Tech company revs up support for Texas women in STEM at special F1 event

girls in the driver seat

Cadence is investing in Girlstart, an Texas-based nonprofit empowering women in STEM. Photo by Amber Heckler

This week, the worlds of the Lone Star State's tech scene, women in STEM, and Formula 1 collided.

At a private event on Wednesday, October 19, hosted by computational software company Cadence Design Systems, Senior VP of Global HR Tina Jones spoke highly about the pride she felt about Cadence’s company culture and their goals for leaving the world better than they found it in regards to sustainability and giving back to the community. Last week, Cadence was ranked 19th in the 2022 World’s Best Workplaces list.

One of the ways Cadence is giving back to the community is through their Giving Foundation. The foundation is investing in organizations like Girlstart, an Austin-based nonprofit whose mission is to empower young girls’ interest in STEM through educational programs and camps.

“We are determined to make a difference in access to STEM education for those who have been traditionally underrepresented,” Jones said.

Jones announced Cadence would make a $25,000 donation to Girlstart to help further the organization’s mission and to invest in the future women they want to hire. The organization has locations all around Texas, including Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley, as well as locations in other states like California, Illinois, Washington, and Massachusetts.

“We want to start at Kindergarten and take them through 12th grade and give girls confidence in STEM,” Jones said, “Girlstart is doing that here in Austin, and we’re super proud to be associated with them.”

Girlstart Executive Director Shane Woods was present to accept the donation. During her speech, Woods discussed the importance of broadening young women’s understanding of what STEM is and nurturing a positive mentality so they can stay inspired in their careers.

Part of Woods’ work is to make sure girls know about the different fields that “need STEM eyes” such as biomedical engineering, environmental sustainability, and social justice.

The rest of the event centered around Cadence’s partnership with F1 team McLaren Racing, with three primary team members in attendance – CEO Zak Brown, Team Principal Andreas Seidl, and driver Daniel Ricciardo.

Ricciardo has never been shy about his love for the capital of Texas. He said he was naive about the city when F1 first arrived in 2012, but now it’s one of his favorite places. Circuit of the Americas is one of his favorite challenging tracks, noting the “high speed snake section” at turns three through eight that remind him of similar turns Maggotts and Becketts at Silverstone.

“A circuit that really pushes the car to the limits is fun,” he said, “That’s what I love about Austin.”

McLaren’s partnership with Cadence is significant for more than their expertise with computational fluid dynamics. Both companies share similar goals in regards to environmental sustainability and equality. In 2021, McLaren became the first F1 team to release an annual sustainability report, showing they are on track to achieve carbon net zero by 2040. In that same year, they announced Emma Gilmour would be the team’s first female racing driver, racing in Extreme E alongside Tanner Foust.

When asked about what they predict the next 10 years of Formula 1 will look like, Brown and Ricciardo agreed they hoped to see F1 still thriving and at the pinnacle of motorsport, while also giving recognition to the rise of other motorsports. Brown said he would like to see the introduction of rotational races in other countries.

“We have a lot of countries that want races. We’re at a maximum schedule of 24…I would love to see us in 30 countries, but 24 times a year. You might land on 18 permanent races and then have 10 that rotate every two years or something like that,” Brown said. “I think there’s room to grow the sport globally."

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

DivInc has launched its new female-focused accelerator and named its first cohort. Photo via Getty Images

Woman in tech accelerator launches first Houston cohort

ready to grow

DivInc, an Austin-based accelerator for women and people of color, announced today that it has launched its first Women in Tech HTX cohort in partnership with female-focused co-working space SheSpace.

The nine women-led companies will join DivInc's 11th cohort and the first to operate out of Houston. Founders will receive $10,000 in non-dilutive funding upon completion of a 12-week curriculum, which includes in-depth workshops that aim to help the founders "make a year's worth of progress in just three months," Amanda Moya, DivInc’s Houston program director, said in a statement.

According to DivInc, the aim of the accelerator is to support more female-led startups in the Houston area (which the company says it has seen an emergence of in the last two years) and connect them with its network of VCs.

