Greentown Labs names new CEO to lead pioneering climate tech incubator

Transition News

Georgina Campbell Flatter worked closely with Greentown Labs when it was founded in 2011 and now will lead the incubator as CEO. Photo courtesy Greentown Labs

Houston and Boston climate tech incubator Greentown Labs has named Georgina Campbell Flatter as the organization’s incoming CEO.

Flatter will transition to Greentown from her role as co-founder and executive director of TomorrowNow.org, a global nonprofit that studies and connects next-generation weather and climate technologies with communities most affected by climate change.

“We are at a transformational moment in the energy transition, with an unprecedented opportunity to drive solutions in energy production, sustainability, and climate resilience,” Flatter said in a news release. “Greentown Labs is, and has always been, a home for entrepreneurs and a powerhouse of collaboration and innovation.”

Previously, Flatter worked to launch TomorrowNow out of tomorrow.io, a Boston-based AI-powered weather intelligence and satellite technology company. The organization secured millions in climate philanthropy from partners, including the Gates Foundation, which helped deliver cutting-edge climate solutions to millions of African farmers weekly.

Flatter also spent 10 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she was a senior lecturer and led global initiatives at the intersection of technology and social impact. Her research work includes time at Langer Lab and Sun Catalytix, an MIT – ARPA-E-funded spin-out that focused on energy storage solutions inspired by natural photosynthesis. Flatter is also an Acumen Rockefeller Global Food Systems Fellow and was closely involved with Greentown Labs when it was founded in Boston in 2011, according to the release.

“It’s rare to find an individual who has impressive climate and energy expertise along with nonprofit and entrepreneurial leadership—we’re fortunate Georgie brings all of this and more to Greentown Labs,” Bobby Tudor, Greentown Labs Board Chair and Chairman of the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, said in a news release.

Flatter will collaborate with Kevin Dutt, Greentown’s Interim CEO, and also continue to serve on Greentown’s Board of Directors, which was recently announced in December and contributed to a successful $4 million funding round. She’s also slated to speak at CERAWeek next month.

“In this next chapter, I’m excited to build on our entrepreneurial roots and the strength of our ever-growing communities in Boston and Houston,” Flatter added in a news release. “Together, we will unite entrepreneurs, partners, and resources to tackle frontier challenges and scale breakthrough technologies.”

Greentown also named Naheed Malik its new chief financial officer last month. The announcements come after Greentown’s former CEO and president, Kevin Knobloch, announced that he would step down in July 2024 after less than a year in the role.

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This article originally appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapital.

From Your Site Articles
Kanin Energy set up shop in Greentown Labs last year to grow its impact on the energy transition. Photo via Getty Images

Why this energy transition startup came to Houston to grow, build its waste-heat-to-power tech

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Waste heat is everywhere, but in Houston, the Energy Capital of the World, it is becoming a hot commodity. What is it? Janice Tran, CEO of Kanin Energy, uses the example of turning ore into steel.

“There’s a lot of heat involved in that chemical process,” she says. “It’s a waste of energy.”

But Kanin Energy can do something about that. Its waste-heat-to-power, or WHP, concept uses a technology called organic rankine cycle. Tran explains that heat drives a turbine that generates electricity.

“It’s a very similar concept to a steam engine,” she says. Tran adds that the best term for what Kanin Energy does is “waste heat recovery.”

Emission-free power should be its own virtuous goal, but for companies creating waste heat, it can be an expensive endeavor both in terms of capital and human resources to work on energy transition solutions. But Kanin Energy helps companies to decarbonize with no cost to them.

“We can pay for the projects, then we pay the customers for that heat. We turn a waste product into a revenue stream for our customer,” Tran explains. Kanin Energy then sells the clean power back to the facility or to the grid, hence decarbonizing the facility gratis. Financing, construction, and operations are all part of the package.

Kanin Energy began at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the spring of 2020.

