Highlights from the inaugural Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week

the view from heti

Last month, the inaugural Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week 2024 successfully highlighted the GHP and HETI's mission. Photo via GHP

Houston has become the hub for startups and companies looking to scale innovative technologies that are transforming the energy industry and advancing a sustainable, low-carbon future. Last month, the inaugural Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week 2024 successfully highlighted this mission.

Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, Halliburton Labs, Greentown Labs, Digital Wildcatters launched the inaugural startup week in collaboration with the Partnership’s Houston Energy Transition Initiative. The week brought together leading energy and climate venture capital investors, industry leaders, and startups from around the world.

Over 30 events took place from September 9-13, featuring more than 100 speakers and 125 startups. Attendance numbers came in at over 1,400 people across the week’s anchor events, and additional events were individually organized by organizations and startups in Houston’s ecosystem.

“By hosting the Houston Energy & Climate Startup Week, we're not just showcasing our city's strengths - we're actively shaping its future. This event is a critical catalyst for fostering collaboration, investment and talent development within the burgeoning energy and climate tech ecosystem. This week is about demonstrating our commitment to that future and inspiring the next generation of energy innovators,” says Janice Tran, Kanin Energy CEO & Co-Founder

The Kickoff event, sponsored by Repsol, Microsoft and BBVA, hosted fireside chats by several of Houston’s leading startups, including Solugen, Cemvita, Kanin Energy and Syzygy.

“Houston is at the forefront of not just energy innovation, but industrial innovation more broadly. With the momentum that's built over the last few years, it's the perfect time to showcase our progress and drive further advancements in climate solutions,” says Gaurab Chakrabarti, Solugen CEO and co-founder.

Houston is home to more than 65 incubators and accelerators and over 260 cleantech and climate tech startups. The region continues to build momentum and is focused on attracting investment for this growing sector, seeing a 577 percent growth since 2019. According to Partnership data, there has been over $1.95 billion and 175 deals with cleantech and climate tech startups.

"Houston is uniquely positioned to tackle the greatest challenge of our time - producing more energy with fewer emissions. This city is where energy innovation scales and opportunity thrives. As a natural hub for startups and investors, Houston brought this to life during Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week. Years in the making, this event was launched to answer the question: Can the whole be greater than the sum of its parts? This past week proved it can. We look forward to continue building on this successful week,” says Jane Stricker, senior vice president at Greater Houston Partnership and executive director of the Houston Energy Transition Initiative.

———

This article originally ran on the Greater Houston Partnership's Houston Energy Transition Initiative blog. HETI exists to support Houston's future as an energy leader. For more information about the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, EnergyCapitalHTX's presenting sponsor, visit htxenergytransition.org.

From Your Site Articles

The new Houston office is part of BBVA’s corporate and investment banking unit in the U.S. and will partner with global BBVA cleantech finance teams. Photo via bbva.com

Global bank announces new Houston hub for powering energy transition projects

cha-ching

Spanish financial services company BBVA Group has created a hub in Houston for financing energy transition projects in the U.S.

BBVA made the announcement at the first-ever Houston Energy & Climate Week, which the bank sponsored.

“The United States has a unique opportunity to lead the global transition to a more sustainable economy. Our office in Houston, the energy transition capital of the world, will be a key component of our sustainability strategy, complementing and integrated with our New York operations,” Alvaro Aguilar, BBVA’s head of strategic projects in the U.S., says in a news release.

The new Houston office is part of BBVA’s corporate and investment banking unit in the U.S. The local hub will partner with BBVA cleantech finance teams in New York City, London, and Madrid.

“We aim to make sustainability a driver of growth, support decarbonization projects, and position BBVA as the leading player in sustainable finance in the United States,” says Javier Rodríguez Soler, BBVA’s global head of sustainability.

BBVA’s U.S. sustainability strategy supports energy companies and those that promote renewable energy, including wind and solar, as well as emerging cleantech options, such as energy storage systems, hydrogen, and carbon capture. It also covers sectors like electric vehicles and energy efficiency.

