Houston named No. 2 most diverse major U.S. city for 2025

Ranking It

Houston is the No. 2 most diverse large city and the No. 5 most diverse city overall in America. Sky Noir Photography by Bill Dickinson/Getty Images

Houston has always been a diverse place, embracing people of many different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. And the city is earning new recognition in WalletHub's rankings of the most diverse large American cities for 2025.

The 2025 edition is the final installment in WalletHub's diversity study series, which annually compared 501 U.S. cities across 13 metrics in five categories that encompass "diversity" across socioeconomic, cultural, economic, household, and religious factors.

Cities were also ranked by population, with large cities defined as those with over 300,000 residents, midsize cities with 100,000 to 300,000 residents, and small cities with fewer than 100,000 residents.

Houston nearly topped the list of large U.S. cities, coming in at No. 2, and ranked at No. 5 in the overall national comparison.

The top three most diverse American cities, which have held their positions for the second consecutive year, are all located in Maryland: Gaithersburg (No. 1), Silver Spring (No. 2), and Germantown (No. 3).

Houston performed spectacularly in the study's overall rankings for socioeconomic (No. 14), cultural (No. 32), and religious diversity (No. 63), but fell behind in the categories for household (No. 129) and economic diversity (No. 165).

In the more detailed comparisons across educational-attainment, linguistic, and industry diversity, Houston ranked among the top 30 in all three categories out of the 501 cities included in the report.

Here's how Houston performed across the remaining eight categories in the study:

  • No. 44 – Racial and ethnic diversity
  • No. 129 – Household type diversity
  • No. 200 – Household size diversity
  • No. 201 – Income diversity
  • No. 207 – Occupational diversity
  • No. 239 – Birthplace diversity
  • No. 284 – Age diversity
  • No. 343 – Worker-class diversity

Embracing diversity is not only good for local communities, it's also beneficial for the economy, the report says.

"Not only have waves of immigration changed the face of the nation, they’ve also brought in fresh perspectives, skills, and technologies to help the U.S. develop a strong adaptability to change," the report's author wrote. "Economies generally fare better when they openly embrace and capitalize on new ideas. Conversely, those relying on old ways and specialized industries tend to be hurt more by changes in the market."

Houston is a repeat performer: It slipped one spot from its 2024 ranking, and previously topped the overall list in 2021 — showing that the city has consistently maintained in diversity over the years.

Other diverse Texas cities
Elsewhere in Texas, Arlington surpassed Houston as the No. 4 overall most diverse city, and took the No. 1 spot in the "large city" category.

Dallas ranked just outside the top 10 this year, landing in 11th place after previously ranking eighth overall in 2024. Dallas also appeared in sixth place in the national rankings for the most diverse large cities, so the city still has some catching up to do.

Fort Worth fell into No. 25 overall this year, in a three-place slip from last year's ranking. The city performed the best in the overall categories for socioeconomic and cultural diversity, earning a respective No. 58 and No. 61.

The top 10 most diverse cities in America in 2025 are:

  • No. 1 – Gaithersburg, Maryland
  • No. 2 – Silver Spring, Maryland
  • No. 3 – Germantown, Maryland
  • No. 4 – Arlington, Texas
  • No. 5 – Houston, Texas
  • No. 6 – New York, New York
  • No. 7 – Charlotte, North Carolina
  • No. 8 – Jersey City, New Jersey
  • No. 9 – Danbury, Connecticut
  • No. 10 – Los Angeles, California
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A version of this story originally appeared on our sister site, CultureMap.com.

Here's your strategy for growing your team with intention and inclusion. Photo via Getty Images

Houston expert: How to recruit a diverse workforce for your company

guest column

Recruiting for diversity is a critical aspect of building a diverse and inclusive workforce. In today’s increasingly global and diverse society, organizations that prioritize diversity and inclusion are well positioned to attract and retain top talent, improve innovation, and enhance overall organizational performance.

There are a few effective strategies to employ when an organization recruits for diversity.

Start with a diverse job posting

The first step in recruiting for diversity is to start with a job posting that is inclusive and welcoming to all candidates. Use inclusive language, avoid generic or racially biased language and highlight your commitment to diversity and inclusion. This can help attract a more diverse pool of candidates from the start.

