{"id":340309,"date":"2026-06-17T20:57:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/340309\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T20:57:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:57:14","slug":"capital-factory-ceo-joshua-baer-killed-in-texas-plane-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/340309\/","title":{"rendered":"Capital Factory CEO Joshua Baer Killed in Texas Plane Crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Topline<\/p>\n<p class=\"topline-summary\">Joshua Baer, the founder and CEO of Austin-based startup incubator Capital Factory, was identified as the only person who died after a <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/video\/crews-rush-to-rescue-people-after-small-plane-crashes-on-texas-highway-a6eabe24a73141cfb9c499a5bc7a3e8e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/apnews.com\/video\/crews-rush-to-rescue-people-after-small-plane-crashes-on-texas-highway-a6eabe24a73141cfb9c499a5bc7a3e8e\" aria-label=\"private jet crashed\">private jet crashed<\/a> onto a Texas highway in Laredo on Tuesday night, his company first confirmed to the Austin-American Statesman.<\/p>\n<p>Six people were onboard the private jet from Mexico to Austin, which crashed on a highway in Laredo.<\/p>\n<p>Associated PressKey Facts<\/p>\n<p class=\"timeline-fact\">Baer was one of the six people onboard a private jet that crashed onto a highway in Laredo on Tuesday night, in a shocking landing leading nearby motorists to leap from their cars and try to break into the burning aircraft to rescue victims, according to footage published by the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/video\/crews-rush-to-rescue-people-after-small-plane-crashes-on-texas-highway-a6eabe24a73141cfb9c499a5bc7a3e8e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/apnews.com\/video\/crews-rush-to-rescue-people-after-small-plane-crashes-on-texas-highway-a6eabe24a73141cfb9c499a5bc7a3e8e\" aria-label=\"Associated Press\">Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"timeline-fact\">The jet was a private flight operated by NetJets flying from San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo, Mexico, to Austin, Texas, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FAANews\/status\/2067234591774007339\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/x.com\/FAANews\/status\/2067234591774007339\" aria-label=\"Federal Aviation Administration\">Federal Aviation Administration<\/a>, and crashed just south of Laredo around 10 p.m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"timeline-fact\">The other five passengers and crew members were all hospitalized, the Laredo Police Department told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/06\/17\/us\/plane-crash-laredo-texas-highway-hnk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/06\/17\/us\/plane-crash-laredo-texas-highway-hnk\" aria-label=\"CNN\">CNN<\/a>, as well as one motorist whose vehicle was struck by the plane, and five responding officers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"timeline-fact\">Capital Factory confirmed Baer\u2019s death to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/news\/article\/laredo-plane-crash-loop-20-austin-bound-22308875.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/news\/article\/laredo-plane-crash-loop-20-austin-bound-22308875.php\" aria-label=\"Austin American-Statesman\">Austin American-Statesman<\/a> on Wednesday, who the company\u2019s president Bryan Chambers called \u201ca fearless leader, a brilliant partner, and a dear friend to so many of us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"timeline-fact\">The company, which serves as an early-stage investor and incubator for robotics, bioscience, aerospace and other tech firms, will be \u201ccontinuing his mission of backing unstoppable founders,\u201d Chambers said in a statement to the newspaper.<\/p>\n<p>Key Background<\/p>\n<p>Baer was recognized as one of the key figures in Austin\u2019s growing tech sector. His firm, Capital Factory, was founded in 2009 and has since provided funds for numerous now-growing tech firms, including humanoid robot firm <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/02\/11\/apptronik-raises-520-million-at-5-billion-valuation-for-apollo-robot.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/02\/11\/apptronik-raises-520-million-at-5-billion-valuation-for-apollo-robot.html\" aria-label=\"Apptronik\">Apptronik<\/a>, aerospace firms <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/mollybohannon\/2024\/04\/03\/this-billionaire-backed-space-company-could-build-the-next-moon-rover-for-nasa-astronauts\/\" data-ga-track=\"InternalLink:https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/mollybohannon\/2024\/04\/03\/this-billionaire-backed-space-company-could-build-the-next-moon-rover-for-nasa-astronauts\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"Intuitive Machines\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Intuitive Machines<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zacharyfolk\/2025\/08\/07\/firefly-aerospace-jumps-more-than-50-in-ipo-before-settling\/\" data-ga-track=\"InternalLink:https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zacharyfolk\/2025\/08\/07\/firefly-aerospace-jumps-more-than-50-in-ipo-before-settling\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"Firefly Aerospace\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Firefly Aerospace<\/a>, and Colossal Biosciences, the biotech company trying to <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/01\/15\/colossal-biosciences-raises-200m-at-10-2b-valuation-to-bring-back-woolly-mammoths\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/01\/15\/colossal-biosciences-raises-200m-at-10-2b-valuation-to-bring-back-woolly-mammoths\/\" aria-label=\"resurrect extinct species\">resurrect extinct species<\/a>. All of these companies received funding from Capital Factory\u2019s Texas Fund, according to the company, which it says is designed to invest early startup money in \u201ccompanies solving problems at the edge of what&#8217;s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline Joshua Baer, the founder and CEO of Austin-based startup incubator Capital Factory, was identified as the only&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,78358,121371,7686,119,27],"class_list":["post-340309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-capital-factory","tag-joshua-baer","tag-laredo","tag-plane-crash","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}