3+ Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Divyaditya Shrivastava of Paladin, Veronica Breckenridge of First Bight Ventures, Sunil Sheth of UTHealth Houston, plus around 50 Houston Innovation Awards finalists. Photos courtesy

Editor's note: Every week, I introduce you to a handful of Houston innovators to know recently making headlines with news of innovative technology, investment activity, and more. This week's batch includes a drone tech startup founder, biotech investor, and health care innovator.

Divyaditya Shrivastava, co-founder of Paladin

Paladin’s AI-enhanced autonomous drones help public safety agencies, such as police and fire departments, respond to 911 calls. Photo via LinkedIn

Houston-based Paladin, whose remotely controlled drones help first responders react quickly to emergencies, has collected $5.2 million in seed funding.

Gradient, a seed fund that backs AI-oriented startups, led the round. Also participating were Toyota Ventures, the early-stage VC arm of Japanese automaker Toyota; venture capital firm Khosla Ventures; and VC fund 1517. The company was co-founded by Divyaditya Shrivastava and Trevor Pennypacker.

Among the agencies that have tried out Paladin’s technology is the Houston area’s Memorial Villages Police Department. The department participated in a three-month Paladin pilot project in 2019. Read more.

Veronica Breckenridge (née Wu), founder of First Bight Ventures

Veronica Breckenridge, founder of First Bight VenturesInvestor advocates now is the time to position Houston as a leading biomanufacturing hub

Veronica Breckenridge is the founder of First Bight Ventures, which just celebrated three portfolio companies. Photo courtesy

Three portfolio companies of Houston venture capital firm First Bight Ventures have received a combined $5.25 million from the U.S. Defense Department’s Distributed Bioindustrial Manufacturing Program.

“The allocation of funds by the federal government will be critical in helping grow biomanufacturing capacity,” Veronica Breckenridge (née Wu), founder of First Bight, says in a news release. “We are very proud to represent three dynamic companies that are awardees of this competitive and widely praised program.” Read more.

Sunil Sheth, associate professor in the Department of Neurology at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston

UTHealth Houston has secured millions in grant funding — plus has reached a new milestone for one of its projects. Photo via utsystem.edu

UTHealth recently received a grant that will improve the odds for patients who have had a stroke with the successful re-opening of a blocked vessel through endovascular surgery. The $2.5 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, will fund a five-year study that will include the creation of a machine-learning program that will be able to predict which stroke patients with large blood vessel blockages will benefit most from endovascular therapy.

The investigators will form a database of imaging and outcomes of patients whose blockages were successfully opened, called reperfusion, from three U.S. hospitals. This will allow them to identify clinical and imaging-based predictors of damage in the brain after reperfusion. From there, the deep-learning model will help clinicians to know which patients might go against the tenet that the sooner you treat a patient, the better.

“This is shaking our core of deciding who we treat, and when, and how, but also, how we are evaluating them? Our current methods of determining benefit with imaging are not good enough,” says principal investigator and associate professor in the Department of Neurology at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, Sunil Sheth. Read more.

Top innovators: 2024 Houston Innovation Awards finalists revealed

Here's what Houston startups and innovators will be honored at the Houston Innovation Awards on November 14. Graphic via Gow Media

After nearly 300 nominations, InnovationMap and its group of judges are ready to reveal the finalists for this year's Houston Innovation Awards.

Taking place on Thursday, November 14, the Houston Innovation Awards celebrates all of Houston's innovation ecosystem — startups, entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, and more. Over 50 finalists will be recognized in particular for their achievements across 13 categories, which includes the 2024 Trailblazer Legacy Awards that were announced earlier this month.

Click here to see the 2024 Houston Innovation Awards finalists.

Paladin Drones wants eyes in the skies within 30 seconds of an emergency call. Getty Images

Houston drone company creating the next generation of first responders

To the rescue

When 911 is called, first responders usually arrive at the scene around three or four minutes after the call's placed. But Houston-based Paladin Drones wants to have eyes on the ground ­— or eyes in the sky — within the first 30 seconds.

The company's mission is simple: to outfit public agencies and first-responders with drones that can be autonomously deployed to the site of an emergency. Equipped with thermal sensors and flying around 200 feet high, the drones can give police and firefighters near-instantaneous information on a situation underway.

At the beginning of April, Paladin Drones began working with the Memorial Villages Police Department to respond to incidents in Memorial Villages, Hunter's Creek, Piney Point Village, and Bunker Hill.

"(This is) one of the first departments in the country to be testing this technology," says Paladin Drones co-founder Divyaditya Shrivastava. "We're very limited in the area that we cover, and that's just because we're taking baby steps and going as carefully and deliberately as possible."

