Houston tech company receives corporate investment, HX names new board members, and more innovation news

short stories

From new board members at Houston Exponential to startups receiving funding, here are the latest short stories of Houston innovation. Photo by Zview/Getty Images

Houston's innovation ecosystem has been booming with news, and it's likely some might have fallen through the cracks.

For this roundup of short stories within Houston innovation, a startup snags funding from a new corporate venture group, a blockchain startup gets major kudos, CTV's latest investment, and more.

HX names newest board members

HX has five more members of its board. Photo courtesy

Houston Exponential has announced five new members to its governing board. Joining the group is:

  • Stephanie Campbell, managing director of the Houston Angel Network and general partner at The Artemis Fund
  • Martha Castex-Tatum, Houston City Council member
  • Gordon Daugherty, co-founder and president of Capital Factory
  • Emily Keeton, CFO of Mercato and co-founder of Station Houston
  • Roberto Moctezuma, founder and CEO of Fractal River
The board is chaired by Barbara Burger of Chevron and Chevron Technology Ventures. She will continue on as chair until the end of next year, when Blair Garrou of Mercury Fund will take over.

New corporate venture fund makes first investment

Houston-based SmartAC emerged from stealth mode this summer. Photo courtesy of smartac.com

Pinnacle Ventures, a corporate venture fund created by Pinnacle based just outside of Houston in Pasadena, announced the company has invested in Houston-based SmartAC.com, a member-based technology platform that monitors the health of air conditioning systems.

The deal is Pinnacle Ventures' first investment and will help SmartAC.com expand their service offerings to homeowners and top-level HVAC service providers.

"We are excited to have Pinnacle Ventures invest in our company and to have Ryan Sitton, founder and CEO of Pinnacle, join our board," says Josh Teekell, founder and CEO of SmartAC.com, in a news release. "The capital provided by Pinnacle Ventures will help us accelerate the growth required to meet our customer demand, which has scaled quickly since our launch in June.

"Additionally, this capital will help us power a new residential connected service economy for a $30 billion industry while offering our service partners a way to increase loyalty through improved transparency and customer experience," Teekell continues. "We're very much aligned with Pinnacle Ventures' focus on improving reliability through innovation and are confident that this investment will help us support our end users."

Data Gumbo recognized as an innovative blockchain company

CB Insights ranked 50 blockchain companies and one Houston startup made the cut. Photo via CB Insights

CB Insights released its inaugural Blockchain 50 ranking and named Houston-based Data Gumbo among the top blockchain companies in the world.

"The Blockchain 50, which we've created in conjunction with Blockdata, was born out of a desire to reduce that uncertainty and recognize the pioneering companies using the blockchain," says CB Insights CEO Anand Sanwal in the study. "This inaugural class of the Blockchain 50 is tackling a range of use cases across trade finance, capital markets, exchanges and more and are being used by banks, governments and major retailers."

Combined, the 50 companies included in the ranking have raised over $3 billion across 113 deals since 2017.

"Being named to this CB Insights' list is an honor and testament to the power of Data Gumbo's blockchain network GumboNet," says Andrew Bruce, CEO and Founder, of Data Gumbo in a news release. "Our smart contracts enable companies to leverage blockchain technology across the global business infrastructure to capture critical cost savings and value, forging a new foundation for commercial transactions: one based on trust, transparency, speed and visibility."

Currux Vision is deploying its technology in California

The Houston company's technology has been tested in California. Photo via currux.vision

Houston-based Currux Vision, which uses infra-tech artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions for smart city infrastructure, has conducted testing with the city of San Jose, California, and its department of transportation.

According to the tests, Currux Vision's SmartCity ITS can operate at 99 percent accuracy in the city. Moreover, Currux Vision can achieve high resolution results with older legacy digital and analog camera systems that offer lower resolution. Testing included but was not limited to vehicle detection and classification, turning movement counts, pedestrian counts, bicycle discrimination, stopped vehicles, and speeding, according to a press release.

"Increasing urbanization, traffic, mode shift, and increasing focus on safety drive the urgent need for a next-generation traffic management solution like our SmartCity ITS," says Alex Colosivschi, founder and CEO of Currux Vision, in the release. "We believe that efficient mobility and being able to do more with less creates economic opportunities, enables trade, improves quality of life, and facilitates access to markets and services effectively leveraging resources. ... We are happy to have worked with a great partner like San José's Department of Transportation to prove these transportation solutions."

Chevron Technology Ventures invests in software company

Chevron Technology Ventures, led by Barbara Burger, has announced its latest investment. Courtesy of CTV

Houston-based Chevron Technology Ventures has invested in a Denver-based container platform company's latest round. Nubix today announced it has closed $2.7 million in seed financing led by Tuscan Management with strategic investment from Chevron Technology Ventures, in addition to participation from other new investors.

