3 Houston innovators to know right now

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This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Phillip Yates of Equiliberty, Meagan Pitcher of Bairitone Health, and Moody Heard of Builtforce. Photos courtesy

Editor's note: InnovationMap regularly introduces its readers to a handful of Houston innovators recently making headlines with news of innovative technology, investment activity, and more. Our first January batch includes three innovators across social impact, health care, and more.

Phillip Yates, CEO of Equiliberty

Phillip Yates joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to share why 2025 is the year of launch for Equiliberty. Photo courtesy of Equiliberty

For Phillip Yates, this year will be the year of launch. The attorney-turned-entrepreneur has been working on his fintech platform, Equiliberty, for years now, but come the first half of 2025, it's go time.

"We're going to release our technology in Q2 of this year, and we're looking to commercialize it by the end of this year," Yates says on the Houston Innovators Podcast.

The platform connects users with resources to build wealth. Yates, along with his co-founders, Rachel Howard and Cody Bailey, created the company with the mindset that people with lower financial means can take control of their own financial success — in a way that doesn't take away from anyone else. Continue reading.

Meagan Pitcher, co-founder and CEO of Bairitone Health

Meagan Pitcher, co-founder and CEO of Bairitone Health, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast. Photo courtesy of Bairitone

There's a slew of treatment options for people living with sleep apnea. But, the bigger problem, as Meagan Pitcher realized during her time at the Texas Medical Center's Biodesign program, is that there's no easy way to reliably diagnose and determine a treatment plan for patients.

"We saw all of the companies trying to solve the problem of making the airway collapse less or make the air way wider — it might be surgery, might be medication, or nerve stimulation," Pitcher says on the Houston Innovators Podcast. "One of the things we found was that it was really hard to match a patient with sleep apnea with a good treatment for them. One of the reasons is it's hard to get an understanding of where the individual's site of collapse is as sleep medicine is currently practiced."

As Pitcher went through the TMC Biodesign program, she teamed up with her co-founders — CTO Onur Kilicand and CMO Britt Cross — to find a solution, and together they developed Bairitone Health. The company's technology provides at-home medical imaging using sonar sensing. The non-invasive device has the potential to replace the current standard of care, which is a surgical procedure. Continue reading.

Moody Heard, CEO of BuildForce

Houston-based Buildforce is developing a technology to better connect contractors and the trade professionals they employ. Photo courtesy of Buildforce

Houston-based Buildforce announced it has acquired Ladder, which is a Y Combinator-backed, technology-enabled construction labor marketplace.

The acquisition is part of Buildforce’s expansion plans into the southeastern U.S. and during a time of increased demand for skilled construction talent. Buildforce will work to leverage the Ladder customer base of over 200 customers across six states, as well as its extensive electrician network of over 10,000 pre-screened electricians, which is the largest in the Southeast.

“There are two major problems plaguing the construction labor market,” Moody Heard, co-founder and CEO of Buildforce, says in a news release. “One, the project-based nature of construction work means tradesmen are constantly ‘working themselves out of a job’, meaning high employee turnover. And two, the industry is experiencing a secular decline in the supply of tradesmen relative to surging demand.” Continue reading.

Meagan Pitcher, co-founder and CEO of Bairitone Health, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast. Photo courtesy of Bairitone

Promising Houston sleep tech startup readies for big year of growth, work toward FDA clearance

HOUSTON INNOVATORS PODCAST EPISODE 268

This year, the company joined Activate Houston's inaugural cohort as the lone biotech company. Activate, which announced its expansion to Houston in 2023, helps hardtech founders develop and grow their companies from bench to commercialization, though it mostly focuses on industrial or climatetech innovators. In addition to this accomplishment, Bairitone Health was among the 2024 Houston Innovation Awards finalists.

While 2024 was successful for the company, next year should bring even more milestones for Bairitone, Pitcher says, including a seed round of funding that will support the growth of their team, fund early testing, and fuel Baritone's path toward FDA clearance.