Founders will be paired with mentors from Microsoft and Google to support their next phases of development. DivInc and SheSpace will also provide stipends for founders in need of childcare assistance.

A committee consisting of representatives from Mercury, Artemis Fund, Microsoft, and several other partners helped select the group of founders considering market size, scalability, industry need, and other factors.

Members of the fall cohort include:

Weekly workshops will take place at SheSpace, an all-women coworking space developed by Stephanie Tsuru that opened in the Heights in 2020. The accelerator is also supported by Houston Houston partners J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Verizon, The Ion and Mercury.

DivInc will introduce the accepted companies at a happy hour on Thursday, Sept. 22 at The Ion. Those interested in attending can RSVP online.

"With several of these companies coming from outside of Texas, we’re looking forward to the founders making organic connections and learning more about what Houston has to offer," Moya added.

SheSpace will host the accelerator. Image via shespacehtx.com

Contributing to Texas’ better showing on this year's ranking is an increase in female-focused VC investments. Photo via Getty Images

Texas named No. 2 state for women-led startups thanks to increased VC investment

who runs the world?

A more than 120 percent surge in female-focused venture capital investments helped push up Texas’ ranking in an annual study of the best states for women-led startups.

In Merchant Maverick’s 2021 report on the best states for women-led startups, Texas lands at No. 2, up from No. 6 the previous year. Colorado retains its No. 1 ranking from last year. Merchant Maverick judged each state based on several gender-specific metrics, such as VC funding.

Contributing to Texas’ better showing this year is the increase in female-focused VC investments. Merchant Maverick says the state’s five-year total for female-focused VC investments grew from the $365 million reflected in the 2020 report to $814 million in this year’s report. That’s a jump of 123 percent.

The $814 million total puts Texas in fourth place among the states in terms of female-focused VC investments over a five-year span. California leads this category ($6.7 billion), followed by New York ($4.7 billion), and Massachusetts ($1 billion).

The Lone Star State “has cultivated a business-friendly reputation that appears to be attracting a high volume of women-led organizations and startups,” says Merchant Maverick, a product comparison website for small businesses.

The state doesn’t do as well when it comes to average income, according to Merchant Maverick, but with no state income tax, women business owners can expect an average $62,945 yearly income to go further in Texas than it would in most other states.

Across the country, Merchant Maverick says that thanks to rising startup hubs like Houston, Miami, Phoenix, and Boulder, Colorado, “more funding opportunities are available to female entrepreneurs than ever before.”

Here are some of the Texas statistics cited in this year’s report:

  • 27 percent of businesses with employees are led by women, putting Texas at No. 13 among the states.
  • At 1.55 percent, Texas sits at No. 22 for the share of women business owners.
  • Texas ranks 19th for the average yearly income of women business owners ($62,945).
Women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are well represented in Houston, according to a recent report. Photo via Christina Morillo/Pexels

Houston named a top city for women in STEM fields

who runs the world?

If you're a woman in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics and you call Houston home, according to a new report, you're doing it right.

In honor of Women's History Month, CommercialCafe updated its 2020 ranking of the top U.S. cities for women working in STEM. According to the report, Houston ranks at No. 5 on the list of the best southern cities in the United States for women in STEM. The Bayou City also claims the No. 19 spot nationally.

Here are some other key findings about Houston on the report:

  • STEM jobs in Houston account for 7 percent of all jobs, and a little less than a third of these positions are held by women.
  • About 23,964 women work in STEM in Houston — which is the most out of any other city in the South.
  • Houston gained 4,318 new women STEM employees since 2015, the third-highest number in this regional ranking.
  • The median annual income for women in STEM here is $68,172.
Texas makes up about half of the top 10 Southern states — Austin places in second, while Frisco (No. 7), Dallas (No. 8) and Plano (No. 10) fall behind Houston. Nationally, New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle take the top three spots, respectively.

