Houston medtech firm secures $30M for neurosurgical robot

stroke surgery

Members of the XCath team celebrating the successful use of its endovascular robotic system, known as Iris, to treat patients with complex brain aneurysms last year. Screenshot via bussinesswire.com

Robotic neurosurgery is an exciting new frontier in medicine, and Houston-based medtech firm XCath is leading the charge with its revolutionary Iris robotic system. The company announced in March that it had secured $30 million in Series C funding to continue developing systems to tackle blood clots in the human brain.

“We are grateful to our investors for their conviction in our shared mission to improve clinical outcomes for patients impacted by endovascular diseases,” Eduardo Fonseca, CEO of XCath, said in a news release. “In 2025, the XCath team advanced the frontiers of endovascular robotics. This funding accelerates our commitment to expanding access to life-saving care so that where a patient lives no longer determines whether they live.”

XCath–which also has campuses in Pangyo, South Korea–has already achieved a number of remarkable firsts in robotic neurosurgery. The Iris is the only endovascular robotic system currently in development to perform intracranial navigation or neurointerventional treatment, and is the only robot in the world to have performed an intracranial neurovascular procedure involving the robotic manipulation of three devices.

These new Series C funds, which bring the company's total investment to $92 million, will go toward developing a clinical telerobot capable of performing a mechanical thrombectomy. This would bring unprecedented accuracy and precision to the surgical removal of brain clots, significantly reducing the risk of neurosurgery.

“Robotic surgery succeeds when innovation is paired with practical execution,” Dr. Fred Moll, chairman of the XCath board of directors, said in the release. “XCath has built a promising technology foundation, and just as importantly, a team that values rigor and appreciates perspective. I’m excited to support them as they take on the mission of globalizing access to gold-standard care for stroke patients.”

In November 2025, the Iris debuted under the control of Dr. Vitor Mendes Pereira at The Panama Clinic in Panama City, alongside local Principal Investigator Dr. Anastasio Ameijeiras Sibauste. It was only the second time in human history that a robot had been used for intracranial neurovascular intervention, and it established Iris as a viable technology in the fight against stroke.

“Treatment of stroke and other neurovascular diseases represents one of the most significant financial opportunities in healthcare, supported by positive reimbursement dynamics and strong demand from health systems,” Nicholas Drysdale, CFO of XCath, added in the release. “With our continued investor support and disciplined capital deployment, XCath is positioned to build a category-leading platform in endovascular robotics”.

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This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Anwar Sadek of Corrolytics, Angela Holmes of OmniScience, and Eduardo Fonseca of EndoQuest Robotics. Photos courtesy

3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

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 three innovators across health care and energy.

Anwar Sadek, founder and CEO of Corrolytics

Anwar Sadek of Corrolytics joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss his company's growth and move to Houston. Photo courtesy

Despite having success in taking his technology from lab to commercialization, Anwar Sadek made the strategic decision to move his company, Corrolytics, from where it was founded in Ohio to Houston.

"Houston is the energy capital of the world. For the technology we are developing, it is the most strategic move for us to be in this ecosystem and in this city where all the energy companies are, where all the investors in the energy space are — and things are moving really fast in Houston in terms of energy transition and developing the current infrastructure," Sadek, co-founder and CEO of Corrolytics, says on the Houston Innovators Podcast.

And as big as a move as it was, it was worth it, Sadek says.

"It's been only a year that we've been here, but we've made the most developments, the most outreach to clients in this one last year." Continue reading.

Angela Holmes, CEO of OmniScience

Angela Holmes is the CEO of OmniScience. Photo via omniscience.com

Houston data science firm OmniScience announced this month that it has partnered with Florida-based INmune Bio (NASDAQ: INMB) on a global Phase 2 Alzheimer’s disease clinical trial.

The trial, known as ADO2, will utilize OmniScience's recently developed product, Vivo, which uses generative AI to centralize and analyze clinical trial data in real time, according to a release. The two companies also partnered during Vivo’s development and recent roll-out.

