Houston early stage startup accelerator introduces latest cohort

growing gains

The latest cohort from gBETA Houston has been announced and is currently underway at the Downtown Launchpad. Photo courtesy of Downtown Launchpad

Five Houston startups are joining a global accelerator for a seven-week program to strategically grow their businesses.

Houston's gBETA, a part of gener8tor in partnership with the Downtown Launchpad, has launched its spring cohort — the seventh cohort since its launch in Houston in 2019 — this month. The free program lasts seven weeks and connects companies to gener8tor's network of mentors, customers, corporate partners, and investors.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Downtown Launchpad to bring these programs to life and bolster the technology and sustainability industries in Houston,” says Lauren Usher, gener8tor gBETA vice president, in a news release.

gBETA's equity-free model provides coaching for its cohort companies, which are all Houston-based, home-grown.

“It’s exciting to see the seventh cohort of gBETA Houston come together. We’ve seen so much growth from our previous alumni from our program, and we’re excited for that same impact to flourish with this incoming cohort,” says Muriel Foster, gBETA Houston director, in the release.

The ongoing cohort's members include:

  • Adaptagym revolutionizes the fitness and rehabilitation industries by offering a comprehensive and user-friendly platform that caters to the unique needs of all persons on the ability spectrum. The company matches users with the appropriate fitness and allied health professionals. Adaptagym is currently partnering with one clinic and four individuals for beta testing.
  • Circle.ooo is a B2B2C technology company streamlining event tech for small-to-medium event hosts, attendees and sponsors. The app-within-app concept allows event holders to create a free ‘Circle’, and Attendees create a single 'universal profile' digicard to instantly register for any Event without having multiple accounts, profiles or inputting data fields. Circle is a Houston-based Delaware C-Corp, is currently testing v 2.0 of the app, and has 27 customers on their waitlist.
  • Financial Aid Frenzy transforms the way students pay for college, one dollar at a time. Financial Aid Frenzy's crowdfunding platform is tailored to assist students in getting the money needed for their education by connecting them with donors who are passionate about helping them achieve their educational fundraising goals. Financial Aid Frenzy is a Houston-based Delaware C-Corp, with 40 customers interested in the platform.
  • Kash-In Academy utilizes digital “kash” to increase student engagement through monetized lessons and quizzes. With the Kash-In Academy platform, teachers are able to deposit “kash” for positive behavior and academic achievement. Kash-In Academy is approved in 12 school districts servicing 932 teachers and 8,069 students.
  • MendIt’s apparel care marketplace amplifies the choices for consumers to manage their closets more sustainably and empowers retailers with aftercare solutions that elevate their brand. Retailers work with MendIt to offer long-term product care to customers, helping to extend the life of their clothing, save money through reduced returns, and direct capital to local businesses. MendIt’s product is live and available nationwide via shipping, with three local drop-off locations in the Houston market, a waiting list of “menders” across 9 states, and hundreds of garments mended to date.
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This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Kaitlyn Allen of MendIt, Miguel Calatayud of iwi, and Tatiana Fofanova of Koda Health. Courtesy photos

3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

Editor's note: In this week's roundup of Houston innovators to know, I'm introducing you to three local innovators across industries — from sustainability to health tech — recently making headlines in Houston innovation.

Kaitlyn Allen, founder and chief strategy officer of MendIt

MendIt seeks to reduce textile waste by providing an easy-to-use app to make menders and customizers more accessible. Photo courtesy of MendIt

Kaitlyn Allen thought she had a great idea for a company — something that can help people repair clothing conveniently. And all of the pieces of the strategy already existed. There are plenty of seamstressing businesses around town, but not an easy way to navigate them. “

There’s a disconnect. There’s a market of people who potentially want to mend their clothes, but there’s no easy way of finding or accessing that service,” she says. “With this next generation, you need to meet them where they are.”

And where they are, Allen says, is on their phones.

