3 Houston innovators to know this week

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This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Steve Latham of DonateStock, Arianne Dowdell of Houston Methodist, and Howard Berman of Coya Therapeutics. Photos courtesy

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

Steve Latham, co-founder and CEO of DonateStock

Houstonian and serial entrepreneur plans to scale nonprofit fintech toolThe sky's the limit for DonateStock, Co-Founder and CEO Steve Latham says. Photo courtesy of DonateStock

For the third time in his career, serial entrepreneur Steve Latham recession activity, so he feels confident he knows the playbook of how to handle what's on the horizon. For his latest venture, Donate Stock, a tech platform that simplifies stock donation for both the donor and the beneficiary, he's focused on weathering whatever storm is incoming.

"We've raised more money to extend our runway, and we're keeping a super tight lid on expenses because your cash is your oxygen," he says. "There are companies going out of business in our industry right now that had really promising businesses but just spent too much money before they could get to the revenue phase."

He shares the background story on DonateStock and his own career on last week's Houston Innovators Podcast episode. Read more and stream the episode.

Arianne Dowdell, vice president and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at Houston Methodist

Arianne Dowdell spoke with InnovationMap about Houston Methodist's DEI initiatives — and how they will help develop the hospital of the future. Photo courtesy of Houston Methodist

Innovation and equity are two things they have to go together — and Houston Methodist knows that. Which is why Arianne Dowdell serves as vice president and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at Houston Methodist. Under her leadership, the health care provider is putting the patients at the forefront of the hospital system's priorities through its DEI initiatives.

In an interview with InnovationMap, Dowdell shares more about these ongoing initiatives and her role, as well as the importance of DEI in innovative health care.

"It doesn't matter if you're down here in the medical center or out in Baytown," she says. "The innovation and what we're thinking about and the technologies and the way that we communicate with our patients, all that is part of innovation, which helps our DEI initiatives become more successful in everything that we're doing." Read more.

Howard Berman, CEO of Coya Therapeutics

A Houston biotech startup focused on developing therapeutics for neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases has closed its IPO. Photo courtesy of Coya

A clinical-stage biotech company based in Houston has announced the closing of its $15.25 million IPO.

Coya Therapeutics, now trading under the ticker COYA, announced this week that its IPO — previously disclosed in December — has closed its initial public offering of 3,050,000 shares of its common stock and accompanying warrants to purchase up to 1,525,000 shares of common stock, per a news release. Howard Berman, CEO of Coya Therapeutics, has lead the company since February of 2021. Read more.

The sky's the limit for DonateStock, Co-Founder and CEO Steve Latham says. Photo courtesy of DonateStock

Houstonian and serial entrepreneur plans to scale nonprofit fintech tool

Houston innovators podcast episode 167

Donating stock can be a smart way to offload assets and optimize a donation — but Steve Latham thought it was so cumbersome a process that it didn't even feel worth it.

"It was such a hassle that I never did it again," says Latham on the Houston Innovators Podcast.

That opportunity for innovation stuck with Latham as he advanced his career in AdTech in New York before moving back to Houston a few years ago. A serial entrepreneur, Latham was an early co-founder of the Houston Technology Center.

His latest venture is DonateStock — a tech platform that simplifies stock donation for both the donor and the beneficiary. The early version of Latham's vision was to clear up the lack of communication the original process had — nonprofits receiving stock donations were never notified about who made each donation.

The next phase for the fintech company, as Latham explains on the show, is to scale this idea by way of channel distribution, rather than just directly working between donor and nonprofit. He says he wants DonateStock to be a featured as an "easy button" option wherever donations are accepted online.

"Now that we've proven and shown that our process works," he says, "let's scale that to make that button available to the 20 or so online donation platforms."

In order to accomplish this goal, Latham is preparing to fundraise early this year, but it's a challenging time for fintech amid economic uncertainty, he says. So far, the company has raise $2.25 million from within the company's network along with angel and family office investment.

This is the third time in Latham's career that he's seen this recession activity, so he feels confident he knows the playbook of how to handle what's on the horizon.

Latham shares more about the difference his company is making within the nonprofit sector, as well as his passion for Houston and its local tech ecosystem — which he's seen grow up from afar — on the podcast episode. Stream the episode below, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Houston-based DonateStock is $50,000 richer after claiming a recent pitch competition win. Photo via donatestock.com

Houston fintech startup snags Capital Factory's $50,000 pitch investment prize

winner, winner

Capital Factory, one of the most active startup investors with a presence across Texas, recently hosted a virtual pitch competition — and one Houston startup took home the big prize.

