Vision Quest: Austin's Ollin Biosciences Lands a $330 Million War Chest as Hill County Blinks First on Data Centers
July 2026 | Vol. 1, Issue 3
Mapping the intersection of medicine and venture capital across the Texas Triangle.
Executive Summary
June was the month Texas healthcare venture capital proved it could write checks at a scale usually reserved for the coasts. Austin-based Ollin Biosciences closed an oversubscribed $330 million Series B (one of the largest biotech rounds anywhere in the country this year) to push its retinal-disease antibody into global Phase 3 trials. The round's syndicate reads like a who's-who of institutional life sciences capital, a strong signal that out-of-state investors are increasingly willing to write nine-figure checks into Central Texas biotech.
Meanwhile, the infrastructure friction that defined May came to a head and then quietly resolved: Hill County's historic data center moratorium, the first of its kind in Texas, was rescinded just two weeks after passage, as commissioners traded a blunt one-year construction freeze for a developer disclosure checklist. And Texas's medtech investor base kept flexing its national reach, with Austin's S3 Ventures co-leading a $31 million Series B into a California-based nanoparticle drug-delivery platform serving as a reminder that Texas capital is now flowing outward as often as it flows in.
Macro Signals
Ollin Biosciences' $330 million Series B — Texas biotech's biggest swing of the year
Austin-based Ollin Biosciences announced an oversubscribed $330 million Series B financing on June 24 after completing an End-of-Phase 2 meeting with the FDA and receiving European Medicines Agency scientific advice on its Phase 3 program. The round was co-led by new investor TCGX and ARCH Venture Partners, with participation from a16z Bio+Health, Blackstone Multi-Asset Investing, Commodore Capital, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, RA Capital Management, T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Mubadala Capital and Monograph Capital. The company intends to use the funds to support global Phase 3 trials of OLN324, a VEGF/Ang2 bispecific antibody addressing causes of vision loss in the $15 billion retina market. The financing comes roughly six months after early trial data showed the drug outperforming Genentech's Vabysmo, a leading eye medicine.
The Signal: This is easily the largest single venture check to land in Texas healthcare so far in 2026, and it did not come from a Texas fund — every lead investor is a national or global institutional life sciences player. That matters for the state's biotech thesis: Austin (and by extension the broader Texas Triangle) is no longer just a place where regional funds like Sante Ventures or S3 Ventures write early checks; it's now a location where the biggest coastal and global life-sciences investors are comfortable deploying quarter-billion-dollar late-stage rounds directly into a homegrown clinical-stage company. For local investors, Ollin's syndicate is also a roadmap of exactly which national funds are actively hunting for Texas-originated, clinically de-risked ophthalmology and immunology assets.
Hill County's moratorium falls in two weeks flat
Hill County commissioners voted unanimously on June 4 to end their one-year data center moratorium, the first such measure passed by a Texas county, and replaced it with a checklist of requirements for developers, just two weeks after initially instating the pause. County leaders said the reversal was intended to protect taxpayers from potential liability stemming from RCM Hill LLC's federal lawsuit, which argued the county lacked legal authority to impose the ban. The new checklist requires developers of major industrial projects to disclose expected water use, traffic impacts, noise levels and economic effects. The rushed reversal appears to validate the lawsuit's core argument, that Texas counties, unlike cities with zoning authority, lack the broad power to halt development altogether.
The Signal: For AI-infrastructure and health-tech-adjacent investors who spent May watching Hill County as a potential bellwether for grid-and-water-driven local resistance to hyperscale data centers, June delivered a clear answer: blunt moratoriums don't survive contact with Texas's county-authority limits. The durable tool that emerged instead, a disclosure and impact-assessment checklist, is a far less disruptive instrument, and one more easily replicated by other counties facing similar development pressure. Investors in energy-tech, grid-monitoring, and water-cooling startups should treat the checklist model, not the moratorium, as the template to watch as more Texas counties weigh in over the second half of 2026.
