By LAURA LOREK
Founder of Silicon Hills News

The StARTup Studio at the University of Texas at Austin gives professor led companies a chance to showcase their research and its applications.

Last Wednesday night, three groups of professors presented their startups at the monthly invitation-only gathering in a conference room in the Ernest Cockrell Jr. Hall.

“It’s our job to encourage students and professors to start companies,” said Bob Metcalfe, professor of Innovation and Murchinson Fellow of Free Enterprise in the Cockrell School of Engineering.

Metcalfe is the director of the Innovation Center. Louise Epstein is the managing director and UT Professor Steve Nichols, director of the Advanced Manufacturing Center, is also part of the center. The Innovation Center sponsors the monthly meetings along with the Office of Technology Commercialization at UT. The Austin Chamber of Commerce buys dinner and WeWork supplies the wine at the events.

Each professor led group pitches for 15 minutes, followed by about 15 minutes of questions and answers. Faculty, students, investors and other invited guests attend the events. This time, two representatives from Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico attended. The company does $3 billion worth of research annually.

First up, Professor of Mechanical Engineering Chris Rylander and Dr. Yvette Williams Brown, assistant professor with the Dell Medical School, presented a startup so early in its development it doesn’t yet have a name. It is a post-partum medical device for women to attach an Intrauterine Device, known as an IUD birth control device, to their uterus after giving birth.

The problem exists because 30 percent of IUDs placed in the uterus of women after they give birth are expelled. The UT medical device, which has a patent pending, would insure the IUD stays in place by attaching it to the uterus.

It addresses the real problem of patients who are most high risk at having unintended pregnancies, Dr. Brown said.
“There is definitely a need there,” she said.

Mistimed or unintended pregnancies account for half of the pregnancies in the U.S. every year, Dr. Brown said. In the U.S., 60 million teenagers get pregnant annually. The unintended pregnancies result in $12 billion in costs annually associated with providing resources for people who don’t have the resources to take care of a baby, Dr. Brown said.

An IUD is a long acting, reversible contraceptive device with 99 percent effectiveness, Dr. Brown said.

UT is working on developing a prototype of the inserter for the device, Rylander said. It is also looking at commercializing the technology through a licensing deal with a company like Bayer or Medtronic, which make IUDs, he said.

Next up, Professor of Biomedical Engineering Tom Milner presented a new microscope developed at UT. The microscope, developed with Martin Poenie, associate professor in Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology, provides a new way to view cells, viruses and other structures so researchers can find new treatments for cancer and other diseases. The resolution on the microscope is so great it allows researchers to see viruses in living cells.

During the demonstration, Poenie showed a movie of some of the things the microscope has been able to detect.

“We see lots of dynamics going on in the cell,” Poenie said. The activities and organelles aren’t visible with a regular light microscope, he said.

The microscope uses polarized light images that can show the molecular structure of things in a living cell. The group presented last year at the StARTup Studio, but at that time they had an attachment to an existing microscope. They have since created a standalone microscope using the technology. They have one patent filed on the device and another in the works.

The group is looking at setting up a service center at UT where researchers could use the microscope. They are also looking at licensing the technology to other companies.

The last presenter, Jenny Jiang, professor of Biomedical Engineering, presented a new company, ImmuDx, which uses high-throughput sequencing with single cell analysis to detect cancer and other diseases and to monitor the immune system.

“We can detect one cancer cell in one million regular cells,” Jiang said.

ImmuDx’s technology can provide early detection of cancer or signs of a relapse quicker and easier than conventional methods. The research that led to the company has been supported by grants from the National Institute of Health.

Correction: This article has been updated to correct ImmuDx’s name.

Austin-based Indeed plans to hire 500 employees in Ireland during the next two years as part of an expansion plan for its Dublin-based headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Indeed is hiring sales, client services, human resource, business development, marketing, finance, strategy and operations employees, according to a news release from Ireland IDA.

Indeed is the world’s largest job site. It has sites in more than 60 countries and 28 languages. Every month, 200 million job seekers visit Indeed.

Five years ago, Indeed opened its headquarters in Dublin. It currently employs a team of 530 people in its St. Stephen’s Green office.

“Today’s announcement is a particularly important one for Indeed. Deciding where to recruit and hire the right people ultimately helps us to fulfil Indeed’s mission – to help people get jobs,” Chris Hyams, President of Indeed said in a news release. “Having our EMEA hub in Dublin is the natural choice given the large pool of high-skilled talent both locally and from the rest of Europe.”

Ireland’s Action Plan for Jobs 2017 aims to keep Ireland competitive to new investment by EMEA HQ’s such as Indeed Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD said in a news release.

