Here's what Houston startups have raised in funding so far in 2024

Q1 2024 VC ACTIVITY

Houston startups raised a combined $380 million in venture funding last quarter. Photo via Getty Images

Seven Houston startups have started the new year strong with over $380 million in venture funding — most of which from one mega deal for a geothermal company.

According to InnovationMap reporting, Houston's VC activity in the first quarter of 2024 spanned industry and stage — from pre-seed to series E. It's a large chunk of money raised in Houston for one quarter — but not in terms of deals closed, at least compared to the previous quarter, in which startups raised over $170 million but across nine deals.

On the national side, it's not too different of a story. According to a quarterly report from PitchBook, the United State's VC activity for the start of the year "showed to be one of the slowest areas of the venture market during the quarter." Only $9.3 billion in capital was raised in the U.S. last quarter, which is only 11.3 percent of the total raised in the already slowed market of 2023.

"While dry powder remains high, slowed fundraising portends to LP hesitancy toward VC, and should predict a more difficult dealmaking environment down the road," reads an email from PitchBook. "During the past few years, large mega-funds drove fundraising trends, but Q1 VC fundraising shows there may be no appetite for such vehicles in today’s market."

These are the seven startup VC deals closed in Houston so far this year, according to reporting on InnovationMap.

Fervo Energy raises $244M in latest funding round

Fervo Energy scored a $244 million round of funding thanks to existing and new investors. Photo via Fervo Energy

An Oklahoma-based shale oil and gas leader has backed Fervo Energy's latest round of funding, supporting the startup's geothermal technology yet again.

Fervo announced its latest round of funding this week to the tune of $244 million. The round was led by Devon Energy, a company that's previously backed the startup.

“Demand for around-the-clock clean energy has never been higher, and next-generation geothermal is uniquely positioned to meet this demand,” Tim Latimer, Fervo CEO and co-founder, says in a news release. “Our technology is fully derisked, our pricing is already competitive, and our resource pipeline is vast. This investment enables Fervo to continue to position geothermal at the heart of 24/7 carbon-free energy production.” Read more about the round.

Procyrion secures $57.7M series E

Procyrion has announced the closing of its series E round of funding. Photo via Getty Images

Houston-born and bred medical device company, Procyrion, has completed its series E with a raise of $57.7 million, including the conversion of $10 million of interim financing.

Procyrion is the company behind Aortix, a pump designed to be placed in the descending thoracic aorta of heart failure patients, which has been shown to improve cardiac performance in seriously ill subjects. The money raised will allow the company to proceed with a the DRAIN-HF Study, a pivotal trial that will be used for eventual FDA approval and commercialization.

The Aortix is the brainchild of Houston cardiologist Reynolds Delgado. According to Procyrion’s CSO, Jace Heuring, Delgado, gained some of his experience with devices for the heart working with legendary Texas Heart Institute surgeon O.H. “Bud” Frazier. He filed his first patents related to the Aortix in 2005. Read more about the round.

Welligence Energy Analytics raises $41M series B

Houston-based Welligence Energy Analytics specializes in data and intelligence for the oil and gas markets, greenhouse gas emissions sector, and CCUS projects. Photo via Getty Images

A group of investors has chipped in $41 million to purchase a minority stake in Houston-based Welligence Energy Analytics, a provider of energy data and intelligence.

Boston-based venture capital firm Elephant Partners led the series B round, with participation from Veriten, a Houston-based, energy-focused research, investing, and strategy firm, and EDG, a Metairie, Louisiana-based energy consulting firm. Several executives from the energy, information services, and software sectors also contributed to the round.

Founded in 2016, Welligence specializes in data and intelligence for the oil and gas markets, greenhouse gas emissions sector, and carbon capture, storage, and utilization (CCUS) projects. Clients include major oil and gas companies, as well as large investment banks. Read more about the round.

Motif Neurotech secures nearly $19M series A

Motif Neurotech, which develops minimally invasive bioelectronics for mental health treatment, closed its series A round with an oversubscribed $18.75 million. Photo via Rice.edu

A health tech startup based out of a newly formed accelerator program at Rice University has raised venture funding.

Motif Neurotech closed its series A round with an oversubscribed $18.75 million. The company, which develops minimally invasive bioelectronics for mental health treatment, was formed out of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad that launched last fall.

