Housing startup founded by former Zillow execs expands in Texas

real estate tech

A new digital platform for home purchases and mortgages has expanded in the Lone Star Stat. Photo via Getty Images

Tomo Networks, a fintech startup that operates a digital platform for home purchases and mortgages, has expanded its offerings statewide after launching in the summer of 2021 in Houston and Dallas.

Founded in October 2020 by former Zillow Group executives Greg Schwartz and Carey Armstrong, Tomo launched over the summer with a $70 million seed funding round led by Ribbit Capital. DST Global, NFX, SVB Capital, and Zigg Capital participated in the seed round.

“Tomo’s cutting-edge platform is unlike anything else available to homebuyers,” Nick Huber, a partner at Ribbit Capital, says in a news release. “The real estate market has not been skewed toward the buyer in quite some time, and we saw a huge opportunity to get behind a company that will do just that.”

A recent analysis of the Houston home market by Skylar Olsen, principal economist at Tomo, shows Bayou City remains among the most affordable U.S. markets and continues to provide homeownership opportunities.

According to the Tomo analysis, the gap in Houston between millennials’ share of the population and their share of total housing value has improved, shrinking from 9.7 percentage points to 9 percentage points in 20 years. “Millennials make up the largest generation of Houston’s total population,” the analysis says.

In November, the median price of a home in the Houston area rose 16.3 percent to tie the record high of $314,000 set in June, the Houston Association of Realtors says.

Tomo, based in Stamford, Connecticut, bills itself as “the first platform in the real estate space that is specifically focused on the buyer experience.” The company believes its digitally oriented approach holds strong appeal for millennials and other young homebuyers.

Tomo guarantees an on-time closing and a price match, meaning that if you find a better deal, the company will match it. Tomo says it cuts the time for mortgage preapproval by as much as 55 percent.

The company initially launched in Houston and Dallas as well as Seattle. Aside from its headquarters in Connecticut, Tomo maintains offices in Austin and Seattle. In Dallas, the startup recently rolled its first-ever ad campaign.

“In today’s housing market, buying is not an enjoyable experience; it has become competitive, stressful, and confusing, and too many people are coming away from it empty-handed. As single-family homes become commoditized by investors, the American dream is moving further and further out of reach. We are going to change that,” says Schwartz, CEO of Tomo.

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8 Houston companies earn spots on Fortune's most innovative list for 2025

top honor

Eight Houston companies have been named to Fortune’s third annual list of America’s Most Innovative Companies, joining another 16 from the state of Texas.

The group of 300 companies nationwide was rated based on production innovation, process innovation, and innovation culture, according to Fortune. In partnership with Statista, the magazine considered IP portfolios, employee, expert and customer opinions; and many other factors.

While many of the top-rated companies fell into the tech sector, Fortune reports that health care companies made up the largest portion of the 2025 list. Sixty-three honorees fell into the health care category, including Houston’s top-rated company, Houston Methodist.

Here’s what Houston companies made the list and where they ranked:

  • No. 35 Houston Methodist
  • No. 54. ExxonMobil
  • No. 137 NRG Energy
  • No. 158 Hewlett-Packard Enterprise
  • No. 169 BMC Software
  • No. 175 Texas Children’s Hospital
  • No. 227 Sysco
  • No. 268 Chevron

“This award is a true credit to the culture we have created around innovation and the incredible work of Roberta Schwartz, our Chief Innovation Officer, and her team at the Center for Innovation,” Marc Boom, CEO of Houston Methodist, said in a LinkedIn post. “They have really set the tone for how we can use innovation and technology to continue to deliver the highest quality care for our patients.”

Of the 16 companies from Texas, Houston was home to the second-most with eight hailing from the Bayou City. Dallas-Fort Worth claimed the largest number of Texas companies on the list, with 11 headquartered in the metroplex.

