Next month, 96 startups will pitch at an annual event focused on the future of energy. Here's who will be there. Photo via rice.edu

Dozens of companies will be a part of an upcoming energy-focused conference at Rice University — from climate tech startups to must-see keynote speakers.

The 20th Annual Rice Alliance Energy Tech Venture Forum will take place on September 21 at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business. Anyone who's interested in learning more about the major players in the low-carbon future in Houston and beyond should join the industry leaders, investors, and promising energy and cleantech startups in attendance.

This year's keynote speakers include Christina Karapataki, partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the venture capital fund backed by Bill Gates; Scott Nyquist, vice chairman at Houston Energy Transition Initiative, founded by the Greater Houston Partnership; and Jeff Tillery, COO at Veriten.

Nearly 100 startups will also be pitching throughout the day, and at the end of the program, the most-promising companies — according to investors — will be revealed. See below for the 2023 selection of companies.

Presenting companies:

  • Element Resources
  • Eugenie AI
  • Flash H2 Synthesis from Waste Plastic at Zero Net Cost
  • Fluid Efficiency
  • Galatea Technologies
  • Heimdal
  • Impact Technology SystemsAS
  • INGU
  • Lithos
  • Luminescent
  • Mantel
  • Mars Materials
  • Microgrid Labs
  • Mirico
  • Mobilus Labs
  • Muon Vision
  • Nano Nuclear
  • NobleAI
  • Numat
  • Ourobio
  • Planckton Data Technologies
  • Polystyvert
  • Princeton NuEnergy
  • Protein Evolution
  • Qult Technologies
  • Sage Geosystems
  • Salient Predictions
  • Sawback Technologies
  • SHORELINE AI
  • Solidec
  • Spectral Sensor Solutions
  • Teren
  • Terradote
  • TexPower
  • Thiozen
  • Technology from the Lab of Dr. James Tour
  • Volexion
  • Xecta

CEA Demo Day:

  • Ayrton Energy
  • Carbix
  • CryoDesalination
  • Digital Carbon Bank
  • EarthEn
  • H Quest Vanguard
  • Highwood Emissions Management
  • Icarus RT
  • Khepra
  • Natrion
  • Oceanways
  • Relyion Energy
  • Triton Anchor
  • TROES

Office hours only:

  • 1s1 Energy
  • AKOS Energy
  • Aperta Systems
  • Atargis Energy
  • Ayas
  • C-Power
  • C-Quester
  • Carbon Loop
  • Deep Anchor Solutions
  • DG Matrix
  • Drishya AI Labs
  • Earthbound.ai
  • EarthBridge Energy
  • Enoverra
  • equipcast
  • ezNG Solutions
  • Feelit Technologies
  • FluxWorks
  • Forge
  • Horne Technologies
  • Imperium Technologies
  • LiCAP Technologies
  • Make My Day
  • Moblyze
  • MyPass Global
  • NovaSpark Energy
  • Octet Scientific
  • Perceptive Sensor Technologies
  • PetroBricks
  • Piersica
  • Poseidon Minerals
  • Predyct
  • RIvotto
  • Roboze
  • Talisea
  • ThermoLift Solutions
  • Trout Software
  • Tuebor Energy
  • Undesert Corporation
  • Viridos
  • Vroom Solar
  • Well Information Technologies
  • WellWorth
  • Zsense Systems
Fifteen startups — with clean energy solutions involving everything from solar energy to hydrogen — are joining Rice Alliance's Clean Energy Accelerator later this summer. Photo via Getty Images

Houston cleantech accelerator reveals 15 startups to 2023 cohort

energy 2.0

A clean energy program has announced its third cohort and named the 15 startups that were accepted into to the accelerator.

The Rice Alliance's Clean Energy Accelerator revealed its 2023 cohort that will be in the 10-week program that kicks of July 25. CEA, a hybrid program based out of the Ion, will wrap up with a Demo Day alongside the 20th Annual Rice Alliance Energy Tech Venture Forum on September 21.

The accelerator, led by Kerri Smith and Matt Peña, provides the cohort with programming, networking, and mentorship from six executives in residence — Nathan Ball, Fatimah Bello, Michael Egan, Michael Evans, Stephen Sims, and Deanna Zhang.

Since the Clean Energy Accelerator launched in 2021, the program has supported 29 ventures that have gone on to raise over $75 million in funding, identified and launched pilots, and created jobs, According to Rice, many of these companies relocated to Houston.

Class 3, which has already raised $23.3 million in funding, hails from four countries and seven states and are addressing a range of energy solutions — from advanced materials, carbon management/capture, energy storage, hydrogen, solar energy, wind energy, and more. They were selected by a screening committee consisting of more than 50 industry experts, investors, energy leaders, and entrepreneurs.

The third class, as announced by Rice Alliance, is as follows:

