Want to work for one of the top startups in Houston? These ones are hiring. Photo via Getty Images

About a third of this year's startup finalists for the Houston Innovation Awards are hiring — from contract positions all the way up to senior-level roles.

The finalists, announced last week, range from the medical to energy to AI-related startups and will be celebrated next month on Thursday, November 14, at the Houston Innovation Awards at TMC Helix Park. Over 50 finalists will be recognized for their achievements across 13 categories, which includes the 2024 Trailblazer Legacy Awards that were announced earlier this month.

Click here to secure your tickets to see which growing startups win.

Let's take a look at where you could land a job at one of Houston's top startups.

Double-digit growth

When submitting their applications for the 2024 Houston Innovation Awards, every startup was asked if it was hiring. Four Houston startups replied that they are growing their teams rapidly.

Houston e-commerce startup Cart.com, one of the city's few $1 billion-plus “unicorns," reported that it is hiring approximately 50 new employees. The company, which focuses on commerce and logistics software development, secured $105 million in debt refinancing from investment manager BlackRock this summer following a $25 million series C extension round that brought Cart.com’s Series C total to $85 million. It currently has about 1,500 employees and 4 offices in three companies since it was founded in 2020, according to its website.

Houston energy tech company Enovate Ai (previously known as Enovate Upstream) reported that it is hiring 10-plus positions. The company, with 35 current employees, helps automate business and operational processes for decarbonization and energy optimization. Its CEO and founder, Camilo Mejia, sat down for an interview with InnovationMap in 2020. Click here to read the Q&A.

Square Robot is hiring about 10 new Houston employees and 15 total between Houston and other markets, according to its application. The advanced robotics company was founded in Boston in 2016 and opened its Houston office in August 2019. It develops submersible robots for the energy industry, specifically for storage tank inspections and eliminating the need for humans to enter dangerous and toxic environments. Last year it reported to be hiring 10 to 30 employees as well, ahead of the 2023 Houston Innovators Award. It currently has 25 Houston employees and about 50 nationally.

InnoVent Renewables LLC is also hiring 15 new employees to be based in Mexico. The company launched last year with its proprietary continuous pyrolysis technology that can convert waste tires, plastics, and biomass into fuels and chemicals. The company scaled up in 2022 and has operations in Pune, India, and Monterrey, Mexico, with plans for aggressive growth across North America and Latin America. It has 20 employees in Mexico and one in Houston currently.

Senior roles

Geothermal energy startup Sage Geosystems reported that it is looking to fill two senior roles in the company. It also said it anticipates further staff growth after its first commercial energy storage facility is commissioned at the end of the year in the San Antonio metro area. The company also recently expanded its partnership with the United States Department of Defense's Defense Innovation Unit and announced this month that it was selected to conduct geothermal project development initiatives at Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi. It has 12 full-time employees, according to its application.

Steady growth

Other companies reported that they are hiring a handful of new workers, which for some will increase headcount by about 50 percent to 100 percent.

Allterum Therapeutics reported that it is adding six employees to its current team of 13. The biopharmaceutical company that is under the Fannin Partners portfolio of med tech companies was awarded a $12 million product development grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas this spring.

Dauntless XR will add between five and eight employees, according to its application. It currently has four employees. The augmented reality software company, originally founded as Future Sight AR in 2018, recently secured a NASA contract for space weather technology after rebranding and pivoting. The company's CEO, Lori-Lee Elliott, recently sat down with the Houston Innovators Podcast. Click here to hear the interview.

Syzygy Plasmonics is hiring four positions to add to its team of 120. The company was named to Fast Company's energy innovation list earlier this year.

Venus Aerospace is adding five to 10 key hires to its team of 72. Andrew Duggleby founded the company with his wife and CEO Sassie in 2020, before relocating to the Houston Spaceport in 2021. Last year, Venus raised a $20 million series A round, and it successfully ran the first long-duration engine test of their Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine in partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, earlier this year.

​Seeking selectively

Other finalists are adding to their teams with a handful of new hires of contract gigs.

​Future roles

Other finalists reported that they are currently not hiring, but had plans to in the near future.

NanoTech Materials Inc., which recently moved to a new facility, is not currently. Hiring but said it plans with new funding during its series B.

Renewable energy startup CLS Wind is not hiring at this time but reported that it plans to when the company closes funding in late 2024.

The Rice Alliance has named its second annual cohort. Photo via Getty Images

5 Houston energy tech companies named to Rice accelerator

seeing green

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship has announced the 17 companies joining its second accelerator — and the program didn't have to venture very far for some of them.

The Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator named the early- to mid-stage startups that will participate in its second annual class — five of which are based in Houston:

  • CLS Wind is developing a unique system to lift any size wind turbine component to any height using smaller-capacity cranes, an efficient, safe and economical solution to a lack of available high-capacity cranes and vessels.
  • Dsider is developing a low code solution for climate minded organizations to visualize and analyze their carbon pathways to plan, prioritize and operate sustainably and economically.
  • Emission Critical is developing carbon accounting and management software as a service to help enterprises solve end-to-end carbon footprinting with minimum effort
  • NanoTech is developing advanced materials to help businesses and individuals solve fireproofing and thermal insulation challenges with new world particles.
  • Pressure Corp is developing waste pressure power systems to help midstream gas companies solve how they reduce emissions by providing the technology, capital and expertise required to achieve their environmental, social and governance goals.

The 10-week program kicks off at the university’s Rice Alliance Energy Tech Venture Forum in September, and concludes on Demo Day on Nov. 17. While mostly virtual, the program will welcome the complete cohort to Houston three times throughout the accelerator.

The full cohort of companies — which come from seven states and four countries — has already collectively raised more than $54.5 million. Over the 10 weeks, the companies will receive support and mentorship to help them raise funding, launch pilots, win adoption into the marketplace, and more.

The 2022 cohort specializes across the spectrum of clean energy, including advanced materials, digital technology for energy, energy efficiency, energy storage, geothermal energy, hydrogen, waste heat to power, wave energy, and wind energy. The rest of the cohort includes:

  • Atargis Energy, based in Colorado, is developing an innovative twin hydrofoil-based wave energy converter technology combined with a proprietary feedback control system that combines real-time sensors, predictive algorithms and machine learning to make possible the first predictable, low-cost, utility-scale baseload electricity sourced from ocean waves for utilities and other electricity providers.
  • Based in Somerville, Massachusetts, Eden GeoPower Inc. is developing electrical reservoir stimulation technology to help geothermal, petroleum and mineral resource developers solve issues with low-permeability reservoirs by effectively increasing permeability in a way that uses less water and emits less CO2 than traditional stimulation methods.
  • FuelX has developed solid-state hydrogen power systems to help transportation manufacturers meet their customers’ growing performance requirements by using high-energy-density systems that outperform batteries and other pure hydrogen solutions. When coupled with a green hydrogen raw material, FuelX systems provide zero-carbon power.
  • GeoGen Technologies — a Canadian company — is developing a new kind of geothermal that allows oil and gas companies to convert end of life oil and gas wells to economic geothermal.
  • Durham, North Carolina-based GOLeafe uses organic materials and non-energy or capital-intensive equipment toproduce graphene oxide — the world's strongest, thinnest and most conductive material — through a process that’s 10 times more cost efficient and eco-friendly using readily available materials such as hay, sugar and wood chips.
  • LiNa Energy is commercializing safe, sustainable, solid-state sodium batteries that contain no lithium or cobalt.
  • Luminescent, based in the United Kingdom, is building an isothermal expansion heat engine for waste heat recovery along gas transmission pipelines.
  • Nobel improves fuel efficiency for gas-fired power plants with drop in, reliable supersonic combustion technology.
  • Quino Energy — based in California — produces low-cost, long-lifetime aqueous organic flow batteries for grid storage applications. The charge is stored in specially designed organic molecules called quinones, which are produced from cheap chemical precursors in a proprietary, zero-waste process.
  • Viridly, based in Texas,is developing geothermal power plants with patent-pending generator technology alongside geothermal greenhouses to provide the first financially viable way to confidently deliver and scale up the development of baseload geothermal electricity.
  • Another Canadian company, Volta Technique’s compressed air storage and management technology addresses the unpredictable and ever-increasing cost of energy for large commercial and industrial electricity users while enabling decarbonization of the electricity grid through higher integration of renewable energy.
  • Wootz, another Texas company, is developing a scalable manufacturing process to produce sustainable, cost-effective, high-performance carbon nanotube materials at commercial scale to replace or enhance traditional metallic conductors.

Twelve companies participated in Class 1 of the Rice Alliance Clean Energy, which was delivered virtually last summer. The 12 startups in that inaugural class have raised a combined $6.5 million in funding, identified and launched pilots, met investors, hired staff and moved their offices to Houston.

The program is supported by founding sponsor Wells Fargo and supporters: BP, Baker Botts, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Halliburton Labs, Equinor, Microsoft, NRG, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, Shell Ventures, Sunnova, TotalEnergies, Tudor Pickering Holt, Canadian Consulate, TC Energy, Phillips 66, and ENI Next.