As of June 2024, BBVA had amassed $279 billion in sustainability business toward its 2025 goal of $332 billion.

Ad Placement 300x100

Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Property Showcase

Greentown Labs combines forces with MassChallenge to support more climate startups

strategic partnership

Climatetech incubator Greentown Labs has formed a strategic partnership with global zero-equity accelerator MassChallenge.

The two organizations have headquarters in the Boston area, while Greentown Labs is also co-located in Houston. MassChallenge has a hub in Dallas, as well as others in Israel, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The new partnership aims to strengthen the ecosystem for early-stage climatetech startups by providing more mentorship, support and a broader commercialization network for members, according to a news release.

Greentown Labs will share its expertise with the 23 startups in MassChallenge's first climate-specific accelerator, known as the MassChallenge Early Stage Climate program. Additionally, Greentown Labs members will benefit from MassChallenge's network of expert mentors, judges, entrepreneurs, partners, investors, philanthropists and others.

“There are so many synergies and shared values between MassChallenge and Greentown that launching a collaboration like this feels like a natural next step for our organizations as we strive to support as many early-stage climate founders as possible,” Georgina Campbell Flatter, Greentown Labs CEO, said in the news release. “We want to reduce the friction and barriers to market for these climate entrepreneurs and ultimately increase their opportunity for success—ecosystem collaboration is an essential part of solving these challenges together.”

Combined, Greentown and MassChallenge report that they have supported more than 4,500 founders and more than 1,000 climate startups. MassChallenge has awarded more than $18 million in equity-free grants to startups, which have gone on to raise over $15 billion, since it was founded in 2009. Greentown Labs has helped more than 575 startups raise more than $8.2 billion in funding since it launched in 2011.

Greentown recently added five startups to its Houston community and 14 other climatetech ventures to its Boston incubator. It also announced its third ACCEL cohort, which works to advance BIPOC-led startups in the climatetech space, earlier this year. Read more here.

$135M battery facility breaks ground in Houston and more energy news to know

Hot Topics

Editor's note: We're looking back at the hottest EnergyCapitalHTX stories from the second half of May 2025. Our most-read stories from May 16-30 include large-scale battery storage developments, collaborations with major brands, and a scientific breakthrough.

$135 million Houston battery storage facility breaks ground

SMT Energy, CenterPoint and Irby Construction have broken ground on a 160-megawatt battery energy storage system in ERCOT's Houston zone. Photo via Getty Images

SMT Energy and CenterPoint Energy have partnered with utility infrastructure solutions provider Irby Construction Company to break ground on a 160 megawatt battery energy storage system (BESS) located in the Houston zone of the ERCOT market.

“We are proud to be underway and deliver this grid-strengthening project to Houston,” Kevin Midei, SVP of engineering, procurement and construction, at SMT Energy, said. Continue reading.

Houston researchers make breakthrough on electricity-generating bacteria

A team of Rice researchers, including Caroline Ajo-Franklin and Biki Bapi Kundu, has uncovered how certain bacteria breathe by generating electricity. Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University.

New research from Rice University that merges biology with electrochemistry has uncovered new findings on how some bacteria generate electricity.

Led by Caroline Ajo-Franklin, a Rice professor of biosciences and the director of the Rice Synthetic Biology Institute, the team published its findings in the journal Cell in April. The report showed how some bacteria use compounds called naphthoquinones, rather than oxygen, to transfer electrons to external surfaces in a process known as extracellular respiration. In other words, the bacteria are exhale electricity as they breathe. Continue reading.

Ultra-fast EV charging bays coming to Waffle House locations in Texas and beyond

bp pulse plans to install a network of DC fast chargers at Waffle House locations in Texas, Georgia and Florida. Photo via Getty Images.

