3 Houston innovators to know this week

Who's Who

From oil and gas deals to finance-focused initiatives, this week's innovators are ones to watch. Courtesy photos

As Houstonians head back to work or school following a fun summer break, we know two things for sure.

The first is that traffic will get back to its headache inducing craziness and that Houston startup news will only get more frequent. This week's innovators to know include oil and gas entrepreneurs with big deals on the line plus a finance-savvy woman who wants to encourage others to take control of their personal finance.

Tara Karimi, co-founder and chief scientist at Cemvita Factory

Courtesy of Cemvita Factory

A brother-sister team has taken a huge step forward with their biotech startup, Cemvita Factory. Moji Karimi, who has a background in the oil and gas industry, and his sister, Tara, who has a background in biotech, teamed up a few years ago to create a technology that can mimic photosynthesis, turning carbon dioxide into glucose. It was Tara who figured out the technique and then the two worked backward to identify the industries — oil and gas and space — to work within.

Now, Cemvita is celebrating an investment from an Occidental Petroleum subsidiary — Oxy Low Carbon Ventures LLC.

"We have an ambitious goal to take one gigaton of CO2 out of the carbon cycle in the next decade and are very excited about being a part of Occidental's journey to become a carbon-neutral company," says Tara, co-founder and chief scientist, in a release.

Read more about Cemvita Factory here.

Travis Parigi, founder and CEO of LiquidFrameworks

Courtesy of LiquidFrameworks

Travis Parigi has built his software company from the ground up. Now, for the first time, he's thinking strategically about growth, thanks to a new financial partner.

Parigi's company, LiquidFrameworks, is an enterprise software company with applications in the upstream and downstream services industry. While the software focuses on automation and AI applications, Parigi tells InnovationMap that he has his eyes on emerging technology all the time. I keep a keen watch on a lot of the different technologies that are emerging out there.

"Blockchain is certainly one of them that we're looking at," Parigi says. "I think there's some interesting things that we might be able to do with that as it relates to price book management, which is complex and varied. It could be that blockchain could end up providing a nice mechanism for both parties to independently have pricing data verified."

Eryn Schultz, co-founder of pHERsonal Finance Day

Courtesy of pHERsonal Finance Day.

Eryn Schultz wanted to encourage women to take control of their finances. So she created her own holiday for it called pHERsonal Finance Day. She hosted Houston panels and talks on the day — Friday, August 23 — and motivated women everywhere to take a moment and make a smart financial plan.

"In a world of women's marches and the 'Future is Female' t-shirts, women should be stepping up to shape their financial futures," Schultz writes in a guest column for InnovationMap. "For that reason, women should take a financial health day."

Schultz had a great turnout and reception for the Houston event, and she's already planning for next year.

August 23 is pHERsonal Finance Day — a day dedicated to education about financial practices for women. Getty Images

Why women should take a personal finance day from this Houston founder

Guest column

You've seen the statistics on Americans' financial health. The average American is not in great shape: $6,000 per person in credit card debt, $4,900 per person in student loan debt, and 51 percent of all workers who feel they aren't saving enough for retirement.

You also probably know about two other trends: women are living longer than men and divorcing at higher rates. What you may not know is that in 2019, most married women still say their husbands manage their finances. Even more surprisingly, millennial women have their husbands manage their financial futures at higher rates than their mothers. According to a 2017 UBS survey, 61 percent of millennial married women say their husbands manage their finances versus 54 percent of boomers. How do these trends come together?

Each year, there are two million American women who get divorced or widowed. These women grapple with a traumatic life event while trying to figure out the passwords to their investment accounts. In addition, married women are waking up to discover their retirement savings are short of their expectations. In a world of women's marches and the "Future is Female" t-shirts, women should be stepping up to shape their financial futures. For that reason, women should take a financial health day.

What's a financial health day? It's 24-hours where you take the day off work or dedicate a Sunday to writing down the balances of your investment accounts, renegotiating your auto insurance, and deciding if you should roll over that old 401K. A financial health day is not going to magically wipe away your student loans or solve your spending problem, but it can give you a plan for paying off debt or your mortgage three years early.

There is growing consensus on what being financially healthy means: you should maintain a four to six-month emergency fund, carry zero credit card debt, and contribute 10 to 20 percent of your monthly income to a retirement fund. Additional goals, like buying a house or paying for your kids' college, don't come until you have achieved a stable foundation.

Along with knowing what "financial health" means, there is also general agreement among financial experts on the best ways to achieve it:

Know your money situation. Physically write out your loans (credit cards, auto loans) with their interest rates, and all of your savings (including retirement). Seeing it all in one place will help you figure out your priorities.
Create money goals. Set multiple goals and prioritize them (you can also fund more than one goal at once). Is it saving for the down payment on a house or becoming debt free?
Track your spending. Where is your money going? There are budgeting apps from Mint or YNAB to help you keep track. Are there places where you can tweak your spending habits to fund your savings goal? Can you cancel a recurring expense you aren't using? Could you negotiate a better rate on your phone bill?
Automate to achieve your goals. Set up recurring payments to your debt and savings. Automated monthly transfers from your checking account to your savings goals make sure you aren't as tempted to spend that money. Schedule monthly and yearly calendar alerts to check your spending, rebalance your portfolio, etc. One advanced tip is to enroll in your 401K plan's "save more later" option. This will increase the percentage of your paycheck you put into your 401K annually.