“We started like a lotus. A lotus grows in mud — you start in the worst conditions and everything is better and easier from there,” says Tran.

That tough birth has helped provide the team with a discipline and thoughtfulness that’s been key to the company’s culture. Remote work has forced the team to get procedures clearly in place and react efficiently.

Back in May of 2020, its inception took place in Calgary. But the team, which also includes CDO Dan Fipke and CTO Jake Bainbridge, began to notice that many of their customers were either based in Houston or had Houston ties.

A year ago, the Kanin team visited Houston to see if the city could be a fit for an office. In July of 2022, Tran opened Kanin Energy offices in Greentown Labs.

“We’re hiring and building our team office out of Greentown. It’s been really great for us,” she says.

With the company now in its commercialization stage, Tran says that becoming part of the Houston energy ecosystem has been invaluable for Kanin.

The investments being made in climate tech and in energy transition make Space City the right place for the company. For Canadian-born Kanin Energy, Houston is now home. Investors across the nation, including Texas, are now helping Kanin to blossom, much like the lotus.

Janice Tran is the CEO and co-founder of Kanin Energy. Photo via LinkedIn

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XSpace plans $250M industrial condo expansion with RAFA Racing Club

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Houston-based XSpace Group has teamed up with two other Houston companies, RAFA Racing Club and Maximo Capital, to develop five industrial condo projects that pair flex space and high-end car storage space with a members-only clubhouse for motorsports enthusiasts.

The five projects will be built in the Dallas-Fort Worth; Miami-Boca Raton; Charlotte-Mooresville, North Carolina; Phoenix-Scottsdale; and Los Angeles markets. Other markets, including Las Vegas, are under consideration for future phases.

XSpace says the initial five-project venture will generate estimated sales of $250 million. Condos will be available to rent or own.

The ground floor of each project will feature a RAFA Racing Club Social & Performance Centre, a members-only clubhouse, event space and lifestyle hub. The remaining floors will offer space for car storage, collectibles, offices and studios. RAFA will operate the ground floor of each building.

“Our goal from day one with RAFA Racing has been to connect people through a shared love of performance and community,” Rafael Martinez, founder of RAFA Racing Club and principal of Maximo Capital, said in a news release. “By pairing XSpace’s forward-thinking condominium design with the exclusive hospitality, networking and high-performance environment of a RAFA Racing Club clubhouse, we’re establishing a community blueprint where passion meets community.”

Each clubhouse will offer:

  • Lounges
  • Dining, working and networking spaces
  • Concierge service
  • Driving simulators
  • Fitness and conditioning capabilities

“We’re building the most valuable community-driven real estate product in America — and RAFA Racing Club is the anchor that makes it unlike anything else on the market," Byron Smith, founder of XSpace, added in a release. “By integrating our flexible, high-end industrial condominiums with RAFA’s world-class hospitality and automotive community spaces, we are completely redefining what commercial real estate can be for the motorsports enthusiast.”

RAFA operates facilities for motorsports fans in Houston and Austin. The clubs, geared toward wealthy people, entrepreneurs, executives, and brand partners, combine a clubhouse, garage, paddock (racing’s version of a locker room), a “human performance” center and driver training programs.

RAFA plans to open seven clubs in the U.S. and three outside the U.S. over the next four years.

XSpace operates a high-end office, warehouse, and lifestyle condo project in Austin and is building a project in Houston that’s set to open in 2027.

Walmart expands drone delivery service to 8 new Houston-area stores

Now Landing

More Walmart delivery drones are now buzzing around Houston-area skies.

In January, Walmart launched its drone delivery service in partnership with Wing at five locations in the Houston area. The retail giant just added eight more stores to its Houston-area drone delivery network.

Wing says the expansion makes drone delivery available to more than 1 million residents of the Houston area. “Many can now bypass notorious Houston traffic to get everyday Walmart essentials delivered by drone in minutes,” Wing said in a release.

