Greentown Houston announces plans for wet lab, calls for feedback from members

seeing green

Greentown Houston is asking its current and potential members what they want in a wet lab. Photo via GreentownLabs.com

Greentown Houston has announced it's building a new wet lab facility — but first, they need some help from the community.

Greentown Labs, which is dual located at their headquarters in Somerville, Massachusetts, and in the Ion District in Houston, has announced that they are building out a wet lab in their Midtown space.

"We have heard from several startups as well as corporate partners in the ecosystem that are looking for wet lab space," says Lara Cottingham, vice president of strategy, policy, and climate impact at Greentown Labs. "Greentown has experience running wet labs from our location in Somerville. We're excited to be able to offer wet lab space to climatetech startups as an additional amenity to the Ion District.

Although Greentown's Boston-area location has wet lab space, Cottingham says the organization is not interested in copying and pasting that same facility. Greentown wants to provide the tools that the Houston ecosystem needs, and that requires getting feedback from its current and potential members.

"We want to announce to the community that this is something we're going to build — but we still need a lot of feedback and input from startups so we can learn what exactly they need or want to see from the wet lab," Cottingham tells InnovationMap. "No two wet labs are the same."

Right now, there aren't any details available about timeline or specifics of the new facility. Greentown is prioritizing getting feedback from its members and having conversations with potential sponsors and corporate partners.

"Corporate partners are a big part of the ecosystem and the community at Greentown. They can be so many things to our startups — mentors, customers, investors," Cottingham says. "And in this space, they can help us sponsor and financially support the wet lab. We're still fundraising — we have some partners that have committed to funding, but we're still looking for more funding."

In addition to monetary contribution, Cottingham says they are looking for other options as well, from partnerships with equipment providers, hazardous materials management, and more.

Startups that need wet lab space are encouraged to fill out the online form, which will be open through the summer, and potential corporate partners can express their interest online as well.

Greentown Houston opened its doors in 2021 and has since grown to house more than 75 energy and climatetech startups, as well as several accelerators, thanks to support from dozens of corporate partners.

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Anu Puvvada, KPMG Studio leader, shares how her team is advancing software solutions while navigating hype cycles and solving billion-dollar-problems. Photo courtesy of KPMG

How this Houston-based studio is tackling billion-dollar problems with internal innovation

Q&A

In 2021, KPMG, a New York-based global audit, accounting, and advisory service provider, formed a new entity to play in the innovation space. The Houston-based team finds innovative software that benefit KPMG's clients across industries.

"We're really focused on transformative businesses that we can offer our clients in the next three to five years to solve fairly large problems," Anu Puvvada, KPMG Studio leader, tells InnovationMap.

Now, almost two years later, KPMG Studio has spun out its first company, AI-based security startup Cranium, which has raised $7 million in a seed round led by SYN Ventures with support from KPMG.

Established to advance internal innovation, KPMG Studio's technologies don't always get spun out into startups like Cranium, but with support of the team, the early-stage ideas receive guidance from the company's resources with the potential to be rolled into KPMG's suite of services for its clients.

In an interview with InnovationMap, Puvvada shares more about the program, the Cranium spin out, and why she's passionate about leading this initiative from Houston.

InnovationMap: Tell me about KPMG Studio's structure and your overall goal with the program.

Anu Puvvada: I like to think about it more around framing. We frame the studio around three pillars: incubate, accelerate and amplify. We take in a lot of ideas that come from the business and from our clients and we incubate and see which of them are really high growth solving like a very large problem across verticals and horizontals. When I say a big problem — it's got to be a $1 billion-plus problem. With Cranium, we saw some very early indicators, like a rise in AI adoption amongst our clients. We saw that AI was in this spot where it was going to hit an exponential growth marker. We also saw a rise in cyber attacks. All of that plus conversations with clients made us realize that there's there's something big brewing here.

We're looking at a ton of ideas, and then parsing out maybe 10 that we create into the next Cranium. And then in accelerate, we're finding early adopters and we're growing the idea, building it, raising venture capital for the idea if we decide to spin it out.

