CERA pitches
50+ teams announced for CERAWeek's annual clean tech pitch competition
The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, the Houston Energy Transition Initiative and the Texas Entrepreneurship Exchange for Energy announced the 30-plus energy ventures and five student teams that will pitch at the 2025 Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition during CERAWeek next month.
The ventures are focused on driving efficiency and advancements toward the energy transition and will each present a 3.5-minute pitch before a network of investors and industry partners during CERAWeek's Agora program.
The pitch competition is divided up into the TEX-E university track, in which Texas student-led energy startups compete for $50,000 in cash prizes, and the industry ventures track.
Teams competing in the TEX-E Prize track include:
- ECHO
- HEXAspec
- HydroStor Analytics
- Nanoborne
- Pattern Materials
The industry track is subdivided into three additional tracks, spanning materials to clean energy and will feature 36 companies. The top three companies from each industry track will be named. The winner of the CERAWeek competition will also have the chance to advance and compete for the $1 million investment prize at the Startup World Cup in October 2025.
Teams come from around the world, including several notable Houston-based ventures, such as Corrolytics, Rheom Materials, AtmoSpark Technologies, and others. Click here to see the full list of companies and investor groups that will participate.
The pitch competition will be held Wednesday, March 12, at CERAWeek from 1-4:30 pm. An Agora pass is required to attend.
Those without passes can catch more than 50 companies at a free pitch preview at the Ion. Pitches will be followed by private meetings with venture capitalists, corporate innovation groups, industry leaders, and tech scouts. The preview will be held Tuesday, March 11, from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm at the Ion. It's free to attend, but registration is required. Click here to register.
Last year, Houston-based Solidec took home the top TEX-E price and $25,000 cash awards. The startup extracts molecules from water and air, then transforms them into pure chemicals and fuels that are free of carbon emissions. Its co-founder and Rice University professor Haotian Wang was recently awarded the 2025 Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research.
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