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11 clean energy-focused startups join Greentown Houston

ready to grow

Meet the newest additions to Greentown Houston. Photo via Greentown Houston

There are some new faces at Houston's Greentown Labs location.

The climatetech incubator announced 22 new startup members between its two locations in Boston and Houston joining the facilities this quarter, and 11 have a local presence. Here are the new Houston additions, according to Greentown Labs:

  • A digital tech company, eVillage.io’s software manages the lifecycle of a clean energy project from the very beginning.
  • With its power-to-heat and power-to-power solutions, NOC Energy is focused on decarbonizing industrial heat to reduce emissions and cost.
  • AI company Pix Force uses computer vision, using machine learning, and deep learning techniques to automate the inspection of assets more safely, remotely, and efficiently.
  • Ardent is a process technology company that is developing membrane-based solutions for point-source carbon capture and other chemical separations. The startup is participating in Year 4 of the Carbon to Value Initiative.
  • Also a C2V Initiative Year 4 cohort member, CarbonBlue develops a chemical process that mineralizes and extracts CO2 from water, which then reabsorbs more atmospheric CO2.
  • Maple Materials develops an electrolysis process to convert CO2 into graphite and oxygen. The startup is a Greentown Go alum that’s returning for Year 4 of the C2V Initiative.
  • A C2V Initiative cohort member, Secant Fuel develops a one-step electrocatalytic process that converts flue gas into syngas.
  • Deep Anchor Solutions accelerates renewable energy project adoption, especially in floating offshore wind and other offshore sectors, with its innovative deeply embedded ring anchor.
  • Thiozen’s proprietary chemical waste-to-hydrogen cycle removes hydrogen sulfide from gas streams and generates zero-emission hydrogen.
  • TS-Nano is an energy technology company focused on reducing methane emissions from abandoned wellbores using its patented sealants, monitoring technologies, and blockchain carbon offsets—enabling its partners to achieve their ESG and decarbonization goals.
  • Seabound builds carbon-capture equipment for new and existing ships. The startup is participating in Year 4 of the C2V Initiative.
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Over 500 people attended the 21st annual Energy Tech Venture Forum hosted by the Rice Alliance. Photo courtesy of Rice

Investors name most-promising energy tech startups at annual Houston event

big winners

Investors from around the world again identified the most-promising energy tech startups at the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship's annual event.

"The recognition that Houston is the epicenter of energy transition is growing. It's something we are championing as much as possible so that the world can know exactly what we're doing," Paul Cherukuri, chief innovation officer at Rice University says at the 21st annual Energy Tech Venture Forum.

The event took place during the inaugural Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week, and nearly 100 startups from 23 states and seven countries pitched investors Wednesday, September 11, and Thursday, September 12. At the conclusion of the event, the investors decided on 10 companies deemed "most promising" from the presentations.

This year's selected companies are:

  • Revterra, a Houston-based company innovating within kinetic battery technology to enable faster and cleaner electric vehicle charging.
  • From Austin, 360 Mining is a modular data center provider for the oil and gas producers.
  • New York company Andium is a centralized and optimized operations platform for large energy companies.
  • Elementium Materials, a local Katy-based company, created its battery technology that originated out of MIT.
  • Splight is a San Mateo, California-based technology platform that provides real-time operational data based on inverter-based resources assets.
  • Los Angeles-based Mitico, one of the Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator's class 4 participants, provides services and equipment for carbon capture through its granulated metal carbonate sorption technology.
  • From Cambridge, Massachusetts, Osmoses is changing the way molecular gas separations are performed within the chemical, petrochemical, and energy industries.
  • Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator class 4 participant CORROLYTICS, based in Houston, has a corrosion detection and monitoring technology. The company also won over the crowd and secured the People's Choice win too.
  • Ardent, based in New Castle, Delaware, has developed a membrane technology for point-source carbon capture.
  • New Haven, Connecticut-based Oxylus Energy produces an alternative fuel from converting CO2 into green methanol.

Last year, investors named its selection of most-promising companies at Rice.

