Here's who won big for Houston innovation. Photos courtesy

In a virtual awards program, Houston Exponential has revealed the winners of the inaugural Listies awards.

The Listies, brought to you by Houston Exponential in partnership with InnovationMap, named the winning companies and people across 12 awards on November 20 at 3 pm as a part of Impact Hub's annual The Houston Innovation Summit (THIS).

Nominations were open until Friday, November 6, and then a group of judges made up of members of the Houston innovation ecosystem reviewed the submissions to settle on the 38 finalists. Click here to see the finalists.

Here's who took home the big wins.

SDO Superstar: MassChallenge Texas

Photo courtesy of MassChallenge

A startup development organization can be an accelerator program, an incubator, or a coworking space — and organizations falling into all three of these sectors were nominated for this category. MassChallenge Texas, which has been running its non-equity, general accelerator program in Houston for two years, stood out to judges to take the win for the SDO Superstar category.

Individual Contributor: Slawek Omylski of SecurityGate

Photo via LinkedIn

The individual contributor award was meant to find and recognize a non-founder who was essential to the success of a Houston startup, and that's exactly how SecurityGate's team sees Slawek Omylski, director of engineering. Not only has he been essential from the start over three years ago when he joined as employee No. 4, but Omylski, when unexpectedly having to move back home to Italy, never missed a single meeting or tech deployment despite being an ocean away from the rest of his team. Known as "Suave" by his teammates, his nominators say Omylski is usually the first to arrive at the office and the last to leave.

Civic Innovation: Annapurna Solutions

Image viaannapurnasolutions.org

Everyone knows that the key to sustainability is reducing, reusing, and recycling, but the fact of the matter is no one has quite perfected recycling. Houston-based Annapurna Solutions is stepping in to help. The company provides innovative technology solutions to address waste and recycling challenges, helping to make cities smart and sustainable — like the company's ReciklApp.

Welcome to Houston: Greentown Labs

Photo via greentownlabs.com

Greentown Labs is a startup development organization, but it's are also a startup itself, but when it opens its doors in Houston in the spring, the organization isn't starting from scratch. After years of working with over 200 climatech companies in the Boston area, Greentown's expansion into Houston means incubating Houston energy tech companies and furthering the conversation and activation within the energy transition.

Investor of the Year: Integr8d Capital

Photo via TMC.edu

John "J.R." Reale has been a well respected mentor, entrepreneur, and investor in Houston for years. His firm Integr8d Capital has invested in several Houston companies, including Liongard from seed stage to series A and series B. Reale is also the entrepreneur in residence for the TMC Innovation Institute.

Corporate Innovator: Houston Methodist

Courtesy of Methodist Hospital/Facebook

Houston Methodist and its Center for Innovation led by Roberta Schwartz is leading health tech innovation in Houston. In January, the hospital opened its Technology Hub, 3,500-square-foot space renovated from a former 18-room patient wing to showcase and test new digital health technologies like virtual reality, ambient listening, wearables, and more. Additionally, the hub helped with the training of dozens of doctors with the rise of telemedicine during COVID-19.

Outstanding Leadership: Grace Rodriguez

Photo courtesy of Grace Rodriguez

Grace Rodriguez's career spans industry and time, but her leadership has been consistent throughout. She currently serves Impact Hub Houston as CEO and executive director. Her nominator calls her an inspiration and someone who "shows up," clearly loving everything she does and is responsible. During COVID-19, she's gone above and beyond to provide resources and information to everyone who needs it, including launching a fund to help pay for meals for health care workers and first responders. The LIFE Fund raised over $20,000.

COVID Phoenix: Luminare

Image via luminaremed.com

Originally founded by Dr. Sarma Velamuri to treat and fight sepsis, Luminare took its sepsis platform and pivoted it to created a COVID self-assessment and testing tool. Their digital platform directed 5.5 million people to COVID-19 testing sites in just 21 days, according to its nomination. The tool was used by Harris County and several other entities.

DEI Champion: Maria Maso

Photo courtesy of Nijalon Dunn

Maria Maso is looking out for minorities when it comes to investment. As the founder and CEO of the Business Angel Minority Association (baMa) — an Angel Association aimed at bridging minority-founded startups with accesses to capital — Maria has been a champion for diversity. She also has helped to educate and activate 40 diverse investors through baMa's Diversity Investor Academy, according to her nomination.

