3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Dr. William Cohn of BiVACOR, Rebecca Richards-Kortum of Rice University, and Michael Suffredini of Axiom Space. Photos courtesy

Editor's note: Every week, I introduce you to a handful of Houston innovators to know recently making headlines with news of innovative technology, investment activity, and more. This week's batch includes a Houston heart innovator, a cancer researcher, and space tech founder.

Dr. William Cohn, chief medical officer at BiVACOR

Why this Houston medical device innovator is pumped up for the first total artificial heart

Dr. William Cohn is the chief medical officer for BiVACOR, a medical device company creating the first total artificial heart. Photo via TMC

It's hard to understate the impact Dr. William Cohn has had on cardiovascular health as a surgeon at the Texas Heart Institute or on health care innovation as the director of the Center for Device Innovation at the Texas Medical Center. However, his role as chief medical officer of BiVACOR might be his most significant contribution to health care yet.

The company's Total Artificial Heart is unlike any cardiovascular device that's existed, Cohn explains on the Houston Innovators Podcast. While most devices are used temporarily for patients awaiting a heart transplant, BiVACOR's TAH has the potential to be a permanent solution for the 200,000 patients who die of heart failure annually. Last year, only around 4,000 patients were able to receive heart transplants.

"Artificial hearts historically have had bladders that ejected and filled 144,000 times a day. They work great for temporary support, but no one is suggesting they are permanent devices," Cohn says on the show. Read more.

Rebecca Richards-Kortum, director of the Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies

Rebecca Richards-Kortum, a Rice bioengineering professor and director of the Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies, is the lead PI on the project. Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

The Biden-Harris administration is deploying $150 million as a part of its Cancer Moonshot initiative, and a research team led by Rice University is getting a slice of that pie.

AccessPath is a novel, affordable, slide-free pathology system that helps surgeons determine if they have completely removed tumors during surgery. Rebecca Richards-Kortum, a Rice bioengineering professor and director of the Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies, is the lead PI on the project that is receiving up to $18 million over five years from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).

“Because of its low cost, high speed, and automated analysis, we believe AccessPath can revolutionize real-time surgical guidance, greatly expanding the range of hospitals able to provide accurate intraoperative tumor margin assessment and improving outcomes for all cancer surgery patients,” Richards-Kortum says. Read more.

Michael Suffredini, co-founder of Axiom Space

Axiom Space Co-founder Michael Suffredini is stepping down as CEO. Photo courtesy of Axiom Space

Houston-based space exploration company Axiom Space is searching for a new CEO. Co-founder Mike Suffredini stepped down effective August 9 as CEO. He cites unidentified personal reasons for his transition from CEO to company advisor. Suffredini remains a board member of Axiom Space.

Co-founder Kam Ghaffarian, the company’s executive chairman, is serving as interim CEO until Axiom Space taps Suffredini’s permanent successor. Read more.

AccessPath is a novel, affordable, slide-free pathology system that helps surgeons determine if they have completely removed tumors during surgery. Photo via Getty Images

Promising Houston cancer research project wins $18M grant

fresh funding

The Biden-Harris administration is deploying $150 million as a part of its Cancer Moonshot initiative, and a research team led by Rice University is getting a slice of that pie.

The project is focused on two types of cancer, breast and head and neck cancer, and Ashok Veeraraghavan, chair of Rice’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science, is a co-PI and Tomasz Tkaczyk, a professor of bioengineering and electrical and computer engineering at Rice, is also a collaborator on the project.

AccessPath is addressing the challenge surgeons face of identifying the margin where tumor tissue ends and health tissue begins when removing tumors. The project not only hopes to provide a more exact solution but do so in an affordable way.

“Precise margin assessment is key to the oncologic success of any cancer operation,” adds Dr. Ana Paula Refinetti, an associate professor in the Department of Breast Surgical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and one of the lead surgeons PIs on the project. “The development of a new low-cost technology that enables immediate margin assessment could transform the landscape of surgical oncology — particularly in low-resource settings, reducing the number of repeat interventions, lowering cancer care costs and improving patient outcomes.”

