A Houston software company has announced the five early-stage startups it will be supporting through its new venture studio. Photo via Getty Images

A Houston-based technology consultancy with a portfolio of Fortune 500 clients has announced the five companies it will be supporting in its new startup studio.

Softeq Development Corporation announced its inaugural cohort for the Softeq Venture Studio. The program, which will be offered quarterly for four to six startups each cohort, is geared at helping its resident startups quickly develop their technology and build their businesses.

"Historically, most tech startups had a founder with development skills. However, we're now seeing more and more business people, doctors, and other professionals start companies, and they need a strong engineering partner to develop their products," says Christopher A. Howard, Softeq founder and CEO, in a news release. "We take it several steps further with the Venture Studio providing technology business consulting, development services, and much-needed cash. We're a vested partner, so we also help secure follow-on funding for continued growth."

Christopher A. Howard is the founder and CEO of Softeq. Photo courtesy of Softeq

The group of startups are from the Bay Area, New York, Boston, and Houston and represents several industries, including sports tech, med-tech, and lifestyle tech. The founders of all five of the early-stage startups will work in Houston from October through December in their provided office space at FUSE in CITYCENTRE near the Softeq corporate headquarters in the Energy Corridor. Participating companies each receive $100,000 in cash and development services in exchange for a small piece of equity in their company, per the release. Serial entrepreneur Billy Grandy will lead the program.

"Most early-stage accelerators focus on the business aspects of a startup," says Grandy. "Adding the enterprise-focused development resources of Softeq helps startups de-risk the effort and puts future investors at ease. Furthermore, Houston's rapidly growing innovation ecosystem and access to an active investment community and tech-forward business leaders make this city a perfect venue for startups."

The companies selected for the fall cohort are:

  • Atlas Coaching is a marketplace to connect female sports celebrities, pros, and coaches with fans looking to improve their game and receive digital training.
  • FitLift improves strength training techniques and reduces injuries through a mobile app and wearable device that tracks precise motion and provides feedback.
  • GetScouted aims to provide a verifiable source of athletes' performance and statistics to coaches and scouts using biometric analysis and analytics.
  • Home Outside is democratizing landscape design by making it simple, affordable, automated, easy to visualize, and integrated through AI and 1-click ordering.
  • Orcana is a medical technology startup utilizing augmented reality and AI to provide 24/7 remote support for operating rooms to reps, surgeons, and surgical teams.

The applications are already open for the winter cohort, which will be held mid-January through March of 2022. Companies can apply until December 11, 2021, at www.softeq.com/venture-studio.

Softeq also announced its Innovation Lab last year. The lab is in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Integrated Design and Management program and Massachusetts-based Boundless Technology and is directed at helping enterprise companies collaborate on the technologies of tomorrow.

Howard recently discussed with InnovationMap his passion for cultivating technology innovation in Houston on a recent episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast. Listen to it below.


Ad Placement 300x100
Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Oxy's $1.3B Texas carbon capture facility on track to​ launch this year

gearing up

Houston-based Occidental Petroleum is gearing up to start removing CO2 from the atmosphere at its $1.3 billion direct air capture (DAC) project in the Midland-Odessa area.

Vicki Hollub, president and CEO of Occidental, said during the company’s recent second-quarter earnings call that the Stratos project — being developed by carbon capture and sequestration subsidiary 1PointFive — is on track to begin capturing CO2 later this year.

“We are immensely proud of the achievements to date and the exceptional record of safety performance as we advance towards commercial startup,” Hollub said of Stratos.

Carbon dioxide captured by Stratos will be stored underground or be used for enhanced oil recovery.

Oxy says Stratos is the world’s largest DAC facility. It’s designed to pull 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air and either store it underground or use it for enhanced oil recovery. Enhanced oil recovery extracts oil from unproductive reservoirs.

Most of the carbon credits that’ll be generated by Stratos through 2030 have already been sold to organizations such as Airbus, AT&T, All Nippon Airways, Amazon, the Houston Astros, the Houston Texans, JPMorgan, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks and TD Bank.

The infrastructure business of investment manager BlackRock has pumped $550 million into Stratos through a joint venture with 1PointFive.

As it gears up to kick off operations at Stratos, Occidental is also in talks with XRG, the energy investment arm of the United Arab Emirates-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., to form a joint venture for the development of a DAC facility in South Texas. Occidental has been awarded up to $650 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to build the South Texas DAC hub.

The South Texas project, to be located on the storied King Ranch, will be close to industrial facilities and energy infrastructure along the Gulf Coast. Initially, the roughly 165-square-mile site is expected to capture 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, with the potential to store up to 3 billion metric tons of CO2 per year.

“We believe that carbon capture and DAC, in particular, will be instrumental in shaping the future energy landscape,” Hollub said.

---

This article originally appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

New app by Sports Illustrated grants access to 700 sports courts in Houston

Goal!

A new sports center booking app CatchCorner, powered by Sports Illustrated, enables sports enthusiasts in Houston to seamlessly secure a spot for a quick game without membership fees.

It soft-launched in Houston this spring and, according to co-founder and chief operating officer Maya Azouri, has been a huge success.

"The Houston expansion has been jaw-dropping," she said. "Up until now, CatchCorner’s launch in New York City had been our most successful market, but Houston has launched on par with it."

Within a 30-day period this summer, over 30,000 users join the app, Azouri noted, adding that the app would include 700 unique recreational spaces users can choose from in the city.

"There’s a real sports culture here, with athletes of all levels from casual weekend players to competitive amateurs and even pros. The diversity of the sports community, combined with the number of high-quality facilities across the city, makes it a perfect fit for CatchCorner," she said.

CatchCorner in Houston offers bookings for basketball, volleyball, soccer, pickleball, padel, baseball, badminton, and tennis, with plans to include golf simulators and ice rink sports soon. The Zone Sports, Toros HTX, PAC Gym, and Houston Pickleball Center are among the most popular venues.

Using the app is a snap. Once you pick your sport, venues with available slots are listed including distance from you with the booking schedules in the results so there are no surprises. The slots can go fast, so occasional error messages pop up when trying to book, but it's otherwise a three-click process. CatchCorner also helpfully includes a picture of the facilities while booking.

CatchCorner announced Google integration in June that lets users book through the app directly from searches when they look up specific venues. This is slightly less intuitive to use than the app, but it does ultimately work in both mobile and desktops versions. Either way, it greatly streamlines the booking process for people who just want to schedule a quick pickup game somewhere.

"It’s especially useful for casual players or people who want to organize something on short notice," said Azouri. "Whether it’s a weekend basketball run, a weekday futsal match, or a spontaneous pickleball game with friends, CatchCorner makes it easy to coordinate without the usual logistical headaches.

"Some feedback here has been that we’re like 'Expedia for sports.' It’s because booking a flight online is that easy, booking your next game or workout should be just as simple."

---

This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.