These items seem simple. Yet, why are so few people doing them? It takes a LOT of work to get this money infrastructure set up. At the end of a long day of client meetings, chasing a toddler, or some combo of the two, it's difficult to muster the mental energy to address your finances – especially if you have the option of outsourcing this responsibility to a capable partner. That's where a day dedicated to your financial to-dos will help. You don't need to be solely in charge of your money, but you definitely need to understand the plan.

While we feel that everyone can benefit from a financial health day, the first pHERsonal Finance Day targeted to millennial women is scheduled for August 23. Check out our schedule if you want to get started. If taking a whole day off feels like a long-shot, take this quiz here to help you prioritize your financial to-dos. Whether it's a daily money minute or an appointment with a financial adviser (pick one who is a fiduciary), what are you doing to own your financial future?

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Eryn Schultz is the co-founder of pHERsonal Finance Day.

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Texas-based energy startup raises $1 billion on heels of Houston expansion

Powering Up

Austin-based startup Base Power, which offers battery-supported energy in the Houston area and other regions, has raised $1 billion in series C funding—making it one of the largest venture capital deals this year in the U.S.

VC firm Addition led the $1 billion round. All of Base Power’s existing major investors also participated, including Trust Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Thrive Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Altimeter, StepStone Group, 137 Ventures, Terrain, Waybury Capital, and entrepreneur Elad Gil. New investors include Ribbit Capital, Google-backed CapitalG, Spark Capital, Bond, Lowercarbon Capital, Avenir Growth Capital, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Positive Sum and 1789 Capital Management.

Coupled with the new $1 billion round, Base Power has hauled in more than $1.27 billion in funding since it was founded in 2023.

Base Power supplies power to homeowners and the electric grid through a distributed storage network.

“The chance to reinvent our power system comes once in a generation,” Zach Dell, co-founder and CEO of Base Power, said in a news release. “The challenge ahead requires the best engineers and operators to solve it, and we’re scaling the team to make our abundant energy future a reality.”

Zach Dell is the son of Austin billionaire and Houston native Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Round Rock-based Dell Technologies.

In less than two years, Base Power has developed more than 100 megawatt-hours of battery-enabled storage capacity. One megawatt-hour represents one hour of energy use at a rate of one million watts.

Base Power recently expanded its service to the city of Houston. It already was delivering energy to several other communities in the Houston area. To serve the Houston region, the startup has opened an office in Katy.

The startup also serves the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin markets. At some point, Base Power plans to launch a nationwide expansion.

To meet current and future demand, Base Power is building its first energy storage and power electronics factory at the former downtown Austin site of the Austin American-Statesman’s printing presses.

“We’re building domestic manufacturing capacity for fixing the grid,” Justin Lopas, co-founder and chief operating officer of Base Power, added in the release. “The only way to add capacity to the grid is [by] physically deploying hardware, and we need to make that here in the U.S. ... This factory in Austin is our first, and we’re already planning for our second.”

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This article originally appeared on EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

Expert on Houston’s energy advantage: Building affordability, reliability for all

Guest Column

As the energy capital of the world, Houston has been at the forefront of innovation, powering industries and communities for generations. Many Houston families, however, are facing a reality that undermines our leadership: high energy bills and ongoing concerns about grid reliability.

Affordability and reliability are not just technical issues; they’re equity issues. To remain the world leader in energy, we must ensure that every household has access to affordable and dependable power.

Affordability: The First Step Toward Equity

According to the recent 2025 study by The Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute, nearly 80% of low- to moderate-income Houstonians scaled back on basic needs to cover electric bills. Rising costs mean some Houstonians are forced to choose between paying their utility bill or paying for groceries.

Additionally, Houston now has the highest poverty rate among America’s most populous cities. Energy should not be a privilege for only half of our city’s population. That’s why affordability needs to be at the center of Houston’s energy conversation.

Several practical solutions exist to help address this inequity:

We can increase transparency in electricity pricing and help families better understand their electricity facts labels to make smarter choices.
We can expand energy efficiency programs, like weatherizing homes and apartments, swapping out old light bulbs for LEDs, and adopting smart thermostats.
Incentives to help families invest in these changes can deliver long-term benefits for both them and apartment complex owners.

Many small changes, when combined, can add up to significant savings for families while reducing overall demand on the grid.

