Houston clean energy lab names 4 new companies to program

new to the labs

Halliburton Labs has named its newest cohort — and opened applications for the next one. Photo courtesy of Halliburton

Halliburton Labs has doubled the number of clean energy companies that are operating out of its facilities with the addition of its second cohort.

Four companies have been selected for the program, joining four existing member companies of Halliburton Labs, which originally launched last summer. The companies recently announced to the incubator are Alumina Energy, Ionada, Parasanti, and SurgePower Materials.

"We are excited to support and collaborate with this group of early-stage, clean energy companies as they continue their commercialization journey," says Dale Winger, managing director of Halliburton Labs, in a news release. "Each has demonstrated a commitment to accelerating their technologies, and we are eager to help them innovate, develop and scale each company."

The new companies join existing labs members Nanotech Inc, Enexor BioEnergy, Momentum Technologies, and OCO Inc. Nanotech was the first company to join the labs in August 2020, while the other three were added in February.

With the announcement of the new cohort, Halliburton is now accepting applications for its third cohort. Interested companies can apply via the website, and submissions are due by September 3, 2021.

Alumina Energy

Focusing on providing zero-carbon heat and power solutions, Santa Monica, California-based Alumina Energy has created a patented packed bed thermal energy storage technology that can make renewable energy resources a more reliable and cost competitive source of heat and power.

"We are very excited to join Halliburton Labs' cleantech accelerator program and collaborate with their experienced team to advance cleaner, affordable energy," says Sasha Braun Diamont, founder and CEO of Alumina Energy, in the release.

Ionada

Ionada is based in Ontario, Canada, and also has offices in London and Germany. The company has developed an exhaust gas cleaning systems that's designed to reduce emissions from the marine and power generation industries.

"We are receiving tremendous interest from industrial emitters around the world for modular carbon capture systems. Halliburton Labs' engineering, supply chain expertise and global network provide the ideal launching platform for us to scale our business to meet demand," says Edoardo Panziera, CEO of Ionada, in the release.

Parasanti

Headquartered in Austin, Parasanti is a tech company with software and hardware applications geared toward streaming analytics and production machine learning to enhance data analytics,

"Parasanti could not be more honored to be a part of the Halliburton Labs accelerator. With the domain expertise and wealth of knowledge that Haliburton Labs possesses, this accelerator will position Parasanti to leverage our edge hardware and software technologies to enable new artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions in the energy space," says Parasanti co-founders James Hancock and Joshua Seagroves in the release.

SurgePower Materials

San Marcos-based SurgePower Materials has developed a way to produce high-purity graphene from an abundant renewable raw material — a process that will allow for producing concrete, electronics, renewable energy, and batteries in a more sustainable way.

"Our goal is to make SurgePower Materials the key enabler of the forthcoming graphene age with plant-based graphene as an essential component of many new technologies. Our strategic collaboration with Halliburton Labs allows us to leverage their world-class engineering expertise to rapidly scale our production and accelerate the adoption of new graphene-based solutions," says Dr. Michael Opoku, CEO of SurgePower Materials, in the release.

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Houston ranks among 15 U.S. hot spots for women in tech

Ranking It

Houston is soaring among the best places in the U.S. for women in tech, a new report says. Houston ranked No. 15 nationwide in SmartAsset's new report, "Best and Worst Cities for Women in Tech — 2026 Study," which compared the 50 biggest U.S. cities across four metrics:

  • Gender pay gap — women's median earnings as a percentage of men’s median earnings in tech
  • The share of all tech workers that are women
  • The overall concentration of employment for tech workers, defined as "tech workers as a share of the local workforce"
  • Women tech workers’ median earnings, adjusted for regional price parity
For the purpose of the study, tech workers are defined as "city residents employed in computer and mathematical occupations." The study's findings show that fewer than 9,500 tech workers in Houston are women, or 25.6 percent of the total tech workforce in the city. In total, tech workers in general make up less than 3 percent of the Houston workforce.Despite the high ranking, women tech workers in Houston have a sizeable gap to cross to receive equal pay compared to their male counterparts in the same industry. Women tech workers make just over $97,000 in median earnings after adjusting for regional price parity, which is only 93 percent of what male tech workers make, SmartAsset found.

There are only two U.S. cities where women in tech earn more than what their male counterparts: Miami and Memphis, Tennessee. Women tech workers in Miami make an adjusted $88,650 in median earnings, or 101.7 percent of what men in tech make. In Memphis, women make $84,718 in adjusted earnings, or 101.5 percent of what men in tech earn.

The findings also assert that women remain underrepresented in the nation's overall tech sector, despite making up nearly half of the total workforce. Only 22.6 percent of the country's tech labor force is made up of women, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission."Opportunities for women in tech can vary considerably by location, and these differences shape access to jobs, career advancement and earning potential," the report's author wrote. "In some places, women account for a larger share of tech workers, face narrower pay gaps and enjoy a stronger local labor market. In others, they may encounter a more challenging career environmentThe six other Texas cities that earned spots in the report are Austin (No. 6), Fort Worth (No. 26), Dallas (No. 32), Arlington (No. 38), San Antonio (No. 42), and El Paso (No. 49).

The top 10 best U.S. cities for women in tech are:

  • No. 1 – San Jose, California
  • No. 2 – Seattle, Washington
  • No. 3 – San Francisco, California
  • No. 4 – Atlanta, Georgia
  • No. 5 – Baltimore, Maryland
  • No. 6 – Austin, Texas
  • No. 7 – Oakland, California
  • No. 8 – Portland, Oregon
  • No. 9 – Boston, Massachusetts
  • No. 10 – Minneapolis, Minnesota
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This article first appeared on CultureMap.com.

