Top Houston-based sustainability startups share their 4 biggest challenges

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The six finalists for the sustainability category for the 2023 Houston Innovation Awards weigh in on their challenges overcome. Photos courtesy

Six Houston-area sustainability startups have been named finalists in the 2023 Houston Innovation Awards, but they didn't achieve this recognition — as well as see success for their businesses — without any obstacles.

The finalists were asked what their biggest challenges have been. From funding to market adoption, the sustainability companies have had to overcome major obstacles to continue to develop their businesses.

The awards program — hosted by InnovationMap, and Houston Exponential — will name its winners on November 8 at the Houston Innovation Awards. The program was established to honor the best and brightest companies and individuals from the city's innovation community. Eighteen energy startups were named as finalists across all categories, but the following responses come from the finalists in the sustainability category specifically.

    Click here to secure your tickets to see who wins.

    1. Securing a commercial pilot

    "As an early-stage clean energy developer, we struggled to convince key suppliers to work on our commercial pilot project. Suppliers were skeptical of our unproven technology and, given limited inventory from COVID, preferred to prioritize larger clients. We overcame this challenge by bringing on our top suppliers as strategic investors. With a long-term equity stake in Fervo, leading oilfield services companies were willing to provide Fervo with needed drilling rigs, frack crews, pumps, and other equipment." — Tim Latimer, founder and CEO of Fervo Energy

    2. Finding funding

    "Securing funding in Houston as a solo cleantech startup founder and an immigrant with no network. Overcome that by adopting a milestone-based fundraising approach and establishing credibility through accelerator/incubator programs." — Anas Al Kassas, CEO and founder of INOVUES

    "The biggest challenge has been finding funding. Most investors are looking towards software development companies as the capital costs are low in case of a risk. Geothermal costs are high, but it is physical technology that needs to be implemented to safety transition the energy grid to reliable, green power." — Cindy Taff, CEO of Sage Geosystems

    3. Market adoption

    "Market adoption by convincing partners and government about WHP as a solution, which is resource-intensive. Making strides by finding the correct contacts to educate." — Janice Tran, CEO and co-founder of Kanin Energy

    "We are creating a brand new financial instrument at the intersection of carbon markets and power markets, both of which are complicated and esoteric. Our biggest challenge has been the cold-start problem associated with launching a new product that has effectively no adoption. We tackled this problem by leading the Energy Storage Solutions Consortium (a group of corporates and battery developers looking for sustainability solutions in the power space), which has opened up access to customers on both sides of our marketplace. We have also leveraged our deep networks within corporate power procurement and energy storage development to talk to key decision-makers at innovative companies with aggressive climate goals to become early adopters of our products and services." — Emma Konet, CTO and co-founder of Tierra Climate

    4. Long scale timelines

    "Scaling and commercializing industrial technologies takes time. We realized this early on and designed the eXERO technology to be scalable from the onset. We developed the technology at the nexus of traditional electrolysis and conventional gas processing, taking the best of both worlds while avoiding their main pitfalls." — Claus Nussgruber, CEO of Utility Global

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    This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

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    XSpace adds 3 Houston partners to fuel national expansion

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    Texas-based XSpace Group has brought onboard three partners from the Houston area to ramp up the company’s national expansion.

    The new partners of XSpace, which sells high-end multi-use commercial condos, are KDW, Pyek Financial and Welcome Wilson Jr. Houston-based KDW is a design-build real estate developer, Katy-based Pyek offers fractional CFO services and Wilson is president and CEO of Welcome Group, a Houston real estate development firm.

    “KDW has been shaping the commercial [real estate] landscape in Texas for years, and Pyek Financial brings deep expertise in scaling businesses and creating long‑term value,” says Byron Smith, founder of XSpace. “Their commitment to XSpace is a powerful endorsement of our model and momentum. With their resources, we’re accelerating our growth and building the foundation for nationwide expansion.”

    The expansion effort will target high-growth markets, potentially including Nashville, Tennessee; Orlando, Florida; and Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina.

    XSpace launched in Austin with a $20 million, 90,000-square-foot project featuring 106 condos. The company later added locations on Old Katy Road in Houston and at The Woodlands Town Center. A third Houston-area location is coming to the Design District.

    XSpace condos range in size from 300 to 3,000 square feet. They can accommodate a variety of uses, such as a luxury-car storage space, a satellite office, or a podcasting studio.

    “XSpace has tapped into a fundamental shift in how entrepreneurs and professionals want to use space,” Wilson says. “Houston is one of the best places in the country to innovate and build, and XSpace’s model is perfectly aligned with the needs of this fast‑growing, opportunity‑driven market.”

    Rice Business Plan Competition names startup teams for 2026 event

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    The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship has announced the 42 student-led teams that will compete in the 26th annual Rice Business Plan Competition this spring.