Reliability: A Shared Community Priority

The memories of Hurricane Beryl, Derecho, and Winter Storm Uri are still fresh in the minds of Texans. We saw firsthand the fragility of our grid and how devastating outages are to families, especially those without resources to handle extreme weather. Reliability of the grid is an issue of public health, economic stability, and community safety.

Houston has an opportunity to lead by embracing innovation. Grid modernization, from deploying microgrids to expanding battery storage, can provide stability when the system is under stress. Partnerships between utilities, businesses, and community organizations are key to building resilience. With Houston’s innovation ecosystem, we can pilot solutions here that other regions will look to replicate.

Energy Equity in Action

Reliable, affordable energy strengthens equity in tangible ways. When households spend less on utilities, they have more to invest in their children’s education or save for the future. When power is stable, schools remain open, businesses continue to operate, and communities thrive. Extending energy efficiency programs across all neighborhoods creates a fairer, more balanced system, breaking down inequities tied to income and geography.

Studies show that expanding urban green spaces such as community gardens and tree-planting programs can lower neighborhood temperatures, reduce energy use for cooling, and improve air quality in disadvantaged areas, directly reducing household utility burdens.

In Houston, for example, the median energy burden for low-income households is 7.1% of income, more than twice that of the general population, with over 20% of households having energy burdens above 6%.

Research also demonstrates that community solar programs and urban cooling investments deliver clean, affordable power, helping to mitigate heat stress and making them high-impact strategies for energy equity and climate resilience in vulnerable neighborhoods.

Public-Private Partnerships Make the Difference

The solutions to affordability and reliability challenges must come from cross-sector collaboration. For example, CenterPoint Energy offers incentives through its Residential and Hard-to-Reach Programs, which support contractors and community agencies in delivering energy efficiency upgrades, including weatherization, to low-income households in the greater Houston area.

Nonprofits like the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) received a $1.9 million Department of Energy grant to lead a weatherization program tailored for underserved communities in Harris County, helping to lower bills and improve housing safety

Meanwhile, the City of Houston’s Green Office Challenge and Better Buildings Initiative bring private-sector sponsors, nonprofits, and city leadership together to drive energy reductions across millions of square feet of commercial buildings, backed by training and financial incentives. Together, these partnerships can result in real impact that brings more equity and access to affordable energy.

BKV Energy is committed to being part of the solution by promoting practical, consumer-focused strategies that help families save money and use energy more efficiently. We offer a suite of programs designed to provide customers with financial benefits and alleviate the burden of rising electricity bills. Programs like BKV Energy’s demonstrate how utilities can ease financial strain for families while building stronger customer loyalty and trust. Expanding similar initiatives across Houston would not only lower household energy burdens but also set a new standard for how energy companies can invest directly in their communities.

By proactively addressing affordability, energy companies can help ensure that rising costs don’t disproportionately impact vulnerable households. These efforts also contribute to a more resilient and equitable energy future for Houston, where all residents can access reliable power without sacrificing financial stability.

Houston as a Blueprint

Houston has always been a city of leadership and innovation, whether pioneering the space race, driving advancements in medical research at the Texas Medical Center, or anchoring the global energy industry. Today, our challenge is just as urgent: affordability and reliability must become the cornerstones of our energy future. Houston has the expertise and the collaborative spirit to show how it can be done.

By scaling innovative solutions, Houston can make energy more equitable, strengthening our own community while setting a blueprint for the nation. As the energy capital of the world, it is both our responsibility and our opportunity to lead the way to a more equitable future for all.

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Sam Luna is director at BKV Energy, where he oversees brand and go-to-market strategy, customer experience, marketing execution, and more.

Houston professor awarded $2.6M grant for retina, neurological research

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University of Houston College of Optometry Professor John O’Brien has received a $2.6 million grant from the National Eye Institute to continue his research on the retina and neurological functions.

O’Brien is considered a leading expert in retinal neuroscience with more than 20 years of research in the field. The new funding will allow O’Brien and his team to continue to study the dense assembly of proteins associated with electrical synapses, or gap junctions, in the retina.

Gap junctions transfer electrical signals between neurons. And the plasticity of gap junctions changes the strength of a synapse, in turn changing how visual information is processed. Previous research has shown that reduced functions of electrical synapses could be linked to autism, while their hyperfunction may lead to seizures.

“The research we propose will significantly advance our understanding of the molecular complexes that control the function of electrical synapses,” O’Brien said in a news release.

The team at UH will work to identify the proteins and examine how they impact electrical synapses. It is particularly interested in the Connexin 36, or Cx36, protein. According to O’Brien, phosphorylation of Cx36, a short-term chemical modification of the protein, serves as a key driver of plasticity. And the protein has been linked to refractive error development, which is one of the largest vision problems in the world today.

Additionally, OBrien’s research has shown that plasticity is essential for all-day vision, allowing the retina to adjust sensitivity and sharpen images. He has also built a catalog of the core set of proteins surrounding electrical synapses that are conserved across species. His research has been funded by the NEI since 2000.

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