For the third year, the Greater Houston Partnership's Houston Energy Transition Institute hosted its startup pitch competition at CERAWeek by S&P Global. A dozen startups walked away with recognition — and three some with cash prizes.

HETI joined partners Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and TEX-E for the 2024 Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition at CERAWeek on Wednesday, March 20. Forty-two companies, which have collectively raised over $265 million in investment funding already, pitched to judges. Nine startups won awards across three tracks.

TEX-E, a Texas nonprofit that supports student-founded upstarts, had five of its companies pitch and three winners walked away with monetary prizes. Teams that competed in the TEX-E Prize track, many of which come from Houston universities, include:

• AirMax, University of Texas at Austin
• BeadBlocker, University of Houston
• Carvis Energy Solutions, Texas A&M University
• Coflux Purification, Rice University
• Solidec, Rice University

Solidec, which is working on a platform to produce chemicals from captured carbon, won first place and $25,000. The company also recently scored a $100,000 grant from Rice's One Small Step Grant program, as well as a voucher from the DOE. Coflux Purification, which has a technology that destroys PFAS in filtration, won second place and$15,000. The company also secured a One Small Step Grant to the tune of $80,000. AirMax, which focuses on optimizing sustainability for air conditioning equipment, won third place and $10,000.

Last year, Houston-based Helix Earth Technologies took home the top TEX-E price and $25,000 cash awards. The venture, founded by Rawand Rasheed and Brad Husick from Rice University, developed high-speed, high-efficiency filter systems derived from technology originating at NASA.

The rest of the companies that pitched competed for non-monetary awards. Here's what companies won:

• Group A (CCUS, oilfield solutions, analytics and minerals):
  • First place: Ardent
  • Second place: Vaulted Deep
  • Third place: Mitico
• Group B (batteries, renewables, water, and grid technology):
  
  • First place: SungreenH2
    
  • Second place: FeX Energy
  • Third place: Mercurius Biorefining
• Group C (Mobility, Materials, and hydrogen solutions)
• First place: Thiozen
• Second place: Power2Hydrogen
• Third place: Arolytics