Women working in STEM - South 2021 - Infograminfogram.com

Houston has been recognized for its STEM fields before, and last fall, SmartAsset ranked Houston as No. 7 in STEM nationally based on workforce size. And, in 2019, Houston placed sixth for STEM workforce diversity. Last year Houston also ranked No. 6 for women in tech, also according to SmartAsset.

According to a new study, women are switching away from tech majors during college at a higher rate than any other areas of study, and it comes down to culture. Photo via Getty Images

Houston expert: Increasing women in tech comes down to improving culture

guest column

Like anyone pursuing a technical career, I had to overcome certain hurdles on my way to graduating with a degree in aerospace engineering. When one of my professors suggested that women should not be engineers and I would be better served pursuing a career like nursing or teaching, I realized that my hurdles might be a little different than others.

Luckily, I was raised to view this as a challenge and opportunity rather than an insurmountable obstacle.

Unfortunately, not everyone maintains my positive outlook on situations like this, and too often, young women are ultimately dissuaded from pursuing engineering and other similar technical degrees.

In fact, according to the research by Accenture and Girls Who Code, women are switching away from tech majors during college at a higher rate than any other areas of study. What's more, 50 percent of women pursuing a career in technology after graduation change paths by age 35, compared to 20 percent in other jobs. Female workers also leave tech jobs at a 45 percent higher rate than men.

Even more alarming, the same study found that in the last 35 years, the proportion of women in tech careers has actually declined despite the increase in the absolute number of female technology workers.

What's going on? Our research shows women in tech often don't feel at home or comfortable during college or at the workplace.

While there are many reasons women abandon a career in technology, the highest percentage of respondents cite culture as the leading cause. Although 45 percent of senior human resources leaders say that it is easy for women to thrive in tech, only 21 percent of women agree, and that number falls to just 8 percent for women of color. Conversely, women in college who find themselves in inclusive learning environments tend to enjoy their majors, network more and are more likely to stay in their STEM degrees.

The current labor market is struggling to keep pace with the explosive demand for tech talent, and I can attest — having met many of these amazing ladies — that women are willing, able and ready to help meet this demand.

Here are some ideas to create a culture that encourages more women to stay with STEM degrees and thrive in technology careers.

In college, having strong mentoring programs for female students in technology is key. Being part of study groups and student organizations, like the Society of Women Engineers, encourages learning and teaming and drives collaboration, innovation and inclusion. Based on our analysis, inclusive colleges are those that have at least 35 percent women in their STEM faculty. Publicizing faculty and student diversity data is a courageous way for colleges to ensure accountability and show their commitment to a culture of equality.

In business, we all know that what's measured gets managed. Applying this principle, it's both bold and important for companies to set targets for diversity in the leadership teams and publish those goals, as well as create clear KPIs governing compensation to the accountable leaders.

Furthermore, workplace support such as mentors, sponsors and employee resource networks can go a long way in creating the right culture and boost women in tech. Remember that many women enter tech careers because they want to make a difference in the world. Fostering collaborative environments where workers are rewarded for creativity and innovation does much more than — but certainly helps — to retain women.

Organizations that have diverse talent and a welcoming culture of equality help enable success and unleash human ingenuity. Rewarding excellence with the right innovative, supportive culture is a winning philosophy not only for women but for companies overall.

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Sondra Ruhman is a Houston-based managing director at Accenture Operations. She helps North American and Global clients embark on major technology and operational transformation projects.

Women in the work place have been hit the hardest by the pandemic. Houston experts discuss the effect in a guest column and a panel hosted by Sesh Coworking on Oct. 14. Photo via Pexels

Houston experts discuss the toll the pandemic has taken on women in the workplace

guest column

The shutdown of our economy, schools and childcare systems has created a wildfire that is raging across our nation, disproportionately impacting women, radically shifting social values, and compromising our nation's post-pandemic recovery.

While women have made great gains in the last few decades towards gender equality, the pandemic has exacerbated some of the larger remaining issues — time spent in unpaid work or "invisible labor," political under-representation, violence against women, limited access to capital and the gender pay gap) — and, according to a recent analysis by McKinsey, without serious intervention, is at risk of wiping $1 trillion off global GDP by 2030.