MendIt is completing a pilot program with one mender — Connect Community in Gulfton area — in partnership with St. Luke's Gethsemane on Bellaire in Sharpstown. She also hopes to tap into a local artist who can help with customization — like embroidery, for instance. Click here to read more.

Miguel Calatayud, CEO of iwi

Miguel Calatayud, CEO of iwi, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss his sustainable business of farming algae for nutritional products. Photo courtesy of iwi

Miguel Calatayud feels like he has the perfect storm of a product. Not only does his company iwi's nutritional supplement have a sustainability focus, it's also just a very competitive product in the marketplace. The company has created a sustainable suite of products from innovative algae farming in the deserts of Texas and New Mexico. These football field-sized farms operate on desert land using just salt water and sand and produce algae sustainably — all while absorbing CO2.

"We've been growing significantly for one main reason," Calatayud says. "It works."

Calatayud shares more about the impact he's making and why Houston is the ideal market for him to do it in on the Houston Innovators podcast. Click here to read more.

Tatiana Fofanova, co-founder and CEO of Koda Health

Tatiana Fofanova, co-founder and CEO of Koda, closed recent funding for the digital health startup. Image via LinkedIn

Tatiana Fofanova, Koda co-founder and CEO, has something to celebrate. The Houston-based startup announced this month that it raised $3.5 million in its latest seed round. The funding will be used to help the digital advanced care planning company double the size of its team in the next six months.

"Koda Health helps vulnerable people navigate and communicate difficult decisions about their health care journey. So, when hiring, we look for empathetic people who are phenomenal communicators," Tatiana Fofanova, Koda co-founder and CEO, says in a statement.

The Koda team will also use the funds to expand its operations to all 50 states. According to the statement, the team plans to focus on low-resource communities and operating in different languages. Click here to read more.

MendIt seeks to reduce textile waste by providing an easy-to-use app to make menders and customizers more accessible. Photo courtesy of MendIt

Houston startup tackles fast fashion with app that connects users to small business menders

sustainable startup

When Kaitlyn Allen’s grandmother died, she left a green sweater that Allen wanted to keep and wear in memory of her. But the sweater had a hole in it and, in a morbidly ironic fashion, the person Allen would have turned to to mend the sweater was her grandmother.

This sparked an idea for the Houstonian, who thought there might be other people out there with the same mending needs.

“We have two generations of people who don’t know how to sew,” Allen tells InnovationMap. “We did national studies to see where people fall within this, and only 4.2 percent of Americans actually take their clothes to get repaired.”

The rest of people, as one might assume, are just buying new clothes and throwing old items out, contributing to a massive — and growing — carbon footprint. Allen — who’s spent almost a decade running Global Affairs Associates, a sustainability consultancy — decided to look into just how big an impact the textile industry had.

Kaitlyn Allen, who's the founder and chief strategy officer for MendIt, has worked a decade in ESG consulting. Photo via mendit.app

“I learned about how the throw-away culture and fast fashion — the mass production of extraordinarily cheap textiles — leads to all these really humongous environmental problems,” Allen says, citing that the equivalent of a garbage truck full of textiles is landfilled or incinerated every second around the globe.

“It’s a really huge problem, but we don’t really see it in our culture,” Allen continues. “One of the simple things we can do to make an impact is to extend the life of the clothes we already own — mend them, take care of the, and don’t just throw them away after three months.”

In light of this research and the unmet need Allen saw from her own experience, she founded MendIt, a Houston startup that connects users digitally to the local seamstresses and menders. Her first idea of the company was to tap into the gig economy and “Uber-ize” the industry. But she quickly realized there was an opportunity to tap into the small businesses already working within this space. These businesses are usually not digitally savvy and usually women and immigrant-owned. While these businesses already exist, they aren’t tapping into the market need as best as they could, Allen says.

“There’s a disconnect. There’s a market of people who potentially want to mend their clothes, but there’s no easy way of finding or accessing that service,” she says. “With this next generation, you need to meet them where they are.”

And where they are, Allen says, is on their phones.