"OmniScience and INmune Bio share a vision to transform how clinical trial teams engage with data – transforming data into knowledge in real time and informing decisions that increase the probability of success,” Angela Holmes, CEO of OmniScience, says in a statement. “As our partnership moves forward, we’re gaining further insights from the INmune team that we can integrate into Vivo’s roadmap. We look forward to our continued mutual success.” Continue reading.

Eduardo Fonseca, interim CEO of EndoQuest Robotics

EndoQuest Robotics secured an Investigational Device Exemption from the FDA for its clinical study. Photo via LinkedIn

A Houston surgical robotics company has gotten a Investigational Device Exemption from the FDA to go forward with human trials.

This news allows EndoQuest Robotics to begin its Prospective Assessment of a Robotic-Assisted Device in Gastrointestinal Medicine (PARADIGM) study, which will be conducted at leading United States health care facilities, including Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston), Mayo Clinic (Scottsdale), Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland), AdventHealth (Orlando), and HCA Healthcare (Houston). The study will include surgeries on 50 subjects, who will hopefully begin to enroll in January.

“The foundational thesis is we're trying to make sure that the world's largest medical center is also the world's largest med tech innovation center,” Eduardo Fonseca, interim CEO of EndoQuest Robotics, tells InnovationMap. Continue reading.

EndoQuest Robotics secured an Investigational Device Exemption from the FDA for its clinical study. Photo via Getty Images

FDA greenlights Houston surgery robotics company's unique technology

headed to clinical trials

A Houston surgical robotics company has gotten a Investigational Device Exemption from the FDA to go forward with human trials.

His company is well on its way to helping to assure that, through making history of its own. EndoQuest is behind the world's first Flexible Robotic Surgical System, a technology that may one day transform surgery as we know it.

The idea to use these novel robots for surgery came from Dr. Todd Wilson, a surgeon at UTHealth Houston, who spent his medical education, residency, and fellowship at the institution.

“I had really focused in my practice on trying to do everything possible to improve outcomes for patients,” Wilson explains. “And there seemed to be a pretty good correlation that the smaller the incisions or the fewer incisions, the better patients would do.”

The stumbling block? The necessary small incisions are difficult for human surgeons to make with current technology. But UTHealth was part of the solution.

“Right there in the University of Texas was a microsurgical lab where they were focusing on trying to develop robotics, but the application was still a little bit fuzzy,” Wilson says.

Using their innovations to solve Wilson’s problem turned out to be the start of the company now known as EndoQuest Robotics.

The first indication for the system is for colon lesions. But in the future it could be used for practically any minimally invasive surgery (MIS). That means that the robots could help to perform anything from a tonsillectomy to cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal) to non-invasive colorectal procedures, should those lesions prove to be cancerous.

According to Fonseca, last year was the first on record that there were more MIS, including laparoscopic and robotic surgeries, than conventional ones in the U.S. The time is right to forge ahead with the flexible robotic surgical system. Days ago, the EndoQuest team announced that its Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) application for its pivotal colorectal clinical study was approved by the FDA.

“Our end point is a device that can be mass-manufactured and very safe for patients and has a short learning curve, so therefore, we intend to learn a lot during these trials that will inform our ultimate design,” says Fonseca.

He adds that it’s a “brilliant” group of engineers that has set EndQuest apart, including both teams in Houston and in South Korea.

“We can move twice as fast as anyone else,” jokes engineer Jiwon Choi.

Despite the extra brain power provided by the South Korea engineers, Fonseca says that EndoQuest’s beginnings are “as much of a Houston story as you could find.”

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Houston's new state-of-the-art academy FLAMA breaks ground at historic site

Groundbreaking Education

Houston’s newest school for arts and music broke ground in October in the city’s historic East End. The Frank Liu Jr. Academy for Music and Arts (FLAMA), a tuition-free charter school, will welcome students in pre-K through 8th grade next August.