IM: Seems like a mutually beneficial relationship between KPMG and these innovators, right?

AP: I would say it's good for KPMG because it allows us to innovate differently and innovate with agility. My group actually operates as a startup within a large organization. And then we create this ecosystem around startups inside KPMG, so when it exits, it's got the basis to run on its own. That's important for us because it gives us agility, it lets us really capitalize on our brand. It's not just what it brings us, but also what it brings our clients.

There's a big competitive advantage to innovating inside KPMG. These innovators get to work inside our walls protected by the infrastructure of KPMG. They, they get a technology team to help them build the idea. And they get to use their brand of KPMG, use our marketing engine, our comms engine, like everything that's behind us. A startup outside, it doesn't get any of that. So, it almost like accelerates them into market when the spin out happens. We use the differentiators and the competitive advantage of KPMG in order to amplify the story of that startup and their value proposition in the market.

IM: So there are two paths for these technologies, right?

AP: We either have what we call spin ins, which means it's created and spins into the business or we have spin outs, which is what Cranium is. We classify spin outs into its own startup or a sale of an asset. And then for the spin in, we would license to our clients under the mothership of KPMG.

IM: Is the studio operating completely in Houston?

AP: We source our ideas from all over nationally. I'm in Houston and a lot of my support team is actually in Houston as well. And I work with a lot of the Houston ecosystem around innovation. I really see Houston as a big future market. We are at the center of climate and ESG, the space economy, and medicine. Those are three big like curves that are going to be hitting in the next five years. So, it is integral for studio to be integrated into that ecosystem to position KPMG for the future.

IM: What's your vision for the studio?

AP: I definitely see us taking in more ideas into studio to build internally for our pioneers, which is what we call our innovators — Jonathan Dambrot, who is the founder of Cranium, he's the pioneer. We'll definitely be doing more Craniums that spin out of the firm. And we have a number that are spinning into the firm already.

I also see us evolving to bring in external startups into the studio so we can also give them the entire ecosystem a way to be lifted up and to shepherd each other into the future.

It's really important that anything that we invest in and we work on is staying measured through these hype cycles that are happening. We need to make sure that these ideas are grounded in the problem that's being solved in an adaptable way and that there's a strong market need for it. That's something that the studio really spends a lot of time doing in the beginning, which kind of helps mitigate some of these hype cycles for us and our clients.

When you think about innovation as a whole, it's mired with risk and uncertainty. You never know if something's going to work or not. And part of what we have to do with any idea that we're building in the studio or anything that our clients are doing around innovation, we have to do as much as we can to mitigate that risk and uncertainty. And that's kind of what KPMG's wheelhouse is.

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This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Emily Reichert, CEO of Greentown Labs, shares why the incubator's expansion was a year in the making — and only just the beginning. Photo courtesy of Greentown Labs

New-to-Houston startup incubator CEO on why there's 'no better place' to expand

Q&A

Greentown Labs announced its intent on expanding to Houston last week with 11 corporate partners signed on already, and is currently scouting out its physical location in town

Already, says Emily Reichert, CEO of Greentown Labs, the Bayou City has left a positive impression on her and her team.

"It's exciting to see how many people we can engage in being part of the future of energy," Reicher shares in an interview with InnovationMap. "I think there's really no better place for that to be led out of Houston."

Two Houstonians have been identified to lead local efforts. Jason Ethier, a Houston-based energy tech founder, is the operations lead for Greentown Houston, and Juliana Garaizar, local investor and former director of the TMC Venture Fund, is the Greentown Houston launch director.

Reichert, in the Q&A with InnovationMap, shares more on what her organization's Houston plans are, what she's looking for in participating startups, and when the city will know more about the brick-and-mortar space.

InnovationMap: When did Greentown Labs start considering a second location?

Emily Reichert: Greentown I think seriously began entertaining the idea of Houston as a possibility during the CERAWeek conference in March 2019. I was there to speak in a couple of their pods, and there were actually 10 Greentown teams there as well.

