calling all funders

Greentown Houston announces new investor program to increase equity in climatetech funding

The Houston Ion District Investor Activation Program is open to accredited investors and free to join. Photo via GreentownLabs.com

Greentown Labs has announced a new program to address inequity and unavailability of funding for early-stage climatetech startups.

The Houston Ion District Investor Activation Program is supported by a Build to Scale Capital Challenge grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, open to accredited investors, and free to join.

Participating investors will have access to curated startup introductions based on preferred stage, industry, check size, and more, plus access to information on startups and investor-specific newsletters featuring Greentown startups invite-only events.

"This program brings early-stage investors from Greater Houston into the fold, offering education on climatetech investing, channeling a pool of capital to young startups, and catalyzing a thriving climatetech investment ecosystem that prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion," reads the email announcing the program.

Members will also get networking opportunities with fellow investors and leading climatetech startups, which includes investor roundtables. Sector Pitch Days, and more Educational workshops on climatetech investing run by Vinson & Elkins, and more will be made available. The new initiative is meant “ to strengthen Houston’s energy-transition ecosystem” according to a news release.

In 2023, Greentown Labs helped 87 corporate partners, and collaborated with over 70 Houston startups. Some of their members recently achieved success in their respective fields.

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A View From HETI

Hurricane season began June 1. Photo via Pexels

As hurricane season descends upon the region, CenterPoint Energy has shared the latest update on its Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI) that’s been working to make grid upgrades and introduce weather-related tech since 2024.

As of April 2026, CenterPoint had:

  • Replaced more than 65,000 poles with stronger storm-resistant infrastructure
  • Trimmed or cleared more than 10,000 miles of vegetation
  • Undergrounded more than 500 miles of power lines
  • Installed more than 600 automation devices
  • Installed more than 150 weather stations

In May, CenterPoint announced its new Community Progress Tracker, which helps residents track electronic infrastructure improvements. In terms of other technology, CenterPoint has announced its partnership with weather, wildfire and flood modeling software Technosylva. The software is expected to help CenterPoint track weather conditions in advance to better prepare crews.

CenterPoint has also added 150 weather stations to improve weather monitoring, conducted a full-scale hurricane response exercise involving more than 400 employees and completed more than 25,000 hours of FEMA training across more than 800 employees. The company opened a new year-round Emergency Operations Center to help coordinate with emergency response partners, local and state officials, and media during major weather events.

“We are proud of the progress made in 2025, which helped deliver more than 100 million fewer outage minutes when compared to 2024, and we are determined to make even more progress in 2026 as we work toward our defining goal: building the nation's most resilient coastal grid,” Nathan Brownell, CenterPoint's vice president of resilience and capital delivery, previously said in a news release.

According to the company, the GHRI aims to improve overall grid resiliency and reliability and to reduce outages for customers. CenterPoint projects its efforts can reduce customer outages by 150 million by the end of 2026.

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