Since being acquired by a private equity firm, Houston-based HungerRush has expanded its tech. Photo via Getty Images

Houston-based HungerRush, which is a point-of-sale system that includes payment-processing, digital ordering, customer engagement, and delivery management, continues to spread its impact to businesses big and small.

A New York private equity firm, Corsair Capital, saw the potential for the cloud-based POS software and purchased a majority stake in HungerRush last summer. In 2022, HungerRush was on target to reach $100 million in recurring revenue according to The Deal.

HungerRush aims to serve an industry that according to the tech company, 80 percent think technology is the way to go to assist restaurants with labor shortages and other barriers. HungerRush acquired artificial intelligence text ordering app OrderAI, ordering and marketing company 9Fold LLC and Menufy.com over the past two years to grow its reach.

In the first quarter, the company introduced a comprehensive all-in-one POS system bundle designed to meet the needs of independent operators (IOs), with the overall goal of providing a tech stack to transform the experiences of both restaurant staff and customers. Their partnership with Menufy, which helps IOs drive both growth and profitability through an online website and mobile app ordering experience and currently serves over 15,000 restaurants across the US market, has helped to deliver the transformed IO experience to pizza restaurants and our offerings have quickly expanded to serve Vietnamese and Mexican restaurants as well.

One of the businesses seeing the benefits of platforms like HungerRush is Little Pop’s Pizzeria, which is a Naperville, Illinois-based pizza spot that uses the HungerRush to communicate to help the small business keep up with the large demands of the Chicagoland suburbs.The platform’s help has led to substantial business growth.

“Thanks to having 5,000 loyalty program customers stored in HungerRush, we were able to quickly communicate the new curbside pickup and no contact delivery options,” says HungerRush user Mike Nelson of Little Pop’s Pizzeria. “Getting the word out through email and Facebook has increased our business by 75 percent.”

HungerRush continues to flourish in a crowded marketspace, which Chief Revenue Officer Olivier Thierry attributes to the platform’s accessibility to the audience and variety of features.

“While speaking to small business restaurant owners, we continued to hear the unique challenges they faced around having to navigate multiple delivery app interfaces, labor scheduling solutions, and other tools – resulting in many ending the month under their goal quotas, “ Thierry says. “Our tech tools arm our IOs to be able to manage omnichannel ordering, inventory, loyalty programs, and labor scheduling - but most importantly, support them where they need it the most to be successful in today’s digital world.”
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8 can't-miss Houston business and innovation events for December

where to be

Editor's note: Houston’s innovation scene is loading up the calendar before the holidays. From climatetech pitch days to the return of favorite festive shindigs, here's what not to miss and how to register. Please note: this article may be updated to include additional event listings.

Dec. 3 — SouthWest-Midwest National Pediatric Device Innovation Consortium

This annual event brings together members, colleagues and guests of the FDA-supported pediatric consortium who are dedicated to assisting device innovators throughout the lifecycle in delivering innovative solutions to patients. Featured speakers include Dr. Danielle Gottlieb from Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, Balakrishna Haridas from Texas A&M University and Dr. Chester Koh from Texas Children’s Hospital.

This event is Wednesday, Dec. 3, from 3:30-8 p.m. at Texas A&M EnMed Tower. Register here.

Dec. 4 — Resiliency & Adaptation Sector Pitch Day: Scaling Solutions to Address Climate Disruption

Join innovators, industry leaders, investors and policymakers as they explore breakthrough climate and energy technologies at Greentown's latest installment of its Sector Pitch Day series, focused on resiliency and adaptation. Hear from Adrian Trömel, Chief Innovation Officer at Rice University; Eric Willman, Executive Director of the Rice WaTER Institute; pitches from 10 Greentown startups and more.

This event is Thursday, Dec. 4, from 1-3:30 p.m. at the Ion. The Ion Holiday Block Party follows. Register here.

Dec. 4 — The Ion District Holiday Block Party

The Ion District, Rice Alliance and Greentown Labs will celebrate the season during the Ion District Holiday Block Party. Expect to find local bites, drinks, music and meaningful connections across Houston’s innovation ecosystem. Guests are invited to participate in Operation Love’s holiday toy drive supporting local families.

This event is Thursday, Dec. 4, from 4-7 p.m. Register here.

