Amperon, Hertha Metals and Vaulted Deep were named to this year's Global Cleantech 100 list. Photo via Getty Images
Three Houston-area companies—Amperon, Hertha Metals and Vaulted Deep—appear on this year’s Global Cleantech 100 list.
The unranked list, generated by market intelligence and advisory firm Cleantech Group, identifies the 100 privately held companies around the world that are most likely to make a significant impact in the cleantech market over the next five to 10 years.
For the 2026 list, Cleantech Group received more than 24,000 Global Cleantech 100 nominations from nearly 60 countries. Cleantech Group scored those companies and narrowed the contenders to 264. An expert panel reviewed those nominees, and the list was whittled down to the 100 winners.
Here’s a rundown of the three Houston-area honorees:
Amperon
Founded in 2018 by Sean Kelly and Abe Stanway, Houston-based Amperon offers an AI-enabled energy forecasting and analytics platform designed to help stabilize electric grids. Amperon received undisclosed amounts of venture capital from National Grid Partners and Tokyo Gas Co. Ltd. last year and announced a recent investment from Samsung Ventures earlier this month.
Hertha Metals
Founded in 2022 by Laureen Meroueh, Conroe-based Hertha Metals provides a single-step process for producing sustainable steel. Last year, the company emerged from stealth mode and raised more than $17 million in venture capital.
Vaulted Deep
Vaulted Deep’s technology injects excess organic waste underground to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Julia Reichelstein and Omar Abou-Sayed founded the Houston-based company in 2023. Last year, the startup raised $32.3 million in venture capital. Also in 2025, Vaulted Deep signed a 12-year deal with software giant Microsoft to remove up to 4.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the environment.
Vaulted Deep also made the list last year, along with Houston-based Syzygy Plasmonics and Fervo Energy. Fervo was also named the 2025 North American Company of the Year by Cleantech Group.
Amperon, a Houston-based AI-powered forecasting solutions company, has received an investment for an undisclosed amount from Samsung Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Samsung Group.
According to Amperon, the funding will be put toward the company's global growth and next-generation product development. Samsung Ventures invests in emerging businesses developing technologies for the AI, advanced devices and energy-related sectors.
“Samsung Ventures’ investment is a strong validation of our mission to transform the way energy is forecasted and traded,” Sean Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Amperon, said in a news release. “Samsung’s global footprint and leadership in semiconductors, data infrastructure, and AI acceleration make them a natural fit as we expand Amperon’s reach into energy-intensive sectors like data centers. Their track record of scaling next-generation technologies aligns perfectly with our vision to build a more intelligent, resilient, and data-driven energy system.”
Amperon was founded in 2018. Its AI models combine real-time weather, consumption and market data for energy retailers, utilities and independent power producers.
Last year, the company launched its weather-informed grid demand Mid-Term Forecast (MTF), which provides users with data on electricity demand up to seven months in advance. It also secured strategic investments from Acario, the corporate venture capital and innovation division of Tokyo Gas, as well as National Grid Partners, the venture investment and innovation arm of National Grid (NYSE: NGG).
After expanding into Europe in 2024, the company has continued to see international growth, and currently operates in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, Europe and the Middle East.
“Amperon has demonstrated strong technical capabilities and global traction in a rapidly evolving energy landscape,” a spokesperson for Samsung Ventures added in the release. “Their ability to forecast and model real-time energy data at global scale positions them as a key enabler of smarter energy systems and climate resilience. We are pleased to invest in a company developing technologies that support a more sustainable and digitized world.”
Amperon CEO Sean Kelly discuss the AI revolution in energy forecasting. Photo via LinkedIn
“Forecasting isn’t just about demand anymore—it’s about net demand, accounting for the variability of renewables like wind and solar.”
This insight from Sean Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Amperon, captures the seismic shift occurring in energy forecasting. With renewables surging, grid dynamics growing more complex, and demand more unpredictable than ever, the stakes have never been higher.