The project optimizing margin identification with a fast-acting, high-resolution microscope, effective fluorescent stains for dying tumor margins, and artificial intelligence algorithms.

AccessPath is a collaboration between Rice and MD Anderson Cancer Center, other awardees in the grant include the University of Texas Health School of Dentistry, Duke University, Carnegie Mellon University and 3rd Stone Design.

“AccessPath is exactly the kind of life-changing research and health care innovation we are proud to produce at Rice, where we’re committed to addressing and solving the world’s most pressing medical issues,” Ramamoorthy Ramesh, Rice’s executive vice president for research, says in the release. “Partnering with MD Anderson on this vital work underscores the importance of such ongoing collaborations with our neighbors in the world’s largest medical center. I am thrilled for Rebecca and her team; it’s teamwork that makes discoveries like these possible.”

Rebecca Richards-Kortum, a Rice bioengineering professor and director of the Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies, is the lead PI on the project. Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

The Center for Innovation and Translation of POC Technologies for Equitable Cancer Care, or CITEC, will be managed through Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies. Photo via Getty Images

Rice-led initiative looks to make cancer detection affordable, equitable

future of health care

A new initiative from two Houston organizations is hoping to develop affordable health care innovation for early cancer detection.

The Center for Innovation and Translation of POC Technologies for Equitable Cancer Care, or CITEC, will be managed through Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies, which is part of an ongoing international effort to prepare the future global health workforce.

Rice will be joined by Baylor College of Medicine, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Sao Paulo, Barretos Cancer Hospital in Brazil, Mozambique Ministry of Health, and Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo, Mozambique.

“While early detection and treatment of cancer can improve survival, available tests for early cancer detection are too complex or too expensive for hospitals and clinics in medically underserved areas,” CITEC co-principal investigator Rebecca Richards-Kortum, a Rice bioengineering professor and director of Rice360, says in a news release.

The project is part of a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to launch a top-tier research center in the Texas Medical Center to develop point-of-care technologies that improve early cancer detection in low-resource in America and internationally that are effective and affordable. Rice’s leading collaboration group to help secure the grant includes engineers, oncologists and international global health partners from three continents. in low-resource settings in the United States and other countries.

CITEC will aim to target development of POC tests for oral, cervical and gastrointestinal cancers through the first-year grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) of $1.3 million—up to $6.5 million over five years. CITEC is funded by a NIBIB grant.

Last month, NIBIB announced that CITEC will be one of six research centers that it will support, along with an additional center, through its Point of Care Technology Research Network (POCTRN).

Dr. Sharmila Anandasabapathy, vice president of global health at Baylor College of Medicine, and Tomasz Tkaczyk, bioengineering professor at Rice, are the other two cco-principals on the initiative.

“CITEC will identify needed technologies, accelerate their development, evaluate their performance and impact in diverse settings and train local users and technology developers to create and disseminate more equitable POC technologies,” Anandasabapathy says in the release.

Rice 360˚ Institute of Global Health's student innovators created projects and devices — from disinfecting devices and optimized intubation tools — that respond to challenges presented by COVID-19. Courtesy of Rice University

Rice University students collaborate on COVID-19 solutions

game changers

An annual program with Rice University and its partners in Africa had to do things differently in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only did operations have to shift to a virtual approach, but the projects themselves instead addressed the needs created by the disease.

Rice 360˚ Institute for Global Health, which collaborates with the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) and the University of Malawi, The Polytechnic (Poly), continued their annual programming virtually over six weeks. The collaboration brings students together to solve global health issues, and this year's issue to address was overwhelmingly COVID-19.

"We had to give a lot of thought to whether we might have to cancel the program, and that was really heartbreaking to think about," says Rice 360˚ Director Rebecca Richards-Kortum, professor of bioengineering, in a news release. "Back in those days of late March and early April, I never really imagined how wonderful the virtual internship program could be."

Thirteen undergraduate interns and eight teaching assistants from Rice and Malawi, worked on six different projects, and three were presented in an online event on July 16. Here were the projects that were presented.