“Ireland will remain a central and committed member of the EU and the Single Market and growing dynamic companies like Indeed can rest assured we will work continually to promote the opportunities of the European Single Market,” he said.

IDA Ireland originally supported Indeed’s move to Ireland.

“Indeed first came to Ireland to internationlise its business and to serve its growing customer base,” Martin Shanahan, CEO of IDA Ireland, said in a news release. “Ireland has proven to be a superb location for the company to source talent and to expand its footprint into the EMEA market.”

Indeed, founded in 2004, has more than 500 employees in Austin and announced plans last year to hire 1,000 more locally within the next three years. It also moved into new 220,000 square foot headquarters at at 6433 Champion Grandview Way.

uShip, the online shipping marketplace and freight automation software provider, Wednesday announced it has closed on a $25 million round of funding.

DB Schenker, one of the world’s largest logistics companies owned by Deutsche Bahn AG, led the Series D round. To date, Austin-based uShip has raised $50 million with previous rounds led by Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers.

DB Schenker and uShip are partners. Last summer, the two companies struck a five year agreement to create Drive4Schenker, an online trucking platform using uShip’s software and technology. This month, that program began rolling out in Germany. It is managing 5,000 loads per day with 30,000 DB Schenker transport providers. The program will continue to roll out throughout Europe in coming months.

“Expanding our successful partnership will expedite and streamline transport management and help us, as a market leader in European land transport, to handle even larger volumes of freight,” Jochen Thewes, CEO of Schenker AG said in a news release. “We also intend to quickly develop and tap new opportunities to grow outside of our traditional business models. This is our largest equity interest in a digital company to date and it shows how serious we are about innovation at DB Schenker. We’re investing in shaping the future of digital logistics.”

With the new funding, uShip plans to accelerate the development of its logistics software platform.

“Major players like DB Schenker are taking advantage of technology that will automate and digitize their operations, helping them maintain market leadership and evolve with demand,” Mike Williams, CEO of uShip, said in a news release. “It’s a thrilling time to be at the leading edge of this logistics transformation and to deepen our partnership through DB Schenker’s strategic investment.”

Austin-based My Fit Foods posted a notice on its website announcing the closure of all of its stores effective immediately.

The company, founded in 2006, has stores in Austin and San Antonio. The company expanded to a total of 80 locations in five states nationwide. It specialized in creating healthy prepared meals for customers.

“Since 2006 My Fit Foods has been on a mission to make healthy eating easy and accessible for everyone,” according to the post on its website. “We’ve enjoyed getting to know you, and we are proud that we have made a difference in many of your lives. It is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of all our stores. We know that you have depended on us to support your healthy habits, and we are deeply sorry for any inconvenience our closure may have caused you.”

My Fit Foods raised more than $42 million in private equity from investors, according to a 2014 Statesman story. The company had been embroiled in a lawsuit with the investors and the company’s founder, Mario Mendias, over control of My Fit Foods, which had been experiencing financial difficulties, according to the story.

In a reorganization and move to cut costs, Spredfast recently notified the state of Wisconsin of its plans to close its Madison office and layoff 47 employees.

Austin-based Spredfast, a social media marketing firm, let go 21 employees last week and offered the others the opportunity to stay on until the office shuts down completely in August.

No one responded to a request for comment from Spredfast.

Last June Spredfast raised $50 million. To date, the company has raised $116 million. Spredfast also merged with Austin-based Mass Relevance in 2014 and in 2015 it acquired Shoutlet. The Madison office was part of Shoutlet. Spredfast has 500 employees, five global offices and it supports more than 650 customers.

Austin-based Javelin Networks, a cybersecurity startup, announced it has closed on $5 million in funding.

Investors participating in the Series A round included RSL Capital, Hillsven Capital, UpWest Labs, Tomer Weingarten, CEO of SentinelOne and pother private investors.

Javelin Networks makes software that provides autonomous breach prevention, containment, threat hunting and incident response capabilities in a platform using artificial intelligence.

In addition, Javeline appointed Greg Fitzgerald to Chief Operating Officer to handle operations, sales and marketing. He previously worked as vice president for marketing for TippingPoint, which was acquired by 3COM and HP, senior vice president for Sourcefire, acquired by Cisco and senior vice president for Fortinet and chief marketing officer at Cylance.

“Cybersecurity is challenging vendors to innovate protection ahead of the attack. Javelin is disrupting the attacker by focusing on protecting the most sensitive and most exposed target, the Active Directory. After almost 22 years of bringing innovative companies to market and exceptional growth, Javelin is the first company I’ve experienced that actually stops attackers from gaining unfettered access to the organization,” Fitzgerald said in a news release.