On a recent Energy Tech Startups Podcast, Kelly breaks down how Amperon’s AI-driven platform is transforming the way energy providers anticipate demand, mitigate risk, and embrace renewables. Named one of the Top 50 AI Companies in the U.S. by Andreessen Horowitz, Amperon is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in energy technology.
Here’s a closer look at Kelly’s journey, the challenges he’s tackling, and the insights driving Amperon’s success.
What problem is Amperon solving?
Why does the energy sector need better forecasting now?
The energy grid is evolving at lightning speed. With 25 gigawatts of wind and 20 gigawatts of solar in Texas alone, the focus has shifted from simple demand forecasting to net demand forecasting. It’s not just about predicting how much electricity people will use—it’s about understanding how renewables will interact with that demand.
For example, if it’s a windy day in Texas, prices drop, and the grid behaves very differently. Accurate forecasting helps providers mitigate risk, plan ahead, and prevent costly errors in buying or selling electricity.
The Amperon approach: Why AI is essential
What sets Amperon’s technology apart?
Our models retrain every hour—not every month or even daily. Since launching in 2018, we’ve been continuously learning and adapting to the grid’s behavior. This is critical because the energy sector’s complexity is increasing every day.
We also leverage data from over 10 million meters across the U.S. and Europe, giving us unmatched insights into both individual assets and entire markets. Our tech isn’t about static solutions; it’s dynamic, evolving alongside the grid.
Building for scale: A strategic playbook
How has Amperon scaled from a Houston startup to a global player?
It starts with focus. We began with a clear problem: helping Texas retailers manage risk in a deregulated market. From there, we expanded into other customer segments—traders, public utilities, independent power producers, and more.
Partnerships have been key, too. For example, Microsoft has been instrumental in connecting us with utilities through the Azure marketplace. These collaborations not only enhance credibility but also streamline access to new customers.
The Case for Better AI in Energy
Kelly believes the energy industry is overdue for a technological overhaul. While legacy companies rely on outdated models, Amperon is built on cloud-native AI systems that can handle today’s complexity.
“The challenge isn’t just predicting demand—it’s adapting to constant change,” Kelly says. “Legacy systems weren’t built for this level of complexity. AI that learns every hour is no longer optional—it’s essential.”
Lessons for Entrepreneurs
Stay Customer-Centric: Amperon’s early success came from solving a clear, urgent need for Texas energy retailers. “Product-market fit is everything,” Kelly emphasizes.
Invest in Talent: By hiring data scientists from top companies like Google and Meta, Amperon has built a team capable of tackling the hardest problems.
Leverage Partnerships: Collaborations with players like Microsoft have amplified Amperon’s reach and trust in the market.
What’s next for Amperon?
With over $30 million raised and a rapidly growing global presence, Amperon is doubling down on innovation. The company plans to expand its asset-level forecasting capabilities and deepen its presence in international markets.
“The energy transition is running through Houston,” Kelly says. “This city has the talent, the capital, and the expertise to lead the way.”
Listen to the full episode with Sean Kelly on the Energy Tech Startups Podcast
here.
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Energy Tech Startups Podcast is hosted by Jason Ethier and Nada Ahmed. It delves into Houston's pivotal role in the energy transition, spotlighting entrepreneurs and industry leaders shaping a low-carbon future.
Clockwise from top left: Sean Kelly of Amperon, Dianna Liu of ARIXTechnologies, Matthew Dawson of Elementium Materials, Vibhu Sharma of InnoVent Renewables, Cindy Taff of Sage Geosystems, and Emma Konet of TierraClimate. Photos courtesy
From finding funding to navigating the pace of traditional oil and gas company tech adoption, energy transition companies face their fair share of challenges.
This year's Houston Innovation Awards finalists in the Energy Transition category explained what their biggest challenge has been and how they've overcome it. See what they said below, and make sure to secure your tickets to the Nov. 14 event to see which of these finalists win the award.
"The evolving nature of the energy industry presents opportunities to solve some of our industry's greatest
challenges. At Amperon we help optimize grid reliability and stability with the power of AI demand
forecasting."
