3 Houston innovators to know this week

Who's who

This week's innovators to know are involved in tech — from app development to revolutionizing the energy industry. Courtesy photos

From restaurant review apps to a device that monitors oil rigs, this week's innovators to know are tech savvy to say the least. All three took a chance on Houston for their startups, and that chance is paying off.

Christopher Robart, president of Ambyint USA

Christopher Robart leads Ambyint — a technology company creating the Nest thermostat for oil rigs — with his twin brother, Alex. Courtesy of Ambyint

Christopher Robart — along with his twin brother, Alex — is in the business of business development. The two run Ambyint, an oil and gas tech company that creates the Nest thermostat of oil rigs.

The company is looking to expand its customer base this year, as well as grow to be able to service different types of rig pumps.

Sumit Sikka, co-founder of Crityk

Sumit Sikka moved to Houston in order to grow his restaurant reviewing app. Courtesy of Crityk

What started as a quest to find the best Moscow Mule in Southern California has turned into growing business thriving in Houston's dining scene. Sumit Sikka first visited Houston for an event to promote the app he co-founded, Crityk, and basically never left.

"I packed up some of my bags and decided to try here in Houston," Sikka says." It's a lot easier to get to decision makers here in Houston than in LA."

Moji Karimi, co-founder of Cemvita Factory

Moji Karimi's company can take carbon dioxide from a refinery and convert it into glucose or another chemical. Courtesy of Cemvita

Moji Karimi never thought his oil and gas career would overlap with his sister's medical research. But in some ways, the fact the two of them teamed up to create a company that takes carbon dioxide from the air and turns it into something else, makes perfect sense that it crosses industries.

"There are a lot of opportunities bringing a proven science or technology from one industry into another to solve problems," he says.


Crityk's main goal is to be a marketing asset to restaurants. Getty Images

Restaurant-driven app focuses on Houston's food scene

order up

One night, Sumit Sikka was on a quest to find the best Moscow Mule in Santa Monica. He couldn't find anything helpful online, and when he finally did get a good recommendation, he was already done for the night.

It was through this experience that Sikka knew he wanted to make a restaurant finder app, but he wanted to do something different from Yelp or Google Reviews. On those platforms, a restaurant can get crushed by a bad review that provides false information. So, when he started getting the ball rolling on Crityk, he realized he needed to give the restaurants a voice.

"That was kind of the first big pivot," Sikka says. "First, we had an app based on user content. Then we pivoted to have content curated by the restaurant. For the first time ever, the restaurant gets to create their own profile."

The app launched on November 18 and has over 700 restaurant profiles live. There are 250 here in Houston, and 25 are clients, meaning they pay Crityk and have exclusive marketing opportunities, like promoting events — something most restaurants struggle to engage customers with.

"Restaurants do so much marketing, but they do the majority of it inside the restaurant," Sikka says. "Who's not going into your restaurant and not seeing that?"

Crityk users can log into the app and find different restaurant events around town to attend. Users can upload images of food from different restaurants. They rate the specific menu item, rather than the restaurant as a whole. Then, restaurants can link that photo to the specific menu item. Instead of comments on the picture, users can engage with hashtags. Any comments a user might have would go directly to the establishment to be resolved.

Another priority for Crityk is to have photos of every menu item the restaurant offers as well as complete dietary information. It's becoming more and more important for diners to know about vegan, gluten-free, etc. options before getting to the restaurant only to be disappointed with the selection.

Investing in Houston
While the idea came about in California, Sikka, who has a sister who lives in The Woodlands, took a trip to Houston to feel out consumer interest in the app. He hosted an event with a local restaurant and some influencers. The app kind of just exploded in town, Sikka says.

"I packed up some of my bags and decided to try here in Houston," Sikka says." It's a lot easier to get to decision makers here in Houston than in LA."

The development team is still based in India, and Crityk's co-founder, John Kegel, is still based in California. However, Sikka works out of Station Houston, something he says has been an extremely valuable. He says he's made some valuable connections through both Station and the Texas Restaurant Association.

"I think Houston is a phenomenal city to get started in. It's a big city, but it has the feeling of a small city."

Second course?
Still under two months old, the app has a lot of improvements and expansions in the works. Sikka says he wants to double the number of restaurant profiles to 500 by summer. He'd also like to grow the number of paying clients on the site, which would include more restaurants with a full photo menu on the app for users to browse.

Made for foodies

Screenshot via the Crityk app

Crityk is a free smartphone app that connects users to other users and to restaurants directly.

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Texas is no longer America's No. 1 most financially distressed state

Report Rebound

After spending an unfortunate year as the No. 1 state with the most people in financial distress, Texas has slightly recovered. But the Lone Star State isn't out of the woods yet: it's still among the five most financially distressed states in America for 2026.

According to WalletHub's 2026 report, Texas sits in the No. 4 spot this year, while Kansas, Louisiana, and Florida moved up to become the top three states with the most financially distressed residents.

The personal finance website's experts compared all 50 states based on residents' average credit scores, the share of people with "accounts in distress" (meaning an account that's in forbearance or has deferred payments), the one-year change in bankruptcy filings from March 2025, and search interest indexes for "debt" and "loans."

Despite improving in the overall ranking, the study found Texas has had the fourth-biggest spike in bankruptcy filings nationally from March 2025 to March 2026. Texas residents also have the 10th worst average credit scores in the country, according to the findings.

