Innovative Houston-area hardtech startup closes $5M seed round

fresh funding

FluxWorks has closed its seed round and plans to commercialize its flagship magnetic gear technology. Photo via fluxworks.co

Conroe-based hardtech startup FluxWorks has closed a $5 million seed round.

The funding was led by Austin-based Scout Ventures, which invests in early-stage startups working to solve national security challenges.

Michigan Capital Network also contributed to the round from its MCN Venture Fund V. The fund is one of 18 selected by the Department of Defense and Small Business Administration to participate in the Small Business Investment Company Critical Technologies Initiative, which will invest $4 billion into over 1,700 portfolio companies.

FluxWorks reports that it will use the funding to drive the commercialization of its flagship Celestial Gear technology.

"At Scout, we invest in 'frontier tech' that is essential to national interest. FluxWorks is doing exactly that by solving critical hardware bottlenecks with its flagship Celestial Gear technology ... This is about more than just gears; it’s about strengthening our industrial infrastructure," Scout Ventures shared in a LinkedIn post.

Fluxworks specializes in making contactless magnetic gears for use in extreme conditions, which can enhance in-space manufacturing. Its contactless design leads to less wear, debris and maintenance. Its technology is particularly suited for space applications because it does not require lubricants, which can be difficult to control at harsh temperatures and in microgravity.

The company received a grant from the Texas Space Commission last year and was one of two startups to receive the Technology in Space Prize, funded by Boeing and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), in 2024. It also landed $1.2 million through the National Science Foundation's SBIR Phase II grant this fall.

Fluxworks was founded in College Station by CEO Bryton Praslicka in 2021. Praslicka moved the company to Conroe 2024.

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The Houston SBA has joined forces with various organizations across a 32-county footprint to align with SBA’s goal of supporting small businesses. Photo via Unsplash

Houston small biz organization expands strategic partnerships

more support

In alliance with their mission of supporting Houston small businesses the Small Business Administration Houston District Office has expanded its partnerships.

The Houston SBA has joined forces with various organizations across a 32-county footprint.

“Small businesses represent an important and valuable resource in our community and our robust SBE program shows just how much small businesses can contribute when given the chance, and what it can mean in terms of overall economic benefits to the economy," Sabeeta Bidasie-Singh, director of business equity for Port Houston, says in a news release. “Collaborating with partners like the SBA is a key part of our success in supporting the small business ecosystem.”

Organizations signed a Strategic Alliance Memoranda to collaborate to further the interests of small businesses. In 2023, strategic partnerships included Greater Houston Partnership, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Fort Bend County Economic Opportunity & Development, Port Houston, Harris County Department of Economic Equity and Opportunity, Harris County Department of Education, Ion, Impact HUB, and Vision Galveston.

“Every small business deserves the chance to prosper,” Tim Jeffcoat, district director for Houston SBA, says in a news release. “SBA Houston strategically chose to partner with these important organizations so that small businesses of all kinds, everywhere in the 32-county Houston district, will benefit.”

SBA works with small business owners to assist with resources and support business growth and development. SBA also assists with businesses that need recovery from a declared disaster. SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations like Ion help the city’s entrepreneurs.

“As a premiere destination for entrepreneurs to make their ideas a reality, we’re delighted to collaborate with the Small Business Administration to help Houstonians start, maintain and grow businesses,” Deanea LeFlore, senior director of Strategic Alliances at Ion, says in a news release. “We're excited to expand our relationships with the SBA to empower Houston’s small business community to scale their businesses, contributing to greater economic growth in the city.”

An expert from the U.S. Small Business Administration shares in an op-ed how critical women-owned businesses are to small business exports in Texas. Photo via Getty Images

Expert: The major impact women of Texas have on the state's small biz exports

guest column

Everything is bigger in Texas, including its small business ecosystem. There are over three million small businesses in the state, which represent 99.8 percent of all Texas businesses. However, according to the latest official U.S. Census Bureau data on small business exporters (2020), only 35,124 Texas-based companies exported goods abroad.