The round was led by Arboretum Ventures, with participation from new investors KdT Ventures, Satori Neuro, Dolby Family Ventures, re.Mind Capital and existing investors Divergent Capital, TMC Venture Fund, PsyMed Ventures, Empath Ventures and Capital Factory. Read more about the round.

Sage Geosystems closes $17M series A 

Houston-based Sage Geosystems announced the first close of $17 million round led by Chesapeake Energy Corp. Photo via sagegeosystems.com

A Houston geothermal startup has announced the close of its series A round of funding.

Houston-based Sage Geosystems announced the first close of $17 million round led by Chesapeake Energy Corp. The proceeds aim to fund its first commercial geopressured geothermal system facility, which will be built in Texas in Q4 of 2024. According to the company, the facility will be the first of its kind.

The venture is joined by technology investor Arch Meredith, Helium-3 Ventures and will include support from existing investors Virya, LLC, Nabors Industries Ltd., and Ignis Energy Inc.

“The first close of our Series A funding and our commercial facility are significant milestones in our mission to make geopressured geothermal system technologies a reality,” Cindy Taff, CEO of Sage Geosystems, says in a news release. “The success of our GGS technologies is not only critical to Sage Geosystems becoming post-revenue, but it is an essential step in accelerating the development of this proprietary geothermal baseload approach. Read more about the round.

Ema raises $2M round of bridge funding

Ema, which operates as a health and wellness-focused, AI-based chat for women, has raised additional funding. Screenshot courtesy of Ema

A Houston-based startup that's improving health and wellness for women with its artificial intelligence-backed platform has raised a bridge round of funding.

Ema closed its latest bridge round, bringing its total funding to nearly $2 million. The company received investment from Kubera's Venture Capital and Victorum Capital, which joined existing investors Hearst Labs, Wormhole Capital, Acumen America, and Techstars.

Ema strives to deliver "personalized, empathetic, and evidence-based support" to its users through its generative AI technology. The platform has more than 100,000 users, and has expanded into the B2B sector with $100,000 in contracts within just 30 days after pivoting to this model, according to the company. Read more about the round.

TrueLeap Inc. raises oversubscribed $610,000 pre-seed round

The edtech company offers a comprehensive approach to shrinking the digital divide with a suite of technology including software, hardware, and more. Photo courtesy of TrueLeap

An edtech startup has just secured funding to further its mission of increasing accessibility to education.

TrueLeap Inc., global digital education startup addressing the digital divide in education, has raised $610,000, which is over its target of $500,000. The round was led by United Kingdom-based Maya Investments Limited.

"This oversubscribed funding round, led by Maya Investments Limited, is a testament to the urgent need for innovative educational technologies in emerging markets. Our commitment to providing affordable and integrated solutions is stronger than ever," says Sandip Bordoloi, CEO and Co-Founder of TrueLeap, in a news release. Read more about the round.

From Your Site Articles
Procyrion has announced the closing of its series E round of funding. Photo via Getty Images

Houston medical device company secures $57.7M to fund journey to FDA approval, commercialization

fresh funding

Houston-born and bred medical device company, Procyrion, has completed its series E with a raise of $57.7 million, including the conversion of $10 million of interim financing.

Procyrion is the company behind Aortix, a pump designed to be placed in the descending thoracic aorta of heart failure patients, which has been shown to improve cardiac performance in seriously ill subjects. The money raised will allow the company to proceed with a the DRAIN-HF Study, a pivotal trial that will be used for eventual FDA approval and commercialization.

The Aortix is the brainchild of Houston cardiologist Reynolds Delgado. According to Procyrion’s CSO, Jace Heuring, Delgado, gained some of his experience with devices for the heart working with legendary Texas Heart Institute surgeon O.H. “Bud” Frazier. He filed his first patents related to the Aortix in 2005.

Heuring says that the first prototypes were built in 2011, followed by the final design in 2018. CEO Eric Fain, a California-based MD and with more than 30 years in the medical device industry, joined the company in 2018 ahead of the final design, primed to bring Aortix to the public. He visits the company’s Houston headquarters, across the street from Central Market, on a regular basis.

The device’s pilot study of 18 patients was completed in 2022. Those encouraging results paved the way for the current study, which will include an enrollment of 134 patients. The randomized study will seek to treat patients with acute decompensated heart failure. Half will be treated with standard-of-care therapy, the other half will be catheterized with an Aortix pump. A separate arm of the study will seek to treat end-stage heart failure patients who would otherwise be deemed too sick for either a transplant or an LVAD permanent pump. Fort-five healthcare centers in the United States will participate, including Texas Heart Institute.

