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Private company

Amy's Ice Creams

Chain of ice cream shops

Amy's Ice Creams is a privately owned chain of ice cream shops in Texas with headquarters in Austin. The Austin Chronicle described Amy's as a "quintessentially Austin institution" which "dominates the local ice cream scene. " Amy's ice cream is owned by Amy Simmons.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1984Founded1

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Amys at the Arbor
Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Jhenderson~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons4

Amy's Ice Creams is a privately owned chain of ice cream shops in Texas with headquarters in Austin. The Austin Chronicle described Amy's as a "quintessentially Austin institution" which "dominates the local ice cream scene." Amy's ice cream is owned by Amy Simmons. The readers of the Austin Chronicle have voted Amy's the best "reader's ice cream" eight consecutive years.2

The story

Known colloquially as Amy's, Amy's Ice Creams was started by Amy Simmons in 1984. While in Boston, as a premedical major at Tufts University, Amy worked for Steve's Ice Cream. After Steve's Ice Cream was purchased by a larger corporation, Amy decided to go into business for herself. Amy and her business partner Scott Shaw eventually decided to open their ice cream shop in Austin. They wrote a check for the lease of their first store on Guadalupe Street in Austin. Amy has since opened fourteen more locations, with the majority of them in Austin, two in Houston, and one in San Antonio.

The first Houston location was formerly at The Rice Hotel.

In 2009, owner Amy Simmons stated that she does not intend to rapidly expand the chain.

In 2017, the company reported a $9 million revenue.

From Wikipedia’s article on Amy's Ice Creams, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Timeline

  1. 1984Founded Founded1

Funding

Where the company's money came from, by calendar year: private offerings filed with the SEC, federal grants, loans, contracts and other assistance from USAspending.gov, and PPP loans from the SBA. Each bar links to the records below.

Money received by year$2.3M 2020–2021
Money received by yearMoney received by year, 2020–2021: $2.3M in all. PPP loans $2.3M.$0$500K$1M$1.5M2020 · PPP loans: $983.5K20202021 · PPP loans: $1.3M2021
Figures by year
YearPPP loansTotal
2021$1.3M$1.3M
2020$983.5K$983.5K

PPP loans

Paycheck Protection Program loans of $150,000 and up, approved April 2020 to July 2021, from the SBA5. Matched to this company by name and state.

  1. Apr 11, 2020$983.5K PPP loan (first draw) from Texas Capital Bank5To AMY'S ICE CREAMS, INC, Austin TX; $991.3K forgiven Jan 26, 2021
  2. Feb 10, 2021$1.3M PPP loan (second draw) from Texas Capital Bank5To AMY'S ICE CREAMS INC., Austin TX; $1.3M forgiven Jan 11, 2022

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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