Texas-based energy startup raises $1 billion on heels of Houston expansion

Powering Up

Base Power co-founders Justin Lopas and Zach Dell. Courtesy photo

Austin-based startup Base Power, which offers battery-supported energy in the Houston area and other regions, has raised $1 billion in series C funding—making it one of the largest venture capital deals this year in the U.S.

VC firm Addition led the $1 billion round. All of Base Power’s existing major investors also participated, including Trust Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Thrive Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Altimeter, StepStone Group, 137 Ventures, Terrain, Waybury Capital, and entrepreneur Elad Gil. New investors include Ribbit Capital, Google-backed CapitalG, Spark Capital, Bond, Lowercarbon Capital, Avenir Growth Capital, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Positive Sum and 1789 Capital Management.

Coupled with the new $1 billion round, Base Power has hauled in more than $1.27 billion in funding since it was founded in 2023.

Base Power supplies power to homeowners and the electric grid through a distributed storage network.

“The chance to reinvent our power system comes once in a generation,” Zach Dell, co-founder and CEO of Base Power, said in a news release. “The challenge ahead requires the best engineers and operators to solve it, and we’re scaling the team to make our abundant energy future a reality.”

Zach Dell is the son of Austin billionaire and Houston native Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Round Rock-based Dell Technologies.

In less than two years, Base Power has developed more than 100 megawatt-hours of battery-enabled storage capacity. One megawatt-hour represents one hour of energy use at a rate of one million watts.

Base Power recently expanded its service to the city of Houston. It already was delivering energy to several other communities in the Houston area. To serve the Houston region, the startup has opened an office in Katy.

The startup also serves the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin markets. At some point, Base Power plans to launch a nationwide expansion.

To meet current and future demand, Base Power is building its first energy storage and power electronics factory at the former downtown Austin site of the Austin American-Statesman’s printing presses.

“We’re building domestic manufacturing capacity for fixing the grid,” Justin Lopas, co-founder and chief operating officer of Base Power, added in the release. “The only way to add capacity to the grid is [by] physically deploying hardware, and we need to make that here in the U.S. ... This factory in Austin is our first, and we’re already planning for our second.”

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This article originally appeared on EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

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Base Power co-founders Justin Lopas and Zach Dell. Courtesy photo

Electricity startup expands to Houston with promise of backup battery power

Power Up

An Austin startup that sells electricity and couples it with backup power has entered the Houston market.

Base Power, which claims to be the first and only electricity provider to offer a backup battery, now serves the Houston-area territory served by Houston-based CenterPoint Energy. No solar equipment is required for Base Power’s backup batteries.

The company is initially serving customers in the Cy-Fair, Spring, Cinco Ranch and Mission Bend communities, and will expand to other Houston-area places in the future.

Base Power already serves customers in the Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth markets.

The company says it provides “a cost-effective alternative to generators and solar-battery systems in an increasingly unreliable power grid.”

“Houston represents one of the largest home backup markets in the world, largely due to dramatic weather events that strain the power grid,” says Base Power co-founder and CEO Zach Dell, son of tech billionaire Michael Dell. “We’re eager to provide an accessible energy service that delivers affordable, reliable power to Houston homeowners.”

After paying a $495 or $995 fee that covers installation and permitting, and a $16- or $29-per-month membership fee, Base Power customers gain access to a backup battery and competitive energy rates, the company says. The startup is waiving the $495 setup fee for the first 500 Houston-area homeowners who sign up and make a refundable deposit.

With the Base Power backup package, electricity costs 14.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, which includes Base Power’s 8.5 cents per kilowatt-hour charge and rates charged by CenterPoint. The average electric customer in Houston pays 13 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to EnergySage.

“Base Power is built to solve a problem that so many Texans face: consistent power,” says Justin Lopas, co-founder and chief operating officer of Base Power and a former SpaceX engineer. “Houstonians can now redefine how they power their homes, while also improving the existing power grid.”

Founded in 2023, Base Power has attracted funding from investors such as Thrive Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Altimeter Capital, Trust Ventures, and Terrain. Zach Dell was previously an associate on the investment team at Thrive Capital.

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This story originally appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

Branch Energy aims to provide customers with clean energy at a lower cost than competitors. Photo via Getty Images

Houston clean energy co. raises $10.8M series A

fresh funding

A tech-driven retail energy provider based in Houston has secured an oversubscribed series A round of funding.

