Houston e-commerce unicorn reaches $1.6B valuation with $50M fundraising round

fresh funding

Cart.com has closed its latest fundraising round. Photo courtesy of Cart.com

Houston-based Cart.com, a provider of fulfillment and logistics services for B2C and B2B brands, has raised $50 million in venture capital, pushing its valuation to $1.6 billion. Since it was founded in 2020, Cart.com has raised $475 million.

Cart.com earned “unicorn” status in 2023 after securing a $60 million Series C round of funding. In the startup universe, “unicorn” refers to a private company that’s valued at $1 billion or more. Last year, Cart.com nailed down $130 million in debt funding, lifting its valuation to $1.2 billion.

Technically, Cart.com no longer qualifies as a startup. Rather, it’s now in “scaleup” territory. This term refers to a startup that has notched substantial growth and has maintained a stable workforce, among other positive achievements. Notable brands that have graduated from startup to scaleup include Airbnb, Peloton and Uber.

The $50 million round includes money from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock and Neuberger Berman, and new investors such as eGateway Capital, along with several unidentified venture capital firms, investors and family offices.

The company said it will use the fresh capital to fuel its global expansion through investments in infrastructure, technology, and M&A.

“Cart.com is continuing our strong growth trajectory across all operating metrics, and we intend to utilize this additional capital to accelerate the expansion of our platform and bring our customers new capabilities to enable their growth,” Omair Tariq, founder and CEO of Cart.com, said in a news release. Tariq added that his company is “well on our way to building the largest and most comprehensive platform in our space.”

Over the past 12 months, Cart.com completed its acquisition of OceanX, the fulfillment operation of direct marketing company Guthy-Renker, and Amify, an Amazon marketplace optimization and advertising platform. Bill Guthy, founder of Guthy-Renker, now sits on Cart.com’s board of directors

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Cart.com has acquired OceanX, adding two new facilities and expanding its logistics network to enhance efficiency and support high-volume beauty, wellness, and lifestyle brands. Photo courtesy of Cart.com

Houston e-commerce platform expands logistics network with acquisition of fulfillment operations arm

M&A move

A Houston e-commerce unicorn has made its latest strategic acquisition.

Cart.com, which operates a multichannel commerce platform, announced that it has acquired Guthy-Renker's wholly-owned fulfillment operations arm OceanX. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Around 200 OceanX employees will be assumed onto the Cart.com team, and the fast-growing company will add two new facilities totaling over 600,000 square feet to its network, expanding to include a West Coast distribution hub in Southern California and its third facility near Columbus, Ohio.

"Acquiring OceanX is part of Cart.com’s strategy to continue to scale our platform and capabilities across industries, leveraging our proprietary technology to improve efficiency and deliver superior results to our clients and their customers,” Omair Tariq, Cart.com founder and CEO, says in a news release. “By deploying our Constellation OMS and WMS software and seasoned operations team across these two new facilities, we will improve order visibility, labor efficiency, shipping costs and customer satisfaction for the benefit of our new clients.”

Cart.com now has 17 omnichannel fulfillment and distribution centers with around 10 million square feet and more than 1,600 team members, according to the company.

With the transition, Guthy-Renker's Co-Founder and Co-Chairman Bill Guthy will serve as a strategic adviser to Cart.com.

The move broadens Cart.com's presence in the high-volume beauty, wellness, and lifestyle industries, and the company now will work with supply chains from numerous brands, including Meaningful Beauty, The Body Firm, Smileactives, and Westmore Beauty.

“Cart.com has built a comprehensive, enterprise-grade logistics network with modern, digital capabilities that offer unparalleled visibility, control and efficiency for our brands,” Rick Odum, CEO of Guthy-Renker, says in the release. “This partnership will marry our own channel and marketing expertise with their track record of driving growth and savings for high-volume, high-SKU brands, supercharging performance across our portfolio.”

Earlier this year Cart.com secured $105 million in debt refinancing from investment manager BlackRock and a $25 million series C extension round.

In April, the company acquired an Amazon partner, Ohio-based Amify, a company that provides optimization and advertising solutions

Houston-based ROGII has acquired a new software to integrate into its platform. Photo via ROGII.com

Houston software provider makes strategic acquisition to expand platform

growing biz

An advanced geosteering, geoscience, and drilling software solutions company based in Houston has announced the acquisition of of a software platform.