"2025 is going to be a big year for Bairitone, especially around solidifying our regulatory plan. The device we're making is really low risk — we're not putting anything into the body, and we're potentially replacing a surgical procedure," Pitcher says. "We've always hypothesized that we'll have a 510(k) clearance with the FDA, but we're moving toward having our first meeting with the FDA to solidify those plans."

Bairitone's journey so far has been a uniquely Houston story, as Pitcher acknowledges.

"I really love Houston — especially for med tech. The medical center is just awesome, you have all these brilliant people coming in from the entire world to work at these institutions," Pitcher says. "It's kind of because of this atmosphere of excellence around health care, innovation, open mindedness, and collaboration — those are reasons why I really love working in Houston."

The inaugural Activate Houston cohort has 11 fellows across energy, materials, life sciences, space, and other sectors. Photo via activate.org

Hardtech fellowship names 11 innovators to inaugural Houston cohort

ready for activation

A national hardtech-focused organization has named its 2024 batch of innovators, which includes the inaugural Houston-based cohort.

Activate named 62 fellows and 50 companies for is latest class, which spans Berkley, California — where the organization is based, Boston, New York, and Houston. Additionally, Activate Anywhere, the program's virtual and remote cohort, was named. According to Activate, it received over 1,000 applicants.

“People, not ideas alone, move the world forward. It is through the drive and determination of brilliant scientists and engineers that we are witnessing true progress,” says Activate CEO Cyrus Wadia in a news release. “Our current Activate Fellows and alumni are already pioneering innovative solutions that make a measurable difference. We’re thrilled to support the next 62 visionaries who will lead the charge in addressing our most urgent issues through groundbreaking science and technology.”

It's the first year Activate has hosted a Houston-based cohort. The organization initially announced its expansion early last year. The inaugural cohort has 11 fellows across energy, materials, life sciences, space, and other sectors.

The named Houston fellows selected for the 2024 class include:

Krish Mehta, founder and CEO of Phoenix Materials, a company that decarbonizes concrete using industrial waste.
Gabriel Cossio, founder and CEO of Nanoscale Labs, which is developing a high-throughput and low-cost nanomanufacturing system.
Matthew McDermott, founder and CEO of Refound Materials, a materials technology company developing more efficient synthesis recipes for accelerated materials discovery.
Alec Ajnsztajn, founder and CEO of Coflux Purification, a company that's creating a product that allows industries and water providers to cheaply remove forever chemicals to provide safe drinking water at a fraction of current energy use.
Ryan DuChanois and Yang Xia , co-founders of Solidec, a Houston-based startup redefining chemical manufacturing.
Meagan Pitcher, co-founder and CEO of Bairitone Health, which brings advanced imaging diagnostics into the home environment.
Wei Meng, co-founder and CEO of LumiStrain, a startup offering novel technology for mechanical strain mapping.
Sonia Dagan of Atolla Tech, which is developing a lidar and machine-learning algorithm for identifying and quantifying airborne insects.
Rodrigo Alvarez-Icaza, founder and CEO of Elysium Robotics, a company that's replacing electric motors with muscle-like actuators to enable massive deployment of highly capable and low-cost robotic systems.
Blake Herren, CEO and Co-founder of Raven Space Systems, which is modernizing composite manufacturing with 3D printing and Industry 4.0 solutions to build the factories of the future.

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This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

This year, seven of the 10 most-promising life science companies are based in Houston. Photo courtesy of Rice Alliance

Houston startups dominate ‘most-promising’ companies announcement at annual event

on the list

Rice University played host this week to the 12th annual Texas Life Science Forum, where life science leaders and startup founders could network, learn and present pitches on their solutions to a wide array of health-related issues.

Hosted by Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and BioHouston on November 7, the event brought together more than 600 attendees for a series of keynote speakers and panels. This year, 45 early-stage therapeutic, diagnostic, medical device and digital health companies—many of which are based in Houston—also pitched their concepts.