Branch Energy raised a $10.8 million round led by climate-focused venture capital firm Prelude Ventures with co-investor Zero Infinity Partners, an infrastructure tech-focused firm. The fresh funding will go toward accelerating the company's battery management tech and build out the infrastructure of its field services.

A vertically integrated power provider, Branch Energy aims to provide customers with demand management software and battery storage systems to ensure long-term, stable, and clean energy at a lower cost than competitors.

“Our century-old grid design is not equipped for the complexity of today’s energy needs," Alex Ince-Cushman, Branch Energy co-founder and CEO, says in a news release. “Optimizing distributed energy assets in real-time will play an increasingly important role in managing the grid. We built Branch from the ground up as a technology company, allowing us to deliver value to customers in this new era of distributed energy by reducing costs while improving reliability."

The company chose Texas as its inaugural market based on the stress of the grid in the state, the company says in the release. Since 2021 when Branch Energy launched, it has signed up thousands of customers for its 100 percent clean energy service. The business proposition includes lowering customer's energy bills by 5 to 10 percent.

“The power grid, especially in Texas, requires distributed generation and flexible loads as basic economics drives deployment of more renewable resources,” Tim Woodward, managing partner at Prelude Ventures, adds. “Across the country, we are experiencing a major shift toward a decentralized and decarbonized grid. Branch Energy is bringing value to its customers through deployment of intelligent storage that lowers costs and improves reliability.”

Branch Energy, which is available now in some Texas regions, had previously raised $5.5 million in seed and pre-seed funding, per Crunchbase.

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This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

Despite its high energy production, Texas has had more outages than any other state over the past five years due to the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events and rapidly growing demand. Photo via Getty Images

Untapped potential: The role of residential energy management in Texas

guest column

Texas stands out among other states when it comes to energy production.

Even after mass rolling blackouts during Winter Storm Uri in 2021, the Lone Star State produced more electricity than any other state in 2022. However, it also exemplifies how challenging it can be to ensure grid reliability. The following summer, the state’s grid manager, the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), experienced ten occasions of record-breaking demand.

Despite its high energy production, Texas has had more outages than any other state over the past five years due to the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events and rapidly growing demand, as the outages caused by Hurricane Beryl demonstrated.

A bigger storm is brewing

Electric demand is poised to increase exponentially over the next few years. Grid planners nationwide are doubling their five-year load forecast. Texas predicts it will need to provide nearly double the amount of power within six years. These projections anticipate increasing demand from buildings, transportation, manufacturing, data centers, AI and electrification, underscoring the daunting challenges utilities face in maintaining grid reliability and managing rising demand.

However, Texas can accelerate its journey to becoming a grid reliability success story by taking two impactful steps. First, it could do more to encourage the adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs) like residential solar and battery storage to better balance the prodigious amounts of remote grid-scale renewables that have been deployed over the past decade. More DERs mean more local energy resources that can support the grid, especially local distribution circuits that are prone to storm-related outages. Second, by combining DERs with modern demand-side management programs and technology, utilities can access and leverage these additional resources to help them manage peak demand in real time and avoid blackout scenarios.

Near-term strategies and long-term priorities

Increasing electrical capacity with utility-scale renewable energy and storage projects and making necessary electrical infrastructure updates are critical to meet projected demand. However, these projects are complex, resource-intensive and take years to complete. The need for robust demand-side management is more urgent than ever.

Texas needs rapidly deployable solutions now. That’s where demand-side management comes in. This strategy enables grid operators to keep the lights on by lowering peak demand rather than burning more fossil fuels to meet it or, worse, shutting everything off.

Demand response, a demand-side management program, is vital in balancing the grid by lowering electricity demand through load control devices to ensure grid stability. Programs typically involve residential energy consumers volunteering to let the grid operator reduce their energy consumption at a planned time or when the grid is under peak load, typically in exchange for a credit on their energy bill. ERCOT, for example, implements demand responseand rate structure programs to reduce strain on the grid and plans to increase these strategies in the future, especially during the months when extreme weather events are more likely and demand is highest.

The primary solution for meeting peak demand and preventing blackouts is for the utility to turn on expensive, highly polluting, gas-powered “peaker” plants. Unfortunately, there’s a push to add more of these plants to the grid in anticipation of increasing demand. Instead of desperately burning fossil fuels, we should get more out of our existing infrastructure through demand-side management.