While everyone has suffered during the pandemic, women have found themselves under disproportionate pressure — women's jobs have become more vulnerable (women are 1.8 times more likely to lose their jobs than men), female dominated industries (restaurants, child-care, leisure and hospitality, health care, and education) have been hardest hit, and women of color in particular are more likely to be laid off or furloughed (leanin.org - women in workplace study).

These inequities, coupled with the increased stress and labor of child-care while "working from home" have placed an overwhelming strain on the working parents, and in particular mothers, of America. The mental and emotional health loads of working parents have been pushed to their limits and with that working families are re-prioritizing their values and spending habits faster than ever before.

Is it any surprise that during the pandemic the need for families to quickly adapt to the new economy plus the inequity of women's wages versus men is driving more and more women to sacrifice their careers and dreams to ease the increased burdens the pandemic has inflamed?

Leanin.org and McKinsey's Women in the Workplace study polled over 40,000 employees across 317 companies between May and Aug 2020, and found that more than 1 in 4 women are considering downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce entirely, according Leanin.org and McKinsey.

Labor Department statistics show that this inclination is already in action: In August and September 1.1 million people left the workforce, and of that 800,000 were women. According to a recent analysis by the National Women's Law Center of those 800,000 women — 324,000 were Latinas and 58,000 were Black women. Now compare that to the 216,000 men who left the job market during August and September.

This exodus of women leaving the workforce has broad reaching and long-lasting effects on not just female-owned businesses and women in the workplace – it is an issue that impacts every person at every level of business. Women's rise in participation in the labor force is not just good for women, it is good for business: directly impacting our GDP and a rise in wages for everyone, not just women.

A decline of women in the labor force, on teams, in leadership positions and in decision-making roles compromises not just our economy's recovery and productivity, but also the innovation and effectiveness in industry, competitiveness on a global scale, aspirations of future generations of women, and society as a whole.

If "women hold up half the sky" you could certainly argue that the sky is now falling. So, the question is – what can we do about it? And that is a question we intend to tackle in depth on Wednesday, October 14, at 1 pm in a virtual town hall with inspiring women who are already paving the road to our recovery: Elizabeth Gore of Hello Alice, Cate Luzio of Luminary; Cathy Mchorse of United Way of Greater Austin; Lucie Green of Light Years. Click here to register.

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Maggie Segrich is co-founder and CFO of Sesh Coworking and Courtney Sikes Longmore is the founder at Pure Palate. The two female innovators will be on the panel of the online event.

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Intuitive Machines lands $600M satellite deal, NASA ‘spacecraft bus’ contract

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Houston-based space infrastructure company Intuitive Machines has scored two astronomical deals.

The deals add to the company’s soaring success. As of June 30, Intuitive Machines had a record-high $1.8 billion backlog of orders, a $1.5 billion increase from the end of last year. The current backlog includes orders for more than 80 spacecraft.

The company, which went public in 2023, expects this year’s revenue to total $900 million to $1 billion. In the first half of 2026, Intuitive Machines generated nearly $393 million in revenue.

Intuitive Machines estimates its total available market is valued at more than $150 billion.

$600 million-plus deal represents ‘important milestone’

On Monday, Intuitive Machines said it picked up a $600 million-plus deal to develop three commercial satellites for an undisclosed customer over the course of about two years.

Intuitive Machines says it will design, manufacture, set up and support several spacecraft “for a critical communications infrastructure mission.”

Steve Altemus, the company’s CEO, says the deal represents “an important milestone for Intuitive Machines and reflects the confidence our customers place in our ability to deliver high-performance spacecraft for a broad range of mission needs.”

Company nails down NASA deal for ‘spacecraft bus’

A day after announcing the $600 million-plus deal, Intuitive Machines said it secured a new contract with NASA.