"Businesses worldwide are investing in digital transformation initiatives with IoT-based solutions," says Rachel Taylor, Nubix co-founder and CEO, in a news release. "Our unique innovation in container and services technology enables unprecedented agility and safety when building, deploying and managing applications at the edge.

"We're delivering on digital transformation's requirements for agile compute at the edge, empowering organizations to analyze data in real-time where the data is actually created. This is a massive market opportunity for Nubix and we look forward to working hand-in-hand with our new investors as we drive agility and intelligence to the edge."

Golden Section Ventures invests in Austin startup

GSV has invested in Accelerist's impact-driven software. Image via accelerist.com

Austin-based Accelerist Inc. raised a $1 million investment round led by Houston-based Golden Section Ventures to catalyze the company's growth plans. Accelerist specializes in social impact partnership technology that nonprofits use to prospect, screen, access and measure the efficacy of their relationships with each other.

"We are very impressed with what Brittany (Hill, CEO and founder) and her team have built and are excited to join the journey," says Dougal Cameron, General Partner at GSV. "We are confident that Accelerist can be the standard of excellence for social impact partnership technology. This solution is more needed than ever."

Station Houston and Capital Factory have merged, and the conglomerate will move into The Ion when it opens next year. Courtesy of Rice University

Station Houston merges with statewide startup investor and accelerator

joining forces

Station Houston and Austin-based Capital Factory announced that they will be combining forces through a merger effective immediately.

Capital Factory will power all of Station Houston's membership and mentorship, including startup-focused services, as well as add its own statewide resources, which include investors, mentors, and more.

"The more high quality startups we have across a diverse range of industries, the more investors, big companies, and big government want to get involved," Gordon Daugherty, co-founder and president, says in a news release, relating the collaboration to Metcalfe's Law. "Uniting with Station Houston will see benefits run both ways."

The combined entity, referred to as "Station Houston, powered by Capital Factory," will operate out of 1301 Fannin St., where Station currently resides, before moving into the Ion when it's completed, which is slated to be early next year.

"As we continue to develop our innovation economy in Houston and prepare for the opening of the Ion in January 2021, there is no better partner than Capital Factory to serve the needs of our entrepreneurs," says Gabriella Rowe, executive director of The Ion. "For years, they have demonstrated their commitment to startups across Texas, helping them build their ideas through mentorship and introducing them to venture capital from around the country."

Capital Factory was founded in Austin in 2009, and entered into the Houston market last year. Currently, The Cannon has a dedicated space for Capital Factory and its portfolio clients and employs two people in Houston. Capital Factory also has a presence in Dallas.

Station Houston was founded in 2016 and has over 200 startups, 400 members, and 130 mentors, according to the release.

"Capital Factory is one of the top startup development organizations in the country. By partnering with Station Houston and expanding their footprint into the Ion, their commitment to Houston's entrepreneurs is clear," says Harvin Moore, president of Houston Exponential, in the news release.

"It's a win for Houston's startups and for our booming ecosystem," Moore continues. "Increasing bridges between Texas' major tech ecosystems has enormous synergistic value, and I am thrilled to see Houston and the Ion play a significant role in building such competitive strength."

The new partnership will result in Capital Factory-branded space in The Cannon's new 120,000-square-foot innovation hub, which is expected to open next month. Courtesy of The Cannon

The Cannon and Capital Factory announce new Houston-based partnership

Teaming up

Two major players in the Texas innovation ecosystem are teaming up for a partnership in Houston.

The Cannon, which is expected to open its 120,000-square-foot space later this summer, announced a partnership with Austin-based Capital Factory, a tech accelerator. The partnership will give Capital Factory space in The Cannon to provide remote mentorship and local programming for its Houston-based companies for six months throughout the cohort.

This alliance allows for more collaboration between Houston companies and mentors and resources across the state.

"The Texas Startup Manifesto is about leveraging the entire Texas startup ecosystem while honoring the unique contributions of each city and region," says Gordon Daugherty, co-founder and president of Capital Factory, in a release. "We can't deliver on that vision in Houston without the help of local partners like The Cannon and their collaborative attitude really sets them apart."

Capital Factory recently entered the Dallas market with the opening of a location in partnership with The Dallas Entrepreneur Center.

This new office space will result in two new hires for Capital Factory — both will be responsible to advancing the Texas-wide program. A venture associate position will be created to recruit and educate local companies. The associate will also find potential investments for the accelerator's venture fund, which has already invested in several Houston startups, including Apartment Butler, Groupraise, Hypergiant, and Zenus Biometrics in 2018.