A disinfecting system that has the capability to sterilize multiple N95 masks at once. The system uses ultraviolet lights that can kill the coronavirus in around 30 minutes. Alternatively, the project included a smaller version that could be powered by solar energy. Yankholanga Pelewelo of MUST, Carolyn Gonawamba of Poly, and Andrew Abikhaled and Bhavya Gopinath of Rice developed the technology.
A walk-in decontamination unit that can decontaminate up to 3,000 people per day. The team of interns developed a prototype that consisted of PVC frame covered in plastic with nozzles to spray disinfectant. The project has already received interest from labs and hospitals for the device. Team members included Brenald Dzonzi of Poly, Mwayi Yellewa of MUST, and Kaitlyn Heintzelman, Krystal Cheung, and Sana Mohamed of Rice.
A redesigned intubation box that gives doctors better access to patients during the procedure. More than half of the 3,000 health care workers who have died from the coronavirus were doctors who focused on respiratory procedures, the team pointed out, and this daunting fact calls for redesigned tools. In total, the student innovators pitched three different designs that each included armholes in the sides, with a third hole on top to let a clinician or nurse assist with the procedure. The student team consisted of Chikumbutso Walani of Poly, Ruth Mtuwa of MUST, and Lauren Payne and Austin Hwang of Rice.

The other three projects included in the program but didn't present were designs for face shields, a hand sanitizer station and a contactless temperature monitor. All of the projects were led by teaching assistants Aubrey Chikunda and Chisomo Mukoka from MUST; Hannah Andersen, Nimisha Krishnaswamy, Alex Lammers and Ben Zaltsman of Rice; and Hope Chilunga and Francis Chilomo from Poly.

While pivoting the program to virtual comes with its challenges, Maria Oden — a professor of bioengineering, director of Rice's Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen and director of Rice 360˚ — recognizes the opportunities it provides as well.

"It would have been easy and understandable to cancel this internship, but that's not what happened, and look what the result was," Oden says in the release. "Over 90 people have tuned in to see the work of the interns. That's something we've never achieved with our in-person internships. We can learn from this experience."

Rice 360° Virtual Internship Highlights – Summer 2020www.youtube.com

Ad Placement 300x100

Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Property Showcase

KBR names C-suite duo to lead $5.3B government services spinoff

new leaders

In advance of the spinoff of its Mission Technology Solutions unit, Houston-based KBR has made two C-suite hires for the new business.

Michael LaRouche is coming aboard as president and CEO of the spinoff, currently called SpinCo, on Sept. 26. Nicholas Veasey is joining as executive vice president and chief financial officer on July 1.

“Michael and Nick bring a highly complementary combination of operational leadership, financial expertise, and mission-driven experience, and together they will accelerate our impact for stakeholders,” Stuart Bradie, chairman, president and CEO of publicly traded KBR, said in a news release.

LaRouche currently is CEO of Serco North America, a Herndon, Virginia-based government services contractor. Veasey most recently was CFO of MAG Aerospace, a Fairfax, Virginia-based defense contractor.

SpinCo, a government services contractor, will launch with more than $5.3 billion in annual revenue and 20,000 employees. KBR’s total headcount is around 36,000. Branding for SpinCo, including a formal name, will be revealed in July.

“SpinCo is positioned as a top-tier provider of differentiated technology solutions, anchored by deep mission expertise, global scale, and a relentless commitment to delivering for our customers,” LaRouche says.

After the spinoff, the slimmed-down KBR will focus on its Sustainable Technology Solutions business, a provider of energy and industrial technology that generated $2.5 billion in revenue in 2025. Bradie will remain chairman, president and CEO of the business.

Both SpinCo and the new KBR will be public companies. The spinoff is scheduled to be completed in January.

Experts: Houston's VC ecosystem has set the foundation — now we need scale

guest column

Fervo Energy went public earlier this summer. The Houston geothermal company priced its IPO at $27 per share, raised $1.89 billion, and opened the next morning at a market capitalization north of $10 billion. By most measures, it is the largest venture-backed cleantech IPO in history and an unambiguous win for Houston. It’s also a useful moment to look at where Houston's venture ecosystem stands and where it can go. The highlight: Houston's venture ecosystem has real foundations and, with increased company formation activity, can grow into the scale our city's ambitions deserve.