Mentor of the Year: Landi Spearman

Photo via LinkedIn

Landi Spearman's approach to mentorship, according to her nominee, is to mentor the full person — from professional to personal life — through Organized SHIFT, which focuses on helping highly productive leaders, individuals and organizations in their quest to sustain positive growth internally and externally. She also supports entrepreneurs though The Ion, Station Houston, General Assembly, the National Urban League, Power to Fly, Black Women in Science and Engineering, the Greater Houston Partnership, the Greater Houston Black Chamber, Pink Petro, and more.

People's Choice and Soonicorn: Liongard

Photos via LinkedIn

People's Choice was based off how many nominations the startups received, and Liongard was a clear winner. The company, which also won in the Soonicorn category, has experienced major growth and, as the nominations read, that's to both Joe Alapat and Vincent Tran, co-founders, credit. The company has raised $12 million to date — the most recent round, a $10 million Series A — closed this year.

Houston-based SaaS company, Liongard, has closed its recent fundraising round led by one of HX Venture Fund's portfolio funds. Getty Images

Houston software startup closes $17M series B

money moves

A fast-growing software-as-a-service company has closed its latest round of funding to the tune of $17 million.

An information technology automation and management company, Liongard's round was led by Updata Partners with contribution by TDF Ventures, Integr8d Capital, and private investors. With customers in 20 countries, Liongard saw triple-digit customer growth and doubled its staff over the past 18 months, according to a news release.

Liongard's CEO, Joe Alapat, who co-founded the company with COO Vincent Tran in 2015, says that the new funds will continue to support its Roar platform — a software product that creates a single dashboard for all data systems and allows automation of managed service providers, or MSPs, for auditing and security within a company's IT.

"Since the launch of Liongard, the platform's adoption and popularity with MSPs has grown rapidly, transforming Liongard into a highly recognized brand in the MSP ecosystem," Alapat says in the release. "This new investment and the continued confidence of our investors will fuel our growth by giving us the means to further advance our solution's capabilities and serve our customers at an even better level."

Liongard's total funding now sits at over $20 million. Last year, the company raised a $4.5 million series A round following a $1.3 million seed round in 2018. TDF Ventures and Integr8d Capital have previously invested in the company.

Lead investor, Updata Partners, is based in Washington D.C. and invests in SaaS, tech-enabled service providers, and digital media and e-commerce. The HX Venture Fund, a fund-of-funds under Houston Exponential, has invested in Updata Partner's recent fund.

"Liongard has recognized an industry gap and addressed the need for greater visibility in how systems are managed," says Carter Griffin, a general partner at Updata Partners, in the release.

"The team created a valuable solution for MSPs, making the company an excellent investment opportunity for Updata. The combination of Liongard's in-demand platform, strong market presence, robust roadmap for ongoing growth and strong leadership team point to a company well-positioned for ongoing success."


Joe Alapat is the CEO of Houston-based Liongard. Courtesy of Liongard

Houston-based Liongard's Roar technology is helping its customers get all their IT services under one umbrella. Getty Images

Houston-based B2B tech company is connecting the dots on IT services

Hear me Roar

Houston-based startup Liongard, an Information Technology automation and management company, was founded on the idea that managing data and technology for companies shouldn't be so difficult.

Before founding Liongard, CEO Joe Alapat and COO Vincent Tran owned and operated Empact IT, an IT company, for more 10 years. In the decade they owned the company, Alapat said they saw the industry completely change as protecting a business' information and data became more challenging.

"[IT is] not all on one place in a data center anymore: it's in the Cloud, it's on the network, it's in app services and in on-premise [offices]," Alapat says. "The security problem is huge and that's exploding because … we lack visibility into basic things when we're managing IT. We just want to be able to manage it and get back to sanity."

After the duo sold the IT company in 2012, Alapat and Tran used the funds from the sale to launch Liongard in 2015 with the focus of automating the management of the plethora of systems that can overwhelm Managed Service Providers, or IT Service Providers.

"Everyone thinks their IT department is high-tech," Alapat says. "Unfortunately, the department that's supposed to be so high-tech is actually pretty manual. And they won't let on that it's challenging, but it really is [and] there's a lot of manual work involved."

