top teams
CERAWeek crowns winners of 2026 clean tech pitch competition
Twelve teams from around the country, including several from Houston, took home top honors at this year's Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition at CERAWeek.
The fast-paced event, held March 25, put on by Rice Alliance, Houston Energy Transition Initiative and TEX-E, invited 36 industry startups and five Texas-based student teams focused on driving efficiency and advancements in the energy transition to present 3.5-minute pitches before investors and industry partners during CERAWeek's Agora program.
The competition is a qualifying event for the Startup World Cup, where teams compete for a $1 million investment prize.
PolyJoule won in the Track C competition and was named the overall winner of the pitch event. The Boston-based company will go on to compete in the Startup World Cup held this fall in San Francisco.
PolyJoule was spun out of MIT and is developing conductive polymer battery technology for energy storage.
Rice University's Resonant Thermal Systems won the second-place prize and $15,000 in the student track, known as TEX-E. The team's STREED solution converts high-salinity water into fresh water while recovering valuable minerals.
Teams from the University of Texas won first and second place in the TEX-E competition, bringing home $25,000 and $10,000, respectively. The student winners were:
- First: Quantum Power Systems, from the University of Texas
- Second: Resonant Thermal Systems, from Rice University
- Third: Quas (Cocarbon), from the University of Texas
Companies that pitched in the three industry tracts competed for non-monetary awards. Here are the companies named "most-promising" by the judges:
Track A | Industrial Efficiency & Decarbonization
- First: Armeta, based in San Francisco
- Second: Anax Power, based in New Jersey
- Third: Agellus Tank Robotics, based in Houston
Track B | Advanced Manufacturing, Materials, & Other Advanced Technologies
- First: Licube, based in Houston
- Second: ZettaJoule, based in Houston and Maryland
- Third: Oleo
Track C | Innovations for Traditional Energy, Electricity, & the Grid
- First: PolyJoule, based in Boston
- Second: ATS Energy, based in Colorado
- Third: Capwell Services, based in Houston
The teams at this year's Energy Venture Day have collectively raised $707 million in funding, according to Rice. They represent six countries and 12 states. See the full list of companies and investor groups that participated here.