Optimizing existing infrastructure

The effectiveness of demand response programs depends in part on energy customers' participation. Despite the financial incentive, customers may be reluctant to participate because they don’t want to relinquish control over their AC. Grid operators also need timely energy usage data from responsive load control technology to plan and react to demand fluctuations. Traditional load control switches don’t provide these benefits.

However, intelligent residential load management technology like smart panels can modernize demand response programs and maximize their effectiveness with real-time data and unprecedented responsiveness. They can encourage customer participation with a less intrusive approach – unlocking the ability for the customer to choose from multiple appliances to enroll. They can also provide notifications for upcoming demand response events, allowing the customer to plan for the event or even opt-out by appliance. In addition to their demand response benefits, smart panels empower homeowners to optimize their home energy and unlock extended runtime for home batteries during a blackout.

Utilities and government should also encourage the adoption of distributed energy resources like rooftop solar and home batteries. These resources can be combined with residential load management technology to drastically increase the effectiveness of demand response programs, granting utilities more grid-stabilizing resources to prevent blackouts.

Solar and storage play a key role

During the ten demand records in the summer of 2023, batteries discharging in the evening helped avoid blackouts, while solar and wind generation covered more than a third of ERCOT's daytime load demand, preventing power price spikes.

Rooftop solar panels generate electricity that can be stored in battery backup systems, providing reliable energy during outages or peak demand. Smart panels extend the runtime of these batteries through automated energy optimization, ensuring critical loads are prioritized and managed efficiently.

Load management technology, like smart panels, enhances the effectiveness of DERs. In rolling blackouts, homeowners with battery storage can rely on smart panels to manage energy use, keeping essential appliances operational and extending stored energy usability. Smart panels allow utilities to effectively manage peak demand, enabling load flexibility and preventing grid overburdening. These technologies and an effective demand response strategy can help Texans optimize the existing energy capacity and infrastructure.

A more resilient energy future

Texas can turn its energy challenges into opportunities by embracing advanced energy management technologies and robust demand-side strategies. Smart panels and distributed energy resources like solar and battery storage offer a promising path to a resilient and efficient grid. As Texans navigate increasing electricity demands and extreme weather events, these innovations provide hope for a future where reliable energy is accessible to all, ensuring grid stability and enhancing the quality of life across the state.

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Kelly Warner is the CEO of Lumin, a responsive energy management solutions company.

This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.
Bildmore expects to invest in 10 to 15 third-party, utility-scale clean energy projects each year. Photo via Getty Images

New platform launches in Houston to invest in clean energy endeavors

eyes on energy transition

Houston-based EnCap Energy Transition Fund has launched a platform that will take minority equity stakes in battery storage systems, solar energy systems, and other energy transition projects in the U.S.

With its new Bildmore arm, the EnCap fund aims to fuel development of renewable energy projects that can’t attract traditional tax equity financing. Bildmore expects to invest in 10 to 15 third-party, utility-scale clean energy projects each year.

Bildmore seeks to capitalize on clean energy incentives tucked into the federal Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, including the ability of projects to sell tax credits. Specifically, the platform says it hopes to address “a chronic short supply” of tax equity deals due to heightened demand triggered by the inflation reduction law.

EnCap is no stranger to utility-scale solar power and battery storage systems. The fund backs Houston-based Broad Reach Power and Austin-based Jupiter Power, two of the largest players in the U.S. market for battery storage.

David Haug leads Bildmore as its CEO. He is co-founder and senior managing director of Houston-based Arctas Capital Group, which invests in energy infrastructure projects.

“Bildmore will focus on … battery storage and solar projects, particularly those which have chosen to leave all or part of their energy output available for ‘merchant’ sale rather than be sold under long-term contracts,” Haug says in a news release. “We want to help those development teams lacking the deep balance sheets typically required by tax equity providers.”

EnCap Investments, sponsor of the EnCap Energy Transition Fund, manages capital from more than 350 U.S. and international investors. Since its founding in 2019, EnCap Investments has raised 25 institutional investment funds totaling about $41 billion to support independent energy businesses in the U.S.

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

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Fast-growing Houston real estate startup surges to No. 7 on Inc. 5000

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Houston-based Epique Realty has ridden the AI wave to rank among the Inc. 5000’s 10 fastest-growing private companies.