Roi Abutbul is the founder and CEO of Javelin Networks.

“By combining A.I., obfuscation and advanced forensics methodologies right at the point of breach, we can respond automatically and in real time to contain the attack,” he said.

Austin-based uShip, an online shipping marketplace and freight automation software provider, on Wednesday announced Mike Williams has joined the company as its new Chief Executive Officer and board member.

uShip also announced that Jim Martell, the company’s interim CEO since last December, has been named Executive Chairman of uShip’s board.

Williams previously served as general manager of corporate real estate services with Accruent. He handled revenue growth and profitability and during his time there, the company’s software revenues tripled. In addition to Accruent, Williams served as president or CEO for Socialware, Nextance and PurchasingNet, as well as roles at Motorla, Trilogy and Memento.

His job at uShip will be to grow its consumer shipping marketplace and small and midsize business platform, which has generated $1 billion in total sales since uShip began in 2004, according to a news release.

“What the uShip team has built to date around key products and milestone partnerships has put it on the doorstep of explosive growth, especially in its enterprise and SMB segments,” Williams, who begins his role on Feb. 13, said in a news release. “There’s tremendous opportunity to drive more value for our current marketplace customers and partners as the logistics industry navigates a new wave of transformation, led in part by uShip’s online marketplace experience and technology.”

Williams has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Finance from Murray State University. He’s also worked with the FBI, the U.S. Embassy in Athens and The White House.

“Mike’s enthusiasm, business acumen, disciplined management and track record of revenue growth make him an ideal fit for this role,” Martell said in a news release. “In uShip, Mike will be guiding a true market leader that’s advancing in this space at a time when logistics is seeing unprecedented disruption, innovation and investment, unlike anything I’ve seen in my four decades in the industry.”

In 2004, UT graduate students, Jay Manickam, Shawn Bose and Matt Chasen started UShip. All three have since left the company. Chasen stepped down last year as CEO. uShip has raised $44.7 million in funding, according to its Crunchbase profile.

Last year, uShip moved into new headquarters located at 205 East Riverside Drive. The three-story, 45,000-square-foot campus houses the company’s entire 200-person workforce,

SubVRsive, a cinematic virtual reality production house, announced it has received $4 million in funding and hired a new Chief Executive Officer.

WPP, a global communications services company, invested in the Series A round.

The Austin-based startup, founded in 2015, hired Johannes Larcher as its CEO. He most recently served as executive at Hulu, the video on demand service owned by Disney, Fox, NBC and Time Warner.

The funding will allow SubVRsive to “accelerate our growth and continue to build our team with the best talent in the industry,” according to a blog post on the company’s website.

SubVRsive creates Virtual Reality experiences that help brands engage their audiences more deeply than ever before. Its customers include Lionsgate, MTV, and Downy Unstopables. The company was nominated for an Emmy for its work with Showtime Networks in capturing a boxing match in virtual reality.

“If our experience in immersive storytelling has taught us anything, it’s that Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are fundamentally redefining the ways in which brands connect with their audiences,” according to its blog post. “While the sight, sound, and motion of traditional video allow brands to explain their benefits to consumers, the immersive nature of Virtual Reality allows consumers to experience those benefits for themselves – and that experience is captivating. We are convinced that Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality will continue to push the envelope of storytelling and will offer brands more and more effective ways to deepen their engagement with their audiences.”

Just like buying a can of Coke, a giant Carvana fully-automated coin-operated car vending machine will deliver consumers cars.

It opens in Austin Tuesday morning.

Carvana, the online used car buying platform, has installed a car vending machine located to the South of Stassney Lane at 6014 S. IH 35. It has a similar machine in Houston and another one in Nashville.

The Austin Car Vending Machine is an all-glass structure that stands five stories tall, contains three delivery bays and stores up to 20 vehicles that are loaded in advance of a customer’s pick-up.

“We launched our free car delivery service in Austin in late 2015, and we’ve received positive feedback from customers in the area since then. The demand has been so great that it made sense for us to deepen our service in Austin with a Car Vending Machine,” Ernie Garcia, founder and CEO of Carvana, said in a news release.

After a consumer buys a car on Carvana’s website, they can choose to have it delivered directly or they can pick it up at one of Carvana’s car vending machines.

At the vending machine, customers get an oversized Carvana coin to drop in the coin slot and then the machine retrieves their car automatically from the tower and delivers it to the customer. The Austin Carvana Vending Machine is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Carvana, based in Phoenix, Arizona, has raised $460 million since its founding in 2013. The company closed on a $160 million Series C funding round last August. It has more than doubled the number of markets where it offers free, as soon as next day delivery, to 21. It also reports year over year revenue exceeding more than $350 million in 2016.