A Houston energy story in the national recovery

The recent uptick in Houston venture activity follows national trends. U.S. venture deal count contracted roughly 22 percent from its 2021 peak through 2024 before rebounding to about 16,700 rounds in 2025. Houston's 23 percent increase in VC funding from 2023 to 2024 is part of a national recovery of comparable magnitude over the same time window.

The energy sector is where Houston exhibits unique trends—and where the story turns clearly positive. (Houston's strong health and space sectors deserve their own separate consideration.) By deal count, energy-related rounds have accounted for 15 to 20 percent of Houston activity, roughly consistent over the past few years.

By capital, energy's share surged from about 14 percent in 2023 to over 60 percent in 2025, driven by a small number of large Houston-headquartered rounds, primarily in geothermal and related technologies. Fervo is the obvious anchor, but Sage Geosystems, Quaise Energy, Zeta Energy, Vaulted Deep, Applied Carbon and Mariana Minerals have all closed meaningful rounds. Houston is concentrated and accelerating as an energy capital market, an invaluable position to build upon.

From foundation to scale

The institutional pieces are in place. Greentown Labs, Activate, the Ion and others have built sector-specialized infrastructure most cities would struggle to assemble. Fervo itself is an alum of both Activate and Greentown Labs. Mercury Fund closed its $160 million Fund V, its largest ever. Houston Angel Network, GOOSE Capital, Fathom Fund, and broader pre-seed and seed capital coverage are here. The Houston $10 million-plus Series A list now includes 40 rounds since 2021, which break roughly into two eras. While 2021 to 2022 was biotech-heavy, with companies like Sporos Bioventures, RadioMedix, Cellenkos and Coya Therapeutics, 2024 to 2025 has tilted clearly toward energy, climate, and critical minerals, with Vaulted Deep, Applied Carbon, Mariana Minerals, Sage Geosystems and Ignis H2 Energy among them.

What’s less developed is the volume of seed-stage companies flowing into that capital. Imagine a dozen more Fervos coming out of that infrastructure over the next decade, each generating jobs, recycled founder capital, and the next wave of operators and angel investors. That is the kind of opportunity Houston has within reach if we build the company-formation pipeline to feed it. To be relevant on the national stage as a venture market, and to drive an economy the size of Houston's into the 2030s, the city needs to be doing closer to 20 Series A rounds per month rather than per year. That throughput implies roughly 1,000 seed rounds per year, feeding the funnel at a 20 percent to 30 percent graduation rate. Reaching such throughput depends on how many new founders Houston produces and how quickly our innovation ecosystem can help them achieve lift-off.

Houston in context

The comparative picture brings the scaling challenge into focus. Between 2021 and 2024, Houston-area startups closed between 126 and 153 disclosed venture rounds per year, against a national count between 9,854 and 14,125. That places Houston at a little over 1 percent of the U.S. deal count. For comparison, Austin ran about three times Houston's deal count each year.

At the Series A level, Houston closed between 12 and 24 rounds in any given year. The median Houston Series A across the period was about $10.7 million, compared with $15.4 million in San Francisco. Houston founders are raising fewer and smaller Series A rounds than founders in peer metros, which points directly to where Houston has the most room to grow.

The unicorn picture tells the same story. From 2021 through 2025, the U.S. produced 590 venture-backed unicorns. Four were Houston-based: Solugen and Axiom Space in 2021, Cart.com in 2023, and Fervo Energy in 2024. Adding HighRadius from 2020 brings Houston's all-time total to five. Austin added 19 over the same five-year window. The path from here is to make Houston's entries on lists like these less the exception and more the rule.

Where this leads

Houston has a real opportunity to become the deepest, most credible energy and climate capital market in the country, with the company formation, talent and operator density to support it. The data shows the foundation is already in place. Fervo, Solugen and the growing roster of energy-adjacent Series A graduates are proof. Fervo's IPO is the first of what should be many. Houston has not had a venture-backed cleantech liquidity event of this scale before, and the city now has one to reference, recruit against and build on. With increased company formation at the seed and pre-seed stages, a Fervo-scale outcome need not be a generational event in Houston, but instead, it can become part of a chain reaction powering the city's economy.