During my time in the Administration, I have had the opportunity to visit Texas on several occasions, including trips to Houston, San Antonio, and El Paso. Like most everything in Texas, the entrepreneurial ecosystem is sizable and a rich source of opportunity and ideas. But with over a thousand miles of shared border with Mexico, and considerable trade infrastructure like the Port of Houston, you can’t tell me that just 1 percent of Texas small businesses are exporting their products or services. This data, which mirrors the published trend for small business exporters nationwide, seemed severely undercounted. So, we endeavored to dig into what was going on.

As a result, the Office of International Trade (OIT) commissioned a study to determine the total addressable market (TAM) of small business exporters. The research dug deep into available public data and private surveys, which better accounted for smaller shipment values and growth in service exports. Among the key findings from the study is new data that places the actual number of exporting small businesses at 1.3 million – an almost fivefold increase over the estimates previously published by the Federal Government. Interestingly, minority, women-owned firms were found to over-index in selling abroad. The research also revealed a high concentration of certain tradeable sectors ranging from consumer, industrial, and other manufactured goods to services businesses in software, architectural, and engineering sectors. Ultimately, the study estimated the potential market size, or total addressable market, at over 2.6 million small businesses.

With the proliferation of digital commerce tools and with over 95 percent of the world’s consumers living outside the United States, international sales represent a rich growth opportunity for small businesses. Indeed, businesses that export are more resilient, expand faster, and create higher paying jobs for Americans.

My colleague, District Director Tim Jeffcoat agrees. With his finger on the local pulse of the Houston-area economic market, he knows that exporting can be both an enormous growth opportunity, but at the same time filled with a daunting set of challenges to navigate. In his

Houston area network alone, they have over 200 advisors, mentors, and counselors that can guide you to develop a robust exporting plan, connect you with capital to fund your overseas expansion, and can even help you pursue a competitive grant to kick-start international sales.

This is exactly the case for Pat Hartmann, founder of Hartmann’s Inc., an Abilene, TX-based woman-owned small business. As a manufacturer of high-quality parts from state-of-the-art metal fabrication and welding departments, Hartmann has leveraged international sales to grow her company over three generations. In her words: “exporting has allowed us to become competitive in multiple markets throughout the entire world. It has diversified our knowledge base allowing us to work in manufacturing situations that span multiple types of standards including European and Japanese. Exporting now makes up 20 percent of our sales.”

As a result, Regional Administrator Ted James and I are among the many Administration officials who are pleased to recognize Pat Hartmann of Hartmann’s Inc. as the 2023 South Central Regional Exporter of the Year. She has established herself as a personal and professional role model due to their expansion and contributions to the community. We are confident that small businesses like these, as well as those identified in our Total Addressable Market study, can start and continue to leverage SBA resources to scale their business and access international opportunities, just as Hartmann did.

Pat Hartmann is one of the more than 11 million female founders the SBA is recognizing during Women’s History Month this March. While the post-pandemic recovery has complicated the economic landscape, we continue to better understand the important role women-owned small businesses play in our entrepreneurial ecosystem. They continue to contribute substantially to the national economy, showcasing innovative solutions and trailblazing techniques to lead the way forward.

If you are a current or future entrepreneur looking for assistance in how to get started or grow internationally, contact the SBA’s Office of International Trade or our network of 68 district offices which offer access to counseling, access to contracts, and access to capital.

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Gabriel Esparza is the associate administrator for the Office of International Trade at the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Houston-based PolyVascular has invented a polymer-based heart valve for children with congenital heart disease. Photo courtesy of TMC Innovation

Houston startup with life-saving innovation receives $2M grant

for the children

A $2 million federal grant will enable Houston-based PolyVascular to launch human trials of what it hails as the first polymer-based heart valve for children.

In conjunction with the grant, Dr. Will Clifton has joined the medical device company as chief operating officer. He will oversee the grant as principal investigator, and will manage the company's operations and R&D. Clifton is president and co-founder of Houston-based Enventure, a medical innovation incubator and education hub. He previously was senior director of medical affairs at Houston-based Procyrion, a clinical-stage medical device company.

PolyVascular's Phase II grant came from the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which promotes technological projects.

The PolyVascular heart valve will help treat congenital heart disease affecting more than 1 million around the world. PolyVascular plans to launch clinical trials of the valve in children 5 and over within two years.