With three-year revenue growth of 23,210 percent, the AI-powered real estate brokerage appears at No. 7 on this year’s Inc. 5000 list. The 2026 list ranks private companies based on percentage revenue growth from 2022 to 2025.

Epique, founded in 2021, also ranks as the No. 1 fastest-growing company in Houston, No. 1 fastest-growing real estate company in the U.S., and No. 2 fastest-growing company in Texas.

Epique’s annual revenue surpasses $91 million

Between 2022 and 2025, the company’s annual revenue skyrocketed from $391,654 to more than $91.2 million. In 2025, the brokerage closed more than 23,000 deals and surpassed $7 billion in total sales, elevating Epique to the country’s 14th-largest real estate brokerage as measured by volume.

Epique’s network has more than 4,000 agents.

“To debut in the top 10 of the Inc. 5000 is absolute proof that when you relentlessly put agents first, exponential growth takes care of itself,” co-founder and CEO Joshua Miller said in a news release.

“We didn’t achieve this by following the industry playbook; we achieved this by burning it,” Miller added. “By fully funding our agents’ success through free health care, proprietary AI, and world-class leads, we’ve built a company where agents can finally thrive.”

The company’s other co-founders are Chris Miller, chief operating officer and vice president of expansion, and Janice Delci, chief financial officer.

Epique expands business to Canada, Mexico, Australia

The Millers and Delci have guided the company’s rapid expansion.

“Scaling our corporate support team to match [our] hyper-growth while seamlessly expanding across all 50 states and internationally to Canada, Australia, and Mexico takes an incomparable operational infrastructure,” Miller said.

“We have built an enterprise-grade technology ecosystem that allows us to absorb overhead and empower our agents at lightning speed,” he added. “This ranking validates that our disruptive model is working, and it is completely redefining the global industry standard.”

Epique launched its platform in 2023, touting itself as the industry’s first AI-powered brokerage. The startup’s platform provides AI tools for real estate agents to improve their marketing, streamline content creation, and boost engagement with clients and prospects.

Among Epique’s AI tools are:

  • ChatGPT for generation of property descriptions
  • AI-assisted creation of blog posts and agents’ bios
  • Production of Instagram quotes for social media marketing

“When we started Epique, we wanted to build a company that genuinely cared for its agents’ financial and physical well-being,” Delci says. “To see that vision translate into this level of historic record-breaking growth is a beautiful testament to the true power of radical generosity.”

Epique and fellow honorees will be recognized Oct. 14-16 at the 2026 Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala in Dallas.

Six other Houston-area companies land in top 250

Here are the six other Houston-area companies that claimed spots in the top 250 on the Inc. 5000 list. Each company name is followed by its ranking, headquarters city, and three-year growth rate.

  • No. 27 Empact Technologies, 8,275 percent
  • No. 60 Action1, 4,512 percent
  • No 75 Signs By G, 3,684 percent
  • No. 79 The ’Pause Life, 3,469 percent (Galveston)
  • No. 110 Turtlebox Audio, 2,576 percent
  • No. 178 Dahnani Private Equity Group, 1,904 percent (Stafford)

How did companies in Texas’ other major metros fare?

Here’s a breakdown of companies in the Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, and San Antonio areas that made the top 250 on the Inc. 5000. Again, each company name is followed by its ranking, headquarters city, and three-year growth rate.

Austin (10 companies)

  • No. 9 Investment Watches, 15,741 percent
  • No. 72 Razor Metrics, 3,856 percent
  • No. 91 Autonomize AI, 2,921 percent
  • No. 102 Choose Your Horizon, 2,719 percent
  • No. 132 Wander Staffing, 2,296 percent
  • No. 144 Everyday Dose, 2,179 percent
  • No. 148 NetRise, 2,118 percent
  • No. 163 Nutrabound Labs, 1,999 percent (Bastrop)
  • No. 179 Steadily, 1,890 percent
  • No. 208 Tiny Health, 1,624 percent

Dallas-Fort Worth (11 companies)

