Annual report highlights Houston's big innovation wins across tech, life science, space, VC funding, and more

by the numbers

The Greater Houston Partnership's annual Houston Facts report recently released. Here's what to know across the city's five most innovative sectors. Photo via Getty Images

Houston, a city known for its energy legacy, is rapidly transforming into a diverse hub of innovation, life science, technology, and aerospace, according to the 2023 Houston Facts report, released by the Greater Houston Partnership.

Here are some highlights from the report.

​The thriving tech ecosystem

Chart via 2023 Houston Facts

With over 230,800 tech workers representing 6.9 percent of the workforce, Houston has firmly established itself as a digital tech talent hub, per the report, which adds that the city is home to a staggering 9,100 tech-related firms, including more than 1,000 venture-backed startups. These startups have secured $6.42 billion in venture capital funding over the past five years, with $1.95 billion in funding in 2022 alone, according to GHP analysis of Pitchbook data.

Houston's technology landscape witnessed significant growth in 2022, with the most heavily invested industries being Energy, Information Technology, and Business Products and Services. A study by Dice revealed that Houston led all cities in tech job posting growth in 2022, boasting a remarkable 45.6 percent year-over-year increase.

Among Houston's largest employers are tech giants such as Asurion, AWS, Dell, HighRadius, HP Enterprise, HP Inc., IBM, PROS, BMC Software, Siemens, Honeywell, Oracle, and Microsoft.

Health startups and biotech advancements

Houston's health tech and life science innovation sector will continue to grow with Helix Park. Courtesy of Elkus Manfredi Architects

Houston's life science and biotech sector is continuing to develop, the GHP finds, with a vast pool of medical professionals, including over 161,800 healthcare practitioners and technical workers, as well as 15,400 life science and biotech researchers.

In 2022, several health startups received significant venture capital funding, showcasing Houston's commitment to advancing medical technologies. The largest deals were from: NuProbe, RadioMedix, Medical Informatics, XCath, Stream Biomedical, Decisio, Adient Medical, Coya Therapeutics, Octagos Health, and Luna Genetics. Collectively, these startups raised over $220 million in funding to develop innovative solutions in diagnostics, monitoring, therapeutics, and more.

The Texas Medical Center Innovation Factory serves as the nucleus of Houston's life science startup activity. With the TMC's Helix Park continuing to rise as an expanded campus, even more activity is on its way to Houston.

Growing innovation infrastructure

Houston's innovation corridor continues to develop. Map via 2023 Houston Facts

When it comes to the development of Houston's innovation ecosystem, the report called out a few milestones the region reached in 2022. Here are some of those wins from last year.

  • The Houston area grew to include more than 80 SDOs, including incubators and accelerators, makerspaces, coworking spaces, nonprofits, and academic institutions. Per the report, there are at least 30 incubator and accelerator programs currently running in Houston — including MassChallenge, Ion Smart Cities Accelerator, Gener8tor, JLABS, Greentown Labs, TMC Innovation and more.
  • The Houston Innovation corridor, which consists of a a four-mile expanse across the city’s urban core and is anchored by Rice University's Ion, continues to take shape.
  • Both Rice University and University of Houston held onto the top spots on The Princeton Review's report on top entrepreneurship programs. And, the annual Rice Business Plan Competition remains the richest pitch competition in the country, according to the Princeton Review, doling out nearly $2.0 million in prizes.

Aerospace advancement

Axiom Space — as well as a few other Houston space tech companies — had some big wins in 2022. Photo courtesy of NASA

Anchored by NASA's Johnson Space Center and the Houston Spaceport, the city's aerospace industry continues to play a major role in the future of space exploration and commercialization.

The Orion, Gateway, and Human Landing System programs, which are part of NASA's Artemis missions, are headquartered at JSC.

Three Houston space tech companies made major moves recently, as Houston Facts calls out:

  • Axiom Space broke ground on the first phase of a 22-acre campus that will house astronaut training and develop Axiom Station, a commercial module that will attach to the ISS.
  • Intuitive Machines, which went public last year, started construction on a 12.5-acre campus. "Intuitive will build lunar landers, operate its mission control center, and make guidance, navigation, and make guidance, navigation, and control products at its site," per Houston Facts.
  • Collins Aerospace, which has a significant presence in Houston, began operations at their eight-acre campus where it will develop systems for NASA’s human spaceflight programs. The company is working with Axiom Space to create the next generation of NASA spacesuits via a NASA contract that is valued at up to $3.5 billion.

