Rice biotech studio secures investment from Modi Ventures, adds founder to board

fresh funding

RBL LLC has landed an investment from Houston-based Modi Ventures and named its founder, Sahir Ali (far left), to its board. Photo courtesy Rice University Biotech Launch Pad via LinkedIn

RBL LLC, which supports commercialization for ventures formed at the Rice University Biotech Launch Pad, has secured an investment from Houston-based Modi Ventures.

Additionally, RBL announced that it has named Sahir Ali, founder and general partner of Modi Ventures, to its board of directors.

Modi Ventures invests in biotech companies that are working to advance diagnostics, engineered therapeutics and AI-driven drug discovery. The firm has $134 million under management after closing an oversubscribed round this summer.

RBL launched in 2024 and is based out of Houston’s Texas Medical Center Helix Park. William McKeon, president and CEO of the TMC, previously called the launch of RBL a “critical step forward” for Houston’s life sciences ecosystem.

“RBL is dedicated to building companies focused on pioneering and intelligent bioelectronic therapeutics,” Ali said in a LinkedIn post. “This partnership strengthens the Houston biotech ecosystem and accelerates the transition of groundbreaking lab discoveries into impactful therapies.”

Ali will join board members like managing partner Paul Wotton, Rice bioengineering professor Omid Veiseh, scientist and partner at KdT Ventures Rima Chakrabarti, Rice alum John Jaggers, CEO of Arbor Biotechnologies Devyn Smith, and veteran executive in the life sciences sector James Watson.

Ali has led transformative work and built companies across AI, cloud computing and precision medicine. Ali also serves on the board of directors of the Drug Information Association, which helps to collaborate in drug, device and diagnostics developments.

“This investment by Modi Ventures will be instrumental to RBL’s growth as it reinforces confidence in our venture creation model and accelerates our ability to develop successful biotech startups,” Wotton said in the announcement. "Sahir’s addition to the board will also amplify this collaboration with Modi. His strategic counsel and deep understanding of field-defining technologies will be invaluable as we continue to grow and deliver on our mission.”

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This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Tim Neal of AmPd Labs, Sandy Guitar of HX Venture Fund, and Sahir Ali of Modi Ventures. Photos courtesy

3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

Editor's note: In this week's roundup of Houston innovators to know, I'm introducing you to three local innovators across industries — from venture capital to manufacturing — recently making headlines in Houston innovation.

Tim Neal, CEO of AmPd Labs

Tim Neal is the new CEO of AmPd Labs, a unique additive manufacturing startup in Houston. Photo via LinkedIn

Houston entrepreneur Tim Neal joined next-generation additive manufacturing company AmPd Labs as CEO of the company. He tells InnovationMap that he'd always been interested in the additive manufacturing sector, and sees a lot of potential for AmPd Labs in the industrial world in Houston — now more than ever.

“Within additive manufacturing, a lot of people focus on the medical and the aerospace sectors, but the industrial sector has been largely overlooked. Being in Houston, that really resonates,” Neal says. “The technology is now at a place that it can be at this production scale.” Read more.

Sandy Guitar, general partner of HX Venture Fund

Sandy Guitar shares some lessons learned from the fallout of Silicon Valley Bank. Photo via HXVF

In its third year, Venture Houston — taking place on Rice University's campus on September 7 — has a theme of "decarbonization in a digital world," but that's not the only thing different this year. The one-day conference has added on a unique event on September 6 to help engage around 50 investors with over 100 Houston startups.

The new activation is called Capital Connect, and HX Venture Fund will matchmake investors and startups for one-on-one meetings meant to spur collisions and collaboration.

"It's not a pitch competition — it doesn't have the stress of that," Sandy Guitar, general partner of HX Venture Fund, tells InnovationMap. "It's really just a way of connecting with a longer term horizon. We didn't want to limit it just to those who are currently raising, but actually include people who maybe just raised six months ago or are not going to raise for 12 more months, but might still want to be in the room." Read more.

Sahir Ali, founder and general partner of Modi Ventures

Sahir Ali is the founder and general partner of Modi Ventures. Photo courtesy of Modi Ventures

It might be cool to arrive fashionably late to a party, but Houston investor Sahir Ali likes to be early when it comes to new technologies.