"Congenital heart disease remains the most common category of birth defect and a leading cause of childhood death in the developed world," reads a March 30 news release from PolyVascular, founded in 2014.

PolyVascular says the valve can be implanted without surgery, and can avoid the use of valve replacements from humans or animals. Those valve replacements are difficult to find and often don't last too long, leading to frequent follow-up surgeries.

"Our aim at PolyVascular is to transform the care of children with congenital heart disease by developing an entirely new generation of valves made of medical-grade polymer devoid of any biological tissue," Dr. Henri Justino, chief medical officer at PolyVascular, says in a release. "The valves in use so far for children have been made of biological tissue. Unfortunately, our immune systems target and destroy this biological tissue, sometimes rapidly, rendering the valve ineffective."

The SBIR grant isn't the only win for PolyVascular in recent years.

In 2019, the startup came away with several honors in the 2019 Texas A&M New Ventures Competition. It won the pitch competition (complete with a $5,000 cash award), and received the Biotex Investment Prize, Amerra Visualization Services Prize, and GOOSE Society Investment Prize.

Also in 2019, PolyVascular, a member of TMCx's 2017 medical device cohort, won in the medical device and health disparities and equity categories at the fifth annual Impact Pediatric Health pitch competition. Additionally, the Southwest National Pediatric Device Consortium granted the company up to $25,000.

Last year, MedTech Innovator, a nonprofit accelerator in the medical technology sector, announced PolyVascular was one of 50 companies chosen to participate in the organization's flagship four-month accelerator program.

"During these uncertain and challenging times, the need for health innovations — specifically those that promise to deliver long-term value to the health care system and patients — is more critical than ever," said Paul Grand, CEO of MedTech Innovator.

Another Houston startup, Vivante Health, also was picked for the MedTech Innovator program. Vivante is a digital health company that helps people address digestive health and wellness.

Following Winter Storm Uri, the United States Small Business Association has launched recovery resources for Texas small businesses. Photo via Getty Images

SBA launches Virtual Business Recovery Center to assist Texas loan applicants after winter storm

funds for small biz

Texas small businesses impacted by Winter Storm Uri are now eligible for up to $2 million in low-interest loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration as a result of President Joe Biden's major disaster declaration last week.

"Getting our businesses and communities up and running after a disaster is our highest priority at SBA," says SBA's acting Administrator Tami Perriello.

According to a release from the SBA, businesses in 77 counties are covered under the declaration for damages incurred during the storm, starting February 11. Loans can be used to repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory and other business assets. The funds can also be used to make improvements that will protect, prevent, or minimize damage from any future freezes.

Interest rates for businesses start at 3 percent. Loans to private nonprofit organizations will start at 2 percent and homeowners and renters will incur interest at 1.25. All loans are set with 30 years terms.

Loan amounts and terms are determined by the SBA based on each applicant's financial condition.

The SBA will also launch a Virtual Business Recovery Center on February 23 — similar to the Women Business Centers it launched across the country in 2020, but all virtual due to COVID-related health concerns.

Applicants can call or email the virtual center to receive personalized assistance in their online loan applications at 800-659-2955 or FOCWAssistance@sba.gov, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Assistance will also be provided to help homeowners and renters through a similar Virtual Disaster Loan Outreach Center, which applicants can reach through the same number and email address.

Homeowners are eligible for up to $200,000 to repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate.Renters and homeowners are also eligible for up to $40,000 for destroyed personal property.

To get started, applicants must contact FEMA at disasterassistance.gov. To download an application visit disasterloanassistance.sba.gov. Individuals who are deaf or hard‑of‑hearing can call 800-877-8339.

Re:3D is one of two Houston companies to be recognized by the SBA's technology awards. Photo courtesy of re:3D

2 Houston startups win national technology award from SBA

winner, winner

A couple of Houston startups have something to celebrate. The United States Small Business Administration announced the winners of its Tibbetts Award, which honors small businesses that are at the forefront of technology, and two Houston startups have made the list.

Re:3D, a sustainable 3D printer company, and Raptamer Discovery Group, a biotech company that's focused on therapeutic solutions, were Houston's two representatives in the Tibbetts Award, named after Roland Tibbetts, the founder of the SBIR Program.