"We have a responsibility as a city to lead energy transition," Cherukuri continues. "A lot of the investments we're making at Rice are going to change the world."

———

This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

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40+ teams to pitch at annual CERAWeek clean energy competition

energy venture day

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, the Houston Energy Transition Initiative (HETI), the Texas Entrepreneurship Exchange for Energy (TEX-E) and the Ion have named the 30-plus energy ventures and teams that will pitch at the 2026 Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition during CERAWeek this month.

The selected ventures are "driving efficiency and advancements toward the energy transition," according to the Rice Alliance. Each will each present a 3.5-minute pitch before a network of investors and industry partners during CERAWeek's Agora program on Wednesday, March 25, from noon-5:30 p.m.

The 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:

  • GOES
  • Quantum Power System
  • Quas
  • Resonant Thermal Systems
  • Srijan

The industry track is subdivided into three additional tracks, spanning materials to clean energy and will feature 37 companies. A group of expert judges will name the top three companies from each industry track. 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 November 2026.

Teams come from around the world, including several Houston-based ventures, such as Agellus Tank Robotics, Capwell Services and Corrolytics.

The full list of companies pitching at CERAWeek includes:

  • Agellus Tank Robotics
  • Airovation Technologies
  • Anax Power
  • Armeta
  • ATS Energy
  • Capwell Services
  • CarbonLume
  • Cogniprise
  • Corrolytics
  • Daphne Technology
  • Gemini Energy
  • Grid8
  • H Quest Vanguard
  • intcom
  • Ionada Canada
  • Junipix
  • Kunin Technologies
  • LAVA Power
  • Licube
  • LNK Energies
  • Maverick X
  • Membravo
  • Mirico
  • Mocean Energy
  • Monitorai
  • OCOchem
  • Oleo
  • Pix Force
  • PolyJoule
  • Power to Hydrogen
  • Sotaog
  • Spotlight
  • Tierra Climate
  • Verdagy
  • Via Separations
  • Vycarb
  • ZettaJoule

Those not attending CERAWeek can catch these companies and more than a dozen others at a pitch preview at the Ion. The free Pitch Preview will be held Tuesday, March 24, from 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Click here to register.

Additional companies pitching during the free preview include:

  • Ammobia
  • Arolytics
  • Ayrton Energy
  • ChainWeave
  • Cybereum
  • Energytech
  • ENP Technologies
  • KP Labs
  • Mcatalysis
  • Mitico
  • Mote
  • Nanos
  • New Horizon Oil and Gas
  • Predyct
  • Salem Robotics
  • Toluai

Two Rice University student teams took home top prizes during last year's TEX-E competition, while ventures from New Jersey, Wyoming and Virgina won in their respective industry tracks. See the full list of last year's winners here.

ExxonMobil to move legal home to Texas, citing business-friendliness

ExxonMobil is poised to move its legal headquarters from New Jersey to Texas in search of a more friendly business environment, the company announced March 10.

The board of directors for the largest U.S.-based oil producing company, which already runs its operations from the Houston suburb of Spring, unanimously recommended to its shareholders that they vote to redomicile the company in Texas.

Shareholders will vote on the change at the company’s annual meeting on May 27. If successful, it will move Exxon’s legal home for the first time since it registered in New Jersey in 1882 as Standard Oil Company — the company later changed its name to Exxon, then merged with Mobil Oil Corp.

“Over the past several years, Texas has made a noticeable effort to embrace the business community,” ExxonMobil Chair and CEO Darren Woods wrote in a statement Tuesday. “In doing so, it has created a policy and regulatory environment that can allow the company to maximize shareholder value. Aligning our legal home with our operating home, in a state that understands our business and has a stake in the company’s success, is important.”

The proposed move will not affect the company’s business operations or employee locations, the company said.

ExxonMobil has been headquartered in Texas since 1989, and about 30% of its employees currently work in the state.

The location of a company’s incorporation dictates the legal, tax and regulatory landscape for the business.

Exxon would join Tesla, Space X and Coinbase as major U.S. companies to redomicile in Texas in recent years as the state moves to become more business friendly.