Intuitive Machines says NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California will use the company’s IM 300 “spacecraft bus” for an EAGLE-VSWIR Earth observation mission. The mission is scheduled to launch in 2028.

Aside from supplying the IM 300 bus, Intuitive Machines will carry out mission support services.

The low-Earth-orbit mission will be equipped with Intuitive Machines’ hyperspectral visible to shortwave infrared (VSWIR) instrument. This technology sees colors and details that aren’t visible to the human eye.

The instrument is “designed to perform surface biology and geology observations from Earth orbit while demonstrating technologies that could support future lunar and Mars exploration missions,” Intuitive Machines says.

Intuitive Machines builds mission-critical spacecraft, systems, and infrastructure for business and government customers. To date, the company has produced more than 300 spacecraft, delivered over 575 pounds of payload to the moon and launched about 100 satellites.

9 Houston-based companies make Fortune Global 500 list in 2026

Worldwide Rankings

Nine Houston companies landed on the 2026 Fortune Global 500 list, which ranks the world's largest corporations by revenue for the 2025 fiscal year.

Houston's showing on the list was led by energy companies, with Spring’s ExxonMobil claiming the top local spot. Here’s what Houston-area companies made the list, and where they ranked:

  • No. 15 ExxonMobil
  • No. 36 Chevron
  • No. 61 Phillip 66
  • No. 159 Sysco
  • No. 243 ConocoPhillips
  • No. 292 Enterprise Products Partners
  • No. 343 Plains GP Holdings
  • No. 460 SLB
  • No. 481 Hewlett Packard Enterprise

After 12 years as No.1, Arkansas-based Walmart was replaced this year by Seattle-based Amazon in the top spot for 2026. Amazon achieved this by bringing in $700 billion in revenue in 2025, representing a 12 percent increase from the previous year.

"Across global business, we see again and again that the leaders who are winning are those who embrace change,” Alyson Shontell, Fortune's editor in chief and chief content officer, said in a news release. "Amazon has topped the Fortune Global 500, knocking Walmart off its pedestal. The company has continually reinvented itself across new businesses and bold bets—including a $200 billion capital commitment, largely to building its capacity for AI and cloud computing, in this year alone."

The U.S. has 141 companies on the 2026 Fortune Global 500 list, which is the most of any country. Companies in America generated $15.5 trillion in aggregate revenues, a 6 percent increase from the previous year.

The number of women CEOs at Fortune Global 500 companies reached a record of 34 top leaders, who represented 6.8 percent of CEOs of companies on the list.

Technology was the standout growth industry on this year’s list, with 38 companies earning revenues that grew 20 percent to about $4 trillion in 2025, with profits climbing 36 percent to $835 billion. The financial sector accounted for the largest share of companies on the list again, with 123 companies in that sector. The energy sector claimed the No. 2 industry spot with 77 companies making the list.

In June, the Fortune 500 list was released, and Texas led the United States with 57 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the state, generating $2.8 trillion in combined revenue.

Fast-growing Houston real estate startup surges to No. 7 on Inc. 5000

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Houston-based Epique Realty has ridden the AI wave to rank among the Inc. 5000’s 10 fastest-growing private companies.

With three-year revenue growth of 23,210 percent, the AI-powered real estate brokerage appears at No. 7 on this year’s Inc. 5000 list. The 2026 list ranks private companies based on percentage revenue growth from 2022 to 2025.

Epique, founded in 2021, also ranks as the No. 1 fastest-growing company in Houston, No. 1 fastest-growing real estate company in the U.S., and No. 2 fastest-growing company in Texas.

Epique’s annual revenue surpasses $91 million

Between 2022 and 2025, the company’s annual revenue skyrocketed from $391,654 to more than $91.2 million. In 2025, the brokerage closed more than 23,000 deals and surpassed $7 billion in total sales, elevating Epique to the country’s 14th-largest real estate brokerage as measured by volume.

Epique’s network has more than 4,000 agents.

“To debut in the top 10 of the Inc. 5000 is absolute proof that when you relentlessly put agents first, exponential growth takes care of itself,” co-founder and CEO Joshua Miller said in a news release.