Jason Ethier of Dynamo Micropower, who was on our board and based in Houston, had been encouraging us to consider Houston for a long time because of the need for someone to be bringing together the community of entrepreneurs around cleantech in Houston. And he felt, talking to other entrepreneurs, that there was a bit of a gap there and that it would be beneficial to have a Greentown labs in Houston to convene that community. Up until that point, I had kind of said, "Jason, I can't think about that." We were expanding in Boston just a year earlier, and we had more than doubled in size. But for the first time in March 2019, it seems like something that we should at least entertain.

During that course of that visit, the Greater Houston Partnership, Jason, and I believe some folks from Houston Exponential as well, were involved in setting up a series of meetings for me to really test the idea of Greentown Labs coming to Houston.

So, I talked with a diversity of partners, city officials, and — probably most importantly from my perspective — a bunch of entrepreneurs that showed up with less than a week's notice at a bar in EaDo. They really expressed to me that they felt that need for a community for cleantech entrepreneurs. And that there really wasn't anything equivalent and that there was a gap there.

To me, that was really the trigger for turning this all on as a serious opportunity for Greentown. We're really all about entrepreneurs. Our mission is to support them and help them get their clean technology into the world where it can have an impact and make a difference. Knowing that there was an entrepreneur community that needed fostering and growing and building was really a reason for Greentown Labs to come to Houston.

IM: What about Houston was alluring for the organization?

ER: When people ask me, "Why Houston?" the first thing that I always say is it's the energy capital of the world, and we are an organization that is promoting the entrepreneurship of companies that are developing the world's next energy solutions. It makes total sense to be working in the place where the companies and customers are that are really putting these technologies into the marketplace. So, it being the energy capital of world is kind of a key driver — and one that we think needs to be the energy transition capital of the world, which is where we're all headed in needing to address climate change.

IM: I see several corporate partners have been announced — are you looking for more and what role do the corporates play in the incubator?

ER: The corporate partners are incredibly important to the entrepreneurs that Greentown Labs support. The reason for that is that most of the startups that we work with are going to be selling their solutions to a larger partner. They're not consumer oriented startups — they're going to be a B2B-type play. So, in order to get these solutions that the startups are building to scale, they need to partner with usually another large entity to help that happen.

From the get-go, corporate partners have been part of Greentown's overall community of solutions for startups to get their technology to scale. We work with about 50 corporate partners total.

I'd say there's a variety of ways that they participate — one is simply mentorship and expertise that they can provide the startup real market knowledge and know how. They can also provide investment or a place to do pilot studies, they can do licensing agreements, and they can be customers — that's another important role.

We are absolutely looking for more corporate partners because the energy transition is a big problem, and we're going to need lots of partners in the solution. We would invite others to reach out to us.

IM: How will Greentown Houston be different from the original in Massachusetts?

ER: We're starting at a more modest size than we are currently in Massachusetts. We're a 100,000-square-foot, three-building campus in Somerville just outside of Boston, and we can accommodate about 100 startups in that location.

In Houston, we're starting at the scale that we actually started at in 2013, and that is about a capacity for about 50 startups in about 30,000 square feet with about 120 desks and about 20,000 square feet of prototyping lab space. The space that we're building in Houston will be smaller, but also very flexible.

We don't quite know yet what the Houston market wants and needs, and so we have to just kind of plan to create a flexible structure based on what we know that Houston entrepreneurs need and then kind of evolve from there.

IM: You don't have office space pinned down yet — what are you looking for in an office and what's your timeline for announcing more details?


ER: I think we'll be able to announce that in September. But, I will say that we've been pleasantly surprised by the different opportunities that are available and how so many people just trying to help and provide us with space, but I'd say we are pretty much there on selecting the space.

We will be retrofitting an existing building, which is exactly what we did whenever we moved into Somerville in 2013. We like to preserve flexibility and, until we really understand the market, we don't want to custom build anything because what if we created it and then no one needed it?

Instead, we're going to take over an existing industrial-type building that can be utilized for our purpose. And for our purpose, we need a lot of electricity, we need cement floors that can take a lot of weight, and we need to kind of have some isolation in terms of the machine tools and whatnot that can make a lot of noise — so can our events.