Tracking the energy transition

Chart via 2023 Houston Facts

The report highlights the fact that last year Houston's energy transition brought in $6.1 billion in financing from private market investments, which represents a 61.9 percent increase compared to 2021.

"Over the last five years, Houston has seen constant growth in annual energy transition investments, with a notable surge observed from 2020 onwards," reads the report.

Corporate and strategic merger and acquisition investments are what dominated the five deal types, according to the report, representing 68.8 percent of the total investment in 2022. Additionally, private equity accounted for 19.3 percent of all deals, with venture capital comprising 9.5 percent.

EnergyCapital, a sister site to InnovationMap, covered the complete section on the energy industry in the Houston Facts in an article. Read it here.

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"Houston is a thriving hub of digital tech talent." Photo via Getty Images

Report: Venture capital funding, tech jobs up in Houston

by the numbers

In just a five-year span, Houston's annual haul of venture capital has skyrocketed by nearly 200 percent.

Startups in the region raised $283.8 million in 2016, according to Pitchbook data cited in the Greater Houston Partnership's newly released 2021 Houston Facts report. Last year, the figure climbed to a record-breaking $823.9 million. That represents a five-year jump of 190.3 percent.

Health care attracted by far the most venture capital of any sector last year — $323.9 million — with the IT sector in second place ($203.7 million), the report says.

Over the five-year span, the health care sector also reigns as the area's VC leader, with a total of more than $1.1 billion in venture capital, making up 41 percent of the region's venture capital. IT ranks second, collecting $722.7 million in venture capital, or 27 percent of the entire VC pie.

In all, the Houston area is home to over 700 VC-backed startups, with at least 10 of them valued at more than $100 million, the report says.

The Houston Facts report also sheds light on other facets of the regional economy. Here are six of them.

Tech workforce

Economically speaking, Houston may be best known for energy and health care. But the Greater Houston Partnership report shows the tech sector deserves to be part of the conversation.

With more than 243,900 tech workers, the Houston area boasts the 11th largest tech workforce in the U.S. In 2019, Houston's tech industry contributed $29.2 billion to the region's gross domestic product (GDP), a key measure of economic activity.

To put the size of the region's tech workforce into perspective, the number of tech workers in the Houston area is roughly double the population of Pearland.

"Houston is a thriving hub of digital tech talent," the report says.

Economic power

Citing data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the report notes the Houston area's GDP stood at an estimated $512.2 billion in 2019. That makes Houston the seventh largest economy of U.S. metro areas.

If the Houston area were a state, its GDP would rank 15th, behind Michigan ($536.9 billion) and ahead of Maryland ($426.7 billion) and Colorado ($393 billion).

If the region were an independent nation, it would rank as the world's 27th largest economy, behind Belgium ($529.7 billion) and ahead of Nigeria ($448.1 billion) and Austria ($446.3 billion).

Expanding corporate hub

The Houston area ranks third in the U.S. for the Fortune 500 headquarters and fifth for Fortune 1000 headquarters. The 20 companies on the Forbes Global 2000 list that are based in the Houston area have combined revenue of $413.6 billion.

International reach

The Houston areas maintains trading relationships with more than 200 countries.

The Houston/Galveston Customs District handled 266.6 million metric tons of exports valued at $129.5 billion in 2020, according to WISERTrade data cited in the report. These exports accounted for 65.8 percent of the total value that passed through the region last year, up from 44.5 percent in 2011.

Top port

In 2019, the Port of Houston ranked first in total tonnage (foreign and domestic) — after 27 consecutive years in second place — and first in foreign tonnage (imports and exports) for the 24th consecutive year, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Globally, the Port of Houston ranked as the world's 16th largest port based on total tonnage.

Business presence

The Houston area was home to more than 160,000 business establishments in 2020, according to Texas Workforce Commission data cited in the report. The three industries with the most establishments were professional, scientific, and technical services; health care and social assistance; and retail. These three industries made up 38 percent of the region's business establishments.


The Greater Houston Partnership has released its 2020 Houston Facts — here's what you need to know. Getty Images

5 innovation-focused takeaways from the Greater Houston Partnership's annual report

BY THE NUMBERS

In an annual economic report from the Greater Houston Partnership, researchers and data scientists outlined the city's economy by the numbers, and Houston's industries such as technology, health care, energy, and more were all represented.