“We didn’t achieve this by following the industry playbook; we achieved this by burning it,” Miller added. “By fully funding our agents’ success through free health care, proprietary AI, and world-class leads, we’ve built a company where agents can finally thrive.”

The company’s other co-founders are Chris Miller, chief operating officer and vice president of expansion, and Janice Delci, chief financial officer.

Epique expands business to Canada, Mexico, Australia

The Millers and Delci have guided the company’s rapid expansion.

“Scaling our corporate support team to match [our] hyper-growth while seamlessly expanding across all 50 states and internationally to Canada, Australia, and Mexico takes an incomparable operational infrastructure,” Miller said.

“We have built an enterprise-grade technology ecosystem that allows us to absorb overhead and empower our agents at lightning speed,” he added. “This ranking validates that our disruptive model is working, and it is completely redefining the global industry standard.”

Epique launched its platform in 2023, touting itself as the industry’s first AI-powered brokerage. The startup’s platform provides AI tools for real estate agents to improve their marketing, streamline content creation, and boost engagement with clients and prospects.

Among Epique’s AI tools are:

  • ChatGPT for generation of property descriptions
  • AI-assisted creation of blog posts and agents’ bios
  • Production of Instagram quotes for social media marketing

“When we started Epique, we wanted to build a company that genuinely cared for its agents’ financial and physical well-being,” Delci says. “To see that vision translate into this level of historic record-breaking growth is a beautiful testament to the true power of radical generosity.”

Epique and fellow honorees will be recognized Oct. 14-16 at the 2026 Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala in Dallas.

Six other Houston-area companies land in top 250

Here are the six other Houston-area companies that claimed spots in the top 250 on the Inc. 5000 list. Each company name is followed by its ranking, headquarters city, and three-year growth rate.

  • No. 27 Empact Technologies, 8,275 percent
  • No. 60 Action1, 4,512 percent
  • No 75 Signs By G, 3,684 percent
  • No. 79 The ’Pause Life, 3,469 percent (Galveston)
  • No. 110 Turtlebox Audio, 2,576 percent
  • No. 178 Dahnani Private Equity Group, 1,904 percent (Stafford)

How did companies in Texas’ other major metros fare?

Here’s a breakdown of companies in the Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, and San Antonio areas that made the top 250 on the Inc. 5000. Again, each company name is followed by its ranking, headquarters city, and three-year growth rate.

Austin (10 companies)

  • No. 9 Investment Watches, 15,741 percent
  • No. 72 Razor Metrics, 3,856 percent
  • No. 91 Autonomize AI, 2,921 percent
  • No. 102 Choose Your Horizon, 2,719 percent
  • No. 132 Wander Staffing, 2,296 percent
  • No. 144 Everyday Dose, 2,179 percent
  • No. 148 NetRise, 2,118 percent
  • No. 163 Nutrabound Labs, 1,999 percent (Bastrop)
  • No. 179 Steadily, 1,890 percent
  • No. 208 Tiny Health, 1,624 percent

Dallas-Fort Worth (11 companies)

  • No. 3 Yantran, 258,740 percent (Allen)
  • No. 12 Paek Management Group, 12,520 percent (Irving)
  • No. 82 Elite Robotics and Automation, 3,334 percent (Fort Worth)
  • No. 133 Outamation, 2,291 percent (Southlake)
  • No. 147 Red Creek Solutions, 2,119 percent (Frisco)
  • No. 155 JobTread Software, 2,071 percent (Dallas)
  • No. 164 DAX Eyewear, 1,977 percent (Nevada)
  • No. 186 Optimized Waste Removal, 1,830 percent (Fort Worth)
  • No. 204 Freight Flex, 1,642 percent (Denton)
  • No. 212 Maverick Power, 1,591 percent (McKinney)
  • No. 229 Innovative Life Sciences, 1,494 percent (McKinney)

San Antonio (one company)

  • No. 118 Hire With Near, 2,421 percent
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