So, Alapat and Tran developed Roar: a software product that creates a single dashboard for all data systems including the Cloud and apps, server networks, and on-site systems to make accessing and protecting the data easier. Alapat said Roar is able to inspect multiple systems and bring back rich information without logging into each different system.

Liongard joined entrepreneurial accelerator Station Houston — an association that helps place young businesses in front of investors — in June 2016 and gained access to its network of mentors, advisers, and investors.

In spring 2018, Liongard completed its Seed Stage round of its capital campaign with $1.3 million in investments. With these initial funds, Liongard was able to put Roar on the market in April 2018 and expand its client base — growing from two clients to now close to 200 customers in less than a year.

This year, the company will launch the second leg of its capital campaign with the goal of raising between $3 million to $4 million to help expand the company further.

Alapat said he thinks the company has been received well by Houston investors because Liongard offers a product that other IT management companies don't.

"No one has a unified way to look across the Cloud and network and apps and services and servers," Alapat

says. "There's plenty of different dashboards and solutions that looks at one or two of those things, but there's no single solution that consolidates all of that. That's what makes us different — that we unify all of that under one umbrella."

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Texas robotics company expands in Houston with service-focused automation technology

order's up

Snazzy sombrero-wearing robots are gliding over to your table, carrying chips, salsa, and drinks, electronic eyes wide open on its interactive screen, ready to serve. The bot, provided by the new Houston franchise branch of RobotLAB Inc., debuted at Johnny Tamales Tex-Mex Cantina in Missouri City last week.

The restaurant's owner, Anil Patel, arranged for a one-month trial rental of the machine. But so far, he tells InnovationMap that he’s pleased with his “no-brainer” decision to add a small food delivery robot, which he says has huge marketing potential.

“I’m a sucker for technology. You look at it, and I think this is the future,” says Patel, who used to work in the health care industry.

That vision is shared by Elad Inbar, founder and CEO of Dallas-based RobotLAB, who in July expanded his company’s Texas franchise operations with the opening of a Houston branch.

“For many years, robots were toys — for geeks. You had to build them yourself, program them yourself,” Inbar says.

Elad Inbar is the founder and CEO of Dallas-based RobotLAB. Photo courtesy of RobotLAB

But the electronics revolution that brought handheld phones to the mainstream inspired Inbar to turn that concept to robotics when he formed RobotLAB in 2007.

“To me, this was completely a wake up call — seeing the market shift, and you know, bringing the opportunity to the mass market,” he says.

The company started by providing small robots to schools, and the company now works with two-thirds of the school districts in the country, Inbar says, touting that it is the "largest, most experienced" robotics company.

Keith Edwards, who owns RobotLAB’s Houston franchise with his brother Daniel, said his office aims to provide 50 robots in its first year of operation. While the use of robots has become more common globally, especially in Asian hotels and restaurants, for American business owners, robots are definitely not a standard decision, Edwards says.

The challenge lies in educating them about how robotics provides a solution for staffing shortages, Edwards says. With the touch of a button, the robot used in Patel’s restaurant can be programmed to sing happy birthday and deliver a dessert, or return dirty dishes back to the kitchen sink.

Through its franchisees, RobotLAB has already set up robots inside numerous restaurants, including eight food delivery models at four Houston locations of revolving sushi bar Kura Sushi.

Wings Over Frisco in the Dallas metro area and entertainment complex AREA 254 in Killeen also use RobotLAB food delivery robots. In August, the Tulsa International Airport introduced, on a trial basis, “Cloi,” another bot from RobotLAB, that guides visitors and has a selfie feature.

RobotLAB provides some 50 types of robots, Inbar says, ranging in function from cleaning, warehouse stacking, to food delivery, with plans and potential for more.

The company also has a presence in the senior living space, with a humanoid life-sized interactive robot named Pepper, that works with residents who suffer from dementia. While no Houston senior communities have yet come on board, Inbar says the company works with assisted living communities in Dallas, Wisconsin, New Jersey and Virginia.

One of RobotLAB's devices specializes in senior care facilities. Photo courtesy of RobotLAB

RobotLAB does not manufacture the robots, but provides the models, which can be purchased or leased. The company partners with manufacturers all over the world to provide the robots.

