Texas Weekly Deal Highlights

September 28, 2025

Austin News

• Austin-based WebAI has expanded its public sector team, naming Jason Rathje as president of public sector and adding five senior leaders from firms such as McKinsey & Company, the Office of Strategic Capital, and Twilio. The hires bring expertise across operations, strategy, finance, policy, and special projects.

• Austin-based TrueDialog promoted Amanda McGuckin Hager to the dual roles of CMO and CRO, while also adding new leadership hires across customer success, marketing, and sales.

• OpenAI plans to build a $3B data center campus in Milam County as part of its Stargate joint venture, with infrastructure provided by SB Energy Global, backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group.

• Austin-based Tito’s Handmade Vodka is acquiring fellow local spirits maker Lalo Tequila, founded by the grandson of Don Julio González, for an undisclosed amount.

• Sensei Ag Holdings Inc. purchased a 25-acre former Iron Ox site in Lockhart from Evergen Equity LLC, adding to its Austin-area footprint.

• Austin-based Santé Ventures hired Alana Horowitz as senior associate and promoted Michael Gutbrod to principal. The firm, which manages about $1B in healthcare and life sciences investments, also has offices in Boston.

• Cisco Systems opened a new downtown Austin office to showcase its workplace technologies, marking its third office in the city since first establishing a presence here in 1996.

• Cedar Park-based Firefly Aerospace expanded its lunar payload contract with NASA by $10M, giving the agency additional mission data including eclipse photos and lunar lander telemetry.

• Austin-based Oracle named Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia as co-CEOs, while long-time CEO Safra Catz transitioned to executive vice chair of the board. See Joel’s article on co-CEOs here:

  5 Challenges of Co-CEOs

Austin Deals

• Lifeguard, an AI digital security guard for families, raised $1.3M in a seed round led by ScOp Venture Capital. $1.3M raised to date.