TMC launches co-hosted health tech accelerator with Denmark

biobridge support

A new program established at TMC in partnership with Denmark will support the growth of three health tech companies. Photo courtesy of TMC

Years ago, the Texas Medical Center established a biobridge to exchange technology and support with Denmark. Now, the two organizations are coming together to advance three health tech startups through a unique accelerator.

TMC and Denmark-based BioInnovation Institute announced today that three companies from BII will join a customized accelerator program that will guide them toward a United States go-to-market strategy. The program will be built off of the TMCi Health Tech Accelerator program.

“At TMC, we are elevating our ability to create curated go-to-market experiences for hand-selected companies that have a relationship with our partners at the BioInnovation Institute and that are seeking to prepare for of market expansion in the U.S.,” says Emily Reiser, associate director of TMC Innovation, in a news release. “We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with BII and these founders.”

The three startups will head to Houston next week and incubate for six months, working with TMCi advisers and mentors on their individual challenges within commercialization and U.S. expansion. The three companies in the program are:

  • Aiomic, which is developing Aiomic360, an AI platform for postoperative complications. "With automated tracking and real-time risk assessment, Aiomic360 will function as a quality management tool for hospitals, a decision support tool for healthcare practitioners, and an individualized patient empowerment tool for surgical candidates," per the release.
  • Also tapping into AI, Orbit Health's solution, Neptune, is using motion data from smartwatches to track Parkinson’s motor state and treatment response passively. "Its continuous and objective insights enable regular treatment personalization that is needed throughout the course of the disease to optimize patient outcomes and improve quality of life," reads the release.
  • HEI Therapeutics is enabling at-home hypothyroidism management. "The innovative solution includes a patented finger stick blood test and digital patient empowerment tools and aims to significantly reduce the share of patients that is poorly regulated with medication," according to the release.

The TMC and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark launched the Biobridge in 2019. BII is a nonprofit organization with a few resources — the Bio Studio, Venture Lab, and Venture House — that support life science startups with resources and even funding of up to €3 million per projects and €1.8 million per company.

“As we strengthen our offering to support visionary healthcare innovators to develop products and solutions to address clear unmet needs, our partnership with Texas Medical Center allows BII startups to gain exposure to US market and ready themselves for US market entry. We are thrilled about this collaboration with the Texas Medical Center which is one of the largest life science ecosystems in the world,” says Tony Cheng-fu Chang, principal at BioInnovation Institute. “Through the customized accelerator program, these three healthcare startups will acquire critical insight to create field-ready plans for bringing their products and solutions to the US market.”

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With boost from Houston, Texas is the No. 1 state for economic development

governor's cup

Texas is on a 14-year winning streak as the top state for attracting job-creating business location and expansion projects.

Once again, Texas has claimed Site Selection magazine’s Governor’s Cup. This year’s honor recognizes the state with the highest number of economic development projects in 2025. Texas landed more than 1,400 projects last year.

Ron Starner, executive vice president of Site Selection, calls Texas “a dynasty in economic development.”

Among metro areas, Houston lands at No. 2 for the most economic development projects secured last year (590), behind No. 1 Chicago and ahead of No. 3 Dallas-Fort Worth.

In praising Houston as a project magnet, Gov. Greg Abbott cites the November announcement by pharmaceutical giant Lilly that it’s building a $6.5 billion manufacturing plant at Houston’s Generation Park.

“Growth in the Greater Houston region is a great benefit to our state’s economy, a major location for foreign direct investment and key industry sectors like energy, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, and life sciences,” Abbott tells Site Selection. “Houston is also home to one of the largest concentrations of U.S. headquarters for companies from around the world.”

In 2025, Fortune ranked Houston as the U.S. city with the third-highest number of Fortune 500 headquarters (26).

Texas retained the Governor’s Cup by gaining over 1,400 business location and expansion projects last year, representing more than $75 billion in capital investments and producing more than 42,000 new jobs.

Site Selection says Texas’ project count for 2025 handily beat second-place Illinois (680 projects) and third-place Ohio (467 projects). Texas’ number for 2025 represented 18% of all qualifying U.S. projects tracked by Site Selection.

“You can see that we are on a trajectory to ensure our economic diversification is going to inoculate us in good times, as well as bad times, to ensure our economy is still going to grow, still create new jobs, prosperity, and opportunities for Texans going forward,” Abbott says.