Fort Worth-based AyuVis Research walked away from the event with the two top recognitions: The Michael E. DeBakey Memorial Life Science Award and the People's Choice Award. The company, which has developed a small molecule immunotherapy targeting bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in preterm neonates and other respiratory disorders. The company is raising a $20 million Series A round to support its clinical development and is slated to pitch at IGNITE Health’s Fire Pitch 2023 today, November 9, at the Ion.

Each year the Rice Alliance and BioHouston also name its 10 most promising life science companies, selected by investors—seven out of 10 of which are based in Houston. This year's selection included the following companies, in alphabetical order:

7 Hills Pharma: This Houston-based clinical stage immunotherapy company has developed the concept of allosteric activation of integrins to facilitate cell adhesion and promote immune responses. The concept has uses in preventing infection and cancer, and increasing the effectiveness of oncology drugs and infectious disease vaccines.
Bairitone Health: This Houston-based company is building a scalable diagnostic system for sleep apnea anatomy utilizing home-use wearable, passive Sonar technology and AI techniques.
Diakonos Oncology: Also based in Houston, Diakonos' Dendritic Cell Vaccine was awarded the FDA’s Fast Track designation. The clinical-stage biotech company's immunotherapies have shown early successes for hard-to-reach, aggressive cancers like Glioblastoma Multiforme.
Mongoose Bio: With more than 20 years of research, Mongoose specializes in T cell-based therapies for diverse solid tumors TCR-based therapies in cancer patients. The Houston-based company has developed an immunopeptidome discovery platform for TCR-based therapies in cancer patients.
Nandi Life Sciences: Nandi is developing antibodies for Avastin-resistant ovarian cancer, with
further application in breast, colorectal and lung cancer. The company is based out of Texas Medical Center Innovation.
NKILT Therapeutics: This Houston-based company's seed-stage cell therapy has applications in solid tumors, such as colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, clear cell renal carcinoma, endometrial
cancer and more. It is developing a novel and proprietary Chimeric ILT-Receptor.
NuVision Biotherapies: Based in the United Kingdom, NuVision has developed and proven a treatment for dry eye disease. It's known for its Omnigen and OmniLenz products and is raising a series A to scale, take the business to profitability and exit.
Panakeia Technologies: Also based in the UK, Panakeia has developed an AI-based software that can provide multi-omic biomarkers in minutes. Currently this process takes days or weeks. It's RuO platform can identify 4,500 known multi-omics cancer markers.
Taurus Vascular: A recent spin-out of the Texas Medical Center Innovation Biodesign program, Taurus is developing a novel, catheter-based solution for treating endoleaks, which can be related to aortic aneurysms.
YAP Therapeutics: The only California-based company to make the cut, this preclinical-stage biotech develops genetic medicines that leverage the company’s tissue renewal and regeneration platform to reverse and cure severe diseases, including heart failure, pulmonary diseases, retinal degeneration and hearing loss.

Last year, Bairitone Health took home the DeBakey and People's Choice awards.

Eight of the 10 most-promising life science startups named at BioHouston and the Rice Alliance's event are based in Houston. Photo courtesy of Rice Alliance

Houston startups named most promising in the life science space at annual event

ones to watch

For the second time this year, Houston life science leaders and startup founders gathered to discuss the future of health care in Houston.

The annual Texas Life Science Forum hosted by BioHouston and the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship was usually held during the fall before the pandemic pushed it off schedule. In February, the two organizations hosted the previous forum, but as of this month, the annual event is back on track.

The day included panels and networking, plus over 50 companies — about half of which are based in Houston — pitched their solutions across medical device, therapeutics, pharmaceuticals, and more to the crowd.

Houston-based Bairitone Health won the Michael E. DeBakey Memorial Life Science Award, established by BioHouston in honor of the groundbreaking Houston cardiovascular surgeon. The company is creating a wearable technology that takes a more innovative approach to sleep apnea and snoring with its SOMNAR platform that detects tissue-born sounds, identifies obstructions, and more. The award was presented by Ann Tanabe, CEO of BioHouston.

