Austin tech companies stayed busy last week announcing new funding and future expansion plans. Catch up on Elon Musk’s plan to expand the Tesla Gigafactory in Austin, or read up on a local startup’s latest funding raise. This is the Built In Austin Weekly Refresh.
Astro rebranded and raised funds. Local startup Astro rebranded to Howdy and raised an additional $5 million for its Series A round. The tech recruiting company partners with enterprises to recruit Latin American talent. With the new funding, Howdy closed its Series A round at $18 million. [Built In Austin]
Tesla filed expansion plans. The electric vehicle manufacturer submitted plans to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation to invest $717 million to expand its manufacturing facility in Austin. With the expansion, Tesla would construct four new buildings totaling 1.4 million additional square feet of space. [Austin Business Journal]
Austin Tech Quote of the Week
“By pairing Apptio’s market-leading Cloudability with Cloudwiry, we are able to provide customers with unparalleled visibility, insights, planning, optimization and automation capabilities for reservations and savings plans, helping customers deploy the most efficient cloud infrastructure footprint to fuel innovation and meet business demands.” — Sunny Gupta, Apptio’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement
Apptio acquired Cloudwiry. Cloudwiry is an Austin-based company that offers services for businesses with large cloud operations. Last week, the company was acquired by Seattle-based Apptio and will fully integrate with the company’s platform. The deal will help Apptio expand its cloud services. [Built In Austin]
Cognite appointed four new leaders. Cognite is an industrial software company based in Austin and Norway. The company recently appointed four new executives who will lead the company’s scaling efforts. The appointments include Moe Tanabian as chief product officer, Paul Lightfoot as senior VP of user experience, Emmanuelle Camus as president for Cognite EMEA and Liat Berger as chief human resources officer. [Cognite]
