SXSW Honors

Techy Dallas-based healthcare startup wins big at SXSW Interactive

Mend was one of the top three winners at SXSW's ReleaseIt competition.

The ease and accessibility of healthcare-on-demand app Mend is spreading. After expanding its service area to Frisco, McKinney, Southlake, and Flower Mound, the Dallas-based startup made its way into the top 10 finalists for ReleaseIt, the March 11 pitch competition in Startup Village at SXSW Interactive in Austin.

Thousands of companies from around the globe entered the contest, and Mend joined finalists from Japan, Germany, California, New York, and beyond as the only entrant from Texas to advance. Not only did Mend continue on to the top 10, ultimately it won one of the two runner-up spots overall.

The three judges for the contest included Dr. Susan Amat, CEO/founder of Venture Hive; Julie Lenzer, director of the U.S. Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship; and Marc Nager, CEO of UP Global. Trey Bowles, CEO and co-founder of the Dallas Entrepreneur Center, emceed the event.

“It is exceptionally impressive that Mend was selected as the second-place winner in this competition,” Bowles said in a release. “Over the last few years, we have had hundreds of extremely qualified companies come through this competition, and the top winners of the last few years have gone on to generate millions of dollars in revenue, raise substantial investment, and truly become amazing disruptors in their perspective industries.”

Mend launched in March 2015, founded by Dallas resident and board certified emergency physician Jonathan Clarke, M.D., a 14-year veteran of the U.S. Navy. It's on-demand, affordable healthcare summoned through an app. If you attended our CultureMap Social: Innovation Edition last fall, you may have gotten a flu shot provided by Mend.

Dr. Amat said about Mend: “Jonathan's pitch convinced everyone in the room not only that the need and opportunity are great, but that he and his team were the ones who can pull it off. Mend's approach is scalable while ensuring patient-centric care, under the leadership of a vet who also just happens to be a doctor — I'll bet my money on him any day. Healthcare is ripe for the disruption that Mend is offering. New models like this, run by teams that will keep the patient care at the core, will win.”

Inteliclinic Inc., out of San Francisco, took top honors; Atlanta-based Cinamaker Technologies Inc. was the second runner-up. Inteliclinic manufactures NeuroOn, an intelligent sleep mask that measures all important biological signals and provides accurate sleep analytics to users. It also uses bright light therapy to help users manage their circadian rhythm and optimize sleep.

Cinamaker ventures outside the health realm with easy-to-use, powerful, and insanely fast digital workflows for multicamera capture and production using smartphones, tablets, and compatible digital video-cameras. Video creators are apparently very happy about this.

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Innovation highway

Amazon's Zoox robotaxis steer into Dallas, revving up rivalry with Waymo

Photo courtesy of Zoox

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Ride-hailing robotaxis operated by Amazon-owned Zoox will soon hit the roads in Dallas, alongside those operated by chief competitor Waymo.

Zoox is expanding its test fleet to Dallas and Phoenix after launching pilot projects in Austin, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

Zoox says in a blog post that Dallas and Phoenix are “rapidly growing metropolitan areas with high demand for ride-hailing and first- and last-mile connections. Expanding into these cities allows us to test in sprawling environments, differentiating this … from our testing in other dense metro areas like San Francisco.”

In Dallas and Phoenix, Zoox vehicles will be on the streets of centrally located neighborhoods, the company says.

“Dallas provides a valuable testing ground to refine our AI against diverse weather and complex road networks,” Zoox adds.

The Zoox test fleet, which comprises retrofitted Toyota Highlander SUVs, has been traveling on public roadways since 2017, starting with the San Francisco Bay Area and Las Vegas. Amazon bought the company in 2020 for $1.3 billion.

When Zoox tests its robotaxis in a new market, it initially focuses on mapping streets before moving on to autonomous driving.

“There is always a safety driver behind the wheel who can take over at any time, disengaging the AI if needed,” the company says.

After finishing its tests with SUVs in Dallas and Phoenix, Zoox will start testing its box-shaped, purpose-built robotaxis.

In the San Francisco Bay Area and Las Vegas, their vehicles have traveled more than one million miles and served more than 300,000 ride-hailing passengers.

Zoox joins Waymo in introducing self-driving taxis to Dallas. Last month, Waymo announced its entry into the Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando, Florida, markets.

Waymo, owned by Google’s parent company, says it has logged more 20 million ride-hailing trips in 10 cities, including Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio.

“Dallas is excited for Waymo to launch operations in our city, providing Dallas residents and visitors with new, innovative transportation options,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said in February. “The availability of Waymo’s fully autonomous ride service further cements Dallas’ reputation as one of America’s most innovative and dynamic cities.”

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