The 2020 Houston Facts was released in an virtual event hosted by GHP and its team of data specialists. Here's what you need to know from the event and the report, which can be found online.

The Texas Medical Center is focusing on five new institutes

Screenshot via Houston Facts 2020

The Texas Medical Center has established itself as a topic of its own in the Houston Facts report. The 61-member nonprofit that connects medical institutions across the city. The organization is working on a new campus, TMC3, that is expected to complete in 2022 and bring an annual economic impact of $5.2 billion to the state of Texas along with 30,000 jobs. From

According to the report, TMC is continuing to develop five institutes that compliment the organization's focus on innovation, regenerative medicine, health policy, and more:

  1. TMC Innovation Institute
  2. TMC Health Policy Institute
  3. TMC Clinical Research Institute
  4. TMC Regenerative Medicine Institute
  5. TMC Genomics Institute

Houston's port business continues to stay strong, with potential for growth following expansion

Screenshot via Houston Facts 2020

The Port of Houston has long been a key part of Houston's history and its economic impact. Across four seaports in the Houston area, the city moved 242.9 million metric tons of trade last year, and the district has been consistently named the busiest or one of the busiest by tonnage for over a decade.

With over 200 companies calling the port home and a busy port district, the Houston Ship Channel has been working on an expansion project, called Project 11. Construction on the project could begin as early as next year, per the report.

Venture capital is on the rise as tech jobs stays steady

Screenshot via Houston Facts 2020

Again, Houston Facts has called out the growth Houston has seen in venture capital investment. According to the report, top industries for VC funding include health tech, software, and energy. Houston Facts reports the ecosystem saw $600 million invested last year. While numbers vary based on sources, Houston Exponential recently reported over $466 million of venture capital invested in Houston between January and July of 2020.

Meanwhile, when it comes to tech jobs in Houston, the city has held its place as 12th in the nation for cities with the most tech jobs. Last year, Houston had 235,802 tech workers according to data from CompTIA, Cyberstates 2020. That count is slightly increased from 2018's 223,000 tech workers in Houston.

Houston's evolving demographics continues to shape the city

Screenshot via Houston Facts 2020

Houston is regularly touted as the most diverse city in the nation, and that diversity has affected the city's business sector. As of last year, largest ethnic population in Houston is hispanic. Houston now has the fourth largest hispanic population in the country, however, according to the report, Houston's percent of African-American citizens has remained consistent.

COVID-19's full effect on Houston is still to be determined, but business has taken a hit

Getty Images

The 2020 edition of Houston Facts doesn't have much on the impact of COVID-19 — the 2021 issue should have more facts and figures from looking back on the pandemic. However, the GHP's team did address some of the economic impacts the coronavirus had on the city.

According to Yelp data based on listings, 3,518 businesses closed due to COVID-19 — of which, only 578 had reopened by mid-June.

The Greater Houston Partnership has the facts. Nick Bee/Pexels

4 things you need to know from the Greater Houston Partnership's annual report as it pertains to innovation

By the numbers

Every year, the Greater Houston Partnership — the city's economic development arm — gathers up data and reports to paint a full picture of the Bayou City. In the past few editions, innovation has been a key component.

The GHP's innovation coverage spans three pages under the top industry and sectors category. From tech startup growth to money raised, here's what you need to know from the 2019 Houston Facts.

Houston has the 12th largest tech sector in the United States

Christina Morillo/Pexels

The innovation section starts pretty strong with this fun fact. The No. 12 tech sector ranking comes from Computing Technology Industry Association, which cites that Houston has more than 223,000 tech workers. According to the report, about two-thirds of Houston's tech workers are in industries outside of computer and software.

GHP credits Houston's large population of tech workers to its connection to aerospace and oil and gas.

"As the home of NASA's Johnson Space Center and headquarters to the global energy industry, Houston has long been a global hub of engineering talent," the report reads. "In recent years, those skills have given rise to a thriving ecosystem of digital technology companies."

GHP's data reflect that Houston has more than 8,200 tech-related firms, which includes over 500 tech startups.

Venture funding was up over 50 percent between 2017 and 2018

Via Houston Facts


Houston's recorded venture funding doesn't have a hockey stick chart to brag about. Over the past few years, venture funding has been up and down, according to S&P Capital IQ.