  • No. 3 Yantran, 258,740 percent (Allen)
  • No. 12 Paek Management Group, 12,520 percent (Irving)
  • No. 82 Elite Robotics and Automation, 3,334 percent (Fort Worth)
  • No. 133 Outamation, 2,291 percent (Southlake)
  • No. 147 Red Creek Solutions, 2,119 percent (Frisco)
  • No. 155 JobTread Software, 2,071 percent (Dallas)
  • No. 164 DAX Eyewear, 1,977 percent (Nevada)
  • No. 186 Optimized Waste Removal, 1,830 percent (Fort Worth)
  • No. 204 Freight Flex, 1,642 percent (Denton)
  • No. 212 Maverick Power, 1,591 percent (McKinney)
  • No. 229 Innovative Life Sciences, 1,494 percent (McKinney)

San Antonio (one company)

  • No. 118 Hire With Near, 2,421 percent

Amazon to expand Prime Air drone delivery to almost 500 U.S. cities

In the air

https://sanantonio.culturemap.com/news/city-life/prime-air-expands-service-texas/By the end of the year, more Texans may be able to get ultrafast deliveries through Amazon’s Prime Air drone delivery service. On Wednesday, August 19, the company announced plans to majorly expand drone delivery to nearly 500 cities in the U.S., a sixfold increase from its current footprint.

Although Amazon did not reveal the cities it is targeting for the expansion, it almost certainly will include Texas. The state, which ranks among the biggest states for ecommerce activity, is currently home to four of the nation’s 11 Prime Air sites, including the Houston suburb of Richmond, as well as San Antonio, Waco, and Richardson (near Dallas).

For drone deliveries, the company tends to target areas unencumbered by skyscrapers and major airports. Each facility covers a delivery area of approximately 175 square miles.

Prime Air deliveries must be five pounds or less and fit into a large shoebox. Still, Amazon says more than 60 percent of its most ordered items are eligible. The list includes groceries, cosmetics, medications, clothing, and small electronics like Apple AirPods and Ring doorbells. More fragile items — like eggs — are not available through the service.

Orders arrive as quickly as 30 minutes, with most packages dropped around 60 minutes after checkout. Prime members will enjoy free delivery on orders $50 or more and a $2.99 fee for orders under $50. Non-members pay $4.99.

Amazon drone delivery Photo courtesy of Amazon

According to Amazon, customers should have little worries about orders being damaged or drones being entangled in trees. Shoppers see and confirm their delivery point when placing their first drone delivery order and can select a new area at any time.

Amazon also sends a notification to customers if there is no safe delivery space and does not fly at night or under severe weather conditions. The retail giant says noise is minimal with sound levels similar to idling delivery trucks.

Georgia, Ohio, Illinois, Idaho, and New York are the first states on the expansion plan. All future sites will be subject to regulatory hurdles like zoning changes, but the company is confident it will be serving tens of millions of new customers by year-end.

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

Telsa targets Houston area for new $10 billion manufacturing plant

Project Sun City

Electric vehicle and clean energy company Tesla is considering building a new $10.1 billion solar cell manufacturing facility in Fort Bend County, according to documents filed with the Texas Comptroller’s Office.

If approved, the plant, called Project Sun City, would be located on a 3,050-acre site off FM 762 and FM 1994 in Richmond, Texas. Tesla aims to finish construction in 2028, with the plant being operational by early 2029.

The plant will manufacture photovoltaic (PV) solar cells and modules that can convert sunlight into electricity. PV Magazine reports that the facility is "the largest single manufacturing investment Tesla has proposed on paper."

Advisory and consulting firm Kroll submitted the documents to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts and noted if an agreement regarding tax incentives isn't reached, the project will exit Texas.

Tesla has requested credits under the Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation (JETI) Act. The incentive program aims to attract large, capital-intensive economic development projects by lowering the property taxes an entity must pay over 10 years if it meets requirements related to job creation and investment. For example, pharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb Co. recently announced that its forthcoming $2.3 billion Houston-area manufacturing site is a qualified project under the JETI program.

Kroll predicts that the facility would create 9,712 new full-time jobs, over 1,100 construction jobs and billions of dollars in future property tax revenue, the documents show. Additionally, it says the project will spur $1.1 billion in local business expenditures and that Texas would increase its GDP by approximately $107 billion as a result of the project activities.

Tesla opened its $200 million Megafactory in Brookshire, Texas, last year. The company is continuing its goal to deploy 100 gigawatts of solar manufacturing in the U.S before the end of 2028. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 100 gigawatts is equal to about 8 percent of the country's power grid capacity.

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This article originally appeared on EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

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