Houston sportstech startup shoots, scores in Pharrell Williams competition

on the rebound

GRIND won second place in Pharrell Williams' Black Ambition Prize. Photo via grindbasketball.com

Anyone who's witnessed even just a minute of basketball knows how important accuracy is in sinking shots on the court. One Houston startup has developed a device to help practice make perfect in a game.

GRIND’s portable basketball shooting machine, the first of its kind, was created by founder and CEO Thomas Fields, former basketball phenom at Houston’s Reagan High School (now Heights High School).

“I remember being on varsity as a freshman and shooting thousands of shots every day trying to be the best,” says Fields. “My school bought a shooting machine, but they never let me use it. It was a game-changing piece of equipment, and I didn’t even have access because the gyms were always closed or closing.

“And another major problem was getting your rebounds, so we set out to make a portable basketball rebounding machine, so you could take it anywhere like home, the park, or the gym. It was also important to make it affordable, too.”

The GRIND shooting machine is available online. Photo via grindbasketball.com

At just 110 pounds, the GRIND shooting machine is 54 percent lighter than other home shooting machines, has a 12-foot net, and needs just 90 seconds to set up or take down.

“Our portable shooting machine has been on the market for about three, four years now,” says Fields. “So now it's time to kind of accelerate the growth, and that’s pretty exciting. We really have our sights on NBA Africa for a partnership there. Another one is Adidas; we are collaborating with them right now and they're also one of the sponsors of Black Hat Mission. And hopefully, we would like to land some NBA guys to invest and really get behind our sportstech company, but also make a significant impact in the community by getting kids into tech through sports.”

To that end, GRIND recently won second place in a competition from Black Ambition, an organization founded by Pharrell Williams. With the tagline, “Uninterrupted ambition. Unmatched impact,” the Black Ambition Prize celebrates underrepresented founders globally.

“When I initially heard of Black Ambition, I just kind of heard that Pharrell had started a venture fund aimed at uplifting black and brown entrepreneurs,” says Fields. “And when I read more about it, I realized that their mission perfectly aligned with GRIND. Our goal is to try to get kids into tech and STEM, but use sports as the conduit and the bridge to get them there.

“We applied for the million-dollar cash prize for first place, but took second place, which is a $250,000 investment in the company. So now that Pharrell and Black Ambition are behind us, we are going out and raising some more capital to hit that hyper stage that we're going into. We are launching our software next year and our hardware has really been growing.”

Fields pitched GRIND on Shark Tank in May of 2021, where he was offered a joint deal for $250,000 for 25 percent of the company from both Mark Cuban and Barbara Corcoran. While Fields agreed on the show, the finalized terms of the deal were not disclosed.

- YouTubeThomas Fields is seeking $250000 for a 5% stake of GRIND. From Season 12 Episode 23 Watch Now: ...

As a startup, GRIND, a consumer brand developing the world’s first smart ecosystem of sports equipment products, represents the continued uptick with sportstech innovation in Houston.

“We want to revolutionize the world of sports equipment by leveraging cutting edge technology by developing sports equipment that can seamlessly connect to software, enhancing athletic performance, and pushing athletes to achieve their peak potential,” Fields says.

As GRIND continues to push forward and expand its footprint, it’s also looking to expand its customer base.

“I think the target users are middle school and high school athletes,” says Fields. “These are the kids that are striving to be great athletes and striving to get into college. We also have colleges that have our product, as well. But mostly, the customer is the parents of those athletes. That's really who we're trying to get excited.

“And then, of course, there are the coaches and trainers. They own gyms; they own organizations and need equipment for their schools and universities. That's another target customer of ours for sure.”

Ultimately, GRIND will continue to build on Fields’ initial inspiration to design products and technologies with the athletes — especially hoopers — in mind.

“Our goal in the next few years is to really amp up the scholarships that we facilitate to funnel kids into STEM tech careers and pathways,” says Fields. “GRIND Day, which is a proclamation the City of Houston gave us for August 12 each year, is a day where we bring sports, tech, and culture all under one umbrella. Kids see us using 3D printers and lasers to cut the products that we make in our warehouse, which is in an underserved community, which hopefully makes them think it’s cool and want to get into technology.”