Texas capital goes national: S3 Ventures co-leads a $31M round outside the state
Advanced NanoTherapies, a clinical-stage medtech company developing a dual-drug nanoparticle-coated balloon platform for coronary and peripheral artery disease, closed an oversubscribed Series B financing totaling more than $31 million on June 2, co-led by an undisclosed strategic investor and Austin's S3 Ventures, with participation from the T45 Fund. S3 Ventures Managing Director Brian R. Smith said the financing reflects confidence in the company's scientific foundation, clinical progress, and regulatory strategy, noting its experience across multiple coronary studies positions it well for pivotal clinical execution.
The Signal: The portfolio company itself is based in California, not Texas, but the deal is a useful data point on the other side of the "Texas healthtech" story: the state's institutional investor base, led by firms like S3 Ventures, has grown large and sophisticated enough to co-lead eight-figure medtech rounds well outside its home market. As Texas funds raise larger vehicles (Sante Ventures closed a $330 million fund V in February), expect more of this outbound capital flow alongside the inbound story this Report typically tracks.
May Deal Tracker
| Company | Hub | Stage | Deal Value | Lead / Notable News |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ollin Biosciences | Austin | Series B | $330.0M | TCGX & ARCH Venture Partners co-lead; funds global Phase 3 trials of retinal-disease antibody OLN324 |
| Hill County / RCM Hill | Statewide (Hill Co.) | Regulatory reversal | N/A | County rescinds nation-watched data center moratorium after two weeks, adopts developer disclosure checklist |
| Advanced NanoTherapies* | Santa Clara, CA (Austin-led) | Series B | $31.0M+ | Co-led by Austin's S3 Ventures and the T45 Fund; Texas capital deployed into an out-of-state medtech platform |
*Company headquartered outside Texas; included for its Texas-investor lead.
Growth / Late-Stage Rounds
Ollin Biosciences (Austin) – $330M Series B
The undisputed heavyweight deal of the month, and one of the largest biotech rounds in the country this year. Ollin, established in 2023, is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to acquiring and developing best-in-disease therapies for vision-threatening diseases, with plans to initiate global Phase 3 trials of OLN324 in diabetic macular edema and wet age-related macular degeneration in the second half of 2026. In connection with the financing, Cariad Chester joined Ollin's Board of Directors, representing lead investor TCGX. The company is also advancing OLN102, a bispecific antibody for thyroid eye disease developed in collaboration with VelaVigo, toward clinical development later this year.
Regulatory & Infrastructure Notes
Hill County adopts checklist regime in place of moratorium
Hill County appears to be the first Texas county to have passed a data center moratorium, and County Judge Shane Brassell said he still considers the original moratorium a success even after its repeal, arguing the replacement checklist sits on firmer legal ground. The episode; moratorium passed May 12, repealed June 4, lawsuit ultimately dismissed with prejudice on July 9, closes out in roughly two months from start to finish, offering a fast, clean case study for other counties considering similar measures against AI-driven data center growth.
CPRIT continues quarterly grant cadence
CPRIT's governing board did not hold a public quarterly meeting announcing new company or academic awards in June, following May's $103 million tranche. The agency's Product Development Research programs (SEED, TDDC, TTC, TNTC) kept their application windows open through the month, with full applications due July 9, positioning the next major CPRIT grant announcement for late summer.
Upcoming Events
Texas Health Informatics Alliance (THIA) Sixth Annual Conference
When / Where: September 18, 2026 | UT Arlington / DFW Regional Hub
Information: Co-hosted by a massive coalition of Texas medical schools (including UTHealth Houston, UTSW, and UNT), the theme is “From Innovation to Impact: Implementing Trustworthy Health Informatics Across Texas.” This event is a hotspot for VCs evaluating B2B hospital infrastructure, clinical AI governance, digital twins, and simulated health tracking.
Link: View agenda tracks and deadlines at the official THIA 2026 Conference Site.
2026 iC³ Life Science & Healthcare Innovation Summit
When / Where: September 24–25, 2026 | Loews Arlington Hotel & Convention Center
Information: Hosted by BioNTX, this is the premier annual life sciences summit in North Texas. It functions as a heavy networking zone for institutional lifetech VCs, pharma business development execs, and later-stage startups hunting for Series A and B tranches.
Link: Register directly at the BioNTX iC³ Summit Registration Page.
