50+ teams announced for CERAWeek's annual clean tech pitch competition

CERA pitches

Houston-based Solidec took home the top TEX-E price and $25,000 at last year's Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition. Photo courtesy of HETI

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, the Houston Energy Transition Initiative and the Texas Entrepreneurship Exchange for Energy announced the 30-plus energy ventures and five student teams that will pitch at the 2025 Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition during CERAWeek next month.

The ventures are focused on driving efficiency and advancements toward the energy transition and will each present a 3.5-minute pitch before a network of investors and industry partners during CERAWeek's Agora program.

The pitch 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:

ECHO
HEXAspec
HydroStor Analytics
Nanoborne
Pattern Materials

The industry track is subdivided into three additional tracks, spanning materials to clean energy and will feature 36 companies. The top three companies from each industry track will be named. 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 October 2025.

Teams come from around the world, including several notable Houston-based ventures, such as Corrolytics, Rheom Materials, AtmoSpark Technologies, and others. Click here to see the full list of companies and investor groups that will participate.

The pitch competition will be held Wednesday, March 12, at CERAWeek from 1-4:30 pm. An Agora pass is required to attend.

Those without passes can catch more than 50 companies at a free pitch preview at the Ion. Pitches will be followed by private meetings with venture capitalists, corporate innovation groups, industry leaders, and tech scouts. The preview will be held Tuesday, March 11, from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm at the Ion. It's free to attend, but registration is required. Click here to register.

Last year, Houston-based Solidec took home the top TEX-E price and $25,000 cash awards. The startup extracts molecules from water and air, then transforms them into pure chemicals and fuels that are free of carbon emissions. Its co-founder and Rice University professor Haotian Wang was recently awarded the 2025 Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research.

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NearStar Fusion team Andrew Case, Chris Faranetta, Douglas Witherspoon, Amit Singh and Marco Luna. Photo courtesy NearStar Fusion.

Houston venture firm invests in Virginia fusion power plant company in collaboration with TAMU

fusion funding

Houston-based climate tech venture firm Ecosphere Ventures has partnered with Virginia Venture Partners and Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation’s venture capital program to invest in Virginia-based NearStar Fusion Inc., which develops fusion energy power plants.

NearStar aims to use its proprietary plasma railgun technology to safely and affordably power baseload electricity on and off the power grid through a Magnetized Target Impact Fusion (MTIF) approach, according to a news release from the company.

NearStar’s power plants are designed to retrofit traditional fossil fuel power plants and are expected to serve heavy industry, data centers and military installations.

“Our design is well-suited to retrofit coal-burning power plants and reuse existing infrastructure such as balance of plant and grid connectivity, but I’m also excited about leveraging the existing workforce because you won’t need PhDs in plasma physics to work in our power plant,” Amit Singh, CEO of NearStar Fusion, said in a news release.

NearStar will also conduct experiments at the Texas A&M Hypervelocity Impact Laboratory (HVIL) in Bryan, Texas, on prototype fuel targets and evolving fuel capsule design. The company plans to publish the results of the experiments along with a concept paper this year. NearStar will work with The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) to develop computer performance models for target implosions.

NearStar’s MTIF approach will utilize deuterium, which is a common isotope of hydrogen found in water. The process does not use tritium, which NearStar believes will save customers money.

“While avoiding tritium in our power plant design reduces scientific gain of the fusion process, we believe the vastly reduced system complexity and cost savings of eliminating complicated supply chains, regulatory oversight, and breeding of tritium allows NearStar to operate power plants more profitably and serve more customers worldwide, ”Douglas Witherspoon, NearStar founder and chief scientist, said in a news release.

Houston’s Ecosphere Ventures invests in climate tech and sustainability innovations from pre-seed to late-seed stages in the U.S. Ecosphere also supports first-time entrepreneurs and technical founders.

PitchBook attributes $634 million in fourth-quarter VC to Fervo. Photo via Getty Images

Geothermal energy startup's $600M deal fuels surge in Houston VC funding

by the numbers

The venture capital haul for Houston-area startups jumped 23 percent from 2023 to 2024, according to the latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor.

The fundraising total for startups in the region climbed from $1.49 billion in 2023 to $1.83 billion in 2024, PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor data shows.

Roughly half of the 2024 sum, $914.3 million, came in the fourth quarter. By comparison, Houston-area startups collected $291.3 million in VC during the fourth quarter of 2023.

Among the Houston-area startups contributing to the impressive VC total in the fourth quarter of 2024 was geothermal energy startup Fervo Energy. PitchBook attributes $634 million in fourth-quarter VC to Fervo, with fulfillment services company Cart.com at $50 million, and chemical manufacturing platform Mstack and superconducting wire manufacturer MetOx International at $40 million each.

Across the country, VC deals total $209 billion in 2024, compared with $162.2 billion in 2023. Nearly half (46 percent) of all VC funding in North America last year went to AI startups, PitchBook says. PitchBook’s lead VC analyst for the U.S., Kyle Stanford, says that AI “continues to be the story of the market.”

PitchBook forecasts a “moderately positive” 2025 for venture capital in the U.S.

“That does not mean that challenges are gone. Flat and down rounds will likely continue at higher paces than the market is accustomed to. More companies will likely shut down or fall out of the venture funding cycle,” says PitchBook. “However, both of those expectations are holdovers from 2021.”