Expand the candidate pool

One of the biggest barriers to diversity in hiring is a limited candidate pool. To expand your candidate pool, consider posting job openings on job boards and websites that cater to underrepresented groups, partnering with community organizations or schools and attending career fairs that target diverse candidates. It is also important to tap employees and their networks for referrals.

Now that many companies are hybrid or fully remote, employers can look outside the usual geographic area for potential employees. However, it is critical for companies to follow the local, state and federal guidelines when employing this hiring tactic.

Remove biases from the hiring process

Unconscious biases can impact the hiring process and limit diversity. To address potential biases in the hiring process, use objective and consistent evaluation criteria, such as skills, experience and qualifications. Also, consider using blind resumes, where hiring managers review the application without seeing the candidate’s name and identifying information.

Hiring for a culture fit is important, but it can, unintentionally, encourage a homogonous workplace. When a company has a diverse team, values will often align, provided the organization clearly defines its mission and goals, but the perspectives and approaches to business may differ between team members. These unique viewpoints add to the company’s culture and spur innovation.

Ensure diversity on hiring committees

Hiring committees should be staffed with diverse employees to ensure different perspectives and experiences are represented in the hiring process. This can lower the risk of unconscious biases and promote inclusive decision-making. Company leadership should ensure the hiring committee includes individuals from different departments, backgrounds and levels of seniority.

Use structured interviews

Structured interviews use a standardized set of questions and evaluation criteria to assess candidates’ qualifications and fit for the role. A standardized approach can help reduce the impact of biases and promote objective decision-making. When interviewing a candidate, the interviewers should focus on the candidate’s skills and experience rather than personal information or characteristics. This tactic allows companies to find the best fit for the open position.

Provide mentorship and support

Once talent is recruited, provide mentorship and support to help them succeed in the organization. That may include pairing them with a mentor or a support group that shares similar experiences or backgrounds. It can also involve providing access to training and development opportunities for the entire organization, which promotes a culture of inclusivity and respect.

Recruiting is a critical aspect of building a diverse and inclusive workforce; however, it is the first step in a much longer process of creating an organization that retains the new hires. By expanding the candidate pool and becoming more intentional in recruiting efforts, organizations are off to a great start to attract and retain diverse talent and promote a culture of inclusivity and innovation.

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Jill Chapman is director of early talent programs with Houston-based Insperity, a provider of human resources offering a suite of scalable HR solutions available in the marketplace.

Creating a thriving culture for diversity, equity, and inclusion requires intentional focus and allotment of time and resources. Photo via Getty Images

Houston expert: How to attract and recruit a diverse workforce for your startup

guest column

The recent and long overdue awakening to systematic racism in the United States has brought with it a focused attempt to create more equitable opportunities in the workforce. Organizations are investing time reviewing their historical selection and performance data, creating new strategies for attracting applicants from historically underrepresented groups, and investing resources to ensure ongoing support and inclusion for all members of their community.

Startups in the early stages of bringing in personnel and crafting organizational culture have the advantage of building from a blank slate, and can benefit from implementing recruitment and selection strategies shown to help increase diversity.

Internal review

Prior to developing any strategic recruitment plan, companies must first perform an in-depth internal review of company culture, values, and future plans for growth and evolution. Defining these organizational attributes will help the company better understand the types of individuals who will thrive in the environment so that it can 1) accurately market the company and 2) maximize person-organization fit (P-O fit). P-O fit describes the extent to which an individual’s competencies, values, and preferences are compatible with the organization’s core values and offerings and has been linked to higher job satisfaction, job performance, and organizational commitment along with decreased turnover. Carving out the company’s current and desired culture, values, and goals for growth can serve as a starting point for accurately marketing the company to prospective applicants, understanding what applicant attributes and values will be the best fit for the company, and creating outreach and screening methods accordingly.

Information sharing

After an organization has performed a thorough internal exploration, it can then begin to share relevant information with prospective applicants. By and large, much of this information is gleaned by applicants through organizational websites. Indeed, organizational websites are often the main source of information for applicants and can provide a positive first impression and communicate its culture to leverage P-O fit. Research also suggests that companies cannot go wrong by sharing too much information about the organization on their website and through social media.