    The highly competitive event, known as one of the world’s largest and richest intercollegiate student startup challenges, will take place April 9-11 on Rice's campus and at the Ion. Teams in this year's competition represent 39 universities from four countries, including one team from Rice and two from the University of Texas at Austin.

    Graduate student-led teams from colleges or universities around the world will present their plans before more than 300 angel, venture capital and corporate investors to compete for more than $1 million in prizes. Top teams were awarded $2 million in investment and cash prizes at the 2025 event.

    The 2026 invitees include:

    • Alchemll, University of Tennessee - Knoxville
    • Altaris MedTech, University of Arkansas
    • Armada Therapeutics, Dartmouth College
    • Arrow Analytics, Texas A&M University
    • Aura Life Science, Northwestern University
    • BeamFeed, City University of New York
    • BiliRoo, University of Michigan
    • BioLegacy, Seattle University
    • BlueHealer, Johns Hopkins University
    • BRCĒ, Michigan State University
    • ChargeBay, University of Miami
    • Cocoa Potash, Case Western Reserve
    • Cosnetix, Yale University
    • Cottage Core, Kent State University
    • Crack'd Up, University of Wisconsin - Madison
    • Curbon, Princeton University
    • DialySafe, Rice University
    • Foregger Energy Systems, Babson College
    • Forge, University of California, Berkeley
    • Grapheon, University of Pittsburgh
    • GUIDEAIR Labs, University of Washington
    • Hydrastack, University of Chicago
    • Imagine Devices, University of Texas at Austin
    • Innowind Energy Solutions, University of Waterloo (Canada)
    • JanuTech, University of Washington
    • Laetech, University of Toronto (Canada)
    • Lectra Technologies, MIT
    • Legion Platforms, Arizona State University
    • Lucy, University of Pennsylvania
    • NerView Surgical, McMaster University (Canada)
    • Panoptica Technologies, Georgia Tech University
    • PowerHouse, MIT
    • Quantum Power Systems, University of Texas at Austin
    • Routora, University of Notre Dame
    • Sentivity.ai, Virginia Tech
    • Shinra Energy, Harvard University
    • Solid Air Dynamics, RWTH Aachen (Germany)
    • Spine Biotics, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
    • The Good Company, Michigan Tech
    • UNCHAIN, Lehigh University
    • VivoFlux, University of Rochester
    • Vocadian, University of Oxford (UK)

    This year's group joins more than 910 RBPC alums that have raised more than $6.9 billion in capital, according to Rice.

    The University of Michigan's Intero Biosystems, which is developing the first stem cell-driven human “mini gut,” took home the largest investment sum of $902,000 last year. The company also claimed the first-place prize.

    Houston suburb ranks as No. 3 best place to retire in Texas

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    Texas retirees on the hunt for the right place to settle down and enjoy their blissful retirement years will find their haven in the Houston suburb of Pasadena, which just ranked as the third-best city to retire statewide.

    A new study conducted by the research team at RetirementLiving.com, "The Best Cities to Retire in Texas," compared the affordability, safety, livability, and healthcare access for seniors across 31 Texas cities with at least 90,000 residents.

    Wichita Falls, about 140 miles northwest of Dallas, claimed the top spot as the No. 1 best place to retire in Texas.

    The senior living experts said Pasadena has the best healthcare access for seniors in the entire state, and it ranked as the No. 8 most affordable city on the list.

    "Taking care of one’s health can be stressful for seniors," the report said. "Harris County, where [Pasadena is] located, has 281.1 primary care physicians per 1,000 seniors — that’s almost 50-fold the statewide ratio of 5.9 per 1,000."

    Pasadena ranked 10th overall for its livability, and ranked 25th for safety, the report added.

    Meanwhile, Houston proper ranked as the No. 31 best place to retire in Texas, but its livability score was the 7th best statewide.

    Seven of the Lone Star State's top 10 best retirement locales are located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex: Carrollton (No. 2), Plano (No. 4), Garland (No. 5), Richardson (No. 6), Arlington (No. 7), Grand Prairie (No. 8), and Irving (No. 9). McAllen, a South Texas border town, rounded out the top 10.

    RetirementLiving said Carrollton has one of the lowest property and violent crime rates per capita in Texas, and it ranked as the No. 5 safest city on the list. About 17 percent of the city's population is aged 65 or older, which is higher than the statewide average of just 14 percent.

    The top 10 best place to retire in Texas in 2026 are:

    • No. 1 – Wichita Falls
    • No. 2 – Carrollton
    • No. 3 – Pasadena
    • No. 4 – Plano
    • No. 5 – Garland
    • No. 6 – Richardson
    • No. 7 – Arlington
    • No. 8 – Grand Prairie
    • No. 9 – Irving
    • No. 10 – McAllen
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    This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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