— Sean Kelly, CEO of Amperon, an AI platform powering the smart grid of the future
"The biggest challenge in leading an energy transition-focused startup has been balancing the urgency for
sustainable solutions with the slow pace of change in traditional industries like oil and gas. Many
companies are cautious about adopting new technologies, especially when it comes to integrating
sustainability initiatives. We overcame this by positioning our solutions not just as environmentally
friendly, but as tools that improve safety, efficiency, and cost savings. By aligning our value proposition
with their operational goals and demonstrating real, measurable benefits, we were able to gain traction
and drive adoption in industries that are traditionally resistant to change."
— Dianna Liu, CEO of ARIXTechnologies, an integrated robotics and data analytics company that delivers inspection services through its robotics platforms
"Scaling up production of hard tech is a major challenge. Thankfully, we recruited top-notch talent with
experience in technology scale-up and chemical processes. In addition, we've begun building partnerships
with some of the world's largest chemical manufacturers in our space who are excited to be a part of our
journey and could rapidly accelerate our go to market strategy. We have significant demand for our
product as early as 2025, so partnering with these companies to scale-up will bring our technology to
market years ahead of doing it alone."
— Matthew Dawson, CEO of Elementium Materials, a battery technology with liquid electrolyte solutions
"Our pyrolysis reactor is a proprietary design that was developed during Covid. We ran simulations to
prove that it works, but it was not easy to test it in a pilot facility, let alone scaling it up. We managed ... to run our pilot
plant studies, while working with them remotely. We proved that our reactor worked and produced high
quality products. Later, we built our own pilot plant R&D facility to continue running tests and optimizing
the process. Then, there was the challenge of scaling it up to commercial size. ... We put together a task force of four different companies to come together to design and build this complex reactor in record time."
— Vibhu Sharma, CEO of InnoVentRenewables, a startup with proprietary continuous pyrolysis technology that converts waste tires, plastics, and biomass into valuable fuels and chemicals
"Energy storage and geothermal power generation are capital-intensive infrastructure projects, requiring
investors with a deep commitment and the patience in terms of years to allow the technology to be
developed and proven in the field. One challenge is finding that niche of investors with the vision to join
our journey. We have succeeded in raising our $30 million series A with these types of investors, whom we’re
confident will continue the journey as we scale."
— Cindy Taff, CEO of SageGeosystems, an energy company focused on developing and deploying advanced geothermal technologies to provide reliable power and sustainable energy storage solutions regardless of geography
"The biggest challenge we've faced has been to bring together massive independent power producers on one side who are investing hundreds of millions of dollars into grid infrastructure with multi-
national tech giants on the other that don't have experience working much with energy storage. As a
startup with only four employees, gaining credibility with these players was critical. We overcame this
hurdle by becoming the preeminent thought leader on storage emissions, through publishing white papers,
discussing the issues on podcasts, and (more)."
— Emma Konet, CTO of TierraClimate, a software provider that helps grid-scale batteries reduce carbon emissions
With the collaboration, joint customers can seamlessly integrate accurate energy forecasts into power market trading. Photo via amperon.co
In an effort to consolidate and improve energy data and forecasting, a Houston software company has expanded to a new platform.
Amperon announced that it has expanded its AI-powered energy forecaststoSnowflake Marketplace, an AI data cloud company. With the collaboration, joint customers can seamlessly integrate accurate energy forecasts into power market trading. The technology that Amperon provides its customers — a comprehensive, AI-backed data analytics platform — is key to the energy industry and the transition of the sector.
“As Amperon continues to modernize energy data and AI infrastructure, we’re excited to partner with Snowflake to bring the most accurate energy forecasts into a single data experience that spans multiple clouds and geographies," Alex Robart, chief revenue officer at Amperon, says in a news release. "By doing so, we’re bringing energy forecasts to where they will be accessible to more energy companies looking to increase performance and reliability."
Together, the combined technology can move the needle on enhanced accuracy in forecasting that strengthens grid reliability, manages monetary risk, and advances decarbonization.