Companies can also ensure that the information provided on their websites and on social media pages demonstrate pictorial diversity, as including pictures of minorities has been shown to increase organizational attraction among Latinos and Blacks. Including video testimonials from any incumbent employees who reflect the diversity the organization is trying to attract can also enhance employer attractiveness. Finally, organizations seeking to increase diversity – but with little baseline diversity – should be honest about their current diversity climate with prospective applicants. Being transparent about current diversity figures, along with goals for future growth and specific strategies taken to enhance the diversity climate, can be a successful strategy as well. It is much better for an organization to provide an accurate snapshot of the current milieu so that informed decisions can be made, as inflated and inaccurate expectations among new entrants can result in job dissatisfaction and turnover.

Targeted recruitment

Companies seeking to increase the demographic diversity of applicants can also engage in targeted recruitment by focused advertisement and promotion at schools who graduate large number of underrepresented minorities. For example, partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), such as Prairie View A&M University, Texas Southern University, and St. Phillip’s College, can ensure broad reach. Creating virtual visit days, providing lectures to students, and other educational outreach programs with these institutions can broaden awareness and interest.

Selection

Organizations must continue to ensure equitable opportunities for all even after receiving applications from a diverse group. Shortlisting applicants based on certain pieces of information in the application can be at odds with efforts to create a diverse workforce. For example, reliance on standardized examination scores, such as SAT and ACT, can negatively impact underrepresented minority applicants. Letters of recommendation are also often frequently relied upon in selection, despite their discriminatory origin and evidence showing differences across genders and socioeconomic groups. Finally, use of unstructured interviews can also increase susceptibility to biases against minority groups. Thus, companies should only incorporate screening tools and processes that will not disadvantage applicants from different backgrounds.

Other selection methods can help programs achieve their diversity goals. For example, inclusion of structured interviews can ensure interviewers avoid common interviewing mistakes and providing unbiased ratings.Often, small details can have a large impact on hiring decisions. For example, applicants with accents and ethnic names are often disadvantaged during interviews, receiving less favorable interview ratings. Similarly, overweight candidates receive significantly lower performance ratings in interviews, compared to average weight candidates. Finally, studies have shown an overall bias against pregnant women in interview settings. Fortunately, these studies have also shown that structured interviews reduce these biases. Thus, standardizing which questions are asked and training interviewers to avoid inappropriate and potentially illegal questions is critical.

In conclusion, companies seeking to enhance the diversity of their workforce must consider their practices and policies in recruitment and selection. Unfortunately, there are no “quick fixes.” Creating a thriving culture for diversity, equity, and inclusion requires intentional focus and allotment of time and resources.

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Aimee Gardner is the co-founder of SurgWise, a tech-enabled consulting firm for hiring surgeons, and associate dean at Baylor College of Medicine.

DEI is a commitment that, rather like a good relationship needs to be worked on every day, especially when it comes to maintaining trust. Photo via Getty Images

Houston DEI programs are in place — now it's time to trust them

guest column

It’s no secret to almost any Houston-area businessperson that diversity, equity and inclusion has been front and center on the corporate radar for quite some time. According to the 2021 Deloitte/Fortune CEO survey, 94 percent of the 175 CEOs surveyed reported that diversity, equity, and inclusion are strategic priorities for them. Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) planned to disclose DEI metrics to the public.

How are they doing so far? Pretty well, apparently. Deloitte’s new study, Build trust in diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments, indicates that 80 percent of survey respondents who work in Texas trust their organizations to follow through on their DEI commitments.

But here’s the rub: More than one-third (36 percent) of Texas workers surveyed say they’d consider leaving their jobs should that trust be broken. This should spark concern among Houston business leaders dealing with the white-hot job market and the Great Resignation.

Clearly, follow-through on DEI commitments, and gaining employees’ trust that DEI goals are being thoughtfully and rigorously pursued, is the next step. To be sure, other cities in the country are diverse, but Houston is unique. It’s considered the most diverse city in the United States across five categories: cultural, economic, socioeconomic, household, and religion, according to 2021 research by WalletHub. Another relevant fact: Nearly one in four Houston residents are foreign-born.

Houston is also an important business hub. The metro area boasts 24 Fortune 500 company headquarters, ranking it third among all cities in the United States. This status, paired with the city’s diversity, means that Houston companies—and all of them, not just Fortune 500 firms—should really commit to DEI as an ongoing journey. It matters to employees, with 86 percent of the surveyed general population believing that companies should address environmental and social issues, including DEI, according to Cone Communications research. That figure soars to 94 percent for Generation Z respondents.