ROGII plans to acquire TerraSLS's TLog Mudlog Editor software, which is used to generate vertical, and horizontal striplogs for use by geologists. The acquisition “will significantly enhance ROGII's product offerings by providing operators and clients with unprecedented real-time connectivity to mudlogging data,” according to ROGII. Mudlogging is a process that involves examining the cuttings of rock brought to the surface by the drilling.

“Our acquisition of TLog marks another step forward in our mission to deliver the most advanced, real-time data solutions to the oil and gas industry,” CEO of ROGII Igor B. Uvarov says in a news release. “The integration of TLog’s capabilities into our Solo Cloud platform will revolutionize the way operators and mudlogging service companies interact, making mudlogging a truly real-time process and driving greater efficiency and collaboration.”

One way it works is that ROGII will integrate TLog into its Solo Cloud platform, which will advance mudlogging data. This gathers it all into a real-time data exchange between mudlogging service companies and its operators.

The integration will allow operators to monitor mudlogging activities in real-time, which means a possible faster and more informed decision-making processes. The user will get immediate access to data, which can help enhance collaboration and improve efficiency. In addition, the mudlogging data will be safely stored on Solo Cloud for future analysis and data integration, which assists with maintaining integrity of the data.

“We look forward to investing in further development of TLog, increasing user-friendliness, expanding adoption worldwide, and making it the industry standard, being used by all mudlogging service companies,” Uvarov adds.

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This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

With the acquisition, Tekmetric is positioned to be the first auto repair technology platform to achieve unicorn status. Screenshot via Tekmetric

Houston software company makes strategic acquisition, aims to claim unicorn status

gearing up

Houston cloud-based shop management system company Tekmetric is joining forces with customer relationship management leader for auto repair shops Shopgenie.

Tekmetric will be positioned to be the first auto repair technology platform to achieve unicorn status.

“This combination sets a new standard for efficiency and customer experience in the industry,” Sunil Patel, founder and CEO of Tekmetric, says in a news release. “At Tekmetric, we are committed to providing shop owners with best-in-class tools to manage and grow their businesses. Similarly, Shopgenie’s ability to solve real-world challenges with intuitive technology has earned it the trust of shop owners nationwide.”

Shopgenie’s CRM and customer experience tools and Tekmetric’s shop management solutions will combine to provide a platform across North America. The collaboration will “empower shop owners to streamline operations, manage communication and build stronger customer relationships—all from a single, unified platform,” according to a news release.

Both companies over the next few months, will begin to integrate features from both platforms into a single unified system with one platform, a single login and one phone number for customer communications.

“Tekmetric’s relentless pursuit of innovation and passion for creating products that make shop owners’ lives easier could not be a more perfect fit for Shopgenie and our customers,” Kieran O’Brien, CEO and co-founder of Shopgenie, adds. “Our combined strengths will create a more complete, powerful platform that sets a new standard for auto repair software solutions.”

With the collaboration, shops will have the continued flexibility to leverage over 70 integrations in Tekmetric’s integration ecosystem, while Shopgenie will continue to build and support integrations with other shop management systems. Tekmetric currently serves more than 8,000 shops nationwide, and Shopgenie has over 2,000 customers.

“Together, we are building an all-in-one platform that empowers shop owners to attract, retain and serve customers more effectively, driving long-term growth,” Patel says.

A Houston company has acquired a data analytics business. Photo via Getty Images

KBR to acquire data analytics co. in $737M deal to better serve national security issues

M&A

Houston-based KBR announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire engineering, data analytics and digital integration company LinQuest Corp., which will add “digital integration capabilities for national security customers” according to a news release. The deal is valued at $737 million.

LinQuest is known for assisting in solving complex technical challenges for national security missions and has supported the U.S. Space Force, U.S. Air Force and other U.S. Department of Defense and intelligence agencies. The company does this through development and integrating advanced technology solutions across space, air dominance and connected battle space missions. Some missions include advanced AI and machine learning capabilities.

KBR is a leader in providing science, engineering and technology solutions to governments and companies worldwide.