The cost to purchase a robot outright ranges widely, anywhere from $3,400 for an autonomous vacuum cleaner to $32,000 for a life-sized model, according to the website.

It provides one-on-one service for all aspects of implementation and any repair.

The proof of concept and related costs for the trial run for the Johnny Tamales robot was $2,990, Edwards says, which would apply toward a possible purchase of the $9,500 robot.

The daily labor cost, according to Inbar, for a food delivery robot amounts to about $15 to $17 a day, and for cleaning robots, about $27 a day.

The delivery robots run on a battery charge which lasts which lasts from nine to 13 hours, depending on the model. A cleaning robot does not last as long, but can clean 20,000 square feet on a single charge, Inbar says, and discharge dirty water, charge itself and return to work.

In the coming weeks, Inbar says he plans a demonstration with area firefighters at a training facility in Dallas, to show them bots that can clear debris, fight fires and help perform rescues.

The fastest-growing sector of his business now is the cleaning robot, as the service industry, in particular, struggles with labor challenges, Inbar says. The Houston office just sold its first cleaning robot, Edwards said.

“There is more demand for cleaning automation, simply because people don’t want to do the job anymore,” says Inbar. “We are hearing from everyone, in every market sector, from hotels, to assisted living facilities, to warehouses, you name it, supermarkets — even movie theaters. They can’t find people to clean. Putting that on autopilot, in a way, is the solution."

Edwards and Inbar say RobotLAB’s customized local service and connection provides the missing integration link for many business owners, who are intrigued by robots but may be way of what is involved with the equipment.

“We are basically the car dealership model of robotics,” Inbar says.

Christina Garavaglia, executive director of the Southeast Texas region of the Texas Restaurant Association, says the industry usually adapts cutting-edge technology early on, and robots are no exception.

“One of the primary reasons for this is that technology, hopefully, if it does what it’s intended, provides a lot of efficiency, and can help with some of the very tight margins that all of our restaurants work with,” she says.

Local restaurateurs have generally had positive reactions to robots, she says.

RobotLAB has food delivery robots rolling out in Houston. Photo courtesy of RobotLAB

Eric’s Restaurant at the Hilton University of Houston Hotel was the first Texas restaurant to introduce a robot two years ago, as part of its student training, Garavaglia says, adding that she expects more restaurateurs to come on board.

The industry has “barely scanned the surface” in leveraging the potential for robots to maximize efficiency and create a unique customer experience, she said.

Jim Lewis, president of AREA 254, a 45,000-square-foot entertainment complex in Killeen, purchased three robots from RobotLAB and began using them in January.

The robot keeps the food warm, in its enclosed shelves, and frees up the servers. One robot can carry up to four pizzas, and go from table to table in one trip, directed by a software system activated by the QR code order at the table. And, just as important for Lewis, the robots provide the “fun, cool factor.”

“People love it, and robots put smiles on people’s faces,” Lewis says. “My guess is that it will pick up a lot of steam, especially in the family entertainment space, where buildings are so big. The robot provides a very practical solution to moving food long distances.”

Inbar says his company does not want to replace human labor with his robots, rather enhance it and free up time for humans while filling a labor gap prompted by a shift that began in the wake of the COVID pandemic.

“This is where the challenge is. They need people to move boxes in warehouses, cook, and clean floors, so automation is the solution,” Inbar says.

Garavaglia says restaurant servers may even see their tips increase, as they can engage longer with customers as the robot handles other chores. The gap between the tip and the amount of work done to earn it would close, she explains.

Most high-end restaurants pride themselves on the customer experience, she said, and “that can only be provided by a human person.”

“Feeling a trust, sense of connection, that is really a human trait, a human characteristic. So long as that is the case, human servers and human employees will always be necessary,” she says.

Texas outshines California, takes top spot on new solar energy ranking

report

For the first time, Texas has passed California in the second quarter of 2024 to become the top solar state in the country.

The American Clean Power Association's quarterly market report found that, by adding 3,293 megawatts of new solar year-to-date, Texas has the most utility-scale solar capacity installed, comprising 20 percent of the overall U.S. solar fleet. The American Clean Power Association, which represents over 800 energy storage, wind, utility-scale solar, transmission, and clean hydrogen companies, found that Texas is home to 21,932 megawatts of capacity.