Ann Tanabe, CEO of BioHouston, presented the DeBakey Award to Houston-based Bairitone Health. Photo courtesy of Rice Alliance

For the first time, the event also named a people's choice award winner, as voted on by the audience members. Baritone Health also claimed the prize.

At the conclusion of the event, the Rice Alliance and BioHouston named the 10 most promising life science companies selected by investors and presented by the Greater Houston Partnership. This year's selection included the following companies, in alphabetical order.

Autonomize

Austin-based Autonomize unlocks data and context to enable human health outcomes

bEHR Health Systems

New Orleans-based bEHR Health Systems delivers, medical, lifestyle, and social solutions to health for African Americans.

EMPIRI

EMPIRI, based in Houston, is revolutionizing cancer care with a novel technology that accurately predicts each cancer patient's treatment responses empirically, enabling doctors to make the optimal treatment selection for each cancer patient.

InformAI

Houston-based InformAI develops AI-based medical image diagnostic tools and uses large dataset synthesis to develop clinical outcome predictors for physicians, hospitals, and medical imaging/medical device companies

March Biosciences

Houston-based March Biosciences is impacting the most challenging lymphoma and leukemia.

MRG Health-SmartCare360

MRG Health-SmartCare360, based in Houston, is a determinate of health and disease specific virtual care management technology and services company that improves patient access to care and clinical outcomes for people suffering from one or more chronic disease.

Prana Thoracic

Prana Thoracic, founded in Houston out of JLABS at TMC, is a medical device startup that's innovating for the future of early intervention in lung cancer.

Steradian Technologies

Another med device startup based in Houston, Steradian Technologies employs deep-photonics technology to diagnose respiratory diseases in seconds, all for the price of a latte.

TYBR Health

Houston-based TYBR Health makes a hydrogel that protects tendons from scarring after surgery and improves patient outcomes.

Voythos

Voythos, based in Houston, is making medical records work for today's healthcare.

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Houston energy tech startup Molecule closes series B funding round

Big Bang

Houston-based energy trading risk management (ETRM) software company Molecule has completed a successful series B round for an undisclosed amount, according to a July 16 release from the company.

The raise was led by Sundance Growth, a California-based software growth equity firm.

Sameer Soleja, founder and CEO of Molecule, said in the release that the funding will allow the company to "double down on product innovation, grow our team, and reach even more markets."

Molecule closed a $12 million Series A round in 2021, led by Houston-based Mercury Fund, and has since seen significant growth. The company, which was founded in 2012, has expanded its customer base across the U.S., U.K., Europe, Canada and South America, according to the release.

Additionally, it has launched two new modules of its software platform. Its Hive module, which debuted in 2022, enables clients to manage their energy portfolio and renewable credits together in one scalable platform. It also introduced Elektra, an add-on for the power market to its platform, which allows for complex power market trading.

"Four years ago, we committed to becoming the leading platform for energy trading," Soleja said in the release. "Today, our customers are managing complex power and renewable portfolios across multiple jurisdictions, all within Molecule.”

Molecule is also known for its data-as-a-lake platform, Bigbang, which enables energy ETRM and commodities trading and risk management (CTRM) customers to automatically import trade data from Molecule and then merge it with various sources to conduct queries and analysis.

“Molecule is doing something very few companies in energy tech have done: combining mission-critical depth with cloud-native, scalable technology,” Christian Stewart, Sundance Growth managing director, added in the statement.

“Sameer and his team have built a platform that’s not only powerful, but user-friendly—a rare combination in enterprise software. We’re thrilled to partner with Molecule as they continue to grow and transform the energy trading and risk management market.”

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This article originally appeared on EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

Rice University professor earns $550k NSF award for wearable imaging tech

science supported

Another Houston scientist has won one of the highly competitive National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Awards.

Lei Li, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice University, has received a $550,000, five-year grant to develop wearable, hospital-grade medical imaging technology capable of visualizing deep tissue function in real-time, according to the NSF. The CAREER grants are given to "early career faculty members who demonstrate the potential to serve as academic models and leaders in research and education."

