One North Texas city is a hot place to be for tech start-up companies.
According to a new report, Irving ranked third, just behind the Silicon Valley (Fremont and San Jose) when it comes to the number of technology start-ups per capita. Austin, TX ranked fifth in that study.
Apptricity, an Irving-based start-up, has come a long way since opening for business in 1999.
"From a enterprise all the way down to a smart phone, our technology allows you to basically pass information. That information can be e-procurement information or it can be supply chain information," said Tim Garcia, President and CEO of Apptricity Corp.
The company builds software or apps that allow businesses to manage functions like inventory, purchasing, and shipping.
"We have a government services group and we have a commercial services group. Companies like Wal-Mart, AT&T, Texas Utilities, utilize our products as well as the Department of Defense, the US Army branch," he said.
WaveTwo, another start-up, has been using technology to help health-care businesses solve problems since 2002.
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"We help them become more productive, provide better quality services, and we do it by using data, data analytics, computer systems," said founder John Arnott Sr.
The company manages IT services for a dozen hospitals in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Using custom dashboards and electronic health records, the company has been growing over the years. They now have 35 employees and were recently acquired by a division of Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA.
City Manager Tommy Gonzalez said companies like these are what keep Irving's economy strong.
"It shows that hard work pays off. And to the council it shows that the incentives that they put together that are stronger, more aggressive, that that plan is working," he said.
Gonzalez added that many of the 8,500-plus businesses in the city are connected to the technology sector.
Irving has created or retained 12,000 jobs in the past two years. Its unemployment rate dropped to 6.3 percent in August, about two percent below the national average.