The second new hire will be a mentor coordinator to seek out new mentors — not necessarily in Houston, as mentors can access startups through a software platform.

Capital Factory's space in The Cannon will be a branded office complete with Cisco Webex video conferencing equipment, according to the release, so that local Capital Factory startups can connect to mentors across the state. As an added plus, the entrepreneurs can also have access to The Cannon community, and vice versa. Capital Factory will also host events at The Cannon.

"We're thrilled that this partnership with Capital Factory will connect Houston startups with more resources," says Lawson Gow, founder and CEO of The Cannon, in the release. "These companies will have a chance to join an incredibly valuable network, and in return, Capital Factory will have the opportunity to invest in Houston's booming startup scene and diverse talent pool." (Gow is the son of InnovationMap's CEO.)

Houston startups stand to benefit from this partnership, according to Aaron Knape, co-founder and CEO of Houston-based sEATz, who says he's already seen the benefit of the alliance.

"The Cannon and Capital Factory's partnership has proven to be a game-changing resource for us, giving our team access to Capital Factory's incredible Accelerator platform while allowing our company to remain in Houston and continue to receive all of the benefits of The Cannon's growing entrepreneurial community," Knape says in the release.

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Abbott assembles expert team to help lure U.S. Space Academy to Texas

space race

State Rep. Greg Bonnen of Friendswood has been tapped to lead a new team that will promote Texas as the future home of the U.S. Space Academy.

Bonnen, a neurosurgeon, chairs Houston Physicians’ Hospital and the powerful Texas House Appropriations Committee. His House district is close to NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Gov. Greg Abbott appointed the seven-member team. Last month, President Trump signed an executive order establishing the Presidential Commission on the U.S. Space Academy. Commission members, who held their first meeting this month, will recommend a permanent location for the academy.

Texas officials are pushing a site near Johnson Space Center to host the academy. Alabama, Colorado and Florida are among Texas’ competitors.

In a joint statement, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, both of Texas, issued a statement backing the state’s bid for the academy. Cruz lives in Houston. Babbin lives in Woodville, about 55 miles south of Beaumont.

“America’s space program is built across the country, but Texas is where the pieces come together,” the lawmakers said. “We are ready to lead the next generation of space pioneers and look forward to showing why Texas is the right home for the U.S. Space Academy.”

The academy’s curriculum will include technical education, leadership development and public service components. Graduates will be set up for careers in the U.S. military, civil service, and aerospace sectors.

The Abbott-appointed team will work with the Texas Space Commission to prepare the state’s proposal for the academy.

In addition to Bonnen, team members with ties to Houston include:

  • Robert Ambrose, who grew up in Houston. He worked at Johnson Space Center before becoming associate director of the Texas A&M Space Institute.
  • Former NASA astronaut Nancy Curry-Gregg, director of the Texas A&M Space Institute. She earned a doctoral degree from the University of Houston and previously worked at Johnson Space Center.
  • Former NASA astronaut Jack Fischer, senior vice president of Houston-based Intuitive Machines. The company builds spacecraft, delivers payloads to the moon and launches satellites.

“Texas is the home of America’s human spaceflight program,” Abbott said in a release. “No state can match what Texas brings to this mission.”

“NASA’s Johnson Space Center, world-class universities, a premier commercial space industry, major military installations, and an unmatched aerospace workforce give Texas every asset the United States Space Academy requires,” the governor added.

Houston university named No. 10 in nation and more top innovation news

Trending News

Editor's note: September sees a flurry of news for the innovation community, with one Houston university topping a nationwide ranking and one Houston-area NASA contractor poised to go public. Here are the five most-read Houston innovation headlines published September 1-15, 2026:

Houston university ranks No. 10 best in the U.S. in new 2027 report

Education ranking and review website Niche has released its 2027 rankings of the best colleges in the U.S., and Rice University leads as the No. 1 best university in Texas, and No. 10 best nationwide. Rice University ranked 10th in three national lists: Best Colleges in America, Top Private Universities, and Colleges with the Best Professors. Continue reading.

Houston-area NASA contractor plans Nasdaq IPO

Webster-based NASA contractor Rothe Development Inc. has filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to go public. Rothe, a minority- and woman-owned business, hasn’t yet identified how many shares it will sell and how much money its IPO might raise. Rothe plans to offer Class B common stock on the Nasdaq exchange. Continue reading.

10+ can't-miss Houston business and innovation events for September

The energy transition and AI will be the talk of this town this month, thanks to a packed calendar of Houston events. September brings the return of Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week and some of its signature anchor events, plus AI conferences and talks exploring how the technology is impacting everything from healthcare to leadership. Here’s what not to miss and how to register. Continue reading.

