Editor's note:Another week has come and gone, and it's time to round up the top headlines from the past few days. Trending Houston tech and startup articles on InnovationMap included Axiom Space opening its new HQ, gift ideas from Houston startups, and more.
Houston AI company raises $35M, plans for Japanese IPO
Allganize recently closed a $20 million series B round of funding, bringing its total amount raised to $35 million. Graphic via allganize.ai
A Houston tech startup with an artificial intelligence technology has announced it's raised two rounds of funding as it plans to continue developing its product and IPO in Japan.
Allganize recently closed a $20 million series B round of funding, bringing its total amount raised to $35 million, according to the company. Allganize developed Alli, an all-in-one platform for enabling large language models, that's used by over 200 enterprise and public companies globally, including Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Nomura Securities, Hitachi, Fujitsu, and KB Securities.
The funding will go toward expanding corporate-specific LLM app markets and expanding enterprise automation AI in the United States, Korea, and Japan. The company has a goal of listing on the Japanese Stock Exchange by 2025. Continue reading.
Space tech unicorn opens new 22-acre HQ in the Houston Spaceport
Axiom Space's new Houston Spaceport facility is now open. Photo courtesy of Houston Airports
The Houston Spaceport has officially celebrated the opening of another facility from a fast-growing space tech company.
Axiom Space has opened its new Assembly Integration and Test Building, which will be the new headquarters for the Houston-based aerospace company at a new 22-acre campus at the Houston Spaceport at Ellington Airport in Southeast Houston. The building will include employee offices, facilities for astronaut training and mission control, testing labs and a high bay production facility to house Axiom Space Station modules currently under construction.
Axiom Space partnered with Jacobs, Turner Construction Company, Savills, and Griffin Partners to expand the company’s headquarters with the Houston spaceport building, which is the tenth spaceport in the nation. Continue reading.
2023 startup gift guide: Shop local from these Houston innovators
Support Houston startups by shopping local this holiday season. Photo via Getty Images
It's giving season, and you need not look any further than Houston's startup and innovation community for some gift ideas.
This year's Houston startup gift guide includes experiences, sustainable shopping, and more. Continue reading.
Houston hospital system scores $4.8M gift, opens new Austin clinic, and more
Texas Children's Hospital has been busy. Photo via tmc.edu
Texas Children’s Hospital has lots of exciting news this month. Chief among its big announcements is a $4.8 million gift that will help to fund the hospital’s new behavioral health Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) in The Woodlands.
The donation comes from Ovintiv, a natural gas exploration and production company headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
The pledge makes Ovintiv the first company sponsor to join the Council of Hope, Texas Children’s new corporate giving society. The council’s fundraising priorities include supporting Texas Children’s behavioral health initiatives. Texas Children’s formed a Behavioral Health Task Force last year in order to expand and upgrade services for patients who need specialized help, hopefully preventing the necessity of in-patient care. Continue reading.
How this Houston SaaS startup plans to scale with future of energy in mind
Samra Nawaz founded WellWorth to tackle the convoluted financial modeling process in upstream oil and gas. Photo courtesy of WellWorth
As much as she loves a good Excel spreadsheet, Samra Nawaz had just about had it with the convoluted — and not always completely accurate — process of building financial models within upstream oil and gas.
"Excel is generally a good tool to automate workflows and build really robust spreadsheets. I live in Excel — I have a spreadsheet for everything," Nawaz says on the Houston Innovators Podcast. "What Excel is not is a database."
Engineering teams work with massive amounts with data that's too big for Excel, she explains, so finance teams then have to work off of aggregated data to build their financial models. She was ranting about why there isn't a better process to her husband, Vinay Acharya, who suggested that they build it themselves. Continue reading.