“LinQuest is an innovator in national security, space and technology solutions. Their talented people deliver high-end, technically and digitally differentiated services that are complementary to KBR,” Stuart Bradie, KBR president and CEO said in a news release.

KBR’s support for strategic U.S. government clients in terms of the rapidly changing defense and national security sector expect to benefit from the fact that over 74 percent of LinQuest’s 1,500-plus employees already hold security clearances.

“LinQuest is a terrific company, and the revenue synergy opportunities are exciting,” Bradie adds. ”Our values are strongly aligned, and we are delighted to welcome this talented team to the KBR family.”

The transaction, which was approved by both companies' boards, is expected to close either later this year or early next year. Photo courtesy of HPE

Houston-based HPE to acquire cloud infrastructure co. in $14B deal

M&A moves

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is buying Juniper Networks in an all-cash deal valued at about $14 billion, which is anticipated to double HPE's networking business.

Shares of both companies rose before the market open on Wednesday. A Wall Street Journal report about a potential deal saw Juniper's stock surge 22 percent and HPE's stock dip 9 percent before an official announcement was made.

HPE will pay $40 per Juniper share.

Juniper, based in Sunnyvale, California, helps companies access the cloud infrastructure that serves as the foundation of digital and AI strategies.

“This transaction will strengthen HPE’s position at the nexus of accelerating macro-AI trends, expand our total addressable market, and drive further innovation for customers as we help bridge the AI-native and cloud-native worlds, while also generating significant value for shareholders," HPE President and CEO Antonio Neri said late Tuesday in a statement.

Juniper CEO Rami Rahim will lead the combined HPE networking business. He will report to Neri. HPE was spun off from Hewlett-Packard, one of the founding companies of Silicon Valley, in 2015 and is now based in Houston.

The transaction, which was approved by both companies' boards, is expected to close either later this year or early next year. It still needs approval from Juniper shareholders and regulators.

Last March, HPE announced its plans to acquire OpsRamp, a software-as-a-service company with an IT operations management, or ITOM, platform that can monitor, automate, and manage IT infrastructure, cloud resources, and more.

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5 Houston innovators who made headlines in June 2025

Featured Innovators

Editor's note: Houston innovators were in the spotlight in June, thanks to earning major accolades for their work on national — and global — levels. Here are five Houston innovators to know right now.

Tianshu Zhai, Chen-Yang Lin, Jing Zhang, HEXAspec co-founders 

HEXAspec has been awarded an NSF Partnership for Innovation grant. Photo courtesy of Rice

HEXAspec, a spinout from Rice University's Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, was recently awarded a $500,000 National Science Foundation Partnership for Innovation grant.

Founded by Tianshu Zhai and Chen-Yang Lin, who both participated in the Rice Innovation Fellows program, as well as Jing Zhang, HEXAspec has developed breakthrough inorganic fillers that allow graphic processing units (GPUs) to use less water and electricity and generate less heat. The company will use the funding to continue enhancing semiconductor chips’ thermal conductivity to boost computing power. Learn more.

Cole Woody, University of Houston student

Cole Woody has earned the Barry Goldwater Scholarship for his research on personalized cancer-fighting vaccines. Photo courtesy UH.

Cole Woody, a biology major in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Houston, has been awarded a Barry Goldwater Scholarship, becoming the first sophomore in UH history to earn the prestigious prize for research in natural sciences, mathematics and engineering.

Woody was recognized for his research on developing potential cancer vaccines through chimeric RNAs. The work specifically investigates how a vaccine can more aggressively target cancers. Learn more.

Varshini Chouthri, developer of NOMAD

NOMAD aims to help hikers stay in the moment while still utilizing technology. Photo courtesy UH.

An AI-powered, screen-free hiking system developed by Varshini Chouthri, a recent industrial design graduate from the University of Houston, has received Red Dot’s “Best of the Best” award, which recognizes the top innovative designs around the world.

“NOMAD was truly a passion project, inspired by years of hiking growing up, where the outdoors became a place of peace, challenge, and reflection,” Chouthri said.Learn more.

Axiom Space-tested cancer drug advances to clinical trials

mission critical

A cancer-fighting drug tested aboard several Axiom Space missions is moving forward to clinical trials.