"Houston companies in clean energy, health innovation and digital technology have received $3.1 billion in venture capital and growth funding across 333 deals since 2014, averaging $576 million every year," the report reads.

But between 2018 and 2017, VC funds were up 50.9 percent. Of the three categories, clean energy technology pulled in the most money each year and was responsible for 64 percent of the funding during the 2014-2018 period. Sunnova, a residential solar company, had the most money raised during this time with $1.3 billion.

The largest deals reported in Houston in 2018 were:

  • Sunnova Energy — $183 million
  • OncoResponse — $40 million
  • Trisun Energy Services — $39 million
  • Arundo Analytics — $25 million
  • Procyrion — $16 million
  • QuVa Pharma — $15 million
  • NeoSensory — $12 million

University-backed entrepreneurship remains strong

Courtesy of Rice University

The Princeton Review ranks Rice University and the University of Houston as having among the best entrepreneurship programs in the country. Rice runs its Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship out of its Jones Graduate School of Business, while University of Houston's Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship is housed in the Bauer College of Business.

Both schools have run accelerator programs for seven years — the past six of which have been in collaboration. Rice's OwlSpark and UH's RED Labs finished this summer's program on August 1 at the Bayou Startup Showcase with 16 startup pitches.

Meanwhile, the Rice Business Plan Competition is deemed the "richest pitch competition" in the country. In 2019, the competition saw $3 million invested. RBPC companies have gone on to raise $1.2 billion in capital during the competition's 18-year history.

At UH, which has its own set of pitch events, the Wolff Center's graduate students manage a million-dollar Cougar Venture Fund. The fund has a group of experts that analyze and invest in early stage technology companies.

The life science industry continues to grow

Via Houston Facts

In 2018, Houston housed 20.5 percent of the country's clinical trials, with over 1,800 active. The city has more than 1,760 life sciences companies and over 25,100 biotech experts and 7,200 medical researchers.

Thankfully, the money seems to match this volume of activity. Last year, Houston's medical research grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, which totaled $668 million in 2018, was up almost 7 percent from 2017. The city's medical institutions have received nearly $3 billion from NIH since 2014 — an average of $600 million a year.

According to the GHP, the top Houston institutions receiving NIH funding in 2018 were:

  • Baylor College of Medicine — $255 million
  • University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center — $149 million
  • University of Texas Health Science Center — $90 million
  • University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston — $87 million
  • University of Houston — $24 million
  • Methodist Hospital Research Institute — $19 million
  • Rice University — $14 million
  • Texas Southern University — $3 million

As mentioned before, venture capital and private equity investment has increased in Houston, and that trend is also represented in the life science sector. In 2018, life science startups raked in $119 million, which represents a a 41.7 percent increase from $84 million in 201717, according to S&P Capital IQ.

In 2018, the top biotech firms receiving investment were:

  • OncoResponse — $40 million
  • Procyrion — $16 million
  • QuVa Pharma — $15 million
  • Pulmotect — $10 million
  • Tvardi Therapeutics — $9 million

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Houston biotech co. raises $11M to advance ALS drug development

drug money

Houston-based clinical-stage biotechnology company Coya Therapeutics (NASDAQ: COYA) has raised $11.1 million in a private investment round.

India-based pharmaceuticals company Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Inc. led the round with a $10 million investment, according to a news release. New York-based investment firm Greenlight Capital, Coya’s largest institutional shareholder, contributed $1.1 million.

The funding was raised through a definitive securities purchase agreement for the purchase and sale of more than 2.5 million shares of Coya's common stock in a private placement at $4.40 per share.

Coya reports that it plans to use the proceeds to scale up manufacturing of low-dose interleukin-2 (IL-2), which is a component of its COYA 302 and will support the commercial readiness of the drug. COYA 302 enhances anti-inflammatory T cell function and suppresses harmful immune activity for treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

The company received FDA acceptance for its investigational new drug application for COYA 302 for treating ALS and FTD this summer. Its ALSTARS Phase 2 clinical trial for ALS treatment launched this fall in the U.S. and Canada and has begun enrolling and dosing patients. Coya CEO Arun Swaminathan said in a letter to investors that the company also plans to advance its clinical programs for the drug for FTD therapy in 2026.

