworking in Cedar Park, plans to double its headcount from five employees to 10 in the next six months. [Built In Austin]
Bold Commerce partnered with Govalo on gift subscriptions. Bold Commerce, an Austin startup that helps e-commerce companies offer subscriptions, will integrate Govalo, a virtual gift card product, into its Bold Subscriptions platform. Through the partnership, the companies will allow shoppers to gift subscriptions to others with the goal of converting one-time gift recipients into long-term subscribers. [Built In Austin]