"What has been a part of my success and has driven a lot of my profesional, scientific, and financial growth has been being ahead of the curve a little bit in technologies. That is really the basis of the fund," Ali, founder and general partner of Modi Ventures, says on the Houston Innovators Podcast.

"Hardware and software have come to a point where now artificial intelligence is ready to go, and I think the biggest benefactor of that is going to be health care and the health and medicine space — and that space is not easy for investors to just jump in right away," he continues. Read more.

Sahir Ali is the founder and general partner of Modi Ventures. Photo courtesy of Modi Ventures

How this Houston investor closed a $32M oversubscribed fund in less than a month

Houston innovators podcast episode 201

It might be cool to arrive fashionably late to a party, but Houston investor Sahir Ali likes to be early when it comes to new technologies.

That's why Ali decided to start his own firm, Modi Ventures, with his brother, Amir. The two have invested in a family office capacity before, but raising the initial fund for Modi Ventures was a whole different story. With his background in research, cloud computing, AI, finance, and more across the country, Ali set up the fund in the Houston area where he's from.

"When I see Houston market — and Texas in general — you won't see a lot of funds raising in Houston. ... It's not New York or California where folks do go after a lot of LPs," Ali says. "There are folks who have the appetite, but they are hard to reach."

"The structure that made sense for Houston had to be access that just wasn't available."

From ideation to launch, Ali proceeded to raise the initial fund in one month, accumulating an oversubscribed amount of $32 million. He credits to this in part to the fact that he's the fund's first investor, indicating to other limited partners that he's got skin in the game. He says he also wanted have a very open door with LPs.

"The thing I noticed when a lot of funds pitched to me as a potential LP is that there's a lot of vagaries and a black box effect in VC," he says. "My process was to incorporate transparency and education."

Now with its Tech+Bio Fund I closed, Modi Ventures has already deployed capital to three startups: Amsterdam-based Lapsi Health, Houston-based Starling Medical, and Boston-based Cyberdontics.

But Modi doesn't just invest in startups. The fund is a bit of a hybrid in that it also invests as an LP into other funds. The throughline is that the funds Modi Ventures invests in — as well as the startups — sit at the intersection of AI and health care. The first fund relationships Ali has entered into include Khosla Ventures, Draper Associates, Artis Ventures, and Antler Group — funds that have proven their success in this emerging field.

Ali shares more about why he's focused on this unique tech bio space on the podcast. Listen to the interview here — or wherever you stream your podcasts — and subscribe for weekly episodes.

A new Houston firm has closed its inaugural fund to invest in health tech. Photo via Getty Images

New Houston investment firm closes $32M fund, announces 3 portfolio companies

money moves

A new firm has emerged to invest in early-stage tech bio, artificial intelligence, and life sciences.

Modi Ventures announced its inaugural fund, Tech+Bio Fund I, closed at $32 million, an oversubscribed amount. The fund targets companies "shaping the future of humanity," reads a press release from Modi.

“Investing in next generation technologies has always been very lucrative,” says Sahir Ali, general partner of Modi Ventures, in the release. “We are entering an era of software writing software (artificial intelligence), technology that can unravel our individual genetic makeup (gene sequencing), biotech that can reprogram our genes (gene editing), and a fundamental change in how medicine is practiced by leveraging all of the above (precision medicine).

"Tech Bio companies will revolutionize multiple trillion dollar industries, providing early investors with potential for great returns,” he continues.

Ali, who's career has been focused on and the intersection of oncology and AI, has a Ph.D. and has worked with Fortune 500 companies across industries. He's joined by Andrew Yang, former presidential candidate and founder of Venture for America, as an adviser.

“Modi Ventures’ goal is to find solutions for some of the world’s most vexing problems that keep people unhealthy or struggling with illnesses that we can address collectively,” Yang says in the release. “The leadership and results that Sahir and his team have already demonstrated are one reason I’m looking forward to being a part of this team as we bring life saving solutions to market and take advantage of AI and new tools to advance the human condition.”