Here are some actionable suggestions Houston-area firms should consider to help companies continue to earn and maintain trust around their DEI actions:

Be clear about your DEI strategy. CEOs, chief diversity officers and corporate boards: your role here calls for setting, sponsoring and sharing a sincere vision for DEI strategies. Data can and should be employed for clarity; use it to create solid short and long-term plans. And be sure to put enough of your budget into DEI efforts. Robust and effective results require ample funding.

Involve your employees in DEI initiatives. Setting a sincere strategy means getting input from all levels of the organization, even some external partners — suppliers and perhaps even outsourced service providers — who might be affected by your firm’s DEI initiatives. Gather ample input, including suggestions for new and existing programs as well as any challenges that might arise, from these stakeholders.

Seeking a wide variety of perspectives and understanding experiences across gender identity, race, ethnicity, and other identities can help you develop initiatives that effectively meet the needs of all your people.

Measure success and share it. Crunch and present the numbers just as you would sales figures or any other business metric. The key word here is accountability. Communicate regularly and with transparency on progress and challenges; honesty is paramount — employees are typically aware that not every effort will meet all of its goals right out of the box. They tend to expect a setback here and there and could be more supportive if those setbacks are honestly shared.

More than a year ago, when companies began committing to DEI in earnest, nobody thought it would be easy. And it’s not. DEI is a commitment that, rather like a good relationship needs to be worked on every day, especially when it comes to maintaining trust. It’s a promise that needs to be kept, and then some.

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Amy Chronis is the Houston managing partner at Deloitte. Patti Wilkie is global talent and mobility leader of Deloitte Tax LLP.

Two hiring managers weigh in on corporate DEI initiatives amid the pandemic in a guest article for InnovationMap. Photo via Pexels

How Houston companies can use pandemic challenges to foster innovative corporate inclusion efforts

guest column

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and over the last 18 months, that proverb has proven true across the world, from classrooms to boardrooms. Shuttered classrooms and businesses, overflowing hospitals, and social unrest spurred by the killing of George Floyd have forced communities and leaders across the world, and here at home, to find innovative solutions to a myriad of problems.

But even as many people long for a return to normalcy, the truth is that, in many ways, the bell cannot be "unrung." Remote work, which was a necessity for many at the height of the pandemic, has given rise to an explosion of hybrid working environments that show no signs of reversing course. In the midst of this physical separation among colleagues, leaders across industries have been forced to throw out the rulebook and reimagine what it means to collaborate.

Additionally, the disparate impact experienced by communities of color throughout the pandemic has highlighted the importance of programs focused on increasing diversity and promoting inclusion. It is no coincidence, for example, that roughly six months into the pandemic, the general counsels of 12 major financial institutions penned an open letter to the legal community calling for greater inclusivity in the legal community.

So, how can companies transform the struggles presented by the pandemic into a springboard for lasting, innovative inclusion efforts? The answer lies in taking risks, strengthening the fabric of connectivity, and looking to the future.

Crowdsource new ideas

The concept of crowdsourcing is nothing new, but at the corporate level, leaders may overlook its benefits. Hackathons—large, collaborative events originally developed for computer programming or coding—can be implemented across all employment levels to crowdsource innovative ideas.

At Hunton Andrews Kurth, the firm implements the Hackathon concept during the summer associate program, thus harnessing the creativity and progressive ideas of younger talent. When the pandemic forced the firm's 2020 summer program to go entirely virtual, the firm decided to create groups of summer associates across all offices to brainstorm programming ideas aimed at improving and sustaining diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Together with partner leaders, these summer associate teams worked virtually to create truly innovative programming ideas, several of which the firm is currently implementing to recruit diverse talent. The program was successfully replicated in summer 2021, asking participants to hack the problem of associate inclusion. In addition to generating important programming content, these Hackathons increased participant morale, encouraged cross-office collaboration, forged new relationships across various geographic regions, and tackled the timely topics of enhancing law firm diversity and inclusion that will improve client service in the future.

Other industries—from large, global corporations to small businesses—can implement the Hackathon concept to successfully build bridges and harness innovation around inclusion. For example, MIT recently held a successful hackathon to source solutions to the problem of student inclusion during the pandemic, and Microsoft sponsored a hackathon aimed at solving the education and technology gaps of remote learning brought on by the pandemic.