Dec. 8 — Pumps & Pipes Annual Event 2025

The annual gathering brings together cross-industry leaders in aerospace, energy and medicine for engaging discussions and networking opportunities. Connor Grennan, Chief AI Architect at the NYU Stern School of Business, will present this year's keynote address, entitled "Practical Strategies to Increase Productivity." Other sessions will feature leaders from Cena Research Institute, NASA Ames Research Center, ExxonMobil, Southwest Airlines and more.

This event is Monday, Dec. 8, from 8 a.m.-5 p.m., at TMC Helix Park. Register here.

Dec. 9 — Jingle and Mingle

Don your ugliest sweater and snap a pic with Startup Santa! Bayou City Startups, Rocket Network, Founder Institute and Energytech Nexus are bringing back their popular Jingle Mingle for the third year. Network and celebrate with founders, community stakeholders and others in Houston's innovation scene. Donations to the Houston Food Bank are encouraged in place of tickets.

This event is Tuesday, Dec. 9, from 5-7 p.m., at the Solarium in Midtown. Register here.

Dec. 9 — European Innovation Spotlight

Celebrate European cooperation and innovation with the European Innovation Council during an exclusive demo night and networking event at Greentown Labs. Hear from 15 EIC-backed founders supported by the European Union with top-class climatetech technologies, listen to a fireside chat and engage in a networking event following the pitches.

This event is Tuesday, Dec. 9, from 4:30-7 p.m., at the Ion. Register here.

Dec. 9-10 — Energy LIVE

Energy LIVE is Reuters Events' flagship ConfEx that brings the full energy ecosystem together under one roof to solve the industry's most urgent commercial and operational challenges. The event will feature 3,000-plus senior executives across three strategic stages, a showcase of 75-plus exhibitors and six strategic content pillars.

This event is Dec. 9-10 at NRG Park. Register here.

Dec. 15 — Innov8 Hub Pitch Day

Hear pitches from members of the latest Innov8 Hub Innovators to Founders cohort, which empowers academic scientists and innovators to become successful startup founders. Meet and network with the founders over light bites and drinks at a reception following the pitch competition.

This event is Monday, Dec. 15, at the Innovation Center at UH Technology Bridge (Bldg. 4). Register here.

Houston scores $120M in new cancer research and prevention grants

cancer funding

The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas has granted more than $120 million to Houston organizations and companies as part of 73 new awards issued statewide.

The funds are part of nearly $154 million approved by the CPRIT's governing board earlier this month, bringing the organization's total investment in cancer prevention and research to more than $4 billion since its inception.

“Today marks an important milestone for CPRIT and for every Texan affected by cancer,” CEO Kristen Doyle said in a news release. “Texas has invested $4 billion in the fight against one of the world’s greatest public health challenges. Over 16 years, that support has helped Texas lead the search for breakthrough treatments, develop new cancer-fighting drugs and devices, and—most importantly—save tens of thousands of lives through early cancer detection and prevention. Every Texan should know this effort matters, and we’re not finished yet. Together, we will conquer cancer.”

A portion of the funding will go toward recruiting leading cancer researchers to Houston. CPRIT granted $5 million to bring John Quackenbush to Baylor College of Medicine. Quackenbush comes from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and is an expert in computational and systems biology. His research focuses on complex genomic data to understand cancer and develop targeted therapies.

The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center also received $3 million to recruit Irfan Asangani, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. His research focuses on how chromatin structure and epigenetic regulation drive the development and progression of cancer, especially prostate cancer.

Other funds will go towards research on a rare, aggressive kidney cancer that impacts children and young adults; screening programs for breast and cervical cancer; and diagnostic technology.

In total, cancer grants were given to:

  • The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center: $29.02 million
  • Baylor College of Medicine: $15.04 million
  • The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston: $9.37 million
  • Texas A&M University System Health Science Center: $1.2 million
  • University of Houston: $900,000

Additional Houston-based companies landed grants, including:

  • Crossbridge Bio Inc.: $15.01 million
  • OncoMAGNETx Inc.: $13.97 million
  • Immunogenesis Inc.: $10.85 million
  • Diakonos Oncology Corporation: $7.16 million
  • Iterion Therapeutics Inc.: $7.13 million
  • NovaScan Inc.: $3.7 million
  • EMPIRI Inc.: $2.59 million
  • Air Surgical Inc.: $2.58 million
  • Light and Salt Association: $2.45 million

See the full list of awards here.