Members of the Liu family, the school’s founding board members, elected officials, and East End community partners gathered at Buffalo Bayou Partnership’s historic Turkey Bend development for the official groundbreaking ceremony on October 8, which kicked off with a performance by the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts’ Mariachi group.

The new school is on a portion of the former Folgers Coffee Plant, located at 235 N. Norwood St. OMA, an international architectural firm known for its approach to urbanism, cultural projects, and adaptive reuse, is transforming the 1930s plant into a state-of-the-art educational facility.

“We’re excited to celebrate this milestone for FLAMA and look forward to seeing the transformation of the historic Folgers plant into a new home for music and arts education,” said Jason Long, one of the firm’s partners. “Like fine-tuning an instrument, our design recalibrates the existing industrial structure into an open, connected, and expressive environment for learning. FLAMA will be a new learning environment that builds on the character of the existing building while giving it new life for the community.”

Flama academy Courtesy rendering

Unfolding across three stories, the school draws inspiration from Montessori education principles, which prioritize openness, independence, and collective learning through shared “neighborhoods.”

It all begins when students, families and guests enter through a private courtyard. The welcoming space will change the building’s original industrial facade into a brightly colored, kid-friendly spot, complete with yellow and green blocks spelling out the school’s name. The original windows will be restored to preserve the building’s historic character and upgraded to meet contemporary energy standards. Similarly, all of the school’s classrooms are located around the building’s perimeter, providing an abundance of natural light.

Inside, FLAMA’s three stories are divided so that younger students will find their classrooms at the school’s base, and they will move upward through the school as they progress through grade levels. The ground level has a common area for younger kids that could host drum circles, movement classes, or “breakout play.”

Children in first and second grade have their own larger open space, with an eye-catching staircase, that's inspired by the curve of a French horn. The space lends itself to everything from small gatherings to performances by the school’s early musicians.

As students progress through third grade and up, they’ll find FLAMA’s upper floors created to meet their growing artistic and intellectual needs. One example is the open library, a shared spot for students in third through fifth grades. It has flexible furniture that can transform the space into a place for group study and project work, as well as one that can host after-school activities. Directly above this library is a second common room for middle schoolers where students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades can study.

FLAMA academy Courtesy rendering

These two libraries are connected by an F-shaped floor opening that references both the F-hole of a string instrument and the forte symbol. Musicians know this curly f as a note indicating them to play a passage with strength. That could easily be a metaphor for the school itself, which will combine high-quality education with rigorous academics. This visual cue emphasizes FLAMA’s desire for music and art instruction to amplify learning across reading, writing, math, and science.

“This will be a place where children can discover their talents, families can find opportunities close to home, and music and art can open the doors to a stronger education,” said Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia, who attended the groundbreaking. “I know how much it matters when someone brings opportunity within the reach of a child.”

Dr. R. Scott Allen, FLAMA’s founding superintendent and former principal of Kinder HSPVA, spoke about the school’s vision to pair a rigorous, engaging academic opportunity with deep immersion in music and visual arts.

Congressman Christian Menefee, State Senator Carol Alvarado, and Houston City Councilmember Mario Castillo also delivered remarks at the ceremony, speaking about the school’s power to not only transform Houston’s Second, Third, and Fifth Ward communities, but also bring incredible education opportunities to students. Former Mayor Annise Parker, former State Board of Education Member Staci Childs, State Representative Christina Morales, and Houston City Councilmembers Joaquin Martinez and Sallie Alcorn also attended the event.

“In this city, known for our undeniable contributions to music and arts, the gap has never been ability or talent; it has always been opportunity, and opportunity can be built,” said Kirby Liu, who spoke at the groundbreaking, memorializing his late brother’s vision of arts education for the youngest Houstonians. “When it comes to opportunity being foreclosed on our children, we will try like hell to bust those damned doors down.”