MendIt is completing a pilot program with one mender — Connect Community in Gulfton area — in partnership with St. Luke's Gethsemane on Bellaire in Sharpstown. She also hopes to tap into a local artist who can help with customization — like embroidery, for instance.

MendIt hopes to take the lessons learned from this pilot and expand within Houston before growing nationally. She’s also looking for partners — menders, retailers, and potential investors — down the road to further grow the business.

“The broader vision is to have every small business in the Unite States that does clothing repair or customization will be registered on the app so that local users can find them where they live and place orders through the app,” she says.

The MendIt app is available now as a part of the company's pilot program. Photo via mendit.app

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Texas earns 22nd 'best state for business' title as GDP hits $2.9T

booming economy

The Texas business sector recently received a double dose of good news.

For the 22nd consecutive year, Chief Executive magazine named Texas the best state for business. In tandem with that achievement, preliminary new estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show the size of Texas’ economy jumped to $2.9 trillion in 2025, up by a nation-leading growth rate of 2.5 percent compared with the previous year.

Speaking about the Chief Executive honor, Gov. Greg Abbott says Texas benefits from pro-growth policies, a strong workforce, strategic investments in education, training for high-demand skills and the presence of critical infrastructure.

“Texas is where businesses innovate and where opportunity abounds. … We will continue to move at the speed of business as we build a more prosperous Texas for generations to come,” the governor says.

An annual Chief Executive survey of CEOs, presidents and business owners determines which state is the best for business. Texas has landed at No. 1 every year since Chief Executive launched the ranking.

“Truly, this is an incredible run that Texas has going,” says Christopher Chalk, publisher of Chief Executive. “CEOs are a tough group to please, and yet year after year Texas continues to earn the top spot—no small feat.”

It’s also no small feat for a state to notch annual gains in its gross domestic product (GDP), a measurement of economic power based on the value of goods and services produced each year.

With an estimated GDP of $2.9 trillion last year, Texas maintains its position as the eighth-largest global economy compared with the nations of the world, based on preliminary estimates from the International Monetary Fund.

In reference to Texas’ GDP growth, Abbott says the Lone Star State is “the premier destination for job creators from across the country and world. We will keep attracting world-class investment, create jobs, and expand opportunity for Texans for generations to come.”

UH med school granted $2M gift to offer student scholarships

scholarship gift

A new scholarship endowment aims to support students in the University of Houston’s recently established medical school.

The University of Houston’s Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine received a planned estate gift commitment estimated at $2.1 million to establish the Bob Diehl and Teresa Evans Diehl Scholarship Endowment. The scholarship will assist full-time medical students who demonstrate financial need and meet academic standards.

“Endowed scholarships like this do more than ease the burden of tuition—they empower our students to focus on learning, leadership and compassionate care,” Jonathan McCullers, UH vice president of health affairs and dean of the Fertitta College of Medicine, said in a news release. “We are deeply grateful to the Diehls for their vision and commitment to expanding access to health care through education.”

The endowment aims to provide annual scholarship support for students enrolled in the Fertitta College of Medicine. The gift also aligns with the university's fundraising initiative focused on expanding opportunities for students, known as Can’t Stop Houston: The Centennial Campaign, which works to expand research ahead of UH’s 100th anniversary next year.

The Diehls are both graduates from UH, and Bob Diehl spent 38 years working at UPS.

“It brings me happiness to know that my endowment will make a difference in young people's lives and in the communities that will need those future doctors,” he said in the release.

The Fertitta College of Medicine welcomed its inaugural class of 30 students in 2020 and expects classes to grow to 120 students in the coming years, according to UH. The university believes scholarship opportunities will be crucial for students to pursue medical education despite financial challenges.

“The Diehl family’s generosity will open doors for talented future physicians who are called to serve our communities but may otherwise face financial barriers to pursuing a medical education,” McCullers added.

9 Houston universities boast best grad programs of 2026, per U.S. News

making the grade

Nine Houston-area universities are earning new national acclaim in a report of the best graduate schools in the U.S. for 2026.