Paladin Drones was co-founded by Shrivastava and Trevor Pennypacker. In 2018, the company went through a three-month boot camp at Y Combinator, a California-based incubator that's churned out Dropbox, AirBNB, Instacart and more. Through Y Combinator, Paladin Drones was connected with venture capital investors in Houston.

The company's drones capture critical information, such as a vehicle's color and body type, a suspect's clothing, or the direction a suspect fled the scene. And since roughly 70 percent of 911 calls involve witnesses or passerby giving inaccurate information about the emergency's location, these drones will be able to pinpoint the exact location of an emergency, further aiding the arrival of first responders.

"We're working on tracking technology to give the drones the capability to auto-follow (suspects)," Shrivastava says.

Paladin Drones is looking to hire a handful of employees in the coming months, Shrivastava says. He declined to disclose any information on the company's funding plans, but said it's still involved with Y Combinator in California.

Shrivastava began developing Paladin Drones when he was finishing high school in Ohio. The summer before his senior year, a friend's house burned down. While nobody was injured in the fire, the home was destroyed, and Shrivastava spoke with the local firefighters. Tragically, the 911 call that alerted firefighters of the emergency was one of the 70 percent of calls that involved inaccurate location information.

"If they'd known the exact location, the house would've been saved," Shrivastava says. "A fire doubles every 30 seconds."

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Rice University launches AI initiative, plans to hire 75 faculty

ai expansion

Houston’s Rice University announced a university-wide artificial intelligence initiative this week that includes hiring 75 new AI-focused faculty. It also shared new details about its planned state-of-the-art facility, The Arc.

Fresh off the announcement of Rice’s new Master of Artificial Intelligence (MAI) coming next fall, the university shared that it plans to expand its AI-related courses and be a “global leader in advanced computing and responsible AI.”

Rice reports that it has already hired 35 faculty members to deepen expertise across schools and departments regarding AI, and plans to recruit 40 more across disciplines including engineering, computing, health, energy, environmental resilience, business, humanities and the arts.

Rice's schools and departments have identified the four cluster areas to guide its hiring:

  • Foundational AI
  • AI for Health
  • AI for Energy, the Environment and Resiliency
  • Responsible AI: Society and Ethics

“Hiring exceptional faculty is essential, but it is only one part of the equation,” Amy Dittmar, Rice’s Howard R. Hughes Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, said in a news release. “We are building the people, places and partnerships needed to advance AI from foundational discovery to societal impact.”

Another major component of the effort is the planned 200,000-square-foot facility, The Arc, which Rice announced will break ground this fall. Rice will occupy nearly 80,000 square feet of office and laboratory space dedicated to topics including AI, data science, robotics, computational engineering and energy. The university previously announced that The Arc would be completed in Q1 2028.

The Arc will also house the AI Foundry, which is being developed as a collaborative space for industry partners, scientists and students.

“As Rice grows, we are being intentional about where we invest and how we build,” Rice President Reginald DesRoches added in the release. “By bringing together exceptional faculty, a strong interdisciplinary research community, world-class facilities and Houston’s extraordinary innovation ecosystem, Rice has an opportunity not simply to participate in the AI revolution but to help define its future.”

5 minority-founded startups shaping the future of Houston innovation

meet the finalists

Houston’s startup ecosystem reflects the diversity of the city itself.

As part of the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards, our Minority-founded Businesses category will honor an innovative Houston startup founded or co-founded by BIPOC or LGBTQ+ representation.

Five minority-founded businesses have been named finalists for the 2026 award. The finalists, selected by our esteemed panel of judges, range from an AI edtech startup to a company operating in the floating offshore energy infrastructure sector.

Read more about these innovative businesses, their initiatives, and their inspirational founders below. The 2026 winners will be announced on InnovationMap.com in mid-November.

AI Made Fun

Edtech startup AI Made Fun is working to close the gap in AI education by teaching K-12 students how to understand and responsibly use artificial intelligence. The company has developed a comprehensive AI literacy curriculum with 60 modules, animated videos, interactive activities, teacher guides and family resources. Its curriculum covers how AI works, misinformation, algorithmic bias, data privacy, online safety and academic integrity.

AI Made Fun was founded in 2025 by Devshree Golecha. It launched in classrooms this school year with five licensed schools serving more than 800 students. The company is pursuing partnerships with Houston-area school districts, including Houston ISD and Alief ISD, and has pledged free and subsidized access for underserved communities.