IM: With two pairs of boots on the ground already, will you be growing your Houston team?

ER: It somewhat depends on the track of our fundraising, but currently the plan right now is to do some additional hiring in late 2020 or 2021 — at which time we'll probably be looking for a community manager, a lab manager, and a program manager. Those all won't happen at the very beginning, but the community manager is probably the next position we'd be hiring for. That role is just incredibly critical to doing what we do at Greentown Labs, which is bringing together that community of entrepreneurs, helping them connect with one another, and really just helping them to support one another as peers.

IM: What are you looking for in participating startups and how can Houston startups get involved and learn more?

ER: Absolutely. We would love it if Houston entrepreneurs want to reach out to us. We have a landing page specifically for Houston on our website, and that will allow you to actually fill out a form that allows us to follow up with you.

We will be starting to have early access membership that Houston entrepreneurs can take advantage of uniquely, and that will allow entrepreneurs to start getting engaged in what right now will probably be mainly virtual events, but going forward, it's a great way to start learning about the community and really for the community to be built before we have a physical location that can bring people in. More information out that will be coming out in the next couple of weeks.

In terms of what we're looking for, we are looking for startups that are actively working on climate or environmental solutions — especially those that are working on reducing greenhouse gas emissions through electricity, transportation, agricultural tech and water, building, manufacturing, or industry industrial applications. There's a lot of broad categories, but reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a big challenge and it needs to be attacked in all sectors of the economy.

Even beyond energy or renewable energy, there are a lot of different solutions that we consider as part of clean tech and climate tech. We're just really excited to learn about more entrepreneurs and engage with them as a part of building Greentown Labs Houston.

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This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

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Top stories: Houston's most-read health tech news of 2024

year in review

Editor's note: As the year comes to a close, InnovationMap is looking back at the year's top stories in Houston innovation. In the health tech category on InnovationMap, top stories included startup funding raised, IPO plans, FDA clearance, and more. Be sure to click through to read the full story.

New report ranks Houston top market for life sciences

Houston lands in the No. 7 spot for growth in the granting of degrees in biological and biomedical sciences. Photo by Natalie Harms/InnovationMap

Thanks in large part to producing hundreds of college-trained professionals, Houston’s life sciences industry ranks among the top U.S. markets for talent in 2024.

In a report published by commercial real estate services company CBRE, Houston lands in the No. 7 spot for growth in the granting of degrees in biological and biomedical sciences. From 2017 to 2022, Houston notched a growth rate of 32.4 percent in this category.

In 2022, the University of Houston led the higher education pack in the region, graduating 746 people with a bachelor’s degree or above in biological or biomedical sciences, according to the report. Continue reading.

Houston innovator raises pre-seed funding for health care staffing platform

Ayoade Joy Ademuyewo founded Lokum last year to create a solution to better connecting medical specialists with health care facilities nationwide. Photo courtesy of Lokum

A Houston health care innovator is celebrating an oversubscribed round of pre-seed funding to improve on her startup's unique staffing platform.

Ayoade Joy Ademuyewo founded Lokum last year to create a solution to better connecting medical specialists with health care facilities nationwide. The new platform, which cuts out the middleman and lowers staffing costs, raised $700,000 in pre-seed funding that will go toward further development of the technology.

"Healthcare organizations spend $26 billion annually to support a crippling dependence on third-party agencies for connecting with clinical staff," Ademuyewo says in a news release. "Technological solutions that are pointed precisely to streamline and strengthen the relationships between highly specialized clinicians and their future employers are vital to alleviating this detrimental dependance, and central to our mission." Continue reading.

Houston regenerative medicine company to IPO, move toward more human trials

FibroBiologics will IPO this week. Photo via Getty Images

Want a piece of one of Houston’s most promising biotech companies? On January 31, FibroBiologics will begin the trading of its common stock on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

While most labs in the realm of regenerative medicine are focused on stem cells, FibroBiologics has bet on fibroblasts as the secret to treating myriad ailments. Fibroblasts, the most common type of cell in the body, are the primary cells that compose connective tissue.