Moreover, experts agree that equity and inclusion initiatives are only successful with buy-in from the c-suite. In other words, fostering an inclusive corporate culture starts at the top. If corporate leadership participates in the Hackathon experience—as a mentor, judge, or coach, perhaps—as opposed to merely sponsoring the event, it sends a message to all employees that the company as a whole values inclusion as a cornerstone of corporate culture.

Embrace virtual connections

The pandemic forced us all to navigate the world of virtual meetings, and with the popularity of hybrid working environments, virtual connectivity is here to stay. Companies must embrace this new virtual frontier and implement programs that engage employees, promote collaboration, and introduce an element of fun.

At Hunton Andrews Kurth, new hires create introductory videos about themselves that are globally shared firm-wide, while veteran lawyers create their own video content introducing themselves and their practices, thus creating an immediate personal connection.

Additionally, virtual events celebrating diversity and inclusion events, such as Black History Month and LGBTQ Pride Month for example, provide opportunities for fellowship across offices and bolster inclusion efforts. Hunton Andrews Kurth hosted a virtual cooking class, based in a Dallas partner's kitchen, celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Month in May, which was virtually attended by 132 attorneys firm wide.

Company-wide virtual events such as escape rooms, cocktail-making classes, games and trivia build camaraderie, which deepens the bonds of collegiality and strengthens feelings of inclusion and belonging. Companies should invest in virtual technologies to help facilitate this important new frontier of connectivity, recognizing that increased digital connectivity supports a collaborative and inclusive working environment.

Highlight community outreach

In global companies, high-level, company-wide diversity and inclusion leadership should work in tandem with leadership at the local level. At our firm, for example, in addition to firm-wide diversity leadership, each local office has a specified leader committed to promoting local inclusion initiatives. While virtual events help connect geographically-diverse employees, it is equally important to offer local employees opportunities to connect in person with one another and support diversity programming in the community.

For example, attorneys in Hunton Andrews Kurth's Richmond office recently came together to learn about and pool resources to support a local artist's public art project focused on creating murals to promote open dialogue around racial and social justice. Additionally, employees might select a local DEI educational experience in which to participate as a group outside of the office, then plan to gather informally (in person or virtually) to discuss lessons learned and continue important conversations. When colleagues come together to support local inclusion programs or participate in shared experiences, new connections are forged that help support a diverse and inclusive corporate culture.

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Rudene Mercer Haynes is a partner at Hunton Andrews Kurth, serves as a firmwide hiring partner, and also sits on the executive committee. Alex Gomez is also a partner and serves as a fellow firmwide hiring partner.

"When researchers include people from various racial, ethnic, and identity backgrounds in health studies, we can be more confident that the results of the studies will apply to everyone." Graphic by Miguel Tovar/University of Houston

Representation in research matters, says this Houston expert

houston voices

Diversifying your human subjects for studies is essential for good research.

"Up to 75 percent of Pacific Islanders are unable to convert an antiplatelet drug into its active form and therefore are at higher risk for adverse outcomes following angioplasty," said the University of California San Francisco Participant Recruitment website. "And if the study population had not included diverse participants, this difference would not have been discovered."

Loretta Byrne of ResearchMatch and Danielle Griffin of University of Houston weigh in.

Need help with recruitment?

"Diversity and inclusion of all people in research is essential, yet the vast majority of people are unaware of research opportunities," said Loretta Byrne, RN, MSN, CCRP national project manager for ResearchMatch, a nonprofit funded by the NIH. ResearchMatch helps to set volunteers up with researchers working on all types of studies that require human subjects. "This nonprofit provides a space for the community to essentially raise their hands and say, 'I'd like to know more.'"

There are other such agencies, including studyscavenger.com that set volunteers up with researchers; and some pharmaceutical companies have dedicated portals like helpresearch.com.

Be a champion

UC San Francisco, a champion for diversity, held a Recruitment of Underrepresented Study Populations webinar which gave practical advice to researchers well, searching, for human subjects for trials. Nynikka Palmer, DrPH, MPH, Assistant Professor, UCSF School of Medicine, and Esteban Burchard, MD, MPH Professor, UCSF School of Pharmacy went on to urge researchers thusly:

"Participants in research should reflect the diversity of our culture and conditions, taking into account race, ethnicity, gender, age, etc. The lack of diversity among research participants has serious ethical and research consequences."