“One of the key characteristics is [the patients] are retaining a lot of fluid,” explains Heuring in a video interview. “And when I say a lot, I mean it could be 25 or 30 or 40 pounds of fluid or more. When we put our pump in, one of the main goals is to reduce that fluid load.”

On average, about 11 liters of fluid came off of each patient. Many of those end-stage patients had previously been considered for both a heart and kidney transplant, but after using the Aortix, their kidneys responded so well that they were able to get only the heart transplant.

“These patients really are in dire straits and come into the hospital and today the only proven therapy to help these patients is to administer high doses of intravenous diuretic and some other cardiac drugs and in about 25 percent of patients those therapies are ineffective,” says Fain.

If Aortix gains approval, these sickest of the sick, usually consigned to hospice care, will have hope.

Thanks to the Series E, led by Houston’s Fannin Partners, returning investors, including Bluebird Ventures, the Aortix is inching closer to commercialization. Besides funding the DRAIN-HR study, Procyrion will also use the funds for internal programs to improve product manufacturability. One more step towards meaning advanced heart failure may not always be a death sentence.

Last month, Atul Varadhachary, managing director of Fannin, joined the Houston Innovators Podcast and alluded to Procyrion's raise. The company was born out of Fannin and still resides in the same building as Fannin.

Aortix is a pump designed to be placed in the descending thoracic aorta of heart failure patients. Photo via Procyrion

Ad Placement 300x100
Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Property Showcase

Microsoft partners with Rice University's OpenStax on AI teaching tool

group project

Rice University’s OpenStax and Microsoft are partnering to integrate the nonprofit’s content with the tech giant’s AI innovation, known as Learning Zone.

“At OpenStax, our mission is to make an amazing education accessible to all,” Richard G. Baraniuk, founder and director of OpenStax, said in a news release. “That’s why we’re excited to integrate our trustworthy, peer-reviewed content with Microsoft’s AI technology through the Microsoft Learning Zone. Together, we aim to help more instructors and their students access engaging, effective learning experiences in new and dynamic ways. We also share a strong commitment to the thoughtful and responsible application of AI to better ensure all learners can succeed.”

OpenStax is a provider of affordable instructional technologies and is also one of the world’s largest publishers of open educational resources (OER).

Microsoft Learning Zone promises to provide educators and students with “responsible AI technology and peer-reviewed educational content to support learning” on Microsoft Copilot+ PCs. Microsoft Learning Zone works by utilizing on-device AI to generate interactive lessons for students, and its integration with OpenStax content means educators can rely on OpenStax’s digital library of 80 openly licensed titles.

The goal is for educators to create effective and engaging learning experiences safely, thereby bypassing the need to source and vet content independently. Included is a library of ready-to-use lessons, opportunity for immediate feedback and differentiated learning. Educators will maintain control of instructional content and pedagogical strategies and will be able to update or edit lessons or activities prior to sharing them with students.

Other tools included in the Microsoft Learning Zone are additional languages, reading coaching, public speaking help, math and reading progress, and a partnership with the online quiz platform Kahoot!

OpenStax resources have been reported as used across 153 countries, and this current collaboration combines the power and potential of responsible AI usage in education with content that has been utilized by 13,569 K-12 schools and 71 percent of U.S. colleges and universities, according to Rice.

“Through our partnership with OpenStax, we’re combining the power of on-device AI in Copilot+ PCs with OpenStax’s trusted and diverse peer-reviewed content to help educators quickly create high-quality, personalized, engaging lessons,” Deirdre Quarnstrom, vice president of Microsoft Education, added in the news release. “We’re excited about how this collaboration will empower classrooms globally.”

Houston ranks among the 15 best cities in America for 2025

Ranking It

A new national report ranking the best cities in America has declared Houston is the 13th best U.S. city in 2025.

The annual "America's Best Cities" report from Resonance Consultancy, a Canada-based real estate and tourism marketing firm, ranks the relative qualities of livability, cultural "lovability," and economic prosperity in America's principal cities with metropolitan populations of 500,000 or more.

These top 100 cities "brilliantly weave local culture with economic prospects, aligning with global and domestic travel trends to create premier experiences for both residents and travelers."

Houston's new placement is three spots lower than its triumphant No. 10 rank in 2024. Though it no longer holds a prized top-10 spot, the report hails Houston as a "coveted hometown for the best and brightest on earth."