"I am incredibly proud that Houston's technology ecosystem cultivates innovative businesses such as re:3D and Raptamer. It is with great honor and privilege that we recognize their accomplishments, and continue to support their efforts," says Tim Jeffcoat, district director of the SBA Houston District Office, in a press release.

Re:3D, which was founded in 2013 by NASA contractors Samantha Snabes and Matthew Fiedler to tackle to challenge of larger scale 3D printing, is no stranger to awards. The company's printer, the GigaBot 3D, recently was recognized as the Company of the Year for 2020 by the Consumer Technology Association. Re:3D also recently completed The Ion Smart and Resilient Cities Accelerator this year, which has really set the 20-person team with offices in Clear Lake and Puerto Rico up for new opportunities in sustainability.

"We're keen to start to explore strategic pilots and partnerships with groups thinking about close-loop economies and sustainable manufacturing," Snabes recently told InnovationMap on the Houston Innovators Podcast.

Raptamer's unique technology is making moves in the biotech industry. The company has created a process that makes high-quality DNA Molecules, called Raptamers™, that can target small molecules, proteins, and whole cells to be used as therapeutic, diagnostic, or research agents. Raptamer is in the portfolio of Houston-based Fannin Innovation Studio, which also won a Tibbetts Award that Fannin Innovation Studio in 2016.

"We are excited by the research and clinical utility of the Raptamer technology, and its broad application across therapeutics and diagnostics including biomarker discovery in several diseases, for which we currently have an SBIR grant," says Dr. Atul Varadhachary, managing partner at Fannin Innovation Studio.

This year, 38 companies were honored online with Tibbetts Awards. Since its inception in 1982, the awards have recognized over 170,000 honorees, according to the release, with over $50 billion in funding to small businesses through the 11 participating federal agencies.

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Houston scientists develop breakthrough AI-driven process to design, decode genetic circuits

biotech breakthrough

Researchers at Rice University have developed an innovative process that uses artificial intelligence to better understand complex genetic circuits.

A study, published in the journal Nature, shows how the new technique, known as “Combining Long- and Short-range Sequencing to Investigate Genetic Complexity,” or CLASSIC, can generate and test millions of DNA designs at the same time, which, according to Rice.

The work was led by Rice’s Caleb Bashor, deputy director for the Rice Synthetic Biology Institute and member of the Ken Kennedy Institute. Bashor has been working with Kshitij Rai and Ronan O’Connell, co-first authors on the study, on the CLASSIC for over four years, according to a news release.

“Our work is the first demonstration that you can use AI for designing these circuits,” Bashor said in the release.

Genetic circuits program cells to perform specific functions. Finding the circuit that matches a desired function or performance "can be like looking for a needle in a haystack," Bashor explained. This work looked to find a solution to this long-standing challenge in synthetic biology.

First, the team developed a library of proof-of-concept genetic circuits. It then pooled the circuits and inserted them into human cells. Next, they used long-read and short-read DNA sequencing to create "a master map" that linked each circuit to how it performed.

The data was then used to train AI and machine learning models to analyze circuits and make accurate predictions for how untested circuits might perform.

“We end up with measurements for a lot of the possible designs but not all of them, and that is where building the (machine learning) model comes in,” O’Connell explained in the release. “We use the data to train a model that can understand this landscape and predict things we were not able to generate data on.”

Ultimately, the researchers believe the circuit characterization and AI-driven understanding can speed up synthetic biology, lead to faster development of biotechnology and potentially support more cell-based therapy breakthroughs by shedding new light on how gene circuits behave, according to Rice.

“We think AI/ML-driven design is the future of synthetic biology,” Bashor added in the release. “As we collect more data using CLASSIC, we can train more complex models to make predictions for how to design even more sophisticated and useful cellular biotechnology.”

The team at Rice also worked with Pankaj Mehta’s group in the department of physics at Boston University and Todd Treangen’s group in Rice’s computer science department. Research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, Office of Naval Research, the Robert J. Kleberg Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, the American Heart Association, National Library of Medicine, the National Science Foundation, Rice’s Ken Kennedy Institute and the Rice Institute of Synthetic Biology.