“This is about giving people access to powerful diagnostic tools that were once confined to hospitals,” Li said in a news release from Rice. “If we can make imaging affordable, wearable and continuous, we can catch disease earlier and treat it more effectively.”

Li’s research focuses on photoacoustic imaging, which merges light and sound to produce high-resolution images of structures deep inside the body. It relies on pulses of laser light that are absorbed by tissue, leading to a rapid temperature rise. During this process, the heat causes the tissue to expand by a fraction, generating ultrasound waves that travel back to the surface and are detected and converted into an image. The process is known to yield more detailed images without dyes or contrast agents used in some traditional ultrasounds.

However, current photoacoustic systems tend to use a variety of sensors, making them bulky, expensive and impractical. Li and his team are taking a different approach.

Instead of using hundreds of separate sensors, Li and his researchers are developing a method that allows a single sensor to capture the same information via a specially designed encoder. The encoder assigns a unique spatiotemporal signature to each incoming sound wave. A reconstruction algorithm then interprets and decodes the signals.

These advances have the potential to lower the size, cost and power consumption of imaging systems. The researchers believe the device could be used in telemedicine, remote diagnostics and real-time disease monitoring. Li’s lab will also collaborate with clinicians to explore how the miniaturized technology could help monitor cancer treatment and other conditions.

“Reducing the number of detection channels from hundreds to one could shrink these devices from bench-top systems into compact, energy-efficient wearables,” Li said in the release. “That opens the door to continuous health monitoring in daily life—not just in hospitals.”

Amanda Marciel, the William Marsh Rice Trustee Chair of chemical and biomolecular engineering and an assistant professor at Rice, received an NSF CAREER Award last year. Read more here.

Houston Spaceport launches $12M expansion for leading space tech co.

to the moon

Houston will get one step closer to the moon, as the Houston Spaceport at Ellington Airport (EFD) has announced an expansion of the lease for Intuitive Machines, the Houston space tech leader dedicated to furthering lunar exploration.

On July 15, the City of Houston announced passage of Amendment 1, which would add three acres of commercial space for Intuitive Machines at the spaceport and a $12 million infrastructure expansion. Approved by the city council and Mayor John Whitmire, the expansion will include new production, testing and support facilities. The amendment extends the current lease for Intuitive Machines from 20 years to 25 years.

"I want to shout out to Intuitive Machines about everything they’re doing at the Houston Spaceport. It’s exciting to see them expand. We’re starting to reach a critical mass out there — more and more aerospace companies want to be at the Spaceport because that’s where innovation is happening,” said Fred Flinkinger, who represents District E on the Houston City Council. “It’s a great sign of momentum, and we’re proud to have them here in Houston."

Intuitive Machines was the first commercial tenant for the Houston Spaceport when it moved into the facility in August 2016. Founded by Stephen Altemus, Kam Ghaffarian, and Tim Crain in 2013, the company holds three contracts with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to deliver payloads to the lunar surface. In 2023, the company opened its doors in Houston with a 105,572-square-foot Lunar Production and Operations Center that contains research and development labs, clean rooms, mission control centers, and a spacecraft assembly floor.

Intuitive Machines landed Odysseus on the moon in February 2024, the first privately owned soft lunar landing ever and the first soft landing since 1972.

The Houston Spaceport is owned and operated by the City of Houston and Houston Airports, who have an eye of keeping the city a prime name in space exploration. As "Houston" was the first word spoken on the moon when Apollo 11 landed in 1969, lunar exploration in particular has a soft place in the heart of the metropolis formerly known as Space City.

“This agreement reinforces Houston’s leadership in space innovation,” said Jim Szczesniak, director of aviation for Houston Airports. “We’re building infrastructure and supporting the next era of lunar and deep space exploration, right here at Houston Spaceport. This partnership represents the forward-thinking development that fuels job creation and drives long-term economic growth.”

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