Amazon's robotaxi service Zoox rolls out in 'sprawling' Houston market

Amazon-owned robotaxi ride-hailing service Zoox is zooming into Houston in September, becoming the latest robotaxi operator jockeying for local riders. Initially, self-driving retrofitted SUVs with safety drivers on board will serve downtown Houston, centrally located tourist hotspots, and certain residential neighborhoods. The SUVs will test Houston roads before Zoox rolls out autonomous robotaxis here, the company says. Continue reading.

10 Houston billionaires land on Forbes' 2026 list of richest Americans

The richest billionaires in America have a collective worth of $8 trillion in 2026, a staggering $1.4 trillion increase since last year, says Forbes. American billionaires are so wealthy that it now takes an unprecedented $4.4 billion net worth to be considered one of the richest people in the country. And one local billionaire has regained the title as Houston's wealthiest resident. Oil tycoon Jeffery Hildebrand, 67, now reigns as the No. 1 richest Houstonian, the 9th richest Texan, and the 88th richest person in America for 2026. Continue reading.

Houston space companies take off with new tech, deals and contracts

space update

Space City has had a busy month.

Houston-based aerospace institutions Venus Aerospace, Axiom Space, and Aegis Aerospace have each recently announced advancements in their respective fields that include expansions and new contracts from U.S. and international government agencies.

Here’s the latest:

Venus launches new test stand

Earlier this month, Venus Aerospace added infrastructure to support the ongoing progress of its Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) with the opening of its new propulsion test stand at the Houston Spaceport.

The Texas Space Commission's Space Exploration and Aeronautics Research Fund is funding the test stand, which is part of a larger effort from the state to increase investments in the aerospace economy. The ribbon-cutting event on Sept. 10 welcomed officials from Venus Aerospace, the Texas Space Commission, the Houston Spaceport, Houston business and local community leaders.

With the new stand, Venus will be able to test at higher thrust and for longer durations, which will allow the company to better replicate real-life conditions.

"Building and testing propulsion systems at this pace requires the right infrastructure around the technology," Sassie Duggleby, CEO and co-founder of Venus Aerospace, said in a news release. "We're grateful to the Texas Space Commission and the State of Texas for investing alongside companies like Venus. Public investment like this helps companies move faster and keeps critical aerospace capability growing here in Texas."

Venus closed a $91 million Series B in July and expanded its leadership team.

Axiom partners in Europe

Axiom Space has signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Space Agency for “sustained European access to low-Earth orbit (LEO)” following the retirement of the International Space Station, according to a news release from the company.

Under the agreement, Axiom and the ESA agreed to explore future astronaut missions on the ISS and Axiom Station, research, transportation and spacesuit partnerships. The organizations will explore using the ESA’s European Cargo Return service and potentially a future European crew vehicle to support operations at Axiom Station, the company's forthcoming commercial space station. The partnership could also involve Axiom's AxEMU spacesuit for orbital and lunar applications, according to the release.

“With the upcoming de-orbitation of the ISS, it is our duty to anticipate and prepare future solutions to ensure our access to low-Earth orbit,” Daniel Neuenschwander, director of human and robotic exploration at ESA, said in the release. “The two documents signed today underline both our commitment to safeguard our ability to pursue in-orbit science and to keep offering flight opportunities to our European astronaut corps, as well as the growing interest of international partners for our ongoing project to develop an autonomous European cargo vehicle.”

The announcement comes as Axiom has made several international moves this year. The company shared plans to establish Axiom Space Switzerland this summer and launched Axiom Space Japan in July.

"The path to a sustainable human presence in space runs through international collaboration — reliable supply chains, shared innovation, and partners who bring real capability," Jonathan Cirtain, CEO and President of Axiom Space, said in the release. "Europe's contributions to microgravity science and deep space technology make ESA exactly that kind of partner. This MoU strengthens our work together, and we look forward to ESA and its member states joining us as customers for future astronaut missions."

Aegis expands DoW deal

Webster, Texas-based Aegis Aerospace announced that it has won a new task order to continue supporting the U.S. Space Force’s Space Test Program.

The contract starts in October and covers designing, building, testing and operating Department of War payloads or equipment on NASA, government, and commercial launch vehicles and platforms. The contract was issued by the USSF Space Systems Command, Space Test Program under NASA Johnson Space Center’s Research, Engineering, and Mission Integration Services 2 (REMIS 2).

Currently, the company is working on three payload facilities on the ISS and has plans for two more in development.

“Aegis Aerospace is grateful to continue our exceptional payload integration support to the USSF and the STP to meet their critical mission objectives,” President Matt Ondler added in the release. “This work is more important than ever to maintain U.S. superiority in space. This new contract will take us beyond the current life of the ISS and see us integrate and test payloads on commercial space stations, free-flyers, and cislunar missions.”

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