The eight Walmart stores that joined the drone delivery network are:

  • 13003 Tomball Pkwy. Houston
  • 12353 FM 1960 Rd. West, Houston
  • 2901 Riley Fuzzel Rd., Spring
  • 20310 U.S. Highway 59, New Caney
  • 1025 Sawdust Rd., Spring, TX 77380
  • 13484 Northwest Fwy., Houston, TX
  • 13750 East Fwy., Houston
  • 3506 Highway 6 South, Houston

Stores where drone delivery was already available are:

  • 14215 FM 2100 Rd., Crosby
  • 1313 N. Fry Rd., Katy
  • 15955 FM 529 Rd., Houston
  • 255 FM 518, Kemah
  • 6060 N. Fry Rd., Katy

Houstonians can learn whether their address is eligible for drone delivery from a Walmart store by visiting wing.com/walmart. Drone-delivered orders can be placed on the Walmart app, the Wing app, or at Walmart.com.

Once an order is ready, it’s loaded onto a delivery drone. The drone then flies up to 60 mph and at a cruising altitude of about 150 feet to reach the customer’s home. The average flight takes less than 5 minutes.

Once it arrives at the customer’s home, the drone stops, hovers at roughly 23 feet, and lowers the order via a tether. Wing says its drones gently lower orders to the ground to protect fragile items like eggs and coffee.

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

TMC expands Korea BioBridge, welcomes 12 biotech companies to Houston

welcome to hou

The powerful partnership between Texas Medical Center (TMC) innovation and the world of Korean biotech advancement is already growing in scope. Just six months after the new TMC Republic of Korea BioBridge was first announced, 12 new companies from the Republic of Korea will establish on-site presences in Houston to further collaboration between the two nations and medical industries.

The expansion comes from a new agreement between TMC and the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI). William McKeon, president and CEO of Texas Medical Center, applauded the move and predicted it would benefit both Houston and Korea immensely.

“Korea has established itself as a global leader in biohealth innovation, with a growing pipeline of breakthrough technologies across digital health, biotechnology, and medical devices,” McKeon said in the news release. “Through the TMC Korea BioBridge, we are creating a direct connection between Korea’s innovators and the world’s largest medical city. This collaboration between TMC and KHIDI provides companies with a place to establish a presence, build strategic relationships, engage with leading clinicians and researchers, and accelerate the path toward commercialization and patient impact in the United States.”

The companies that will be in residence at the TMC Innovation Factory include Ardens Lifescience, whose new CAROL device is currently in human trials tackling lung cancer by using the airway network as electrodes to perform bronchoscopic ablation; stem cell-based gene therapy firm CELLeBRAIN, currently working on neurological disorders and solid cancers; and Wellysis, the developer of the S-Patch wearable cardiac monitoring device.

Additional companies include:

  • Antigravity
  • ARPI
  • CTCELLS
  • elecell
  • HUVER Inc.
  • Hutom
  • ORGANOIDSCIENCES
  • YOUTH BIO GLOBAL
  • Seoul Medical Informatics Intelligence Lab Inc.

“This collaboration establishes a strong foundation for connecting Korea’s biohealth innovation ecosystem with world-class clinical and innovation resources in the United States,” Younghun Jeong, executive director of the KHIDI, added in the news release. “Through partnerships with Texas Medical Center and the Korean-American Medical Association Texas, we look forward to fostering meaningful collaboration among innovators, clinicians, and industry leaders while creating new opportunities for clinical validation, commercialization, and global growth. KHIDI remains committed to expanding global partnerships that support biohealth innovation, clinical collaboration, commercialization, and international growth.”

This is the seventh international strategic partnership for the TMC. It launched its first BioBridge with the Health Informatics Society of Australia in 2016. It launched its TMC Japan BioBridge, focused on advancing cancer treatments, last year. It also has BioBridge partnerships with the Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark and the United Kingdom.

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