The Frank Liu Jr. Foundation has pledged $20 million in financial support during FLAMA’s first years of operation. Applications are now open for kindergarten and first grade for the 2027-2028 school year.

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This article first appeared on CultureMap.com.

New manufacturing facility breaks ground at NASA’s Johnson Space Center

making space

HITT Contracting has broken ground on NASA’s Applied Spaceflight Fabrication Facility (ASFF) at Johnson Space Center, the Washington, D.C.-based construction firm announced late last month.

The project, known as Building 70, will house a high-bay machine shop to support component production for future NASA space missions, according to HITT. The 37,625-square-foot building is the first part of a larger goal to create an engineering complex that unites assembly space, lab capabilities and manufacturing at JSC. It will consolidate machining equipment and operations that are currently spread across multiple campus buildings into one location.

The project broke ground in October at JSC’s Historic District. The Houston Business Journal reports construction is expected to wrap in August of 2028.

“This project will modernize facilities that support America’s space missions,” PJ Ross, chief financial officer at HITT, said in a LinkedIn post. “Proud of our team and partners as we begin construction that will advance aerospace testing and innovation.”

HITT Contracting is one of seven companies awarded infrastructure contracts by NASA earlier this year for work at JSC. According to NASA, the construction contracts “[support] up to $300 million in upgrades to mission‑support facilities, utilities, and equipment across the NASA Johnson campus.”

Construction Drive reports that HITT will also renovate Building 13 South on the JSC campus as part of the $300 million initiative.

“Building for precision manufacturing starts with understanding how the space needs to perform,” Todd Hudson, vice president at HITT Contracting, added in the release. “Our team brings the technical expertise and collaborative approach to deliver a facility that meets the Johnson Space Center’s needs today and supports the next generation of spaceflight innovation. We’re proud to continue our partnership with NASA.”

NASA also recently announced awards as part of its expanded Moon Base exploration, science and infrastructure capabilities. Houston-based Intuitive Machines and seven other spacetech companies, including SpaceX, Blue Origin and Firefly Aerospace, were selected to receive funding.

The awards are part of the next phase of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative, which will grant the companies a combined total of up to $10 billion over 10 years.

Intuitive Machines and Webster-based MEI Technologies were also awarded contracts this past summer from NASA to develop robots for exploring the surface of Mars. Read more here.

Meet 6 mentors guiding Houston’s next generation of startup founders

meet the finalists

Houston’s thriving startup ecosystem is supported by a network of experienced leaders who work behind the scenes, investing their time and knowledge to help the next generation of entrepreneurs succeed.

As part of the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards, the Mentor of the Year category will honor an individual who dedicates their time and expertise to guide and support budding entrepreneurs. They support promising startups in the medical tech, digital health, clean energy, hardware sectors and more.

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

Al Danto, Rice University

Al Danto is a senior lecturer in entrepreneurship at Rice University. He mentors undergraduate and graduate students at Rice and through the university's Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lillie). He's also involved in the Houston Entrepreneurs Organization and Rice Veterans' Business Battle.

"[Mentoring] is very rewarding and fulfilling," Danto says. "[It] helps to me to pay back full circle over the incredible mentors I have had."

Eric Rubenstein, New Climate Ventures

Eric Rubenstein is managing partner at New Climate Ventures. He mentors startups through the clean energy-focused early-stage VC firm and also through the Breakthrough Energy Fellowship, Activate, Greentown Labs and Yale Ventures. Rubenstein has worked with numerous startups and Innovation Awards finalists, including Solidec, Rheom Materials, Bairitone Health, Pattern Materials and many others.

"Being a mentor is an important part of an innovation ecosystem," Rubenstein says. "Seeing founders succeed is rewarding, particularly if what they are building will meaningfully contribute to society. It is a way to give back that also builds community, as mentorship often involves introducing founders to other mentors, to potential investors and to potential customers. Just like the adage 'it takes a village' is used in reference to raising a child, the same adage applies to building a startup. That’s why we say 'let’s build.' Let’s build is inclusive because we do it together, as a community, even if the founders need to execute on a daily basis to make their vision a reality."

