ANNOUNCEMENT
Texas Venture Community Launches Non-Profit in Response to the State’s Growth
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUSTIN, TEXAS— A newly formed non-profit comprised of the Texas startup investor community launched to co-create resources and events that reinforce the state’s startup ecosystem of support.
The Texas Venture Alliance focuses on two essential factors that impact a startup’s future: capital and the Capitol. The organization has already started promoting the emerging greater venture community and venture-focused activities across Texas, and kicked off at the very beginning of the year as the lead advocate for startups and investors at the Texas State Capitol.
A founder of the organization, CS Freeland has also previously started a hyperlocal venture association, leading full-time there for over a year before realizing the need to promote startups and investors, not just across the state, but at the Texas Capitol.
The creation, promotion, and support of government efforts on several venture-related bills are early efforts the Texas Venture Alliance spearheaded for this 88th Texas State Legislative session. Updates on the venture bills’ progress moving throughout the House of Representatives and the Senate are published on the website here.
Additionally, the introduction and expansion of Texas Venture Alliance’s signature event, the Texas Venture Crawl, is now a statewide experience co-created and co-organized with Texas investors happening on Oct 6, 2023 from 5-8pm, and will occur simultaneously in 10+ Texas cities. It first started last year in downtown Austin attracting more than 1,300 attendees, hosted in 5 locations, using 3 shuttle stops. After proving to be a major success and with new interest all across Texas, many of the same investors first promoted in Austin are now joined by already nearly 60 organizations from the greater venture community in their respective cities. This year’s event is expected to attract 5,000 attendees and is headquartered in Dallas, with all city locations listed here.
Early leadership featured on the Texas Venture Crawl consists of venture capitalists, accelerators, universities, family offices, Chambers of Commerce, economic development corporations, angel networks, syndicates, and more including: LiveOak Venture Partners, Mercury Fund, Active Capital, Houston’s Ion District, Dallas’ and Fort Worth’s The DEC Network, TechFW, El Paso’s Pioneer 21, South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley Partnership & Brownsville Community Incentive Corporation, as well as several of the Texas regional angel networks they coordinate with.
Morgan Flager, Managing Partner at Silverton Partners said as the first venture capital firm promoted on the venture crawl last year: “The still rising tide of startup activity most definitely lifts all boats. The Venture Crawl is a great symbol of this.”
Texas is the soon-to-be eighth-largest economy in the world and it’s common knowledge that the venture scene has and will continue to expand to lead innovation as well. With roughly more than 400 greater venture organizations including venture capital firms, accelerators, incubators, family offices, corporates, startup studios, growth and private equity firms, angels and their networks, and more, it’s an exciting and unprecedented time for the region.
“Two years ago I noticed the sheer volume of new investors in Austin had more than quadrupled, creating the opportunity to organize the community hyperlocally. Now we’re seeing the phenomenon of even Texas cities, chambers, EDCs, and universities as investors.” Freeland said. “What this means for startup founders, is we now have even more of an ecosystem of support than ever before here– which is what the Texas Venture Crawl celebrates and spotlights. This was something our early board members, committees, individual members, and industry advisors thought of as the crucial moment in time to move together in one powerful voice and force. We are literally and figuratively all on the same page, watching and learning from each other, promoting and cheering each region on, and showcasing and connecting startups. It’s easy for founders to see who’s all here as an active member and contributor from the venture community.”
The Texas Venture Alliance’s membership diversity spans across professionals, industries, investment stages, experience, and of course new geographic backgrounds, all working together.
Keeping focus on the venture community, the non-profit offers limited remaining sponsorship opportunities, with early supporters being Pacific Western Bank as the go-to bank, and Akerman, exclusively covering the legal category.
Individual venture professionals, venture firms, and sponsors are welcome to submit their interest for consideration to join this statewide effort by using the contact page below.
ABOUT THE TEXAS VENTURE ALLIANCE
The Texas Venture Alliance objectives are to amplify existing investor activity across the state, advocate for startups and investors at the Texas State Capitol, and to connect the startup, venture, and government communities. Visit the TVA website.
CONTACT
Contact the Texas Venture Alliance via the contact page.
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