Deep Anchor Solutions

Offshore energy consulting and design company Deep Anchor Solutions wants to help scale floating offshore energy infrastructure by removing anchoring as a barrier. Its deeply embedded ring anchor (DERA) technology can be installed quietly without heavy-lift vessels, reducing anchor-related costs by up to 75 percent and lifecycle CO2 emissions by up to 80 percent.

The company was founded in 2023 by CEO Junho Lee and technical advisor Charles Aubeny. Lee earned his Ph.D. in geotechnical engineering from Texas A&M University, where Aubeny is a professor of civil and environmental engineering. The company has participated in numerous accelerators and incubators, including Greentown Labs, MassChallenge, EnergyTechNexus LiftOff and others. Lee was an Activate 2025 fellow.

HEXAspec

Rice University spinout HEXASpec is working to improve the sustainability and thermal conductivity of semiconductor chips. The company has developed breakthrough inorganic fillers that allow graphic processing units (GPUs) to use less water and electricity and generate less heat.

HEXASpec was founded in 2025 by CEO Tianshu Zhai, CTO Jing Zhang and chief product officer Chen-Yang Lin. It has raised $800,000 in pre-seed funding and another $1.5 million in non-dilutive grants, according to the company's application. The startup won the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship's H. Albert Napier Rice Launch Challenge in 2024 and the 2025 Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition during CERAWeek in the TEX-E student track in 2025. It was awarded a $500,000 National Science Foundation Partnership for Innovation grant last summer.

Prana Surgical

Health tech company Prana Surgical is developing a minimally invasive surgical platform for small, hard-to-reach lung nodules that may be cancerous. The company's Prana System cleared U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval earlier this year.

Prana Surgical was originally founded as Prana Thoracic in 2022. It has participated in numerous accelerators, including the Texas Medical Center Innovation Accelerator in 2023 and the IGNITE Health accelerator in 2022. It raised $6 million in Series A funding rounds in 2023 and 2024 , with a Series B currently ongoing. The company said in its application that it is currently moving into the next stage of clinical validation and revenue generation in the U.S., in addition to preparing its manufacturing and commercial infrastructure for broader use.

Torres Orbital Mining Inc.

Space tech company Torres Orbital Mining is developing autonomous excavation and material preprocessing systems to move and process granular materials while reducing workers’ exposure to hazardous dust. The company is initially commercializing its technology for Earth-bound applications—including silica sand, recycled glass and mine tailings—though the technology is also designed to support future lunar mining operations. The company aims to accelerate a permanent and ethical human presence on the Moon.

CEO Luis Torres founded Torres Orbital Mining in 2025. The company is a member of Greentown Labs and has participated in accelerators like the ESRIC Space Resources Startup Program and Capital Factory All Access Fund. The company received a six-month, $225,000 SBIR Phase I contract from NASA in August.

Italian aerospace company sets up first U.S. office at Houston Spaceport

welcome to houston

Como, Italy-based aerospace company Involve Space recently made the Houston Spaceport the site of its first U.S. office.

Involve Space develops high-altitude balloon platforms for Earth observation, scientific research and hardware testing. The balloons carry instruments into the stratosphere (a layer of the upper atmosphere) to collect images and data, conduct experiments and test technology.

The company plans to launch its first commercial missions from Houston by the end of this year, according to a news release.

“Houston is the global center of aerospace, and our presence at Houston Spaceport strengthens our international growth trajectory,” Jonathan Polotto, founder and CEO of Involve Space, said in the release.

Founded in 2021, Involve Space incorporates aerospace hardware, AI and geospatial tools into its offerings. Its proprietary CLEAR platform uses conversational AI to help customers interpret data and support decision-making.

Located at Ellington Airport, the Houston Spaceport provides a base for Involve Space’s North American operations, including business development and partnerships with aerospace companies and researchers.

Other tenants at the Houston Spaceport include NASA, Axiom Space, Venus Aerospace and Intuitive Machines.

Involve Space’s relationship with the Houston Spaceport began in January 2025, when it conducted its first U.S. pilot launch. During the five-hour mission, the balloon reached an altitude of about 85,000 feet and traveled about 250 miles across Texas.

One of Involve Space’s first U.S. customers is Houston-based Rhodium Scientific, a space biotech company. Polotto and Rhodium Scientific founder and CEO Olivia Gamez Holzhaus signed a deal to conduct biotech experiments aboard Involve Space’s stratospheric balloon platforms before planned missions to orbit.

“The presence of innovative platforms like those developed by Involve strengthens the Spaceport’s role as a site for testing, validating, and deploying advanced technologies between aeronautics and space,” Jim Szczesniak, director of aviation for Houston Airports, added in the release.

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