The 2026 Healthcare Innovation Summit – Houston
When / Where: October 15, 2026 | Intercontinental Houston
Information: A highly targeted buyer-and-seller summit connecting C-level healthcare executives and hospital decision-makers with the enterprise healthtech startup ecosystem. Startups attend this to lock down the exact pilot agreements and provider ROIs that private VCs are demanding right now.
Link: Claim passes on the Healthcare Innovation Summit Houston Hub.
MedCity INVEST Digital Health 2026
When / Where: October 29, 2026 | Pegasus Park (Dallas)
Information: One of the premier nationwide digital health investment conferences stops right in the heart of Texas's core biotech park. Expect heavy participation from national corporate venture capital (CVC) funds, active angel networks, and early-stage pitch tracks.
Link: Register or view the pitch tracks on the MedCity INVEST Digital Health Landing Page.
Sources
Ollin Biosciences. "Ollin Biosciences Announces Oversubscribed $330 Million Series B Financing to Advance Global Phase 3 Development of OLN324 in DME and Wet AMD; Studies Commencing in Second Half of 2026." Business Wire, 24 June 2026, www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260623783799/en/.
Timmerman, Luke, et al. "Ollin hauls in $330M to enlist Vabysmo challenger in phase 3 eye disease gauntlet." Fierce Biotech, 24 June 2026, www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/ollin-hauls-330m-enlist-vabysmo-challenger-phase-3-eye-disease-gauntlet.
FinSMEs. "Ollin Biosciences Raises $330M in Series B Funding." FinSMEs, 24 June 2026, www.finsmes.com/2026/06/ollin-biosciences-raises-330m-in-series-b-funding.html.
Route Fifty. "Texas county rescinds its data center moratorium after $100 million lawsuit from developer." Route Fifty, 8 June 2026, www.route-fifty.com/artificial-intelligence/2026/06/texas-county-rescinds-its-data-center-moratorium-after-100-million-lawsuit-developer/414022/.
Goldenstein, Taylor. "Texas county rescinds data center moratorium after lawsuit." The Texas Tribune, 5 June 2026, www.texastribune.org/2026/06/05/texas-hill-county-moratorium-rescinded-data-centers/.
FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth. "Texas county lifts data center moratorium amid pressure from developer lawsuit." FOX 4, 9 June 2026, www.fox4news.com/news/hill-county-texas-data-center-moratorium-lifted.
K&L Gates. "Facing a Federal Lawsuit, Hill County Repeals Blanket Pause on Data Center Construction, Adopting New Approval Procedures Instead." K&L Gates HUB, 10 June 2026, www.klgates.com/Facing-a-Federal-Lawsuit-Hill-County-Repeals-Blanket-Pause-on-Data-Center-Construction-Adopting-New-Approval-Procedures-Instead-6-10-2026.
Advanced NanoTherapies. "Advanced NanoTherapies Secures Over $31M Series B to Deliver First-of-its-Kind Dual-Drug (Paclitaxel and Sirolimus) Nanoparticle-Coated Balloon Platform for Vascular Treatment." PR Newswire / BioSpace, 2 June 2026, www.biospace.com/press-releases/advanced-nanotherapies-secures-over-31m-series-b-to-deliver-first-of-its-kind-dual-drug-paclitaxel-and-sirolimus-nanoparticle-coated-balloon-platform-for-vascular-treatment.
Pulse2. "Advanced NanoTherapies Raises Over $31 Million Series B To Advance Dual-Drug Nanoparticle-Coated Balloon Platform." Pulse2, 3 June 2026, pulse2.com/advanced-nanotherapies-raises-over-31-million-series-b-to-advance-dual-drug-nanoparticle-coated-balloon-platform/amp/.
Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. "CPRIT Funding for AI & Emerging Cancer Technologies." BW&CO Consulting, 2026, www.bwcoconsulting.com/fod/cprit-2026.
Disclaimer: The Givens Health Venture Report is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. The views, data, and analysis expressed in this report are entirely independent and not affiliated with, endorsed by, or representative of any of the venture capital firms, corporate entities, state agencies, or healthcare institutions mentioned herein. Past performance or deal trajectory is not indicative of future market results.