As a part of the Houston Tech Rodeo, Capital Factory hosted its $50K Houston Investment Challenge with five finalists — DonateStock, Elastique, Elemental Coatings, M&S Biotics, and ScalaMed. The panel of judges included Andy Cloyd, vice president of Revolution; Aleece Hobson, venture partner at HX Venture Fund; and Juliana Garaizar launch director of Greentown Labs.

DonateStock, a tech-enabled tool that automates the stock donation process, took home the big win. Steve Latham, founder and chairman of DonateStock, presented the company's pitch and explained how the tool has the potential to unlock $100 billion for nonprofits.

"A lot of people aren't aware about the benefits of donating stock," Latham explains. "If you're sitting on stock that you've owned or several years that's appreciated quite a bit. If you sell it, you pay capital gains tax — anywhere from 15 to 30 percent. If you donate it, you avoid the tax and you get a big write off, you can deduct the full market value of the donated stock."

He goes on to explain how only 2 percent of people donate stock — and its due to the archaic process that it takes. DonateStock's platform optimizes the education of donors, the connection of nonprofits to new donors, and the simplification of the process. What used to take hours now takes just 10 minutes, Latham says.

Nonprofits get a free page, free customer support, and there is no fee to be on the platform, and DonateStock makes a 2 percent transaction fee. The company already has 40 nonprofits on the platform, and over 70 in the queue to sign up. The goal, Latham says, is to have 900 organizations online by the end of the year. He's already seen a lot of interest in light of the pandemic.

"This is the time to solve this problem," Latham says. "If you have friends at nonprofits or charities, you know what the pandemic did to giving programs. They've all been devastated and they have gotta find new ways to diversify and grow their revenue."

DonateStock anticipates a seed round later this year. It's the third startup Latham has worked on with his co-founder.

"We see a path to building a billion-dollar company over the next five years while impacting millions of lives around the world," he says.

Each of the other finalists' consolation prize is a connection and a foot in the door at Capital Factory, says CEO Joshua Baer.

"Every time we do one of these, we meet a bunch of companies that we end up working with — and many of whom we end up investing in," he says at the virtual event. "We're going to be following up with all of the companies from today. Anyone who was a finalist and up on the stage is someone we are excited about and interested in working more closely with."

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Rice Business Plan Competition names startup teams for 2026 event

ready, set, pitch

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship has announced the 42 student-led teams that will compete in the 26th annual Rice Business Plan Competition this spring.

The highly competitive event, known as one of the world’s largest and richest intercollegiate student startup challenges, will take place April 9-11 on Rice's campus and at the Ion. Teams in this year's competition represent 39 universities from four countries, including one team from Rice and two from the University of Texas at Austin.

Graduate student-led teams from colleges or universities around the world will present their plans before more than 300 angel, venture capital and corporate investors to compete for more than $1 million in prizes. Top teams were awarded $2 million in investment and cash prizes at the 2025 event.

The 2026 invitees include:

Alchemll, University of Tennessee - Knoxville
Altaris MedTech, University of Arkansas
Armada Therapeutics, Dartmouth College
Arrow Analytics, Texas A&M University
Aura Life Science, Northwestern University
BeamFeed, City University of New York
BiliRoo, University of Michigan
BioLegacy, Seattle University
BlueHealer, Johns Hopkins University
BRCĒ, Michigan State University
ChargeBay, University of Miami
Cocoa Potash, Case Western Reserve
Cosnetix, Yale University
Cottage Core, Kent State University
Crack'd Up, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Curbon, Princeton University
DialySafe, Rice University
Foregger Energy Systems, Babson College
Forge, University of California, Berkeley
Grapheon, University of Pittsburgh
GUIDEAIR Labs, University of Washington
Hydrastack, University of Chicago
Imagine Devices, University of Texas at Austin
Innowind Energy Solutions, University of Waterloo (Canada)
JanuTech, University of Washington
Laetech, University of Toronto (Canada)
Lectra Technologies, MIT
Legion Platforms, Arizona State University
Lucy, University of Pennsylvania
NerView Surgical, McMaster University (Canada)
Panoptica Technologies, Georgia Tech University
PowerHouse, MIT
Quantum Power Systems, University of Texas at Austin
Routora, University of Notre Dame
Sentivity.ai, Virginia Tech
Shinra Energy, Harvard University
Solid Air Dynamics, RWTH Aachen (Germany)
Spine Biotics, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
The Good Company, Michigan Tech
UNCHAIN, Lehigh University
VivoFlux, University of Rochester
Vocadian, University of Oxford (UK)

This year's group joins more than 910 RBPC alums that have raised more than $6.9 billion in capital, according to Rice.

The University of Michigan's Intero Biosystems, which is developing the first stem cell-driven human “mini gut,” took home the largest investment sum of $902,000 last year. The company also claimed the first-place prize.