Interested investors can find a prospectus to peruse before taking the leap. FibroBiologics filed with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) on November 7, 2023. In September, FibroBiologics CEO Pete O’Heeron told InnovationMap, “I think what we're going to see is that fibroblasts are going to end up winning... They're just a better overall cell than the stem cells.” Continue reading.

Houston organizations identify promising life science cos. at annual event

The Rice Alliance and BioHouston acknowledged innovations from a dozen promising health tech companies. Photo via Rice University

For the 13th year, the Texas Life Science Forum hosted by BioHouston and the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship celebrated innovative companies from around the world that are creating new treatments and solutions to today's biggest health care challenges.

This week, over 40 companies presenting their innovations across cancer, cardiovascular disease, biotechnology, and more. Nearly 700 venture capitalists, corporate innovation groups, angel networks, industry leaders, academics, service providers, and others attended the event on November 7 at Rice's BioScience Research Collaborative in the Texas Medical Center.

Just like in previous years, the event ended with the announcement of the 10 companies that were deemed "most promising" based on their pitches and technologies. Of the 10 companies named, six are headquartered in Houston and an additional two startups on the list have a presence here. Continue reading.

FDA greenlights Houston surgery robotics company's unique technology

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

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.

Houston biotech biz to merge with public co., set local HQ

big deal

Houston-based Tvardi Therapeutics and Cara Therapeutics announced the companies have entered into a definitive merger agreement to combine in an all-stock transaction. Once completed, Houston will house the headquarters.

Tvardi is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the development of novel, oral, and small molecule therapies that target STAT3 to treat fibrosis-driven diseases. Tvardi will merge with a wholly owned subsidiary of Cara.

Once complete, the pre-merger Cara Therapeutics stockholders are expected to own approximately 17 percent of the combined company and pre-merger Tvardi Therapeutics investors are expected to own 83 percent of the combined company. Prior to adjustment from the issuance of the shares in the recently completed Tvardi financing and assuming Cara, which went public in 2014, has net cash at closing of between $22.9 million and $23.1 million with the percentage of the combined company that pre-merger Cara stockholders and pre-merger Tvardi stockholders will own upon the closing of the merger, which is subject to further adjustment if Cara’s net cash balance falls outside of the range.

“As we approach meaningful value inflection points next year, including two Phase 2 readouts of our lead program in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, followed by the readout in our hepatocellular carcinoma program, this merger, the recently completed financing, and becoming a publicly traded company give us access to the critical funding required to further advance our promising pipeline programs that address significant unmet needs,” Imran Alibhai, CEO of Tvardi Therapeutics, says in a news release.

Also, Tvardi has completed an approximately $28 million private financing from a syndicate of new and existing institutional investors. With the cash from both companies at closing and the proceeds of this financing, the post-merger company plans to have cash to fund its operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into the second half of 2026.

“I am grateful to the Cara Board, leadership team, and shareholders who share our vision of Tvardi that is well-positioned to introduce effective, new treatment options to patients suffering from serious, chronic, fibrosis-driven diseases,” Alibhai continues.

In 2021, Tvardi emerged from stealth and closed a $74 million series B funding round led by New York-based Slate Path Capital, Florida-based Palkon Capital, Denver-based ArrowMark Partners, and New York-based 683 Capital, with continued support and participation by existing investors, including Houston-based Sporos Bioventures.

Looking back: Top 5 most-read Houston space tech articles of 2024

year in review

Editor's note: As 2024 comes to a close, InnovationMap is looking back at the year's top stories in Houston innovation. In the Space City, there were dozens of space tech stories, from experts' thoughts on commercialization to the IPO of a Houston company. Here are five Houston space tech-focused articles that stood out to readers this year — be sure to click through to read the full story.