James Collins, a biomedical engineer at MIT who helped establish synthetic biology as a field, added that CLASSIC is a new, defining milestone.

“Twenty-five years ago, those early circuits showed that we could program living cells, but they were built one at a time, each requiring months of tuning,” said Collins, who was one of the inventors of the toggle switch. “Bashor and colleagues have now delivered a transformative leap: CLASSIC brings high-throughput engineering to gene circuit design, allowing exploration of combinatorial spaces that were previously out of reach. Their platform doesn’t just accelerate the design-build-test-learn cycle; it redefines its scale, marking a new era of data-driven synthetic biology.”

Axiom Space wins NASA contract for fifth private mission, lands $350M in financing

ready for takeoff

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include information about Axiom's recent funding.

Axiom Space, a Houston-based space infrastructure company that’s developing the first commercial space station, has forged a deal with NASA to carry out the fifth civilian-staffed mission to the International Space Station.

Axiom Mission 5 is scheduled to launch in January 2027, at the earliest, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew of non-government astronauts is expected to spend up to 14 days docked at the International Space Station (ISS). Various science and research activities will take place during the mission.

The crew for the upcoming mission hasn’t been announced. Previous Axiom missions were commanded by retired NASA astronauts Michael López-Alegría, the company’s chief astronaut, and Peggy Whitson, the company’s vice president of human spaceflight.

“All four previous [Axiom] missions have expanded the global community of space explorers, diversifying scientific investigations in microgravity, and providing significant insight that is benefiting the development of our next-generation space station, Axiom Station,” Jonathan Cirtain, president and CEO of Axiom, said in a news release.

As part of Axiom’s new contract with NASA, Voyager Technologies will provide payload services for Axiom’s fifth mission. Voyager, a defense, national security, and space technology company, recently announced a four-year, $24.5 million contract with NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to provide mission management services for the ISS.

Axiom also announced today, Feb. 12, that it has secured $350 million in a financing round led by Type One Ventures and Qatar Investment Authority.

The company shared in a news release that the funding will support the continued development of its commercial space station, known as Axiom Station, and the production of its Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) under its NASA spacesuit contract.

NASA awarded Axiom a contract in January 2020 to create Axiom Station. The project is currently underway.

"Axiom Space isn’t just building hardware, it’s building the backbone of humanity’s next era in orbit," Tarek Waked, Founding General Partner at Type One Ventures, said in a news release. "Their rare combination of execution, government trust, and global partnerships positions them as the clear successor-architect for life after the ISS. This is how the United States continues to lead in space.”

Houston edtech company closes oversubscribed $3M seed round

fresh funding

Houston-based edtech company TrueLeap Inc. closed an oversubscribed seed round last month.

The $3.3 million round was led by Joe Swinbank Family Limited Partnership, a venture capital firm based in Houston. Gamper Ventures, another Houston firm, also participated with additional strategic partners.

TrueLeap reports that the funding will support the large-scale rollout of its "edge AI, integrated learning systems and last-mile broadband across underserved communities."

“The last mile is where most digital transformation efforts break down,” Sandip Bordoloi, CEO and president of TrueLeap, said in a news release. “TrueLeap was built to operate where bandwidth is limited, power is unreliable, and institutions need real systems—not pilots. This round allows us to scale infrastructure that actually works on the ground.”

True Leap works to address the digital divide in education through its AI-powered education, workforce systems and digital services that are designed for underserved and low-connectivity communities.

The company has created infrastructure in Africa, India and rural America. Just this week, it announced an agreement with the City of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo to deploy a digital twin platform for its public education system that will allow provincial leaders to manage enrollment, staffing, infrastructure and performance with live data.

“What sets TrueLeap apart is their infrastructure mindset,” Joe Swinbank, General Partner at Joe Swinbank Family Limited Partnership, added in the news release. “They are building the physical and digital rails that allow entire ecosystems to function. The convergence of edge compute, connectivity, and services makes this a compelling global infrastructure opportunity.”

TrueLeap was founded by Bordoloi and Sunny Zhang and developed out of Born Global Ventures, a Houston venture studio focused on advancing immigrant-founded technology. It closed an oversubscribed pre-seed in 2024.

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