A Filipino in Austin: Why This Technopreneur Is Betting Big on the Texas Capital

Austin is much more than the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. The city is perhaps best known for its slogan as the “live music capital of the world,” and, of course, for the annual South x Southwest Festival. 

But if you’re someone who’s keeping an eye out for emerging cities with a strong tech ecosystem, it’s difficult to ignore Austin. Over the last few years, the city has developed a reputation for nurturing businesses and tech startups. In fact, the American Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), put the city on top of its Tech Town USA index, pronouncing it as the best tech city in America for the last three years, from 2020 to 2022.

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Downtown Austin skyline

Photo by Wikimedia Commons.

Austin: a global tech hub 

Some of the world’s biggest companies—tech or otherwise—all have headquarters and regional offices in Austin, including 3M, Apple, Facebook, Google, IBM, Oracle, and Dell (in the nearby suburb of Round Rock). Korea’s Samsung already announced a $17 billion investment for a semiconductor facility in the suburb of Taylor and may increase it to $200 billion, which would translate to 11 new chipmaking facilities and 10,000 jobs in the area. And, of course, Elon Musk’s Tesla has its Gigafactory in Austin, which is where the brand will likely manufacture its Cybertruck and Semi models.

A statue of George Washington stands at the University of Texas in Austin

Photo by PJ Cana.

Clearly Austin is experiencing a seismic shift and companies and individuals from all over the world are all jumping onboard to get a piece of the action. That includes Ramon Garcia, who is the first, and so far only, Filipino businessman with a significant presence in the city. The chairman of listed company DFNN says he’s been traveling to Austin since 2015, way before the arrival of some of the gigantic tech companies like Tesla and Oracle. It all started when his daughter chose to study at the University of Texas in Austin.

“In all honesty, I had no idea what was in Austin back then,” Garcia tells Esquire Philippines. We’re chatting in the sleek, sparkling cafeteria of the Apple campus in Austin, where the wife of Garcia’s business partner works. 

“Austin has now become the tech hub center of the United States,” he adds. “There's a well-known gravitation from California to Texas for all the right reasons, including a large land area, and an attitude that encapsulates the American “can-do” spirit. Now, (even) the space industry is moving here. Can you imagine the future downstream? Elon Musk has moved here, Oracle has moved here. So you can imagine the innovation that's going to be happening and that gives our group, the DFNN group, a real window into what's going to happen over the next five to 10 years.”

Ramon Garcia, here at a lakeside restaurant in Austin, is the founder and executive chairman of DFNN Inc

Photo by PJ Cana.

The DFNN group is a leading information technology solutions provider and systems integrator, helping its clients compete in the modern fast-paced world dominated by technology. Specializing in software design as well as technology research and development, DFNN’s business includes land-based and online gaming platforms, an online platform for cross-border exchange of digital assets between international investors, and a cryptocurrency monitoring system used by the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA). The company has invested heavily in the province of Bataan, specifically in its Freeport area, where most of its digital assets are located. 

Although DFNN is already a publicly listed company (and has been so since 1999), Garcia is also embedded in the startup community, particularly in Austin. In fact, he is a member of the Central Texas Angel Network, which invests in early-stage startups in that area of the state. Venture funding is thriving in the city, with the Startup Genome estimating 387 deals closed in 2021 worth $4.9 billion for a 211-percent growth compared to 2020.

Potential for startups

“Austin had five of the top 10 venture capital funding deals in Texas in that year, with notable funding rounds including ICON Technology’s $207 million Series B in August and Elligo Health Research’s $135 million Series E in September,” the Startup Genome reported. “LiveOak Venture Partners, which makes early-stage investments in technology and technology-driven services, raised its largest fund to date, $210 million, in late 2021.”

Garcia attends a panel during Austin's South x Southwest 2023

Photo by PJ Cana.

The Austin region is home to over 3,380 fast-growing startups with a combined enterprise value of $115.3 billion in 2022 so far, according to research by Dealroom.co.

“Counter to overall US tech industry performance, Austin’s ecosystem value grew between 2021 and 2022 so far, regardless of economic volatility; making it one of the most resilient tech hubs globally,” Dealroom said. “Tesla‘s recent headquarters relocation to Austin adds a whopping $911B to the ecosystem total enterprise value and is sure to have a significant economic impact on the region.”

“I sit on the Central Texas Angel Network, so I see what startups are coming and thinking of, and it gives me a window as well as the ability to ask why and then see where it's adaptable to the rest of the world that I have influence or I can expose to,” Garcia says. 

Ramon Garcia and his wife Charina at the University of Texas in Austin, where their daughter also graduated

Photo by Ramon Garcia.

Real estate bet

Outside of angel investing, Garcia himself is putting his money where his mouth is by plunking down serious money to invest in real estate in Austin. The technopreneur and his daughter partnered with an American property development firm on a 17-acre plot of land in one of the city’s suburbs, where they plan to build a “smart” community of tech-enabled homes. They even tapped the services of a twentysomething Filipino architect to design and bring to life their vision of the community of the future.

Along with her daughter, Garcia partnered with an American real estate firm to develop a piece of land in a suburb of Austin and turn it into a "smart community"

Photo by PJ Cana.

“We did it even before CapitaLand of Singapore invested here in the area, knowing that this is a great hub,” Garcia says, referring to the giant real estate company from the Lion City, which formed a $300 million joint venture company with an Austin-based real estate property management and investment firm in 2020.

“CapitaLand is…starting to do (its projects) under a smart community basis,” Garcia adds. “We want to be part of that. So we have our own, through my daughter and a joint venture partner American company, a small real estate development where we hope to test our technology, bring the best of the Philippines as well as the best of the technologies available here in the US from an inter-connected and service basis community.” 

Artist's rendering of the house that will be built on Garcia's land in Austin. All the houses will have "smart" features

Photo by Ramon Garcia.

Energy of the city

Visiting Austin in the middle of the annual South x Southwest festival season, it’s hard to deny the frenetic pace and energy of the city. One minute we were listening to a representative of the US Defense Advance Research Project Agency talk about America's current space programs at an attached SXSW panel, the next we were walking around downtown Austin checking out the Porsche X exhibition of concept art cars. We also found time to attend a panel led by women startup founders and venture capitalists, as well as have lunch and chat with a Brazilian healthtech startup founder and an investor for one of the Brazil’s high net worth individuals. 

Garcia met with his university classmates, both from Brazil, during South by Southwest in Austin

Photo by Ramon Garcia.

Garcia hopes more Filipino entrepreneurs and investors become exposed to the sheer scale of the business startup community outside of the Philippines, particularly in Austin.

“One thing I'd like to bring is the attitude, because the tech community isn't about me or you,” he says. “It's about competition as well as cooperation. It's really how can we build ecosystems together, how we can integrate to have a better whole. I've been astounded by being able to luckily be invited to the facilities of SpaceX here. They've shown me their launch capabilities, their testing facilities, the way they build and maintain the rockets, and I'm very convinced that really, their main goal is structured around getting people from Earth to Mars, and along (those lines), you’ll find a lot of aligned technologies that will become useful downstream. 

“I'd like other Filipinos to start coming here,” he adds. “Singapore already has a presence here, through Capitaland. My feeling is, come on guys. I believe in us. I believe in our country. Let's be the Silicon Valley of Asia. And I'm sure we can be.”