By utilizing clean energy initiatives, Texas included 1.6 gigawatts of new solar, 574 megawatts of storage, and 366 megawatts of onshore wind. With more than 28,000 megawatts, Texas had the highest volume of clean power development capacity in the second quarter. About 163,000 megawatts of capacity overall are in the works throughout the United States. Texas ranks No. 1 for total operating wind capacity and total operating solar capacity, and comes in second for operating storage capacity.

Texas again led in production levels with clean power construction projects nationally, which boasts more than 19,000 megawatts worth of clean power energy currently under construction. With almost 28.3 gigawatts in advanced development or under construction, Texas continues to come in at No.1, as California is next with over 16.4 gigawatts in the state’s project pipeline.

California added more than 1,900 megawatts of new clean power capacity in the second quarter, with its clean energy development behavior leaning more towards adding storage, which amounts to 60 percent of California’s year-to-date clean power installations.

According to the report from SmartAsset, the Lone Star State has the most clean energy capacity at 56,405 megawatts due to its sheer size for solar capacity, but continues to trail states with similar geographic characteristics in overall clean energy prevalence.

Another report published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, says Texas will make up 35 percent of new utility-scale solar capacity in the U.S. this year, followed by California (10 percent) and Florida (6 percent).

While Texas’ solar efforts have shown positive trends, the state ranked No. 38 in a report by WalletHub that determined it was the thirteenth least green state.

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This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

Editor's note: Every week, I introduce you to a handful of Houston innovators to know recently making headlines with news of innovative technology, investment activity, and more. This week's batch includes an academic researcher, an energy tech leader, and a recently passed Houston innovation champion.

Ken Nguyen, principal technical program manager at bp

Ken Nguyen, principal technical program manager at bp, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss the company's new partnership with NASA. Photo courtesy of bp

The recently announced partnership between bp and NASA is a match made in Houston. The energy giant, which as its United States headquarters in Houston, entered into a Space Act Agreement with NASA to combine resources and efforts with innovation in mind.

"Houston has always been known as the Space City, and we're also known as the Energy Capital of the World, but there hasn't always been collaboration," Ken Nguyen, principal technical program manager at bp, says on the Houston Innovators Podcast. "The challenges that NASA is facing is very similar to the challenges that the oil industry faces — we operate in very harsh environments, safety is the most critical aspect of our operation, and now the economic business model for NASA has changed."

Nguyen explains that while both bp and NASA are navigating similar challenges and changes within their industry, they are going about it in different ways. That's where the opportunity to collaborate comes in. Read more.

Paul Frison, founder of the Houston Technology Center

Paul Frison, the founder of the Houston Technology Center, has died. Photo via dignitymemorial.com

The Houston innovation ecosystem is mourning the loss of one of its early leaders, Paul Frison, who died on September 5. He was 87.

A long-time Houston businessman, Frison founded the Houston Technology Center in 1999 and served as its CEO and president. The organization evolved into Houston Exponential several years ago. Frison remained active within Houston innovation until 2020.

“Paul Frison was a visionary and energetic leader who always presented a positive outlook on what the Houston technology entrepreneurship community could become," Brad Burke, associate vice president for industry and new ventures at Rice University's Office of Innovation, remembers. "He was one of the pioneers in the community who established the Houston Technology Center as one of the early leaders of the Houston ecosystem. I admired how he helped launch the ecosystem and created the platform for many others to build upon.” Read more.

Alamgir Karim, professor at the University of Houston

Alamgir Karim was instrumental in the new discovery. Photo Courtesy of University of Houston Office of Media Relations

A flask of Houston’s rain helped answer a long-running question about the origin of cellular life.

The solution is proposed by two University of Houston scientists, William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical Engineering (UH ChBE) former grad student Aman Agrawal (now a postdoctoral researcher at University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering) and Alamgir Karim, UH Dow Chair and Welch Foundation Professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and director of both the International Polymer & Soft Matter Center and the Materials Engineering Program at UH. They were joined by UChicago PME Dean Emeritus Matthew Tirrell and Nobel Prize-winning biologist Jack Szostak in an article published last week in Scientific Advances. Read more.