Rebecsinib, which targets a cancer cloning and immune evasion gene, ADAR1, has received FDA approval to enter clinical trials under active Investigational New Drug (IND) status, according to a news release. The drug was tested aboard Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) and Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3). It was developed by Aspera Biomedicine, led by Dr. Catriona Jamieson, director of the UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute (SSCI).

The San Diego-based Aspera team and Houston-based Axiom partnered to allow Rebecsinib to be tested in microgravity. Tumors have been shown to grow more rapidly in microgravity and even mimic how aggressive cancers can develop in patients.

“In terms of tumor growth, we see a doubling in growth of these little mini-tumors in just 10 days,” Jamieson explained in the release.

Rebecsinib took part in the patient-derived tumor organoid testing aboard the International Space Station. Similar testing is planned to continue on Axiom Station, the company's commercial space station that's currently under development.

Additionally, the drug will be tested aboard Ax-4 under its active IND status, which was targeted to launch June 25.

“We anticipate that this monumental mission will inform the expanded development of the first ADAR1 inhibitory cancer stem cell targeting drug for a broad array of cancers," Jamieson added.

According to Axiom, the milestone represents the potential for commercial space collaborations.

“We’re proud to work with Aspera Biomedicines and the UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute, as together we have achieved a historic milestone, and we’re even more excited for what’s to come,” Tejpaul Bhatia, the new CEO of Axiom Space, said in the release. “This is how we crack the code of the space economy – uniting public and private partners to turn microgravity into a launchpad for breakthroughs.”

Houston ranks No. 4 for HQ relocations and more innovation news to know

Trending News

Editor's note: The top recent Houston business and innovation news includes a high ranking for Houston HQs, an innovative exoskeleton designed for children with cerebral palsy, and incoming drones for Walmart delivery. Catch up on the 5 most-read InnovationMap stories from the latter half of June 2025 below:

1. Houston ranks among top 5 cities for corporate HQ relocations in new report

Houston attracted 31 new corporate headquarters from 2018 to 2024, according to a new report from CBRE. Photo via Getty Images

The Houston area already holds the title as the country’s third biggest metro hub for Fortune 500 headquarters, behind the New York City and Chicago areas. Now, Houston can tout another HQ accolade: It’s in a fourth-place tie with the Phoenix area for the most corporate headquarters relocations from 2018 to 2024.

During that period, the Houston and Phoenix areas each attracted 31 corporate headquarters, according to new research from commercial real estate services company CBRE. Continue reading.

2. Texas plugs in among states at highest risk for summer power outages in 2025

A new study puts Texas at No. 2 among the states most at risk for power outages this summer. Photo via Getty Images

Warning: Houston could be in for an especially uncomfortable summer.

A new study from solar energy company Wolf River Electric puts Texas at No. 2 among the states most at risk for power outages this summer. Michigan tops the list. Continue reading.

3. Houston team develops innovative soft skeleton for kids with cerebral palsy

UH BRAIN and TIRR Memorial Hermann have developed the MyoStep soft exoskeleton to address motor impairments caused by cerebral palsy. Photo courtesy UH.

A Houston team has introduced the MyoStep soft exoskeleton for children with cerebral palsy.

The soft skeleton aims to address motor impairments caused by cerebral palsy that impact children’s ability to participate in physical activities, self-care and academics. Continue reading.

4. CPRIT grants $22M to bring top cancer researchers to Houston

CPRIT recently granted $93 million to 61 organizations and scientists, including many in Houston, to advance cancer research. Carter Smith/Courtesy of MD Anderson

Several prominent cancer researchers are coming to the Houston area thanks to $22 million in grants recently awarded by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).

The biggest CPRIT recruitment grant — $6 million — went to genetics researcher Jean Gautier. Gautier, a professor of genetics and development at Columbia University’s Institute for Cancer Genetics, is joining the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to continue his research. Continue reading.

5. California company to launch Walmart drone delivery in Houston

California company to launch Walmart drone delivery in Houston

Walmart Supercenters in Houston will offer Wing drone delivery services by this time next year. Photo courtesy Wing.

California-based Wing will soon touch down in Houston.

The drone delivery company has partnered with Walmart Supercenters in Houston, Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando and Tampa. According to a news release, Wing’s drone delivery services will be available at 100 Walmart stores across the selected markets by this time next year. Continue reading.

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