What types of consequences could be incurred from failing to test a representative sample? "It impedes our ability to generalize study results, make medical advancements of effective therapies and it prevents some populations from experiencing the benefits of research innovations and receipt of high-quality care," explained the authors.

Establish trust

Danielle Griffin, Ed.D., CIP, associate director of Institutional Review Boards (IRB) in the Office of Research Integrity and Oversight at the University of Houston, is concerned with researchers' behavior when they do garner volunteers. "Researchers need to go to where people are," and instead of just collecting data, "they must establish relationships. Trust is an important aspect of why people decide to participate in studies."

Trust may be difficult to establish in some cases and with some prospective demographics. It would be remiss to not acknowledge historical traumas in conjunction with medical human subject trials, like the Tuskegee Experiment. Language barriers are another concern, which is why Byrne goes on to say that the participants' first languages are also taken into consideration when volunteers are recruited through ResearchMatch.

The big idea

Avoid taking the easy path. Griffin warns against "convenience sampling." She said it's easiest for researchers to use undergraduate students for their participant pools rather than to look for a set that most resembles the greater, local community. "If your research concerns the general population and the participants in your study are essentially all 18-year old students from your campus," said Griffin, "you're not going to achieve a representative sample."

"When researchers include people from various racial, ethnic, and identity backgrounds in health studies," said Byrne, "we can be more confident that the results of the studies will apply to everyone."

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This article originally appeared on the University of Houston's The Big Idea. Sarah Hill, the author of this piece, is the communications manager for the UH Division of Research.

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Texas-based 'DoorDash for laundry' startup tumbles into Houston market

No Scrubs

Laundry may seem like an endless task that piles up, but a new service offers a solution to overwhelmed Houston families.

NoScrubs, an Austin-based home laundry pickup service has just expanded to Houston. Described by the company as "DoorDash — but for laundry," they wash customer's clothes at local laundromats and return them the same day, folded and ready to be put away.

The service took off like gangbusters in Austin, making an expansion to the state's largest city an obvious choice. It's not universal coverage just yet.

For now, only the following ZIP codes have NoScrubs service available: 77002, 77004, 77005, 77006, 77007, 77008, 77009, 77010, 77018, 77019, 77024, 77025, 77027, 77046, 77056, 77057, 77081, 77098, 77401, 77030, 77003.

A single pickup starts at $40 for 20 pounds of laundry, while the basic monthly subscription is $60 for two pickups. All services use hypoallergenic detergents.

The average American family spends about 240 hours a year on laundry, making it a very time-consuming chore. For people with disabilities, difficult work schedules, and other circumstances, it can be a real help, says co-founder Matt O'Connor.

"Some of our favorite customer stories simply revolve around saving people time when they have something challenging going on," he writes in an email. "For example, one customer reviewed NoScrubs saying 'So happy I could cry! (Partially because I'm pregnant and my emotions are heightened!)...1000% recommend if you have time restrictions or physical restrictions! ' So, whether it’s saving time, the affordability, or the pleasantly surprising turnaround time, NoScrubs has a variety of benefits for any customer."

NoScrubs is also a new opportunity for Houston's gig workers. Because there are no passengers, it can be a safer alternative to driving ride share for women and other people apprehensive about having strangers in their cars. As NoScrubs partners with local laundromats, drivers are also going to centralized locations rather than all over the map, leading to less wear and tear on their cars. The laundromats benefit as well, since NoScrubs loads are ones that would otherwise be done at home.

"Our model makes driving a tiny fraction of the time, so folks who don’t want to wear down their vehicles and spend a ton on gas love working at NoScrubs," added O'Connor.

Here's what's next for Houston’s Tempest Droneworx after SXSW Speed Pitch win

winner, winner

It’s not easy to be a standout at South by Southwest, especially during SXSW Interactive, which is the subsection of the festival that focuses on new media, technology and entrepreneurship.

But it’s even more difficult to win at SXSW Pitch, the competition for startups and entrepreneurs that showcases innovative new technology to a panel of industry experts, high-profile media professionals, venture capital investor, and angel investors.

Tempest Droneworx, a Houston-based company that provides real-time intelligence collected through drones, robots and sensors, did just that last month, taking home the Best Speed Pitch award. It was also named a finalist and alternate in the full SXSW Pitch competition. The company is known for it flagship product, Harbinger, a software solution that agnostically gathers data at virtually any scale and presents that data in easy-to-understand visualizations using a video game engine.