---

Stephanie T. Schmidt, PhD, is the founder of a stealth startup, a Venture Fellow at Energy Transition Ventures, and an Executive MBA candidate at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business. Lawson Gow is the Chief Operating Officer of Greentown Labs. The full Houston VC landscape report is available at Energy Transition Ventures and CleanTech.Org.

Sources: Crunchbase, PitchBook-NVCA, Carta

8 can't-miss Houston business and innovation events for July

where to be

Editor's note: Summer is in full swing in Houston, but the city's innovation ecosystem isn't slowing down. This month brings AI workshops, energy and manufacturing discussions, entrepreneur-focused networking, and opportunities to connect with investors and industry leaders. Here’s what not to miss and how to register. Please note: this article may be updated to add more events.

July 7 — How Oil and Gas Professionals are Building Wealth Smarter

Hear from oil and gas professionals on how to preserve wealth at this event put on by Financial Advice Center. The conversation will touch on topics like investing, taxes and retirement planning.

This event is Tuesday, July 7, from noon-1 p.m. at the Ion. Register here.

July 7 — What AI, Cybersecurity, and Tequila Have in Common.

Join Blue People and Alpfa Houston for this engaging presentation on the advantages and risks associated with AI at the latest installment of Tech + Tequila Talk. Cybersecurity veteran Reynaldo Gonzalez will lead the conversation.

This event is Tuesday, July 7, from 5-7 p.m. at the Ion. Register here.

July 7 — Speed to Market: Houston’s Advanced Manufacturing Edge

The Greater Houston Partnership presents a forum that explores what allows advanced manufacturing projects in Houston to move from concept to operation, where delays and bottlenecks occur, and more. Industry leaders Jennifer Clement from CliftonLarsonAllen LLP and Sarah Janes from San Jacinto College will lead the discussion.

This event is Tuesday, July 7, from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Partnership Tower. Register here.

July 9 — Capital Connections Summit

Houston City College Center for Entrepreneurship will host the Capital Connections Summit this month, with a panel discussion focused on access to capital and technical assistance for small businesses and entrepreneurs. The event will be moderated by the U.S. Small Business Administration Houston District Office and will feature lenders, nonprofit microlenders, business advisors, and entrepreneurial support organizations. A live Q&A will follow the panel.

This event is Thursday, July 9, from 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at Houston City College Central Campus. Register here.

July 9 — Upstream: Digital Tech Meetup at Second Draught

Join Timbergrove at this month's gathering of energy, operations and technology professionals from across the upstream ecosystem. Discuss challenges, explore new ideas and network over pizza and beer at Second Draught.

This event is Thursday, July 9, from 5:30–8 p.m. at the Ion. Register here.

July 14 — Why Networking Isn’t Turning Into Deals, And What To Do Instead

Jada Powell, founder of Powell Consulting Group, will break down why networking often fails to convert into deals and what companies can do differently to turn conversations into qualified opportunities. Powell works with oil and gas, energy, and industrial companies on business development solutions. This session is part of the monthly Pipeline Series: How Oil & Gas Companies Actually Grow Revenue.

This event is Tuesday, July 14, from noon-1 p.m. at the Ion. Register here.

July 15 — From Pilot to Performance: Building Your AI Procurement Roadmap

It's not too late to join in on the GHP's two-part AI series on moving from experimentation to implementation. In session two, explore how procurement and supply chain leaders can scale AI responsibly to create long-term business value. This event will be led by Cassye Cook Provost, founder and principal of RossGrigsby Consultancy.

This virtual event is Wednesday, July 15, from 8:30-10 a.m. Register here.

July 30 — Rice University Summer Engineering Innovation Program - Demo Day 2026

Meet the young minds and see the final team project presentations from Rice University’s Summer Engineering Innovation Program. The 10-week program challenges Rice students to solve real-world challenges using AI, digital engineering, model-based systems engineering and Industry 4.0 technologies.

This event is Thursday, July 30, from 6-8 p.m. at the Ion. Find more information here.

View All Listings

INNOVATIONMAP EMAILS ARE AWESOME