Austin is home to only four of the companies on the list, however, companies from the capital city ranked higher on average, with Oracle, Tesla and Dell Technologies claiming the top 3 spots for the state. Beloved Texas grocer H-E-B was the one company to represent San Antonio on the list.

Here's what other Texas companies made the list and where they ranked:

  • No. 6 Oracle
  • No. 11 Tesla
  • No. 14 Dell Technologies
  • No. 37 AT&T
  • No. 59 Texas Instruments
  • No. 89 Charles Schwab
  • No. 91 McKesson
  • No. 113 Jacobs Solutions
  • No. 125 Baylor, Scott & White Health
  • No. 165 Frontier Communications
  • No. 201 H-E-B
  • No. 210 CBRE Group
  • No. 219 TTEC Holdings
  • No. 223 GameStop
  • No. 251 American Airlines Group
  • No. 271 Caterpillar

California-based tech conglomerate Alphabet Inc. topped the list for the third year in a row, and California companies again represented the majority of companies on the list, according to Fortune. Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple, IBM and Salesforce made up the top five, of which three are headquartered in California.

The 2025 group had a median revenue of $22 billion over the last 12 months, according to Fortune. See the full report here.

Intuitive Machines engineer talks STEM, innovation, and second chances

Innovator Interview

Mario Romero is an assembly, integration, and test engineer at the innovative Houston aerospace company Intuitive Machines. He previously served as a Navy SEAL and an EVA Flight Simulator Specialist at NASA.

Intuitive Machines landed its IM-2 mission on the moon last month, before calling an early end of mission. The company reported that its lunar lander was on its side, preventing it from completing the mission as planned.

Still, the IM-2 mission landed closer to the lunar South Pole than any previous lander, according to NASA. And the company still has plenty of innovative projects in the works.

The company secured about $2.5 million from NASA to study challenges related to carrying cargo on the company’s lunar lander and hauling cargo on the moon. The lander will be used for NASA’s Artemis missions to the moon and eventually to Mars.

“Someone has to do it; in fact, the more the merrier,” Romero says on being part of an innovative culture.

“Competition forces innovation, and if I can be selfish for a moment, I think it’s of particular importance for Intuitive Machines because my extremely capable team is more than worthy of having their place stamped in history. We, as a species, have to strive to become a multiplanetary species. Incidentally, part of the trickle-down effect of innovation often leads to spin-off technology that in some way benefits humanity here on Earth.”

Last year, Romero was awarded the key to the city from his hometown of Vineland, New Jersey, and made it a point in his speech to give kids a chance to succeed in the future.

“I am the product of many chances, secondary, tertiary, and more, given to me,” Romero says. “Many of these were admittedly entirely undeserving. I look back now and recognize that those teachers, judges, police, etc. might have all seen something in me that I couldn’t then see in myself. … This is precisely why I often emphasize giving kids multiple chances. Kids are kids, and you can never fully know how you’re inspiring them in the moment, nor how the chances that you give them will affect the trajectory of their lives.”

Texas is expected to represent nearly 10 percent of future STEM opportunities in the nation, and nine of the 20 biggest employers in Texas are STEM-related.

As STEM has become increasingly popular in high schools and at the university level, and the aerospace industry continues to innovate, it is possible that many young future innovators may take the same path a young Romero did.

“I think it’s natural that when new leaps are made in the STEM fields, and in the aerospace realm at large, the youth in general become galvanized by it,” Romero says.

“It’s exciting and reinvigorating to understand that humanity is on the cusp of the next great adventure. As fantastic and essential as this is, I want to emphasize the importance of the arts as well. It has an important place and an important role to play in our evolution, so I personally don’t limit youthful interest to STEM alone. There are fantastic works of art awaiting us, in all their variety, that will come as a result of the efforts and innovation.”

18 Houstonians land on Forbes world's billionaires list for 2025

World's Richest

The world’s richest people are wealthier now than they've ever been, and more billionaires have made it onto the 2025 World's Billionaires List than ever before, according to Forbes. This year, 18 Houston-based billionaires are among the richest people in the world, with hospitality honcho Tilman Fertitta leading as the richest Houstonian.