Calling all sports tech startups founded by Black or Hispanic innovators. Photo via Getty Images

Diversity-focused sports tech accelerator opens applications to Houston innovators for the first time

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A global organization has announced it's opening applications to its equity-focused sports tech accelerator to Houston founders for the first time.

Thanks to a collaboration with Impact Hub and Black Ambition, the adidas Community Lab has expanded its footprint and is now accepting applicants from new markets, including Houston, Toronto, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and New York, for its 2024-2025 cohort.

The initiative, which has been running for three years, has a goal of supporting Black and Latino/a/e founders with mentorship, pitch training, event programming, and networking. The eight-month program also has $75,000 in grant funding to dole out to participants as well.

“As Community Lab enters its third year, we are thrilled to cultivate a larger cohort of social entrepreneurs who share our vision of removing barriers to accessing sport for the communities we collectively serve,” Ayesha Martin, senior director of adidas Purpose, says in a news release.

Both the global organization of Impact Hub and the local group, Impact Hub Houston, are involved in the collaboration.

“Impact Hub is thrilled to partner and support this third iteration of adidas Community Lab, empowering visionary leaders who are advancing SDG3 —Good Health and Wellbeing — and SDG10 — Reduced Inequalities," Michelle Avalos, co-founder of Impact Hub Houston, adds. Together, we’re helping entrepreneurs create equitable access to sports and foster healthier, more inclusive communities for all."

Applications are open online now until September 23.

Founded by Pharrell Williams, Black Ambition will also collaborate with the program this year on key programing sessions. The organization invests funding and resources into Black and Hispanic entrepreneur-founded startups.

"Black Ambition was founded to create the space, bespoke opportunities and relationships needed for underrepresented founders to excel, uninterrupted. We are excited to partner with adidas Purpose to extend elements of our renowned, global founder support model to social impact entrepreneurs positively transforming their communities through sports and wellness," says Jermeen Sherman, managing director at Black Ambition.

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Houston unicorn closes $421M to fuel first phase of flagship energy project

Heating Up

Houston geothermal unicorn Fervo Energy has closed $421 million in non-recourse debt financing for the first phase of its flagship Cape Station project in Beaver County, Utah.

Fervo believes Cape Station can meet the needs of surging power demand from data centers, domestic manufacturing and an energy market aiming to use clean and reliable power. According to the company, Cape Station will begin delivering its first power to the grid this year and is expected to reach approximately 100 megwatts of operating capacity by early 2027. Fervo added that it plans to scale to 500 megawatts.

The $421 million financing package includes a $309 million construction-to-term loan, a $61 million tax credit bridge loan, and a $51 million letter of credit facility. The facilities will fund the remaining construction costs for the first phase of Cape Station, and will also support the project’s counterparty credit support requirements.

Coordinating lead arrangers include Barclays, BBVA, HSBC, MUFG, RBC and Société Générale, with additional participation from Bank of America, J.P. Morgan and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Limited, New York Branch.

“As demand for firm, clean, affordable power accelerates, EGS (Enhanced Geothermal Systems) is set to become a core energy asset class for infrastructure lenders,” Sean Pollock, managing director, project Finance at RBC Capital Markets, said in a news release. “Fervo is pioneering this step change with Cape Station, a vital contribution to American energy security that RBC is proud to support.”

The oversubscribed financing marks Cape Station’s shift from early-stage and bridge funding to a long-term, non-recourse capital structure, according to the news release.

“Non-recourse financing has historically been considered out of reach for first-of-a-kind projects,” David Ulrey, CFO of Fervo Energy, said in a news release. “Cape Station disrupts that narrative. With proven oil and gas technology paired with AI-enabled drilling and exploration, robust commercial offtake, operational consistency, and an unrelenting focus on health and safety, we have shown that EGS is a highly bankable asset class.”