“This partnership signifies Amperon’s commitment to deliver world-class data-driven energy management solutions," Titiaan Palazzi, head of power and Utilities at Snowflake, adds. "Together, we are helping organizations to easily and securely access the necessary insights to manage risk and maximize profitability in the energy transition."
With Amperon's integrated short-term demand and renewables forecasts, Snowflake users can optimize power markets trading activity and manage load risk.
"Amperon on Snowflake enables us to easily integrate our different data streams into a single unified view," Jack Wang, senior power trader and head of US Power Analysis at Axpo, says. "We value having complete access and control over our analytics and visualization tools. Snowflake allows us to quickly track and analyze the evolution of every forecast Amperon generates, which ultimately leads to better insights into our trading strategy."
It's official. Houston-based, AI-powered electricity forecasting and analytics services company Amperon Holdings is live in Europe.
The expansion, which Co-Founder and CEO Sean Kelly previously told InnovationMap about, is official, the company announced this month. In addition to the expansion, Amperon announced Jon Ecker as general manager, Europe, and Kelsey Hultberg as executive vice president, communications, and chief of staff.
Now, European companies that buy and sell energy in the renewable energy producers, financial institutions, and utilities markets can leverage Amperon's platform of AI and machine learning technologies to access short- and long-term forecasts for their individual meters and generation assets.
“As a warmer-than-expected June ushers in a hot summer, and increasing uncertainty looms for the calmer fall months due to the influx of wind and solar generation, we are eager to assist our European customers in navigating the power market volatility caused by heat waves, extreme weather events, and shifts in power usage across the region,” Kelly says in a news release.
“Our cutting-edge AI models are enabling our North American customers to benefit from data and asset optimization, on-site solar to commercial load management, and backup generation and we’re excited to bring these tools to our European customers,” he continues.
Leading the new initiative for Amperon is Ecker , who previously served as an executive at energy market simulation software company Energy Exemplar and as CEO of real-time energy data provider Genscape, which is now owned by Wood Mackenzie. He also co-founded at Energy Velocity, an energy data and software company now owned by Hitachi Energy.
“Amperon is providing North American, and now European renewable energy markets, with the critical tools they need to optimize their clean energy operations and support grid reliability,” Ecker says in the release. “As Europe faces high temperatures and rising power demand this summer, power market participants will need precise energy forecasting, and Amperon is looking forward to delivering these critical tools to help participants succeed.”
Hultberg joins Amperon from Houston-based Sunnova Energy International, where she was executive vice president of corporate communications and sustainability.
Founded in 2018, Amperon closed its series B round at $20 million last fall. This year, the company Amperon announced that it replatformed its AI-powered energy analytics technology onto Microsoft Azure. The partnership with the tech giant allows Amperon's energy sector clients to use Microsoft's analytics stack with Amperon data.
"For Amperon, 2024 is the year of partnerships," Kelly shares on the Houston Innovators Podcast. "I think you'll see partnership announcements here in the next couple of quarters."
Vicki Hollub, CEO of Houston-based Occidental (Oxy), is set to retire this year, Reuters first reported Thursday.
Hollub has held the top leadership position at Oxy since 2016 and has been with the oil and gas giant for more than 40 years. Before being named CEO, she served as chief operating officer and senior executive vice president at the company. She led strategic acquisitions of Anadarko Petroleum in 2019 and CrownRock in 2024, and was the first woman selected to lead a major U.S. oil and gas company.
Reuters reports that a firm date for her retirement has not been set. Richard Jackson, who currently serves as Oxy's COO, is expected to replace Hollub in the CEO role.
Oxy is leading a number of energy transition projects.
It's subsidiary 1PointFive is developing a $1.3 billion direct air capture (DAC) project in the Midland-Odessa area that is slated to be the largest facility of its kind in the world. Known as STRATOS, it's designed to capture up to 500,000 metric tons of CO2 per year.
The company shared recently that Phase 1 of the project is expected to go online in Q2, with Phase 2 ramping up through the remainder of 2026.
