Station Houston, one of the city's most prominent startup incubators, is combining with Austin-based Capital Factory LLC, one of the Lone Star State's top startup accelerators.
The deal is effective immediately, according to a Jan. 28 news release. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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The local entity will be called Station Houston, powered by Capital Factory. In addition to the Station Houston startup membership and startup-focused services, the new entity will offer Houston-based startups even more resources they need to scale, said Gabriella Rowe, executive director of The Ion, who served as CEO of Station Houston from August 2018 until October 2019.
"[Station Houston startups] get Capital Factory's deep, rich network of venture capitalists, their mentorship and their acceleration program," Rowe told the Houston Business Journal. "These are programs that our startups were already taking advantage of — only they had to get in the car or get on the bus and go to Austin to take advantage of them."
Capital Factory is in the process of hiring a team to handle the local entity's day-to-day operations, but Station Houston's three "startup partner" employees will move over to be employed by Capital Factory, Rowe said.
Station Houston, powered by Capital Factory, will continue to operate out of Station Houston's offices at 1301 Fannin until the firm moves in 2021 into The Ion, a roughly 300,000-square-foot facility in Midtown being billed as Houston's innovation hub. Rowe was tapped to lead The Ion as executive director in October 2019.
Capital Factory entered the Houston market in December 2018 through a partnership with The Cannon, a 120,000-square-foot entrepreneurial coworking facility in west Houston. In addition to Austin and Houston, Capital Factory also has presences in Dallas and San Antonio.
Joshua Baer, founder and CEO of Capital Factory, said in a Jan. 28 Medium post that the Houston expansion is furthering his firm's "Texas Startup Manifesto" — a mission to unite the state's four metro areas as one big city to better recruit talent, fundraise and acquire customers.
"In 2020 our word of the year is 'Houston' and our goal is to achieve the same scale and synergies we have in Dallas with a unique Houston angle to it," Baer wrote.
Station Houston was founded in 2016. Capital Factory was founded in 2009 and has been the most active investor in Texas since 2013, according to Pitchbook.