2026 Houston Innovation Awards finalists revealed and more top stories

Trending News

Editor's note: The top Houston innovation news for the first half of October celebrates the finalists for our sixth annual awards program. Plus, Rice launches a new venture fund and an energy AI company picks Houston for its first U.S. office. Here are the five most-read stories published October 1-15, 2026:

Announcing the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards finalists

InnovationMap is proud to reveal the finalists for the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards. The sixth annual Houston Innovation Awards program returns in an all-digital format this fall to honor the best of Houston's innovation ecosystem, including startups, entrepreneurs, mentors, and more. Get to know our finalists in more detail through editorial spotlights on InnovationMap.com leading up to the winner announcement in mid-November. Continue reading.

Meet the esteemed judges for the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards

Our 2026 Houston Innovation Awards judging panel comprises past award winners who represent a variety of industries and areas of expertise. They are joined by InnovationMap's interim editor. All are deeply engaged in the Houston innovation ecosystem. Continue reading.

Energy AI company opens first U.S. office at Houston's the Ion

Building on its partnership with Houston-based oilfield services provider Halliburton, energy-sector AI company Shape Digital recently opened an office at The Ion. It’s the company’s first U.S. location. Shape Digital’s workforce in Houston includes employees specializing in tech support, business development and client services. The company’s local hiring projections and headcount weren’t available. The new office will be located within Industrious at the Ion, according to Rice Alliance. Continue reading.

Rice University launches new venture fund for university-affiliated startups

Rice University has launched its new One Giant Leap Ventures Fund I, which will invest in the university’s spinouts and alumni-founded startups. The early-stage institutional venture fund will function with a hybrid structure that allows for participation from traditional equity investors and philanthropic investors. According to the university, the fund will invest up to $500,000 per Rice-affiliated company. To be considered eligible for funds, companies must use intellectual property licensed by the university or be led or founded by alumni. Continue reading.

Here’s where wages grew the most in Houston since 2021, according to new report

Bolstered by a thriving manufacturing sector, Waller County—the country’s second-fastest-growing county—leads all Houston-area counties for the growth of pay from 2021 to 2026, according to a new study. The study, conducted by personal finance website SmartAsset, found average pay in Waller County rose 48 percent from 2021 to 2026. The county’s average weekly pay climbed from $891 to $1,323 during that period. Continue reading.

5 female-founded Houston startups shine as Innovation Awards finalists

meet the finalists

Houston is home to many standout female founders, making inroads and breakthroughs in every industry.

As part of the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards, our Female-founded Business category honors women-led startups that are shaping Houston innovation.

Five female-founded businesses have been named finalists for the 2026 award. This year's finalists, selected by our esteemed panel of judges, range from an AI startup for C-Suite execs to a company developing semi-autonomous crawler robots for corrosion detection.

Read more about these innovative startups and the visionary female founders behind them below. The 2026 winners will be announced on InnovationMap.com in mid-November.

Adair

Artificial intelligence startup Adair uses computational linguistics and behavioral economics to measure, model and quantify the impact of spoken and written language on firm valuation and stock prices. The company works with C-Suite executives of public companies on high-stakes communications before they go live.

The company was founded last year by CEO Kathleen Perley, CPO Alex Duong and CTO Anthony Grivet. It raised $5.6 million earlier this year, according to its application.

ARIX Technologies

Energytech startup ARIX Technologies has developed a semiautonomous VENUS crawler robot to detect corrosion under insulation before it becomes a failure. The robots climb insulated piping in refineries, chemical plants and energy facilities to capture inspection data without removing insulation or building scaffolding. ARIX's inspection portal then turns information from the inspection into data a company can act on.

ARIX was founded in 2017 by Dianna Liu, who serves as director, and Head of Product Petter Wehlin. Craig Malloy serves as CEO. The company has raised more than $22 million in seed funding and a Series A round, according to its application.

Bairitone Health

Healthtech startup Bairitone Health is bringing anatomy imaging for sleep apnea to the home environment. The company's platform maps users' anatomy during natural sleep using a facial patch to determine the root cause of airway obstruction. It then offers effective therapies for each patient.

The company was founded in 2022 in the Texas Medical Center's Biodesign program by CEO Meagan Pitcher, CTO Onur Kilic and chief medical officer Britt Cross. It was a member of Activate Houston's inaugural cohort and has participated in numerous accelerators and incubators. The company raised an oversubscribed seed round for $2.4 million earlier this year and received Breakthrough Device Designation from the Food and Drug Administration in April.

FlowCellutions

Energytech startup FlowCellutions is developing a chemistry-agnostic diagnostics platform for flow and metal-air batteries supporting data centers and critical infrastructure. The platform is designed to help reduce operating costs, prevent failures and costly downtime, and extend battery lifetime from approximately seven years to more than 30 years. It has deployed four paid pilots and plans to take insights from the programs to develop its next-gen sensor platform technology.

CEO Becca Segel founded the company in 2022. It is a member of Greentown Labs, and Segel was a 2025 Activate Fellow. The company has raised over $2 million in non-dilutive funding and received a $1.5 million NSF SBIR Fast-Track award earlier this year.

ParaDocs Health

Healthtech startup ParaDocs Health is developing a clinical intelligence platform that helps doctors and care teams streamline administrative tasks and make better use of patient records. Its technology organizes fragmented clinical data into actionable insights, helping care teams identify gaps in care, assess patient risks and simplify documentation and reimbursement.

ParaDocs was founded in 2022 by CEO Dr. Dhini Nasution and CTO Dr. Omar Mohtar. The company participated in the TMCi Biodesign Program and raised a preseed round last year, according to its application.

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