Texas Weekly Deal Highlights
July 26, 2026
Happy Sunday!
One of the biggest stories in Texas business this week involves Saronic, the Austin defense startup that builds autonomous naval vessels. The company announced it will build Port Alpha at the Port of Brownsville, which the company and Gov. Abbott are calling the largest shipyard in the country. The project represents more than $3 billion in investment and as many as 10,000 jobs over the next decade, with the state adding an $80 million grant to help land it.
Saronic, valued at $9.25 billion after a $1.75 billion round in March, is the same company whose autonomous Corsair vessel recently helped rescue two U.S. soldiers after their helicopter went down near the Strait of Hormuz.
More on this week’s deals below. First, our friends at pH Partners1 break down Frozen One’s new seed round and the surge of investor interest in high-protein frozen treats.
Frozen One’s $5.75M Series Seed: Market Update
Frozen One, a high-protein ice cream brand, recently closed a $5.75 million series seed led by Brand Foundry Ventures. Following its first institutional raise of $2 million in April 2026, Frozen One’s latest round closed roughly four months later, was nearly three times the size, and came alongside the addition of a new Chief Operating Officer and SVP of Sales.
The seed round was led by Brand Foundry Ventures, an Austin-based consumer fund with approximately $200 million in AUM. Brand Foundry’s partners include Bonobos and Trunk Club co-founder Brian Spaly, and its portfolio includes Graza, OLIPOP, and Warby Parker. Supernatural Ventures, which led Frozen One’s prior round, also participated. Alongside the capital, the company named Dave Valenza-Frost, formerly COO at Van Leeuwen, as COO, and Ashley Ross, who built commercial operations at Onnit ahead of its acquisition, as SVP of Sales.
The size of the round, combined with two operator-caliber hires, is expected to fund manufacturing growth and retail distribution expansion, building on a retail footprint that has already demonstrated consumer demand for the product.
Continued Institutional Investment in High-Protein Concepts
Frozen One’s raise is one of several recent early-stage financings in the high-protein frozen and snacking category. Protein Pints, a Grand Rapids-based competitor, has raised approximately $2 million across seed and grant-based capital while expanding into more than 8,000 retail doors, including Target, Kroger, and Albertsons. Smearcase, marketed under the “FroCo” brand, has raised capital to support retail growth and has reached roughly 1,000 doors. David Protein, which entered the ice cream category most recently as an extension of its existing protein bar business, raised a $10 million seed round in 2024 before a $75 million Series A in 2025 led by Greenoaks, and has since used its scale to secure access to a key better-for-you fat ingredient. Taken together, these rounds indicate that investor interest in high-protein frozen treats extends beyond a single company.
The global protein ice cream market was valued at $2.5 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $3.8 billion by 2030, a 6.2% CAGR, with North America accounting for roughly 45% of category revenue. That is durable growth, but it is a mid-single-digit-CAGR category rather than a breakout one, which places relatively more weight on Frozen One’s ability to win share within a defined market rather than benefit from outsized category expansion.
Frozen One leads with a specific nutritional specification, 40 grams of protein per pint at 380 to 430 calories, rather than a broader “better-for-you” or low-calorie claim. This positioning differs from brands that add a protein claim to an already-established better-for-you story, and reflects an emerging split in the category between protein-first brands (Frozen One, Protein Pints) and better-for-you brands adding protein as a secondary attribute. A specification-led approach can serve as a clear differentiator, though nutritional specs of this kind are generally replicable by competitors once proven out at retail.
Strategic M&A Context
Capstone Partners’ latest Food M&A Update found that 67.7% of branded food acquisition targets so far in 2026 carry better-for-you, high-protein, international, or sustainability positioning, as legacy conglomerates divest slower-growing brands to fund category-relevant bolt-on acquisitions.
Looking ahead, a useful indicator to track will be whether Frozen One’s expanded retail footprint, approximately 2,300 locations including its April 2026 nationwide Target rollout across roughly 1,464 stores, converts into sustained retail velocity through the next two to three reset cycles, rather than initial placement alone. Continued velocity through the holiday reset and into 2027 line reviews would position Frozen One as a plausible bolt-on candidate for a strategic acquirer already active in better-for-you M&A. This is a data point pH Partners will continue to monitor as part of our coverage of the category.
—Analysis by the pH Partners Team
Austin
Brevy Care, a developer of software that helps family caregivers access Medicaid reimbursements, raised $4.77M in a deal with participation from GreyMatter Capital. $4.92M raised to date.
Neutral Ground, a provider of factory construction material sourcing for real-estate developers, raised $1.15M in a seed round from undisclosed investors. $1.15M raised to date.
Greater Texas Market
Cardinal Data Power (Dallas), a developer of gigawatt-scale data centers powered by on-site generation, raised $70M in a Series A led by Hood River Capital Management with participation from Empery Digital. $70M raised to date.
TYBR Health (Houston), a developer of hydrogel systems that protect healing tissues after orthopedic surgery, raised $30M in a Series A co-led by Vensana Capital and Mutual Capital Partners with participation from Neovate Capital Partners. $38.70M raised to date.
Resolute Grid (Rockwall), a producer of American-made transformers and hardware for electrical transmission systems, raised $18.21M in a deal with participation from Stage 1 Ventures, Wave Function Ventures. $18.21M raised to date.
Brava (Carrollton), a developer of hidden orthodontic braces placed behind the teeth, raised $5.04M in a deal from undisclosed investors. $51.24M raised to date.
Piranha Holdings (Argyle), a holding company formed in Texas in 2026, raised $1.25M in a seed round from undisclosed investors. $1.25M raised to date.
See you next week!
—Mason & Joel
This edition was supported by Malik Osumah.
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pH Partners is an Austin-based boutique investment bank focused on Healthcare, Technology, and Consumer markets. Learn more at phpartners.com.