Houston e-commerce giant Cart.com raises $180M, surpasses $1B in funding

fresh funding

Editor's note: This article has been updated to clarify information about Cart.com's investors.

Houston-based commerce and logistics platform Cart.com has raised $180 million in growth capital from private equity firm Springcoast Partners, pushing the startup past the $1 billion funding mark since its founding in 2020.

Cart.com says it will use the capital to scale its logistics network, expand AI capabilities and develop workflow automation tools.

“This investment will strengthen our balance sheet and provide us with the flexibility to accelerate our strategic priorities,” Omair Tariq, CEO of Cart.com, said in a news release. “We’ve built a platform that combines commerce software with a scaled logistics network, and we’re just getting started.”

In conjunction with the funding, Springcoast executive-in-residence Russell Klein has been appointed to Cart.com’s board of directors. Before joining Springcoast, he was chief commercial officer at Austin-based Commerce.com (Nasdaq: CMRC). Klein co-led Commerce.com’s IPO, led the company’s mergers-and-acquisitions strategy and played a key role in several funding rounds.

“The team at Cart.com has demonstrated excellence in their ability to scale efficiently while continuing to innovate,” Klein said. “I’m excited to join the board and support the company as it expands its AI-driven capabilities, deepens enterprise relationships, and further strengthens its position as a category-defining commerce and fulfillment platform.”

Before this funding round, Cart.com had raised $872 million in venture capital and reached a valuation of about $1.6 billion, according to CB Insights. With the new funding, the startup has collected over $1 billion in just six years.

This is the income required to be a middle class earner in Houston in 2026

Cashing In

A new study tracking the upper and lower thresholds for middle class households across the nation's largest cities has revealed Houstonians need to make at least a grand more than last year to maintain their middle class status this year.

According to SmartAsset's just-released annual report, "What It Takes to Be Middle Class in America – 2026 Study," Houston households need to make anywhere from $42,907 to $128,722 to qualify as middle class earners this year.

Compared to 2025, Houstonians need to make $1,153 more per year to meet the minimum threshold for a middle class status, whereas the upper bound has stretched $3,448 higher. The median income for a Houston household in 2024 was $64,361, the study added.

SmartAsset's experts used 2024 Census Bureau median household income data for the 100 biggest U.S. cities and all 50 states and determined middle class income ranges by using a variation of Pew Research's definition of a middle class household, stating the salary range is "two-thirds to double the median U.S. salary."

In the report's ranking of the U.S. cities with the highest household incomes needed to maintain a middle class status, Houston ranked No. 80.

In the report's state-by-state comparison, Texas has the 24th highest middle class income range. Overall, Texas households need to make between $53,147 and $159,442 to be labeled "middle class" in 2026. For additional context, the median income for a Texas household in 2024 came out to $79,721.

"Often, the expectations that come with the term 'middle class' include reaching home ownership, raising kids, the comfort of modest emergency funds and retirement savings, and the occasional splurge or vacation," the report said. "And as the median household income varies widely across the U.S. depending on the local job market, housing market, infrastructure and other factors, so does swing the bounds on what constitutes a middle class income in America."

What it takes to be middle class elsewhere around Texas

Two Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs – Frisco and Plano – have some of the highest middle class income ranges in the country for 2026, SmartAsset found.

Frisco households need to make between $96,963 and $290,888 to qualify as middle class this year, which is the third-highest middle class income range nationwide.

Plano's middle class income range is the eighth highest nationally, with households needing to make between $77,267 and $231,802 for the designation.

Salary range needed to be a middle class earner in other Texas cities:

  • No. 28 – Austin: between $60,287 and $180,860
  • No. 40 – Irving: between $56,566 and $169,698
  • No. 44 – Fort Worth: between $55,002 and $165,006
  • No. 57 – Garland: between $50,531 and $151,594
  • No. 60 – Arlington: between $49,592 and $148,77
  • No. 61 – Dallas: between $49,549 and $148,646
  • No. 73 – Corpus Christi: between $44,645 and $133,934
  • No. 77 – San Antonio: between $44,117 and $132,352
  • No. 83 – Lubbock: between $41,573 and $124,720
  • No. 84 – Laredo: between $41,013 and $123,038
  • No. 89 – El Paso: between $39,955 and $119,864
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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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