U.S. News & World Report annually publishes its national "Best Graduate Schools" rankings in early April, which comprehensively rank graduate programs across business, education, engineering, law, health, and many others.

New for the 2026 edition, the publication updated its rankings across 12 health disciplines — only physician assistant and social work were excluded — and "the first full refresh" of doctoral science programs since 2022. U.S. News also revived its Master's in Fine Arts rankings for the first time since 2020.

"We know a graduate degree is a major commitment,” said LaMont Jones, Ed.D., managing editor of Education at U.S. News. “That is why we are dedicated to methodologies that thoroughly examine a wide range of factors, from research excellence to career success. These rankings are a powerful tool for prospective students, offering clarity and confidence as they approach their most critical educational choice."

This is how the nine local schools ranked, statewide and nationally, and how they compared with last year's national ranking:

Rice University

  • Brown School of Engineering – No. 3 best graduate engineering school in Texas; No. 25 nationally (up from No. 26 last year)
  • Jones Graduate School of Business – No. 3 best business school in Texas; No. 29 nationally (unchanged)

Several of Rice’s doctoral science programs were among the 30 best in the country, including earth sciences (No. 20), chemistry (No. 22), biostatistics (No. 25), mathematics (No. 26), statistics (No. 27), and physics (No. 28). The Ph.D. biological sciences program tied as 55th best nationwide. Rice’s public affairs program tied for No. 107 nationally.

University of Houston

  • Cullen College of Engineering – No. 5 best graduate engineering school in Texas; tied for No. 71 nationally (up from No. 72 last year)
  • College of Education – No. 5 best graduate education school in Texas; No. 95 nationally (down from No. 81 last year)
  • UH Law Center – No. 5 best law school in Texas; No. 54 nationally (up from No. 63 last year)

The University of Houston has the 31st best pharmacy program in the country, its speech-language pathology program tied for No. 54 nationally, and the clinical psychology program tied as 65th best in the U.S. In the doctoral sciences rankings, UH’s earth sciences program ranked No. 80 nationally, the physics program tied for No. 81, the chemistry program ranked 84th, and the mathematics program ranked No. 87. The Ph.D. biological sciences program ranked as the 104th best in the nation. UH’s public affairs program tied as 80th best nationally. The university also has the 106th best fine arts program in the nation.

University of Houston, Clear Lake

  • College of Education – No. 12 best graduate education school in Texas; No. 164 nationally (up from No. 166 last year)

University of Texas Health Science Center (UT Health Houston)

  • Cizik School of Nursing – No. 2 best master’s in nursing program in Texas; No. 32 nationally (up from No. 41 last year)
  • McGovern Medical School – Tier 2 best research medical school in the U.S.

UT Health Houston’s public health program tied for No. 31 nationwide, and the health care management program tied for No. 47. The Cizik School of Nursing’s nurse anesthesia program tied as 49th best in the country. In the doctoral sciences rankings, the university’s biostatistics program tied as the 25th best nationwide.

University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston

  • Sealy School of Medicine – Tier 2 best medical research school in the U.S.

UT Medical Branch’s occupational therapy program tied for No. 41 nationally, the physical therapy program tied for No. 57, and the university tied for the 60th best nurse anesthesia program in the U.S. The public health program tied for No. 89 nationally. In the doctoral sciences rankings, the university’s biostatistics program tied for No. 70 nationally.

Prairie View A&M University

  • College of Nursing – No. 5 best master’s in nursing program in Texas; No. 104 nationally (unchanged)

South Texas College of Law Houston

  • No. 7 best law school in Texas; No. 128 nationally (up from No. 138 last year)

Texas Southern University

  • College of Education – No. 17 best graduate education school in Texas; No. 219 nationally (down from No. 178-195 last year)

TSU’s pharmacy program tied for No. 120 nationally.

University of Texas MD Anderson
UT MD Anderson’s doctoral biostatistics program tied as the 17th best nationally, and the doctoral biological sciences program tied for No. 50.

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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