Coya was founded in 2021. The company merged with Nicoya Health Inc. in 2020 and raised $10 million in its series A the same year. It closed its IPO in January 2023 for more than $15 million. Its therapeutics uses innovative work from Houston Methodist's Dr. Stanley H. Appel.

New accelerator for AI startups to launch at Houston's Ion this spring

The Collectiv Foundation and Rice University have established a sports, health and wellness startup accelerator at the Ion District’s Collectiv, a sports-focused venture capital platform.

The AI Native Dual-Use Sports, Health & Wellness Accelerator, scheduled to formally launch in March, will back early-stage startups developing AI for the sports, health and wellness markets. Accelerator participants will gain access to a host of opportunities with:

  • Mentors
  • Advisers
  • Pro sports teams and leagues
  • University athletics programs
  • Health care systems
  • Corporate partners
  • VC firms
  • Pilot projects
  • University-based entrepreneurship and business initiatives

Accelerator participants will focus on sports tech verticals inlcuding performance and health, fan experience and media platforms, data and analytics, and infrastructure.

“Houston is quickly becoming one of the most important innovation hubs at the intersection of sports, health, and AI,” Ashley DeWalt, co-founder and managing partner of The Collectiv and founder of The Collectiv Foundation, said in a news release.

“By launching this platform with Rice University in the Ion District,” he added, “we are building a category-defining acceleration engine that gives founders access to world-class research, global sports properties, hospital systems, and venture capital. This is about turning sports-validated technology into globally scalable companies at a moment when the world’s attention is converging on Houston ahead of the 2026 World Cup.”

The Collectiv accelerator will draw on expertise from organizations such as the Rice-Houston Methodist Center for Human Performance, Rice Brain Institute, Rice Gateway Project and the Texas Medical Center.

“The combination of Rice University’s research leadership, Houston’s unmatched health ecosystem, and The Collectiv’s operator-driven investment platform creates a powerful acceleration engine,” Blair Garrou, co-founder and managing partner of the Mercury Fund VC firm and a senior adviser for The Collectiv, added in the release.

Additional details on programming, partners and application timelines are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

4 Houston-area schools excel with best online degree programs in U.S.

Top of the Class

Four Houston-area universities have earned well-deserved recognition in U.S. News & World Report's just-released rankings of the Best Online Programs for 2026.

The annual rankings offer insight into the best American universities for students seeking a flexible and affordable way to attain a higher education. In the 2026 edition, U.S. News analyzed nearly 1,850 online programs for bachelor's degrees and seven master's degree disciplines: MBA, business (non-MBA), criminal justice, education, engineering, information technology, and nursing.

Many of these local schools are also high achievers in U.S. News' separate rankings of the best grad schools.

Rice University tied with Texas A&M University in College Station for the No. 3 best online master's in information technology program in the U.S., and its online MBA program ranked No. 21 nationally.

The online master's in nursing program at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston was the highest performing master's nursing degree in Texas, and it ranked No. 19 nationally.

Three different programs at The University of Houston were ranked among the top 100 nationwide:
  • No. 18 – Best online master's in education
  • No. 59 – Best online master's in business (non-MBA)
  • No. 89 – Best online bachelor's program
The University of Houston's Clear Lake campus ranked No. 65 nationally for its online master's in education program.

"Online education continues to be a vital path for professionals, parents, and service members seeking to advance their careers and broaden their knowledge with necessary flexibility," said U.S. News education managing editor LaMont Jones in a press release. "The 2026 Best Online Programs rankings are an essential tool for prospective students, providing rigorous, independent analysis to help them choose a high-quality program that aligns with their personal and professional goals."

A little farther outside Houston, two more universities – Sam Houston State University in Huntsville and Texas A&M University in College Station – stood out for their online degree programs.

Sam Houston State University

  • No. 5 – Best online master's in criminal justice
  • No. 30 – Best online master's in information technology
  • No. 36 – Best online master's in education
  • No. 77 – Best online bachelor's program
  • No. 96 – Best online master's in business (non-MBA)
Texas A&M University
  • No. 3 – Best online master's in information technology (tied with Rice)
  • No. 3 – Best online master's in business (non-MBA)
  • No. 8 – Best online master's in education
  • No. 9 – Best online master's in engineering
  • No. 11 – Best online bachelor's program
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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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