Houston sees massive growth in startup venture capital investments

Money moves

The most exciting part of this Texas startup funding roundup is that Houston brought in more dollars than Dallas. Getty Images

When it comes to startup funding, Texas saw only a small jump in startup investments made, according to Crunchbase. However, when you look at funds coming into Houston companies, the Bayou City's numbers soared.

Houston raked in $251 million of the state's total $817.9 million for the second quarter. Last quarter, the city posted a mere $44.7 million of investment into local startups, which was previously a huge drop from the $121.4 million reported in Q4 2018, according to Crunchbase.

The state's VC activity only increased by less than $10 million, with both Austin and Dallas taking huge hits following their strong starts in Q1. VCs invested $411.11 million into Austin startups in Q2, which is a 19 percent drop from Q1's $493.18 million, Crunchbase's Mary Ann Azevedo reports. Dallas also saw a drop of around $100 million in investments between quarters. Dallas startups only brought in $148.5 million in Q2 compared to $245.4 million in Q1.

Chart via news.crunchbase.com

Houston's biggest deal for the quarter was AlloVir's $120 million Series B, which closed in May. The biotech company founded at Baylor's Center for Cell and Gene Therapy is currently in clinical trials for its immunotherapy technology and also announced with the round closing that it joined the ElevateBio — a Boston-based organization that combines a group of cell and gene therapy companies — portfolio.

Here are some other Houston startup deals that closed in Q2. (Note: Not all of these deals are necessarily included in Crunchbase's report.)

Houston VC deals in April:

  • Innovapptive, a software-as-a-service company with clients in industrial industries, closed on a $16.3 million Series A investment. Read more.
  • OAG Analytics, which uses artificial intelligence in the oil and gas industry, has closed its second round of strategic funding. The exact amount of the raise was not disclosed by OAG, but according to a Form D filing, the company expressed that it was raising $8.72 million in this round. Read more.

Houston VC deals in May:

  • Data Gumbo Corp., a blockchain-as-a-service company, closed on a $6 million Series A round. Read more.
  • Information technology automation and management company, Liongard, closed its Series A round at $4.5 million. Read more.
  • Tachyus, the data-driven software company has closed its Series B fundraising round at $15 million. Read more.
  • Fast-growing chemicals manufacturer, Solugen Inc., the only producer of bio-based peroxide solutions, announced that its $32 million Series B funding round has closed. Read more.

Houston VC deals in June: 

  • Following a $20 million commitment from Sanford Health, regenerative medicine and cell therapy company, InGeneron Inc., has extended its Series D round to $43 million. Read more.
  • Iownit Capital and Markets Inc. announced that it closed a $4.5 Seed round of funding. Read more.


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5 Houston innovators who made headlines in July 2025

Featured Innovators

Editor's note: Local innovators made headlines in July with a first-in-the-U.S. successful health procedure, the discovery of an ancient Mayan tomb, and new leadership roles that will shape Houston's future.

Here are five Houston innovators to know right now.

Dr. Kenneth Liao, Baylor College of Medicine

Dr. Kenneth Liao and a team at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center used a surgical robot to implant a new heart in a 45-year-old male patient. Photo courtesy Baylor College of Medicine.

A team at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, led by Dr. Kenneth Liao, successfully performed the first fully robotic heart transplant in the United States earlier this year, the Houston hospital recently shared.

Liao, a professor and chief of cardiothoracic transplantation and circulatory support at Baylor College of Medicine and chief of cardiothoracic transplantation and mechanical circulatory support at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, used a surgical robot to implant a new heart in a 45-year-old male patient through preperitoneal space in the abdomen by making small incisions. Learn more.

Arlen F. Chase and Diane Z. Chase, University of Houston

Arlen and Diane Chase, UH

The Chases. Courtesy of UH

Two University of Houston archaeologists have made scientific history with the discovery of a Mayan king's tomb in Belize.

The UH team led by husband and wife scientists Arlen F. Chase and Diane Z. Chase made the discovery at Caracol, the largest Mayan archeological site in Belize. Their work used airborne light detection and ranging technology to uncover previously hidden roadways and structures that have been reclaimed by the jungle. Learn more.

Lawson Gow, Greentown Labs

Lawson Gow, founder of The Cannon, will lead Greentown Houston. Photo courtesy Greentown Labs.