Scattered, smothered and ... charged? Starting next year, EV drivers can connect to ultra-fast charging stations at select Waffle House locations throughout Texas, courtesy of bp pulse.

The EV arm of British energy giant bp announced a strategic partnership with the all-day breakfast chain. The company aims to deploy a network of 400kW DC fast chargers and a mix of CCS and NACS connectors at Waffle House locations in Texas, Georgia, Florida, and other restaurants in the South.Continue reading.

Engie partners on major Texas, California battery storage portfolio

Engie and CBRE are partnering up. Photo via Getty Images

Houston’s Engie North America has partnered with New York-based CBRE Investment Management on a 2.4-gigawatt portfolio of battery storage assets in Texas and California.

The portfolio consists of 31 projects operating in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and California Independent System Operator (CAISO) territories. According to a company statement, the transaction represents one of Engie’s largest operating portfolio partnerships in the U.S. Continue reading.

Houston renewables developer and Google agree to second solar collaboration

Google will soon be able to pull from energyRe’s portfolio of more than 600 megawatts of new solar and solar storage projects in South Carolina. Photo via Pixabay

EnergyRe, a developer of large-scale renewable energy projects with headquarters in Houston and New York, has signed a renewable energy agreement that will allow Google to invest in and purchase renewable energy credits (RECs) from its projects under development in South Carolina.

Google will be able to pull from energyRe’s portfolio of more than 600 megawatts of new solar and solar storage projects in the state. Continue reading.

Houston cleantech accelerator names 12 startups to 2025 cohort

early-stage accelerator

The Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator has named 12 early-stage startups to its latest cohort.

The hybrid program, which operates in a hybrid capacity based out of the Ion, runs for 10 weeks and provides energy transition startups with training focused on fundraising, pilots, partnerships and sale. It begins July 8 and will be led by executive director Kerri Smith and program director Matthew Peña with support from executives-in-residence Lynn Frostman, John Jeffers, David Horsup and Dev Motiram.

The accelerator will culminate with a demo day on Sept. 18 at the Rice Alliance Energy Tech Venture Forum during the Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week.

Members of this year's cohort come from the Houston area as well as across the U.S. and Canada.

Class 5 for the Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator includes:

Aqua-Cell Energy, which builds industrial-scale overnight batteries to provide affordable solar power
Arculus, a company that provides multilayer internal coating for pipelines that lowers friction, extends pipeline life and enables carbon dioxide transport and hydrogen blending
AtmoSpark, a Houston-based sustainable cooling and freshwater company that provides an electric field-driven air separation system that reduces dehumidification energy costs for data centers and industrial facilities
AtoMe, which delivers durable metallic composites to energy and aerospace companies using an eco-friendly dry blade method that eliminates harmful chemicals
ConceptLoop, a company that converts plastic waste into eco-friendly, low-carbon aggregate
Fathom Storage, which provides a more solidly embedded and steel-efficient anchoring solution for offshore service providers, wind energy developers and research institutes
GeoKiln, a Houston-based company that addresses issues of subsurface hydrogen extraction by applying proven oil and gas techniques to accelerate natural hydrogen reactions, enabling hydrogen production
Innowind Energy Solutions, a company that provides nonintrusive, active flow control devices to boost energy production and extend turbine lifespan
Lukera Energy, which transforms waste methane into high-value methanol using a breakthrough nanobubble technology
Metal Light Inc., which has developed a scalable, cost-effective Metal-Air generator to replace diesel generators
Moonshot Hydrogen, a company that converts food and agricultural waste into clean hydrogen and bioethanol
Resollant, a Woodlands-based company that delivers compact, zero-emission hydrogen and carbon reactors to refineries, petrochemical plants, steel and cement manufacturers and fuel producers

The Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator has supported 55 ventures since it was founded in 2021, collectively raising over $250 million in funding, according to the university. See last year's cohort here.

View All Listings

ENERGYCAPITALHTX EMAILS ARE AWESOME