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Houston team develops innovative soft skeleton for kids with cerebral palsy

health tech

A team from the NSF University of Houston Building Reliable Advances and Innovation in Neurotechnology (UH BRAIN) Center and TIRR Memorial Hermann has introduced the MyoStep soft exoskeleton for children with cerebral palsy, according to a news release from UH.

The soft skeleton aims to address motor impairments caused by cerebral palsy that impact children’s ability to participate in physical activities, self-care and academics.

“The MyoStep project represents a significant advancement in the field of pediatric mobility aids, particularly for children with cerebral palsy,” Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal, director of UH BRAIN and the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said in a news release.

The next-generation lightweight, soft exoskeleton was funded by the IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS) Award.

The MyoStep is made to be lightweight and discreetly fit under clothes. It includes a wireless sensor network embedded inside the smart and flexible fabrics that is the backbone of the suit and collects and sends real-time data about the user’s movements It also includes safety features with temperature monitoring and emergency shut-off mechanisms.

“By integrating cutting-edge technologies such as artificial muscles, smart fabrics, and a comprehensive sensor network, MyoStep offers a promising solution to the challenges faced by existing exoskeletons,” Contreras-Vidal said in a news release.

Cerebral palsy is a neurological disorder that impacts motor skills. It occurs in one to four out of every 1,000 births worldwide.

“What makes the MyoStep project so compelling is that it’s not just about the technology: it’s about restoring confidence, function, and hope,” Dr. Gerard Francisco, a clinical partner on the technology, The Wulfe Family Chair of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at UTHealth Houston and medical officer at TIRR Memorial Hermann, said in a news release. “This kind of innovation has the potential to dramatically improve quality of life, helping children move through the world with greater ease and dignity.”

Houston universities launch summer 2025 accelerators for student ventures

summer session

OwlSpark, a startup and small business accelerator for Rice University-affiliated ventures, has named the latest 11 companies to its program that focus on challenges across technology, health care, consumer products and other sectors. The program is hosted in tandem with the University of Houston’s RED Labs and will take place at the Ion.

The early-stage accelerator runs for 12 weeks and culminates at The Bayou Startup Showcase on July 31.

According to a news release from Rice, “the accelerator cultivates a vibrant environment where founders are empowered to build, test, and scale their ideas in a setting built for entrepreneurship.”

The program is divided into two tracks: one for high-growth tech startups and another for small businesses.

The latest OwlSpark class includes:

  • Web and mobile platform EasilyBEE, which boosts family and community engagement in K-12 schools
  • Diagnos, a wearable-integrated wellness platform that monitors health and prevents injuries in college athletes
  • Johnnie, an AI-powered records management software for rural and midsize first responder agencies
  • JustKindHumility, which offers faith-based travel journals
  • Klix, whichautomates early-stage clinical trial management from document screening to AI-driven patient outreach and eligibility checks
  • Lizzy’s Gourmet Gains, which offers high-protein, flavor-forward dips and dressings
  • NextStep, an AI-powered multilingual assistant helping underserved communities navigate resources for health care
  • A catheter-integrated sensor device PeriShield, which detects early infection in peritoneal dialysis patients
  • Right Design, which connects creatives with vetted employers, mentors and projects via job matching and commissions
  • UCoreAlly, which provides business support for biotech startups in marketing, business development, customer support, human resources and accounting
  • Ultrasound-based ablation system VentriTech that treats ventricular arrhythmias

The Owl Spark accelerator has supported 229 founders and launched 104 ventures with participants raising more than $116 million in funding since 2013, according to Rice.

UH also shared the 9 teams that will participate in RED Labs' latest cohort.

The latest RED Labs class includes:

  • BLEED, an art agency that helps artists commercialize their work by connecting art collectors to original artwork and artists
  • Brain Haven, which is developing nasal inhalers designed to stimulate the emotional and memory processing centers to preserve neuroplasticity and delay cognitive decline
  • Candi Wands Automated Cotton Candy, which has developed a continuously operating cotton candy machine to help entertainment venues boost passive revenue
  • ChériCollectible, a series of in-person events where Gen Z and collectors can buy, sell, and trade modern collectibles
  • JobRadar, a job board that uses AI to analyze and categorize positions in real-time and then apply candidates instantly
  • Stage Select LLC, a supplementary talent booking service that partners with multi-stage venues to help fill gaps in programming and increase profitability by finding and booking local talent for their "second stage."
  • P-LEGS, a pediatric lower-limb exoskeleton that reduces physical strain on therapists while delivering customizable gait training.
  • Roll ‘N’ Reel Photo Booth, an interactive event-based equipment rental business
  • Stayzy, which automates guest communication and handles maintenance issues with an AI-powered software for short-term rental companies that manage 20-plus rentals