Greentown Labs has added a new leader to its Houston team, naming Lawson Gow as its first Head of Houston.

Gow is the founder of The Cannon, a coworking space with seven locations in the Houston area. He also recently served as managing partner at Houston-based investment and advisory firm Helium Capital. According to Greentown, Gow will "enhance the founder experience, cultivate strategic partnerships, and accelerate climatetech solutions" in his new role. Learn more.

Pothik Chatterjee, Digital Health Institute

Pothik Chatterjee was named executive director of Rice University's and Houston Methodist's Digital Health Institute, effective May 1. Photo courtesy Rice University.

The creation late last year of the Digital Health Institute was a major step into the future for both Rice University and Houston Methodist, for whom the institute is a joint venture. The latest news for the new institute is the appointment of Pothik Chatterjee to the role of executive director.

Chatterjee’s role is to help grow the collaboration between the institutions and find commercial opportunities within the research portfolio. Learn more.

Rice University MBA programs rank among top 5 in prestigious annual report

top of class

Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business MBA programs have been ranked among the top five in the country again in The Princeton Review’s 2025 Best Business Schools rankings.

The university's MBA program in finance earned a No. 3 ranking, climbing up two spots from its 2024 ranking. Finance MBA programs at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business and New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business were the only ones to outrank Rice, claiming No. 2 and No. 1 spots, respectively.

Rice's online MBA program was ranked No. 5, compared to No. 4 last year. Indiana University's Bloomington Kelley School of Business' online program claimed the top spot.

“These rankings reflect the commitment of our faculty and staff, the drive and talent of our students and the strong support of our alumni and partners,” Peter Rodriguez, dean of Rice Business, said in a news release. “They are exceptional honors but also reminders — not just of our top-tier programs and world-class faculty and students but of our broader impact on the future of business education.”

Rice also ranked at No. 6 for “greatest resources for minority students."

The Princeton Review’s 2025 business school rankings are based on data from surveys of administrators at 244 business schools as well as surveys of 22,800 students enrolled in the schools’ MBA programs during the previous three academic years.

"The schools that made our lists for 2025 share four characteristics that inform our criteria for designating them as 'best': excellent academics, robust experiential learning components, outstanding career services, and positive feedback about them from enrolled students we surveyed," Rob Franek, The Princeton Review's editor-in-chief, said in a press release. "No b-school is best overall or best for all students, but to all students considering earning an MBA, we highly recommend these b-schools and salute them for their impressive programs."

Rice's finance program has ranked in the top 10 for eight consecutive years, and its online MBA has ranked in the top five for four years.

Rice and the University of Houston also claimed top marks on the Princeton Review's entrepreneurship rankings. Rice ranks as No. 1 on the Top 50 Entrepreneurship: Grad list, and the University of Houston ranked No. 1 on Top 50 Entrepreneurship: Ugrad. Read more here.

Houston named ‘star’ metro for artificial intelligence in new report

eyes on AI

A new report declares Houston one of the country’s 28 “star” hubs for artificial intelligence.

The Houston metro area appears at No. 16 in the Brookings Institution’s ranking of metros that are AI “stars.” The metro areas earned star status based on data from three AI buckets: talent, innovation and adoption. Only two places, the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, made Brookings’ “superstar” list.

According to Brookings, the Houston area had 11,369 job postings in 2024 that sought candidates with AI skills, 210 AI startups (based on Crunchbase data from 2014 to 2024), and 113 venture capital deals for AI startups (based on PitchBook data from 2023 to 2024).

A number of developments are boosting Houston’s AI profile, such as:

Brookings also named Texas’s three other major metros as AI stars:

  • No. 11 Austin
  • No. 13 Dallas-Fort Worth
  • No. 40 San Antonio

Brookings said star metros like Houston “are bridging the gap” between the two superstar regions and the rest of the country. In 2025, the 28 star metros made up 46 percent of the country’s metro-area employment but 54 percent of AI job postings. Across the 28 metros, the number of AI job postings soared 139 percent between 2018 and 2025, according to Brookings.

Around the country, dozens of metros fell into three other categories on Brookings’ AI list: “emerging centers” (14 metros), “focused movers” (29 metros) and “nascent adopters” (79 metros).

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