The first three portfolio companies Modi has announced include:

Amsterdam-based Lapsi Health, a medical technology company that is screening, diagnosing, treating and monitoring in medicine through sound and auscultation (acquired from stethoscopes).
Starling Medical, a Houston-based predictive technology platform for the early detection of bladder health issues.
Cyberdontics, an automated dental surgery using advanced imaging, AI, and robotics, that's based in Boston.

The firm announced that it has created partnerships with other investors, including Modi Ventures Khosla Ventures, Section 32, Artis Ventures, Draper Associates, and Antler Group.

“Modi Ventures is investing in healthcare tech companies with immense potential to improve lives and I'm thrilled to be partnering with Sahir and Modi Ventures,” says Tim Draper, founder of Draper Associates, in the release. “Working together we will be able to discover unique and innovative investments to collaborate on.”

Sahir Ali is the general partner of Modi Ventures. Photo courtesy of Modi Ventures

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Houston medtech startup clears FDA approval for new surgical tool

precision surgery

Houston-based Prana Surgical will soon bring a new electrosurgical tool to operating rooms around the country. The Prana System officially cleared U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval earlier this month.

"Receiving FDA clearance for the Prana System represents a defining milestone for our company," Joanna Nathan, CEO and co-founder of Prana Surgical, said in a news release. "Surgeons today are increasingly focused on achieving precise outcomes while minimizing disruption to healthy tissue. The Prana System was designed to support that shift by integrating targeting and excision into a single, streamlined tool."

Prana Surgical began as Prana Thoracic in 2022. Back then, the company primarily focused on developing screening tools for lung cancer diagnosis. It raised $6 million in series A funding rounds in 2023 and 2024 before transitioning to broader surgical needs in 2025.

The Prana System is a minimally invasive, image-guided, single-use tissue extraction tool designed to retrieve samples without damaging healthy tissue. The tool is still designed with the respiratory system in mind, helping Prana in the fight against lung cancer and other thoracic diseases.

Reducing the impact of tissue extraction via electrosurgery and enhanced image scanning can significantly reduce complications. The Prana System combines localization and tissue-cutting capabilities in one, which keeps surgeons from having to swap out components during a procedure, making for a smoother process. It can core, cut and feel blood vessels on the way toward the intended target, giving surgeons greater control over tissue preservation.

"Electrosurgery is foundational to modern surgery, but there is still opportunity to improve how energy-based tools are applied in minimally invasive settings," Nathan added. "Our goal is to introduce a new class of image-guided surgical tools that enable more precise intervention across a range of procedures."

The company projects sales of $7.5 billion from the Prana System in the United States, estimating that 2.5 million surgical modules will be able to use the new tool. While starting out focused on biopsies, the company plans to evolve the system into other procedures, such as ablation, in the future. It is also planning for a controlled U.S. clinical rollout as it moves toward commercialization

Texas still ranks as No. 1 in U.S. for inbound moves, but growth dips

by the numbers

Texas continues to be the country’s No. 1 magnet for newcomers from other states, giving a boost to the state’s economy. However, Texas’ appeal weakened in 2024 compared with the previous year, due in large part to spiking home prices.

An analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by self-storage platform StorageCafe shows Texas saw net interstate migration of 76,000 people in 2024. Texas’ net interstate migration dropped nearly 50 percent from 2023, according to the analysis. Net migration refers to the number of incoming residents minus the number of outgoing residents.

California remained the top source of newcomers for Texas, sending nearly 77,000 residents to the Lone Star State in 2024, the analysis says. Florida ranked second, followed by New York, Colorado and Illinois.

“These trends reveal Texas’ continued pull from both high-cost coastal markets and other large Sun Belt states, resulting in a mix of affordability-driven and job-driven relocation,” StorageCafe says.

Putting a damper on the influx of new residents: a roughly 124 percent surge in Texas home prices over the past decade, according to StorageCafe.

“While the state remains significantly more affordable than California, its top feeder state, the once-wide pricing gap has narrowed,” says StorageCafe. “For many movers, Texas is still a relative bargain, but no longer an undisputed one.”

