money moves

Houston energy company backs decarbonization startup's $12M series A

Houston-based Citroniq Chemicals has secured its series A funding. Photo via Getty Images

A fresh $12 million round of funding will enable Houston-based Citroniq Chemicals to propel planning, design, and construction of its first decarbonization plant.

An unidentified multinational energy technology company led the series A round, with participation from Houston-based Lummus Technology Ventures and cooperation from the State of Nebraska. The Citroniq plant, which will produce green polypropylene, will be located in Nebraska.

“Lummus’ latest investment in Citroniq builds on this progress and strengthens our partnership, working together to lower carbon emissions in the plastics industry,” Leon de Bruyn, president and CEO of Lummus Technology, says in a news release.

Citroniq is putting together a decarbonization platform designed to annually capture 2 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions at each plant. The company plans to invest more than $5 billion into its green polypropylene plants. Polypropylene is a thermoplastic resin commonly used for injection molding.

The series A round “is just the first step in our journey towards building multiple biomanufacturing hubs, boosting the Nebraska bioeconomy by converting local ethanol into valuable bioplastics,” says Kelly Knopp, co-founder and CEO of Citroniq.

Citroniq’s platform for the chemical and plastics industries uses technology and U.S.-produced ethanol to enable low-cost carbon capture. Citroniq’s process permanently sequesters carbon into a useful plastic pellet.

Lummus Technology licenses process technologies for clean fuels, renewables, petrochemicals, polymers, gas processing and supply lifecycle services, catalysts, proprietary equipment, and digital transformation.

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

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A View From HETI

PitchBook attributes $634 million in fourth-quarter VC to Fervo. Photo via Getty Images

The venture capital haul for Houston-area startups jumped 23 percent from 2023 to 2024, according to the latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor.

The fundraising total for startups in the region climbed from $1.49 billion in 2023 to $1.83 billion in 2024, PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor data shows.

Roughly half of the 2024 sum, $914.3 million, came in the fourth quarter. By comparison, Houston-area startups collected $291.3 million in VC during the fourth quarter of 2023.

Among the Houston-area startups contributing to the impressive VC total in the fourth quarter of 2024 was geothermal energy startup Fervo Energy. PitchBook attributes $634 million in fourth-quarter VC to Fervo, with fulfillment services company Cart.com at $50 million, and chemical manufacturing platform Mstack and superconducting wire manufacturer MetOx International at $40 million each.

Across the country, VC deals total $209 billion in 2024, compared with $162.2 billion in 2023. Nearly half (46 percent) of all VC funding in North America last year went to AI startups, PitchBook says. PitchBook’s lead VC analyst for the U.S., Kyle Stanford, says that AI “continues to be the story of the market.”

PitchBook forecasts a “moderately positive” 2025 for venture capital in the U.S.

“That does not mean that challenges are gone. Flat and down rounds will likely continue at higher paces than the market is accustomed to. More companies will likely shut down or fall out of the venture funding cycle,” says PitchBook. “However, both of those expectations are holdovers from 2021.”

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This story originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.com.

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