The Beat

Startups

The companies being built across Silicon Hills — and the ones quietly winding down.

Startups3 min read

Austin's Watermark, a higher-ed software mainstay, changes hands

European software investor Main Capital Partners is buying the Austin company from TCV, betting on the unglamorous business of measuring whether colleges work.

Mara WhitfieldSep 16

StartupsSep 12

Meet Aply: The Austin Startup Replacing the Résumé for the Next Generation of Talent

Mara Whitfield

StartupsJun 27

Base Power and Austin Energy strike deal for 40 MW of home batteries on the grid

Dev Okonkwo

More Startups

StartupsDev Okonkwo · Jun 26

Data centers keep coming: Prime breaks ground this month on two campuses near Austin

A $400 million, 760,000-square-foot project in Maxwell adds to the wave of compute infrastructure ringing the metro as AI demand surges.

StartupsMara Whitfield · Jun 24

Traysar surfaces from stealth with $25M to take defense tech underground

The Austin startup, led by former SpaceX and Boring Company engineers, is building autonomous machines to breach and map tunnels for the U.S. and its allies.

StartupsMara Whitfield · Jun 23

Return Valets raises $2.44M for vehicle-return logistics

The Austin startup picked up seed funding for a service focused on valet and vehicle-return operations.

StartupsMara Whitfield · Jun 21

Zellerfeld raises $30M and scales up 3D-printed shoes in Austin

The footwear startup, which prints shoes without traditional factories, added Series A capital as it deployed its faster next-generation printer locally.

StartupsMara Whitfield · Jun 18

Cameron County clears $211M tax break to lure Saronic's $3.2B 'Port Alpha' shipyard south

The Austin defense-tech company's autonomous-warship buildout would land in Brownsville under a 19-year abatement, drawing both cheers and pushback.

StartupsMara Whitfield · Jun 2

Saronic launches its first Marauder unmanned vessel, built in under a year

The Austin defense-tech company put its first medium unmanned surface vessel in the water and began on-water trials less than a year after the design started.

StartupsMara Whitfield · May 21

Firefly Aerospace spreads across three Cedar Park buildings as it scales production

The space company now occupies roughly 144,000 square feet across a three-building Central Texas campus to support spacecraft assembly and mission operations.

StartupsMara Whitfield · Apr 30

Colossal Biosciences adds the bluebuck to its de-extinction roster

The Austin biotech named the extinct South African antelope as the sixth species in its de-extinction portfolio and its first project on mainland Africa.

StartupsMara Whitfield · Apr 22

AI healthtech firm Biorce plants a U.S. flag on Congress Avenue in Austin

Fresh off one of Iberia's largest-ever Series A rounds, the company is opening a second American office downtown.

StartupsMara Whitfield · Apr 21

AI clinical-trials startup Biorce opens a U.S. office in downtown Austin

The Barcelona-founded health-tech company picked Austin for its second U.S. base, citing the city's mix of deep-tech and healthcare talent.

StartupsMara Whitfield · Apr 9

TerraFirma, founded by ex-SpaceX engineers, moves its headquarters to Buda

The earthmoving-robotics startup is leaving its Southwest Austin 'Robot Ranch' for a 40,000-square-foot integrated headquarters and test facility in Buda.

StartupsMara Whitfield · Apr 8

Augment's 'Augie' pulls in $85M Series A to automate the freight back office

The AI logistics startup from Deliverr's founder says its assistant now touches $35 billion in freight under management.

StartupsMara Whitfield · Mar 16

Capital Factory launches STATION Austin to carry its programming forward

The new nonprofit takes over Capital Factory's community and innovation initiatives and adds a 23,000-square-foot center focused on dual-use and defense startups.

StartupsMara Whitfield · Mar 11

ICON opens its 3D-printing system to outside builders with the launch of Titan

The Austin construction-tech company is, for the first time, selling its full robotic printing stack to other builders, with walls it says can be printed for about $20 a square foot.

StartupsMara Whitfield · Feb 13

Apptronik moves toward commercial-scale Apollo deployment, expands in Austin

The humanoid-robot maker is scaling Apollo production and growing its Austin footprint as it pushes toward broader factory and warehouse deployments in 2026.

StartupsMara Whitfield · Jan 12

Togetherwork moves its headquarters to South Congress, with 250 jobs to follow

The membership-software and payments firm is leaving Atlanta for a 20,000-square-foot office on South Congress and plans to staff it from the local talent pool.

StartupsMara Whitfield · Jan 6

IBM takes over Meta's empty Domain 12 building in North Austin

IBM assumed Meta's lease on the entire 320,000-square-foot Domain 12 building, consolidating its Austin workforce after walking away from a larger planned hub.

StartupsMara Whitfield · Dec 12

ICON completes its first 3D-printed model home at a luxury Lake Travis resort

The Austin company finished a model home at The Canyon Club, where five of 25 planned residences will be built with its 3D-printing technology.

StartupsMara Whitfield · Nov 10

Austin trucking startup AI Fleet lays off nearly 60 after losing a key supplier

The AI-driven trucking operator cut 56 jobs at its downtown Austin headquarters after a sudden supplier loss forced the board to downsize operations.