Nonetheless, Texas keeps attracting young, highly educated people, which bodes well for the state’s long-term economic outlook, StorageCafe says. More than half of new arrivals to Texas in 2024 held at least a bachelor’s degree, and the age of newcomers averaged 32.

Where are most of these young, highly educated newcomers settling?

Lloyd Potter, former Texas state demographer, tells StorageCafe that population growth in Texas is happening most rapidly in suburban “ring counties” at the expense of slowing growth in urban cores. Ring counties are on the outskirts of major metro areas.

“Many people are moving from urban cores to suburban rings seeking lower costs, newer housing, better schools, and more space,” Potter says. “Typically, a move to a suburban county will be within commuting or hybrid‑commuting distance of major metro economies.”

Artemis II makes historic call to space station with help from Houston Mission Control

History in the making

Still aglow from their triumphant lunar flyby, the Artemis II astronauts made more history Tuesday, April 7: calling their friends aboard the International Space Station hundreds of thousands of miles away as they headed home from the moon.

It was the first moonship-to-spaceship radio linkup ever. NASA's Apollo crews had no off-the-planet company back in the 1960s and 1970s, the last time humanity set sail for deep space.

"We have been waiting for this like you can’t imagine,” Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman called out.

For Christina Koch on Artemis II and Jessica Meir aboard the space station, it marked a joyous space reunion despite being 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) apart. The two teamed up for the world's first all-female spacewalk in 2019 outside the orbiting lab.

Koch told her “astro-sister” that she'd hoped to meet up with her again in space “but I never thought it would be like this — it's amazing.”

“I'm so happy that we are back in space together,” Meir replied, “even if we are a few miles apart.”

Houston's Mission Control arranged the cosmic chitchat between the four lunar travelers and the space station's three NASA and one French residents.

Koch described being awe-struck by not just the beauty of Earth, “but how much blackness there was around it.”

“It just made it even more special. It truly emphasized how alike we are, how the same thing keeps every single person on planet Earth alive,” she told the space station crew. “The specialness and preciousness of that really is emphasized” when viewing the home planet from the moon.

By late Tuesday afternoon, the Artemis II astronauts had beamed back more than 50 gigabytes' worth of pictures and other data from the previous day's lunar rendezvous, which set a new distance record for humanity. The highlight: an Earthset photo reminiscent of Apollo 8's Earthrise shot from 1968.

"While they are inspirational and, I think, allow all of us to really feel a little bit of what they were feeling, there's also a lot of science hidden inside of those images," said Mission Control's lead lunar scientist Kelsey Young. “The conversations and the science lessons learned are just beginning."

During a debriefing with Young, the astronauts recounted how they spotted a cascade of pinpricks of light on the lunar surface from impacting cosmic debris. The flashes lasted mere milliseconds and coincided by chance with Monday evening's total solar eclipse.

Young said it was too soon to know whether the crew witnessed an actual meteor shower or more random, run-of-the-mill micrometeoroid hits. Either way, there were “audible screams of delight” in the science operations center, she said.

Koch described being awe-struck by not just the beauty of Earth, “but how much blackness there was around it.”

The first lunar explorers since Apollo 17 in 1972, Wiseman and his crew are aiming for a splashdown off the San Diego coast on Friday to wrap up the nearly 10-day test flight. The recovery ship USS John P. Murtha left port Tuesday for the target zone.

It sets the stage for next year's Artemis III, a lunar lander docking demo in orbit around Earth. Artemis IV will follow in 2028 with two astronauts attempting to land near the lunar south pole.

As for the Orion capsule’s pesky potty, Mission Control assured the astronauts that no maintenance was required Tuesday. The toilet has been on-and-off limits to the crew ever since last week’s launch, prompting them to rely on a backup bag-and-funnel system for urinating.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told the crew following the lunar flyby Monday night: “We definitely have to fix some of the plumbing” ahead of the next Artemis mission. Engineers suspect a clogged filter in the overboard flushing system.

Aside from the toilet and other relatively minor matters, the mission has gone well, Isaacman noted at a news conference Tuesday, “but I'll breathe easier when we get through reentry and everybody's under chutes and in the water.”

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