  • Ayrton Energy, based in Alberta, Canada, provides hydrogen storage technology that improves hydrogen transport logistics for distributed energy applications.
  • Headquartered in Massachusetts, Carbix transforms atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions into building materials using proprietary reactor technology.
  • Houston-based CryoDesalination lowers the carbon footprint and cost of removing salts and heavy metals from water and industrial effluents.
  • Digital Carbon Bank, based in Alberta, Canada, provides a carbon solution tailored for the energy industry.
  • Chandler, Arizona-based EarthEn provides compressed carbon dioxide-based energy storage and artificial intelligence solutions allowing grid owners/operators to be completely renewable.
  • H Quest Vanguard, from Pittsburgh, provides green hydrogen at a five to 10 times lower cost to users of natural gas to decarbonize industrial heat.
  • Calgary, Alberta-based Highwood Emissions Management's SaaS platform allows oil and gas companies to understand their emissions and develop robust plans to reduce them.
  • Icarus RT, from San Diego, California, improves photovoltaic efficiency while enabling useful heat energy storage.
  • Los Altos, California-based Khepra has developed a chemical manufacturing platform for the low-cost, sustainable production of agrochemicals.
  • Binghamton, New York-based Natrion’s electrolyte is a drop-in solid-state battery component that can be rapidly implemented into existing batteries.
  • Oceanways, based in London, provides low-cost, flexible and scalable zero-emission underwater "virtual pipelines" to energy producers.
  • Relyion Energy, from Santa Clara, California, is developing battery usage and intelligence solutions with deeper data and insights for retired electric vehicle batteries.
  • Massachusetts-based Triton Anchor provides a more cost-effective anchoring solution for offshore clean energy with minimal environmental impact.
  • TROES, from Markham, Ontario, provides a 4-in-1 microgrid solution with integrated hardware and software for a streamlined energy storage experience.
  • Mexico City-based Tycho Solutions supports clean energy project developers by saving time and money during the critical project-siting process.
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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

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Houston subsea firm Zupt acquired in offshore tech deal

m&a activity

Houston-based Zupt LLC, a provider of advanced metrology, inspection, and engineering services for offshore energy and renewable projects, has been acquired by Columbus, Ohio-based Rosenxt Holding USA for an undisclosed amount.

Rosenxt says the deal, which closed July 21, represents another step in its long-term strategy to build a portfolio of technology and engineering capabilities for the subsea market in the energy sector.

“Our ambition has always been to think decades ahead,” Hermann Rosen, chairman of Switzerland-based Rosenxt Group, the parent company of Rosenxt Holding USA, said in a news release.

“The future of subsea and offshore industries will be shaped by intelligent technologies that fundamentally change how critical infrastructure is explored, installed, inspected and operated,” he added. “Zupt is another important building block in this vision.”

Rosenxt says offshore operators and installation contractors face pressure to execute subsea projects more efficiently amid workforce shortages, weather concerns, tougher safety standards, and rising capital and operating expenses.

“The offshore sector continues to embrace technologies that enhance data quality, reduce operational risk, and improve decision-making across the asset lifecycle,” Houston M&A attorney Amelia Zhang, who led law firm Norton Rose Fulbright’s representation of Zupt, added in the release.

Rosenxt provides services for the subsea market that combine sensing, robotics, AI, analytics and engineering. Zupt complements those services with offerings for operations, such as high-resolution 3D inspection, digital twin generation, and inspection and engineering technologies for subs.

Zupt President Keith Vickery founded the company in 2005.

Vickery says Zupt “has focused on solving some of the subsea industry’s most demanding marine construction and inspection challenges through innovative engineering, operational experience, and close collaboration with our customers.”

Mordor Intelligence estimates the value of the subsea market will climb from $19.75 billion this year to $25.03 billion in 2031. North America represents the largest segment of the global market.

Houston energy tech company Molecule makes gas operations acquisition

software acquisition

Houston-based energy trading risk management (ETRM) software company Molecule has announced the acquisition of Dallas-based Trilogy Energy Solutions.

Molecule CEO Patrick Smith called the deal a "defining moment" for the company, as it allows Molecule's platform to expand to include physical gas operations.

“For years, this industry has drawn the ETRM box too small, creating inefficient silos by treating trading and physical operations as separate budgets and separate problems, when the real cost lives in the handoffs between them," Smith said in a news release. "Trilogy’s domain expertise in physical gas operations closes that gap. Together, we can give producers, midstream operators, and trading desks something the market has been asking for: a single, integrated view from wellhead to trading desk, without the manual reconciliation, spreadsheet workarounds, and legacy handoffs that slow the industry down.”

Trilogy, founded in 2014, is a provider of cloud-based software for the day-to-day logistics of physical natural gas operations. The platform allows users—including producers, marketers, midstream companies, pipeline operators and others—to manage activities such as pipeline nominations, gas gathering operations and more. Thus far, Molecule's platform has focused on energy trading and managing financial and commercial activities.

Through the acquisition, the combined company will now offer a full-stack enabled ETRM and energy operating system. Users of both platforms can expect continuity of service, according to the companies.

“Molecule has always been about meeting trading teams where they actually work, focused on being fast, accurate, and deeply integrated into their day-to-day workflow,” Sameer Soleja, founder and president of Molecule, added in the release. “Bringing Trilogy into the Molecule family extends that mission from the trading desk into the physical operations of the gas business. The two platforms complement each other exceedingly well, and the combined product will be able to offer all-in-one capabilities that lead the ETRM market, both in its tech-forward nature, and in its depth.”

Molecule expects the combined platform to help users reduce manual month-end close work, cut costs, and improve data accuracy and decision-making.

Trilogy's Chief Product Officer Jeremy Frye will join the Molecule team, along with others from Trilogy.

“Trilogy has spent decades building the trust of companies across the physical natural gas industry by delivering software that stands up to the demands of physical gas operations... It’s a rare combination that brings the best of both worlds, and I’m energized about what our teams will build together,” Frye added in the release.

California-based Sundance Growth, an existing investor in Molecule, supported the acquisition. The software growth equity firm raised a $125 million debut fund in 2025 and focuses on B2B SaaS companies.

Sundance led Molecule's Series B round, which closed last summer for an undisclosed amount. At the time, Soleja said the funding would allow Molecule to "double down on product innovation, grow our team, and reach even more markets."