Fertitta, 67, ranked No. 220 overall with an estimated net worth of $11.3 billion, which steadily increased from his 2024 net worth of $9.4 billion.

In addition to owning the Houston Rockets, the busy billionaire owns Texas-based hospitality and entertainment corporation Landry's, and he authored a book about business leadership in 2019. He most recently was nominated as the new United States ambassador to Italy by President Donald Trump.

Ranking 248th overall is oil and gas chairmanRichard Kinder. Forbes estimates his net worth at $10.6 billion, up from $8.1 billion in 2024.

Kinder cofounded pipeline giant Kinder Morgan in 1997, and stepped down as CEO in 2015, though he still retains his seat as chairman of the board. The company is the largest energy infrastructure firm in the U.S., Forbes says, and it owns 79,000 miles of pipeline.

New to the 2025 list is Perry Homes executive chair Kathy Britton, whose company has built over 65,000 homes across the U.S., according to Forbes. Her late father, Bob Perry, founded Perry Homes in 1967. Britton ranked No. 1408 with an estimated net worth of $2.6 billion.

Mercedes-Benz mega-dealer Joe Agresti is another newbie to the list, ranking No. 2790 with a net worth of $1.1 billion. He owns Dream Motor Group with former football coach Nick Saban.

14 additional Houston-area billionaires that made Forbes 2025 world’s richest list are:

  • Houston pipeline heir Randa Duncan Williams: ranked No. 307 with an estimated net worth of $9.3 billion, up from $7.7 billion in 2024. Fellow pipeline heirs Dannine Avara and Milane Frantz tie for 311th nationally. Each has an estimated net worth of $9.2 billion, up from $7.6 billion. Scott Duncan ranks No. 329 with a $9 billion estimated net worth, up from $7.6 billion in 2024.
  • Houston oil tycoon Jeffery Hildebrand: ties for No. 411; $7.7 billion, down from $12.6 billion
  • Toyota mega-dealer Dan Friedkin: ties for No. 411; $7.7 billion, up from $6.4 billion
  • Houston Texans owner Janice McNair and family: No. 561, $6.2 billion, up from $5.6 billion
  • Energy exploration chief exec George Bishop: No. 717, $5 billion, up from $3.2 billion (based in The Woodlands)
  • Westlake Corporation co-owners Albert Chao, James Chao and their families:tied for No. 902, $4 billion, down from $4.9 billion
  • Hedge fund honcho John Arnold: No. 1266, $2.9 billion, down from $3.3 billion
  • Houston Astros owner Jim Crane: No. 1513, $2.4 billion, unchanged from 2024
  • Former Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander: tied for No. 1850, $1.9 billion, unchanged from 2024
  • Frontier Airlines chairman William Franke: No. 2623, $1.2 billion, down from $1.3 billion

Elsewhere in Texas, Austin-based billionaire Elon Musk topped Forbes' list as the world's richest person in 2025. The Tesla and SpaceX founder knocked French luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault down to second place this year.

Forbes declared Musk the first person to reach the $300 billion status. His current net worth stands at $342 billion, which is a staggering $147 billion more than his 2024 net worth.

"It’s another record-breaking year for the world’s richest people, despite financial uncertainty for many and geopolitical tensions on the rise," said Forbes senior editor of wealth Chase Peterson-Withorn. "And, from Elon Musk to Howard Lutnick and the other billionaires taking over the U.S. government, they’re growing more and more powerful."

In Dallas-Fort Worth, Walmart heiress Alice Walton became the wealthiest woman in the world in 2025. Forbes declared Walton's net worth at $101 billion, which is $28.7 billion more than her 2024 net worth of $72.3 billion. She is now one of 15 individuals to claim 12-figure fortunes, also known as the "$100 Billion Club."

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