Among Houston's other shining attributes are its booming population growth – which has now grown to a staggering 7.51 million people – plus its competitive real estate market and a vibrant hospitality and culinary scene. Additionally, Houston earned a well-deserved No. 4 rank in the report's "restaurants" subcategory.

"A 221-room Home2 Suites/Tru by Hilton debuted near Toyota Center in March, while Marriott’s newly renovated Residence Inn NASA/Clear Lake keeps surging visitors happy," the report said. "West Houston’s Greenside will convert 35,000 square feet of warehouses into a park-laced retail hub by 2026, while America’s inaugural Ismaili Center, rising along Allen Parkway, remains on schedule for later this year, adding yet another cultural jewel to H-Town’s festival-fueled mosaic."

The report additionally puts a large focus on Houston's innovative energy sector and its numerous large companies that boost the local economy and create thousands of jobs. Several of these Houston-based companies are some of the best places to work, according to U.S. News and World Report.

One such company that was specifically praised in the report was the HyVelocity Hub, which aims to "ensure economic resilience and long-lasting, domestic energy production" along the Gulf Coast.

"The HyVelocity Hydrogen Hub just locked in up to $1.2 billion from the U.S. DOE, targeting 45,000 jobs and slicing 7.7 million tons of CO₂ a year," the report said.

Elsewhere in Texas

Dallas (No. 14) and Austin (No. 15) ranked right behind Houston in the top 20, while San Antonio sank into the No. 41 spot after previously ranking 32nd last year. El Paso also fell from No. 83 in 2024 to No. 100 this year.

Jason McGrath, the executive vice president and head of U.S. Corporate Reputation at Ipsos, said in the report that American cities are proving their resiliency as they are faced with "climate issues, increasing infrastructural demands, and shifting geopolitical landscapes affecting international relations and travel."

"Despite these hurdles, cities are creatively reinventing themselves to shine as examples of cultural vibrancy and innovation, keeping their competitive edge both locally and globally," McGrath said. "Our report shows that the allure of American cities remains strong, thanks to their rich diversity and vast attractions — from natural wonders to buzzing cultural hubs."

The top 10 best cities in America in 2025 are:

  • No. 1 – New York City, New York
  • No. 2 – Los Angeles, California
  • No. 3 – Chicago, Illinois
  • No. 4 – San Francisco, California
  • No. 5 – Seattle, Washington
  • No. 6 – Miami, Florida
  • No. 7 – Boston, Massachusetts
  • No. 8 – Washington, D.C.
  • No. 9 – Las Vegas, Nevada
  • No. 10 – San Diego, California
---

This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

Houston biosciences company opens new sequencing center for drug development

bioscience breakthroughs

Houston-based Avance Biosciences has launched the Next-Generation Sequencing Center of Excellence, designed to enhance the company’s sequencing capabilities for drug development. Specifically, the facility at the company’s main campus in Northwest Houston will pursue breakthroughs in biologics, cell therapy and gene therapy.

In the drug industry, sequencing refers to studying nucleotides in DNA and RNA molecules. Nucleotides are the building blocks of DNA and RNA.

“This is a major milestone for Avance Biosciences as we continue to support the evolving needs of biologics and cell and gene therapy developers,” Xuening “James” Huang, co-founder, CEO and chief technology officer of Avance, said in a news release. “By consolidating state-of-the-art sequencing platforms and scientific talent, we’ve created a highly capable organization ready to solve complex genomic challenges with precision and compliance.”

In 2013, Avance rolled out next-generation sequencing (NGS) that complies with federal guidelines. Since then, Avance “has remained at the forefront of regulated sequencing services,” the company said. “The launch of the (new center) strengthens the company’s ability to deliver accurate, reproducible, and regulatory-aligned sequencing data across a wide array of therapeutic modalities.”

Cal Froberg, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Avance, said pharmaceutical and biotech clients trust the company’s technical capabilities and regulatory compliance.

“With the ever-changing global landscape and increasing scrutiny around international sample shipments, conducting advanced, cost-effective NGS testing domestically is now more feasible than ever,” Froberg said. “Our clients have confidence that their samples will remain in the U.S.”

Avance, founded in 2010, plans to hold an open house at the new facility in September to showcase its capabilities, technology, talent, and services. The company’s services include sequencing, molecular biology, cell-based testing, and bioanalytical testing.
View All Listings