Tempest CEO and founder Ty Audronis says his company won based on its merits and the impact it’s making and will make on the world. Audronis founded the company after his hometown of Paradise, California, was destroyed by a wildfire in 2018.

“(SXSW) was a huge moment for our team,” says Audronis, whose background is in science visualization, data visualization and visual effects for the movie industry. “This is about what everyone at Tempest Droneworx has created, and our mission to make sure that issues—like the one that befell Paradise, California, my hometown, and the inspiration for our Harbinger software—don’t become the full-blown (disasters)."

Audronis shares that the company is working to release an agriculture beta this summer and is raising a Tactical Funding Increase (TACFI) round through the AFWERX, the Department of the Air Force’s innovation arm.

Tempest’s Harbinger is impressing investors and clients alike, but what is it exactly and what does it do?

The best way to explain the solution is in how it’s redefining the agriculture space. Tempest has deployed the product at Grand Farm in North Dakota, an agtech operation that seeks to promote sustainable, climate-resilient farming using applied technology.

“We decided to go down the road of agriculture,” Audronis says. “We're currently installed at the Grand Farm in North Dakota, which is a farm that is very closely tied to Microsoft. They do third-party verification of new soils and fertilizers, and we are helping them with visualizing the data that they're getting from their sensors.”

Additionally, Audronis and his co-founder and wife, Dana Abramovitz, spearhead a pilot program at Doubting Thomas Farms, an organic farm in Minnesota, where the company has installed 22 in-ground sensors that can measure volatile organic emissions.

To further optimize their solutions approach, Tempest Droneworx will also train artificial intelligence to look for overspray from neighboring non-organic farms. This will help maintain organic certification and reduce insurance claims for lost crops.

“This will save Doubting Thomas Farms and other organic farms a boatload of cash,” Audronis says.

During an exclusive tour with InnovationMap, Audronis pulled up a live feed of sensors buried around the Minnesota farm up on the conference room display. The feed did, in fact, look like a video game, with the sensors giving real-time data about the farm’s temperature, moisture level, humidity, CO2 and nitrogen.

Harbinger will collect, extract and extrapolate all of the data and later provide a digital almanac for farmers to track the history of their crops.

As the office tour continued, Audronis pointed out the company’s expanding partnership with the U.S. Military.

As a retired U.S. Navy veteran with over two decades of experience designing, building and piloting drones, Audronis understands that Harbinger has multiple military applications that will ultimately save lives—a core tenet of his company’s mission.

The company has launched a robotic dog known as UBU, developed by Tempest partner Ghost Robotics, that enables faster, more accurate ground surveys for explosive devices. This task previously required multiple airmen and hours to complete, Audronis says.

With agriculture and military initiatives in progress and making an impact, Audronis hopes to one day bring his original vision for Tempest Droneworx and Harbinger full circle by getting the call to combat California’s next catastrophic wildfire.

“We're proving our technology in military and in agriculture right now,” Audronis says. “Eventually, I would like to still save some lives with wildfire. That's really the purpose of the company … Whether it's agriculture, smart cities, the bottom line is saving lives through real-time situational awareness."

New energy innovation and coworking spaces open at the Ion

moving in

Houston-based Occidental officially opened its new Oxy Innovation Center with a ribbon cutting at the Ion last week.

The opening reflects Oxy and the Ion's "shared commitment to advancing technology and accelerating a lower-carbon future," according to an announcement from the Ion.

Oxy, which was named a corporate partner of the Ion in 2023, now has nearly 6,500 square feet on the fourth floor of the Ion. Rice University and the Rice Real Estate Company announced the lease of the additional space last year, along with agreements with Fathom Fund and Activate.

At the time, the leases brought the Ion's occupancy up to 90 percent.

Additionally, New York-based Industrious plans to launch its coworking space at the Ion on May 8. The company was tapped as the new operator of the Ion’s 86,000-square-foot coworking space in Midtown in January.

Dallas-based Common Desk previously operated the space, which was expanded by 50 percent in 2023 to 86,000 square feet.

CBRE agreed to acquire Industrious in a deal valued at $400 million earlier this year. Industrious also operates another local coworking space is at 1301 McKinney St.

Industrious will host a launch party celebrating the new location Thursday, May 8. Find more information here.


  

Oxy Innovation Center. Photo via LinkedIn.

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