This is how Texas ranked across the study's six key dimensions, where No. 1 means "most distressed:"

  • No. 4 – Change in bankruptcy filings from March 2024 to March 2025 rank
  • No. 5 – Average number of accounts in distress rank
  • No. 8 – "Loans" search interest index rank
  • No. 8 – People with accounts in distress rank
  • No. 12 – Credit score rank
  • No. 13 – “Debt” search interest index rank

It feels like inflation and affordability have been top-of-mind for many Americans over recent years, and uncertainty around the national economy also adds another level of distress. That's especially true for Houston residents, which were dubbed the second most financially distressed people in America earlier in 2026.

"Americans have faced significant financial challenges in recent years, as inflation, shifting unemployment levels, public health emergencies, and natural disasters have made it more difficult for many households to stay on top of their bills," the report said.

The top three states that have the least financially distressed residents are Maine (No. 50), Rhode Island (No. 49), and Hawaii (No. 48).

The top 10 most financially distressed states in America for 2026 are:

  • No. 1 – Kansas
  • No. 2 – Lousiana
  • No. 3 – Florida
  • No. 4 – Texas
  • No. 5 – South Carolina
  • No. 6 – Wyoming
  • No. 7 – Georgia
  • No. 8 – California
  • No. 9 – North Carolina
  • No. 10 – Kentucky
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A version of this article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

European spacecraft developer expands to Houston with U.S. business, new lab

houston hq

European aerospace manufacturer The Exploration Company has established its first U.S. entity and named Space City as its headquarters.

The company announced earlier this month that it has launched TEC Federal to support U.S. government customers and agencies, and to scale The Exploration Company's engineering operations in the country.

Mark Kirasich serves as president of TEC Federal. Kirasich most recently served as the senior director of human spaceflight at Blue Origin after a nearly 40-year career at NASA.

The Exploration Company is developing the reusable Nyx space vehicle. Nyx is designed to take off from any heavy launcher in the world. It will then dock at space stations, retrieve up to 3,000 kilograms of cargo, splash down and return the cargo to Earth. The company aims to make Nyx fully reusable for up to 10 missions, making it a more affordable and sustainable option for aerospace missions.

The Exploration Company completed a successful drop test of the spacecraft in May in the Mojave Desert. The company says Nyx is slated to perform its first flight demonstration in 2028.

In addition to launching the Houston business, The Exploration Company also opened its new Rapid Innovation Lab near Houston's NASA Johnson Space Center on Space Park Drive.

The Exploration Company opened its Rapid Innovation Lab earlier this month. Photo via LinkedIn

The Rapid Innovation Lab features a full-scale mockup of the future Nyx crew capsule as well as ongoing development and testing of the Nyx cargo capsule, according to the company.

The Exploration Company says the new lab will allow its engineers, designers, and operators to prototype and test crew interfaces. It will also support partnerships with NASA personnel and astronauts.

“Houston gives us direct access to the people and expertise that have built and operated human spaceflight systems for decades. We’re excited to invest and expand around that— engineers, operators, and astronauts working together and moving quickly towards building a crew capsule.” Hélène Huby, founder and CEO of The Exploration Company, said in a blog post.

According to The Houston Chronicle, The Exploration Company has about 30 employees in the Houston area.

The company was founded in 2021 by Huby, a French rocket scientist, and has raised more than $350 million in venture capital. It operates out of Germany, France, Luxembourg, Spain and Italy, with offices in the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates. It is also developing a reusable, high-thrust rocket engine known as Storm.

Exciting XSpace expansion plans + more top Houston innovation headlines

Trending Topics

Editor's note: The top Houston innovation headlines for the first half of July include XSpace's expansion and KBR's C-suite hires. Here is a recap of the five most-read InnovationMap stories published July 1-15, 2026:

1. XSpace plans $250M industrial condo expansion with RAFA Racing Club

nullXSpace plans $250M industrial condo expansion with RAFA Racing Club

Houston-based XSpace Group has teamed up with two other Houston companies, RAFA Racing Club and Maximo Capital, to develop five industrial condo projects that pair flex space and high-end car storage space with a members-only clubhouse for motorsports enthusiasts. The five projects will be built in the Dallas-Fort Worth; Miami-Boca Raton; Charlotte-Mooresville, North Carolina; Phoenix-Scottsdale; and Los Angeles markets. Continue reading.

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

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 joined as executive vice president and chief financial officer on July 1. Continue reading.

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

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. Continue reading.

4. $12M pharmaceutical manufacturing facility to be built in Sugar Land

A nearly $12 million drug manufacturing facility is coming to Sugar Land. City leaders in Sugar Land recently approved a $1.3 million performance-based incentive for DeliverIt Group, a Sugar Land-based provider of specialty pharmacy, infusion therapy and clinical care services, for the development of the 60,000-square-foot facility. Continue reading.

5. Walmart expands drone delivery service to 8 new Houston-area stores

More Walmart delivery drones are now buzzing around Houston-area skies. In January, Walmart launched its drone delivery service in partnership with Wing at five locations in the Houston area. The retail giant just added eight more stores to its Houston-area drone delivery network. Wing says the expansion makes drone delivery available to more than 1 million residents of the Houston area. Continue reading.

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