Steele: There is no reason the RGV cannot secure hundreds of millions of dollars in venture investment

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SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Rio Grande Valley-based tech entrepreneur William Steele says he is currently researching parts of the country where strong public-private partnerships in the tech arena led to huge financial investments and high-paying job opportunities.

Steele, co-founder of Weslaco-based Supply Pay, wants to see the Valley benefit from such opportunities.

Appearing as a panelist at the 2025 South Texas Summit, Steele said he sees huge potential for the Valley.

“The economic impact of a really good incubation and a really good technology ecosystem really can’t be understated,” Steele said, during the panel discussion.

“I was up until two in the morning this morning trying to find case studies of like where did this go right. And there’s several that you find where a public-private partnership really led to like thousands of really high-paying jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in venture investment into these ideas and concepts.”

Steele later shared with the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service some of that research.

“So, there are some very good examples of incubation done correctly. One is at Cape Girardeau, in Minnesota, and it’s called the Codefi tech incubator. It led to over 270 jobs being created, and over 120 coders trained. Another one is in Wilmington, North Carolina, and this was basically an investment from Live Oak Bank and Synply Inc., that led to more than 3,000 fintech jobs attracted to that area, more than $554 million in venture capital funding to that region.”

Here is what happened at Cape Girardeau, Minnesota:

And here is what happened at Wilmington, North Carolina:

During the panel discussion, Steele said there is no reason the Valley could not benefit in the same way.

“I think like each of the cities (in the Valley) are coming together to build a collective ecosystem. I really liked (the 2025) RGV StartUp Week. That was a really great event, highlighted through several different cities. That showed what is going on. I personally got to see a lot of the young entrepreneurs that are going through the startup programs that I went through in the area.”

Steele continued:

“As long as several of the front runners in the pack keep blazing a trail, people will be able to come back and invest. There will be other venture capitalists and other angel investors that have seen success in those companies that will want to double down in that area. So I think it’s a really, really exciting time.”

Steele also predicted a lot of talent recycling at places such as SpaceX.

“People get burned out. They’ll be like, you know, I want to do something exciting for myself. I learned all these really interesting skills and now they are not going to have to go some place else to do that. They are going to be in place that has the infrastructure, that has other case studies of success. And there’s also resources available in some of the cities and private investment for them to grow and do that there. So, I am pretty excited about the next five years.”

One drawback the Valley faces, however, is the lack of venture capitalists, Steele said, during the panel discussion.

“As far as I know, there is no venture fund in the South Texas area where I live, like from McAllen to Brownsville. There exists no real institutional investors. I think that that’s a really big missed opportunity, for a lot of reasons. I think there’s some really cool ideas (coming out of the Valley),” Steele said.

“But I will give a shout out to a city which has done an excellent job and continues to do an excellent job at that and that’s El Paso.”

Steele said there is one venture capital firm from El Paso that has invested in Supply Pay.

“They have a really good understanding of what we are doing, because they are in an important region right there, between El Paso and Juarez. They understand trade. They understand the scope of the market.”

Steele said when he went for his first round of funding, the people he was pitching to had never heard of McAllen.

“I would ask them, have you guys ever heard of McAllen? Most of them had no clue.” However, when he told just how much international trade passed through the region, their eyes lit up. “They’re like, oh, there’s a market there.”

Steele urged venture capitalists to take a look at the Valley. “I think there’s a ton of opportunity there.”

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