Houston suburb ranks as No. 3 best place to retire in Texas

Rankings & Reports

Texas retirees on the hunt for the right place to settle down and enjoy their blissful retirement years will find their haven in the Houston suburb of Pasadena, which just ranked as the third-best city to retire statewide.

A new study conducted by the research team at RetirementLiving.com, "The Best Cities to Retire in Texas," compared the affordability, safety, livability, and healthcare access for seniors across 31 Texas cities with at least 90,000 residents.

Wichita Falls, about 140 miles northwest of Dallas, claimed the top spot as the No. 1 best place to retire in Texas.

The senior living experts said Pasadena has the best healthcare access for seniors in the entire state, and it ranked as the No. 8 most affordable city on the list.

"Taking care of one’s health can be stressful for seniors," the report said. "Harris County, where [Pasadena is] located, has 281.1 primary care physicians per 1,000 seniors — that’s almost 50-fold the statewide ratio of 5.9 per 1,000."

Pasadena ranked 10th overall for its livability, and ranked 25th for safety, the report added.

Meanwhile, Houston proper ranked as the No. 31 best place to retire in Texas, but its livability score was the 7th best statewide.

Seven of the Lone Star State's top 10 best retirement locales are located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex: Carrollton (No. 2), Plano (No. 4), Garland (No. 5), Richardson (No. 6), Arlington (No. 7), Grand Prairie (No. 8), and Irving (No. 9). McAllen, a South Texas border town, rounded out the top 10.

RetirementLiving said Carrollton has one of the lowest property and violent crime rates per capita in Texas, and it ranked as the No. 5 safest city on the list. About 17 percent of the city's population is aged 65 or older, which is higher than the statewide average of just 14 percent.

The top 10 best place to retire in Texas in 2026 are:

No. 1 – Wichita Falls
No. 2 – Carrollton
No. 3 – Pasadena
No. 4 – Plano
No. 5 – Garland
No. 6 – Richardson
No. 7 – Arlington
No. 8 – Grand Prairie
No. 9 – Irving
No. 10 – McAllen

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

Rice University lands $18M to revolutionize lymphatic disease detection

fresh funding

An arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded $18 million to scientists at Rice University for research that has the potential to revolutionize how lymphatic diseases are detected and help increase survivability.

The lymphatic system is the network of vessels all over the body that help eliminate waste, absorb fat and maintain fluid balance. Diseases in this system are often difficult to detect early due to the small size of the vessels and the invasiveness of biopsy testing. Though survival rates of lymph disease have skyrocketed in the United States over the last five years, it still claims around 200,000 people in the country annually.

Early detection of complex lymphatic anomalies (CLAs) and lymphedema is essential in increasing successful treatment rates. That’s where Rice University’s SynthX Center, directed by Han Xiao and Lei Li, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, comes in.

Aided by researchers from Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the center is pioneering two technologies: the Visual Imaging System for Tracing and Analyzing Lymphatics with Photoacoustics (VISTA-LYMPH) and Digital Plasmonic Nanobubble Detection for Protein (DIAMOND-P).

Simply put, VISTA-LYMPH uses photoacoustic tomography (PAT), a combination of light and sound, to more accurately map the tiny vessels of the lymphatic system. The process is more effective than diagnostic tools that use only light or sound, independent of one another. The research award is through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Lymphatic Imaging, Genomics and pHenotyping Technologies (LIGHT) program, part of the U.S. HHS, which saw the potential of VISTA-LYMPH in animal tests that produced finely detailed diagnostic maps.

“Thanks to ARPA-H’s award, we will build the most advanced PAT system to image the body’s lymphatic network with unprecedented resolution and speed, enabling earlier and more accurate diagnosis,” Li said in a news release.

Meanwhile, DIAMOND-P could replace the older, less exact immunoassay. It uses laser-heated vapors of plasmonic nanoparticles to detect viruses without having to separate or amplify, and at room temperature, greatly simplifying the process. This is an important part of greater diagnosis because even with VISTA-LYMPH’s greater imaging accuracy, many lymphatic diseases still do not appear. Detecting biological markers is still necessary.

According to Rice, the efforts will help address lymphatic disorders, including Gorham-Stout disease, kaposiform lymphangiomatosis and generalized lymphatic anomaly. They also could help manage conditions associated with lymphatic dysfunction, including cancer metastasis, cardiovascular disease and neurodegeneration.

“By validating VISTA-LYMPH and DIAMOND-P in both preclinical and clinical settings, the team aims to establish a comprehensive diagnostic pipeline for lymphatic diseases and potentially beyond,” Xiao added in the release.

The ARPA-H award funds the project for up to five years.

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