In 2023, the Legislature passed and Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law that created the Texas Business Court and the 15th Court of Appeals, specialized legal venues designed to handle business and commercial disputes. Those courts began operating in 2024.

Last year, the Legislature also approved a law that made it more difficult to sue board members of companies incorporated in Texas.

“Freed from the stranglehold of over-regulation, Texas is where global brand leaders thrive and jobs for hardworking Texans grow,” Abbott wrote in a Tuesday statement. “I thank ExxonMobil for their decision to redomicile in Texas and for their long-standing partnership with our state. With this decision, Texas will further dominate the corporate landscape and ensure our economic growth reaches new heights.”

Exxon noted the creation of the business courts and other recent legal reforms made by Texas in its statement announcing the decision.

“In making its recommendation, the Board considered Texas’ legal and regulatory environment, including its modernized business statutes and the Texas Business Court, which is designed to resolve complex disputes efficiently,” the statement said.

Texas has benefited from growing frustration among company executives with traditional corporate havens of New Jersey and Delaware. New Jersey sued Exxon in 2022, alleging the company contributed to climate change, which forced the state to pay for cleanup after natural disasters. The lawsuit was dismissed last year.

Delaware remains the nation’s top state for U.S. companies’ legal home.

Coinbase’s CEO wrote last year that the company was reincorporating from Delaware to Texas because the Lone Star State’s legal framework is more predictable and efficient. Tesla reincorporated from Delaware to Texas after a 2024 court ruling ordered CEO Elon Musk to give up a compensation package, finding that the package’s shareholder approval process was “deeply flawed.”

___

This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

Texas data center boom could strain water supply, new report warns

thirst for data

As data centers continue to boom throughout Texas, a new report from the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) warns that the trend could strain the state’s water supply.

HARC estimates Texas data centers used 25 billion gallons of water in 2025—and that the demand for water will continue to rise to meet the needs of the 464 data centers currently in Texas, as well as 70 additional sites currently under development.

In the report, titled “Thirsty Data and the Lone Star State: The Impact of Data Center Growth on Texas’ Water Supply,” The Woodlands-based nonprofit says that water use for cooling data centers is expected to double or triple by 2028 on the national level. If projections hold, the total annual water use for data centers in Texas will increase by 0.5 percent to 2.7 percent by 2030, or to between 29 billion and 161 billion gallons of water consumed.

Data centers often use water for cooling, though water demand is dependent on the type of cooling used, the size and type of the data center. Although used water can be reused, some new water withdrawals are always needed to replace evaporated water and other systems’ water losses. Water is also used to cool the power plants that generate electricity used by the data centers.

The HARC report offers guidance to address the overall concerns of water demands by data centers, including:

  • Dry cooling methods
  • Increased reliance on wind and solar energy sources
  • Alternative water supplies, like treated wastewater or brackish water for cooling
  • Adjusted operating schedules to accommodate water usage
  • Partnering with local companies to develop projects that reduce water leaks
  • Companies creating their own water infrastructure investments

The report goes on to explain that the Texas State Water Plan, produced by the Texas Water Development Board, projects shortages of 1.6 trillion gallons by 2030 and 2.3 trillion gallons by 2070. HARC posits that the recent surge in water demand from AI data centers is not fully reflected in those projections.

"Texas water plans always look backward, not forward," the report reads. "That means the 2027 water plan, which is in development now, will be based on 2026 regional water plans that do not include forecasted data center water use. Data centers that began operation in 2025 will not be added to the State Water Plan until 2032."

Currently, there are no state regulations that require data centers to report how much water they use. However, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) plans to survey operators of data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities on their water consumption, cooling methods and electricity sources this spring. It is expected to release the results by the end of the year. The companies will have six weeks to respond. The Texas Water Development Board will assist the PUCT on the questions.

“I think we all recognize the importance of data centers and the technology they support and what they give to our modern-day life,” PUC Commissioner Courtney Hjaltman said during the last commission meeting. “Texans, regulators and the legislature really need that understanding of data centers, really need to understand the water they’re using so that we can plan and create the Texas we want.”

See the full HARC report here.
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