Jeremy Pitts, Activate

Jeremy Pitts serves as managing director of Activate Houston, which launched in Houston in 2024. He was one of the founders of Greentown Labs in the Boston area and served in a leadership role for the organization between 2011 and 2015. Through Activate, he has mentored numerous impactful startups and Innovation Awards finalists, including Solidec, Coflux Purification, Bairitone Health, Newfound Materials, Deep Anchor Solutions and others.

"Mentorship to me is all about selflessly supporting a person," Pitts says. "The person comes first--if you're not supporting the person, then their business needs don't matter. I'm there not to answer questions for people, but to help them gain the confidence and the capability to solve problems on their own. I am successful when my mentees are successful and happy, regardless of what their personal definition of success might look like."

Joe Alapat, Liongard

Joe Alapat founded and serves as chief strategy officer at Houston software company Liongard. He founded Startup Circle Houston and co-hosts Cybersecurity Circle, which both meet regularly at The Ion. He participates in Mercury Fund Day and has also mentored through Impact Hub Houston. He's worked with founders of FlowCare, Unytag, STEAM OnDemand, Lokum and many other early-stage startups.

"I compare being a mentor for startup founders to the Montessori method. ... Mentoring should not involve telling a founder what to do," Alapat says. "I see it as a founder whisperer approach that seeks to challenge the founder to think through their journey through different lenses and go on a journey of self-discovery while discovering the true market pain they are seeking to solve. The cherry on top is that the mentor gains as much as the mentee, so learning is happening for both. Ultimately, the meter of achievement with mentoring is seeing visible progress with the maturity of the founder and the degree of traction for their startup."

Kyle Judah, Rice University's Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Kyle Judah is the executive director of Lilie, where he mentors pre-seed student startups. He also mentors through organizations like TEX-E, Greentown Labs, Activate and previously with MassChallenge. Some of the startups he's mentored include Helix Earth Technologies, Tierra Climate, Solidec, HexaSpec, SteerBio and many others.

"[Being a mentor] means helping to ensure that the most people possible have the best shot possible at making their company a successful reality," Judah says. "It means, at its root, opening the aperture for what is possible for people, by believing in them before anyone else even understands what their ambitions are. Because belief is the most infectious thing in the world. And before digging into the work in the trenches, most times founders need to kickstart their journey by having someone from the outside believe in them, when there's no real evidence to support that belief. So I guess, mentorship is a pure form of entrepreneurial faith."

Rachel Bickham, Bickham Services Unlimited LLC

Rachel Bickham is CEO of Bickham Services Unlimited, through which she mentors founders across a range of business stages and industries. She founded the organization in 2017. Bickham also mentors through The Affirmed Entrepreneur, a mentorship platform that she also launched. In 2024, she also began mentoring through the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women: Black in Business program. Some of the startups she has worked with included Elaine Transportation, Nakira's World and NP Skills Made Easy, among others.

"Being a mentor means helping someone see what is possible while being honest about what it will take to get there," Bickham says. "It is not about giving generic advice or telling entrepreneurs what they want to hear. Sometimes mentorship means offering encouragement, and sometimes it means asking difficult questions that help someone avoid an expensive mistake. In both situations, my responsibility is to listen, share what I have learned, and help the entrepreneur make an informed decision. ... Being a mentor also means opening doors when I can—making introductions, inviting entrepreneurs into rooms they may not have entered on their own, and helping them build relationships that can change the direction of their businesses. It also means holding them accountable for what they said they wanted to accomplish. I do not measure successful mentorship by how often someone returns to me for an answer. I measure it by whether they become more confident, more strategic, and better equipped to make decisions on their own."

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