Houston space tech co. rolls out futuristic lunar rover for NASA's Artemis missions

Intuitive Machine unveiled its RACER lunar terrain vehicle at Space Center Houston. Photo courtesy of Intuitive Machines

Houston-based space exploration company Intuitive Machines just unveiled its version of a lunar terrain vehicle that’s designed to be used by astronauts in NASA’s Artemis moon discovery program.

Intuitive Machine recently rolled out its RACER lunar terrain vehicle (LTV) at Space Center Houston. RACER stands for Reusable Autonomous Crewed Exploration Rover.

The rover can accommodate two astronauts and nearly 900 pounds of cargo. In addition, it can pull a trailer loaded with almost 1,800 pounds of cargo. Continue reading.

Axiom Space CEO steps down, search begins for replacement

Axiom Space Co-founder Michael Suffredini is stepping down as CEO. Photo courtesy of Axiom Space

Houston-based space exploration company Axiom Space is searching for a new CEO.

Co-founder Mike Suffredini stepped down effective August 9 as CEO. He cites unidentified personal reasons for his transition from CEO to company advisor. Suffredini remains a board member of Axiom Space.

Co-founder Kam Ghaffarian, the company’s executive chairman, is serving as interim CEO until Axiom Space taps Suffredini’s permanent successor.

“We are grateful for Mike’s invaluable contributions to human space exploration and the remarkable growth of Axiom Space,” Ghaffarian says in a news release. “He will continue to offer his unique perspective and expertise as we advance our mission.” Continue reading.

Houston space tech company secures $116.9M NASA contract

The $116.9 million agreement will task Intuitive Machines with delivering six science and technology payloads to the moon. Photo courtesy of Intuitive Machines

NASA is again entrusting a Houston space business with lunar deliveries.

Intuitive Machines (Nasdaq: LUNR, LUNRW) has secured its fourth contract with NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, program. The $116.9 million agreement will task Intuitive Machines with delivering six science and technology payloads, which will include one European Space Agency-led drill suite to the Moon’s South Pole.

“Over the last several years, we’ve witnessed NASA’s successful Artemis I mission and the campaign’s progress toward sustainably returning humans to the surface of the Moon, highlighting the importance of autonomous missions that advance humanity’s understanding of the Moon and the commercial services required to support the industry,” Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus says in a news release. “Intuitive Machines looks forward to working closely with the NASA team to deliver mission success once again.” Continue reading.

Houston Spaceport takes off with second phase of development

The next phase of the Houston Spaceport will build out connectivity and workforce training. Rendering via Houston Airports

Since the Houston Spaceport secured the 10th FAA-Licensed commercial spaceport designation in 2015, the development's tenants have gone on to secure billions in NASA contracts. Now, the Houston Spaceport is on to its next phase of growth.

“Reflecting on its meteoric rise, the Spaceport has seen remarkable growth in a short span of time. From concepts on paper to the opening of Axiom Space, Collins Aerospace, and Intuitive Machines, the journey has been nothing short of extraordinary,” says Arturo Machuca, director of Ellington Airport and the Houston Spaceport, in a news release. “These anchor tenants, collectively holding about $5 billion in contracts with NASA and other notable aerospace companies, are not just shaping the future of space exploration but injecting vitality into Houston’s economy.” Continue reading.

Houston college lands $5M NASA grant to launch new aerospace research center

The five-year grant from NASA will go toward creating the NASA MIRO Inflatable Deployable Environments and Adaptive Space Systems Center at UH. Photo via UH.edu

The University of Houston was one of seven minority-serving institutions to receive a nearly $5 million grant this month to support aerospace research focused on extending human presence on the moon and Mars.

The $4,996,136 grant over five years is funded by the NASA Office of STEM Engagement Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) Institutional Research Opportunity (MIRO) program. It will go toward creating the NASA MIRO Inflatable Deployable Environments and Adaptive Space Systems (IDEAS2) Center at UH, according to a statement from the university.

“The vision of the IDEAS2 Center is to become a premier national innovation hub that propels NASA-centric, state-of-the-art research and promotes 21st-century aerospace education,” Karolos Grigoriadis, Moores Professor of Mechanical Engineering and director of aerospace engineering at UH, said in a statement. Continue reading.

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