Fervo continues to be one of the top-funded startups in the Houston area. The company has raised about $1.5 billion prior to the latest $421 million. It also closed a $462 million Series E in December.

According to Axios Pro, Fervo filed for an IPO that would value the company between $2 billion and $3 billion in January.

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This article first appeared on EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

Houston food giant Sysco to acquire competitor in $29 billion deal

Mergers & Acquisitions

Sysco, the nation's largest food distributor, will acquire supplier Restaurant Depot in a deal worth more than $29 billion.

The acquisition would create a closer link between Sysco and its customers that right now turn to Restaurant Depot for supplies needed quickly in an industry segment known as “cash-and-carry wholesale.”

Sysco, based in Houston, serves more than 700,000 restaurants, hospitals, schools, and hotels, supplying them with everything from butter and eggs to napkins. Those goods are typically acquired ahead of time based on how much traffic that restaurants typically see.

Restaurant Depot offers memberships to mom-and-pop restaurants and other businesses, giving them access to warehouses stocked with supplies for when they run short of what they've purchased from suppliers like Sysco.

It is a fast growing and high-margin segment that will likely mean thousands of restaurants will rely increasingly on Sysco for day-to-day needs.

Restaurant Depot shareholders will receive $21.6 billion in cash and 91.5 million Sysco shares. Based on Sysco’s closing share price of $81.80 as of March 27, 2026, the deal has an enterprise value of about $29.1 billion.

Restaurant Depot was founded in Brooklyn in 1976. The family-run business then known as Jetro Restaurant Depot, has become the nation's largest cash-and-carry wholesaler.

The boards of both companies have approved the acquisition, but it would still need regulatory approval.

Shares of Sysco Corp. tumbled 13% Monday to $71.26, an initial decline some industry analysts expected given the cost of the deal.

Houston researcher builds radar to make self-driving cars safer

eyes on the road

A Rice University researcher is giving autonomous vehicles an “extra set of eyes.”

Current autonomous vehicles (AVs) can have an incomplete view of their surroundings, and challenges like pedestrian movement, low-light conditions and adverse weather only compound these visibility limitations.

Kun Woo Cho, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Rice professor of electrical and computer engineering Ashutosh Sabharwal, has developed EyeDAR to help address such issues and enhance the vehicles’ sensing accuracy. Her research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation.

The EyeDAR is an orange-sized, low-power, millimeter-wave radar that could be placed at streetlights and intersections. Its design was inspired by that of the human eye. Researchers envision that the low-cost sensors could help ensure that AVs always pick up on emergent obstacles, even when the vehicles are not within proper range for their onboard sensors and when visibility is limited.

“Current automotive sensor systems like cameras and lidar struggle with poor visibility such as you would encounter due to rain or fog or in low-lighting conditions,” Cho said in a news release. “Radar, on the other hand, operates reliably in all weather and lighting conditions and can even see through obstacles.”

Signals from a typical radar system scatter when they encounter an obstacle. Some of the signal is reflected back to the source, but most of it is often lost. In the case of AVs, this means that "pedestrians emerging from behind large vehicles, cars creeping forward at intersections or cyclists approaching at odd angles can easily go unnoticed," according to Rice.

EyeDAR, however, works to capture lost radar reflections, determine their direction and report them back to the AV in a sequence of 0s and 1s.

“Like blinking Morse code,” Cho added. “EyeDAR is a talking sensor⎯it is a first instance of integrating radar sensing and communication functionality in a single design.”

After testing, EyeDAR was able to resolve target directions 200 times faster than conventional radar designs.

While EyeDAR currently targets risks associated with AVs, particularly in high-traffic urban areas, researchers also believe the technology behind it could complement artificial intelligence efforts and be integrated into robots, drones and wearable platforms.

“EyeDAR is an example of what I like to call ‘analog computing,’” Cho added in the release. “Over the past two decades, people have been focusing on the digital and software side of computation, and the analog, hardware side has been lagging behind. I want to explore this overlooked analog design space.”

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