“We are immensely proud of the achievements to date and the exceptional record of safety performance as we advance towards commercial startup,” Hollub said of Stratos last year.
“We believe that carbon capture and DAC, in particular, will be instrumental in shaping the future energy landscape,” she added.
Oxy was one of the first to set ambitious net-zero goals. In a 2020 interview during CERAWeek, Hollub outlined Oxy's future as a “carbon management company.”
“Ultimately, I don’t know how many years from now, Occidental becomes a carbon management company, and our oil and gas would be a support business unit for the management of that carbon. We would be not only using [CO2] in oil reservoirs [but] capturing it for sequestration as well,” Hollub said.
Oxy opened its Oxy Innovation Center in the Ion last year, focused on advancing low-carbon technology. It also operates Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, which focuses DAC, carbon sequestration and low-carbon fuels through businesses like 1PointFive, TerraLithium and others.
Hertha Metals ranked No. 1 in the manufacturing category.
Last year, Hertha unveiled a single-step process for steelmaking that it says is cheaper, more energy-efficient and just as scalable as traditional steel manufacturing. It started testing the process in 2024 at a one-metric-ton-per-day pilot plant.
At the same time, Hertha announced more than $17 million in venture capital funding from investors such as Breakthrough Energy, Clean Energy Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Pear VC.
“We’re not just reinventing steelmaking; we’re redefining what’s possible in materials, manufacturing, and national resilience,” Laureen Meroueh, founder and CEO of Hertha, said at the time.
Hertha, founded in 2022, says traditional steelmaking relies on an outdated, coal-based multistep process that is costly, and contributes up to 9 percent of industrial energy use and 10 percent of global carbon emissions.
By contrast, Hertha’s method converts low-grade iron ore into molten steel or high-purity iron in one step. The company says its process is 30 percent more energy-efficient than traditional steelmaking and costs less than producing steel in China.
Last year, Hertha said it planned to break ground in 2026 on a plant capable of producing more than 9,000 metric tons of steel per year. In its next phase, the company plans to operate at 500,000 metric tons of steel production per year.
Houston-based Vaulted Deep, No. 3 in catchall “other” category.
XGS Energy, No. 7 in the energy category. XGS’ proprietary solid-state geothermal system uses thermally conductive materials to deliver affordable energy anywhere hot rock is located. While Fast Company lists Houston as XGS’ headquarters, and the company has a major presence in the city, XGS is based in Palo Alto, California.
Houston-based residential real estate brokerage Epique Realty, No. 10 in the business services category. Epique, which bills itself as the industry’s first AI brokerage, provides a free AI toolkit for real estate agents to enhance marketing, streamline content creation, and improve engagement with clients and prospects.
Texas A&M University’s Nanostructured Materials Lab in College Station. The lab studies nano-structured materials to make materials lighter for the aerospace industry, improve energy storage, and enable the creation of “smart” textiles.
Twelve teams from around the country, including several from Houston, took home top honors at this year's Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition at CERAWeek.
The fast-paced event, held March 25, put on by Rice Alliance, Houston Energy Transition Initiative and TEX-E, invited 36 industry startups and five Texas-based student teams focused on driving efficiency and advancements in the energy transition to present 3.5-minute pitches before investors and industry partners during CERAWeek's Agora program.
The competition is a qualifying event for the Startup World Cup, where teams compete for a $1 million investment prize.
PolyJoule won in the Track C competition and was named the overall winner of the pitch event. The Boston-based company will go on to compete in the Startup World Cup held this fall in San Francisco.
PolyJoule was spun out of MIT and is developing conductive polymer battery technology for energy storage.
Rice University's Resonant Thermal Systems won the second-place prize and $15,000 in the student track, known as TEX-E. The team's STREED solution converts high-salinity water into fresh water while recovering valuable minerals.
Teams from the University of Texas won first and second place in the TEX-E competition, bringing home $25,000 and $10,000, respectively. The student winners were:
The teams at this year's Energy Venture Day have collectively raised $707 million in funding, according to Rice. They represent six countries and 12 states. See the full list of companies and investor groups that participated here.