This story originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.com.

Here were this year's most-read funding news stories on EnergyCapital. Photo via Getty Images

Show me the money: Top Houston energy transition funding, investment news from 2024

year in review

Editor's note: As the year comes to a close, EnergyCapital is looking back at the year's top stories in Houston energy transition. From firms with fresh funding to deploy to energy tech companies to startups raising venture capital investment, Houston has some wins to celebrate this year when you follow the money. Here were the top five most-read articles — according to EnergyCapital reporting — covering investment deals of 2024. Be sure to click through to read the full story.

Houston PE firm unveils oversubscribed $450M fund to advance nuclear power innovation

Pelican Energy Partners has raised more than it intended with its new nuclear-focused fund. Photo via Getty Images

Houston-based private equity firm Pelican Energy Partners has raised a $450 million fund to invest in nuclear energy services and equipment companies.

Pelican had aimed to raise $300 million for Pelican Energy Partners Base Zero LP and had imposed an initial “hard cap” of $400 million. Investors include endowments, foundations, family offices, and pension plans.

As of the fund’s closing date, the fund had wrapped up six investments, with several more deals expected to close by the end of this year. Continue reading.

Robotics co. with growing Houston presence closes series B

The advanced submersible robotics company will put the funds toward international expansion. Photo courtesy of Square Robot

Houston- and Boston-based Square Robot Inc. closed a series B round of funding last month.

The advanced submersible robotics company raised $13 million, according to Tracxn.com, and says it will put the funds toward international expansion.

"This Series B round, our largest to date, enables us to accelerate our growth plans and meet the surging global demand for our services,” David Lamont, CEO, said in a statement. Continue reading.

Houston industrial decarbonization-focused PE firm scores $725M to launch new business unit

HF Capital, the Knoxville, Tennessee-based investment arm of the Haslam family, made the multimillion-dollar commitment to set up Ara Energy Decarbonization. Photo via arapartners.com

Houston-based Ara Partners, a private equity firm that focuses on industrial decarbonization investments, is receiving up to $725 million from a Tennessee-based family office to launch an energy decarbonization unit.

HF Capital, the Knoxville, Tennessee-based investment arm of the Haslam family, made the multimillion-dollar commitment to set up Ara Energy Decarbonization. The new business will work toward reducing carbon emissions at ethanol plants, natural gas power plants, and other traditional energy assets.

The Haslam family founded Pilot Co., North America’s largest transportation fuel business and chain of travel centers. Shameek Konar, former CEO of Pilot, has been tapped to lead Ara Energy Decarbonization. Continue reading.

Houston-based clean energy site developer raises $300M to decarbonize big tech projects

As emerging technology continues to grow electricity load demand, Cloverleaf has identified an opportunity to develop large-scale digital infrastructure sites powered by low-carbon electricity. Photo via Getty Images

Houston energy executives have started a new company dedicated to developing clean-powered infrastructure for the large electric loads.

Cloverleaf Infrastructure, dually headquartered in Houston and Seattle, Washington, announced its launch and $300 million raised from NGP and Sandbrook Capital, two private equity firms. The company's management team also invested in the company.

As emerging technology continues to grow electricity load demand, Cloverleaf has identified an opportunity to develop large-scale digital infrastructure sites powered by low-carbon electricity.

"The rapid growth in demand for electricity to power cloud computing and artificial intelligence poses a major climate risk if fueled by high-emission fossil fuels," David Berry, Cloverleaf's CEO, says in a news release. "However, it's also a major opportunity to catalyze the modernization of the US grid and the transition to a smarter and more sustainable electricity system through a novel approach to development." Continue reading.

Investors from Houston and Boston fuel Greentown with $4M commitment

A mix of public and private investors have funded Greentown Labs. Photo via GreentownLabs.com

Greentown Labs, a climatetech incubator with locations in the Houston and Boston areas, has announced it has received funding from a mix of investors.

The $4 million in funding came from both of the Houston and Massachusetts locations. Houston investors included Bobby Tudor, CEO of Artemis Energy Partners and chairman of the Houston Energy Transition Initiative; David Baldwin, co-founder of OpenMinds and TEX-E and partner at SCF Partners; and Rice University. Other investors included MassDevelopment and the City of Somerville.

“The challenges of the energy transition are immense, and the role played by technology incubators like Greentown Labs is essential,” Tudor says in a news release. “We believe this role, which is a partnership between academia, industry, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, and governments, is the best way to get to effective, scalable solutions in a time frame that the urgency of the challenge requires. We need all hands on deck, and this partnership between Massachusetts and Texas can be a role model for others.” Continue reading.

The fresh funding will go toward advancing the company's Xeus HTS wire technology. Photo via metoxtech.com

Houston superconductor tech manufacturer raises $25M

money moves

A Houston company has closed its series B extension at $25 million.

MetOx International, which develops and manufactures high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wire, announced it closed a $25 million series B extension. Centaurus Capital, an energy-focused family office, and New System Ventures, a climate and energy transition-focused venture firm, led the round with participation from other investors.

"MetOx has developed a robust and highly scalable operation, and we are thrilled to partner with the Company as it enters this pivotal growth stage," says John Arnold, founder of Centaurus, in a news release. "The market for HTS is expanding at an unprecedented pace, with demand for HTS far outweighing supply. MetOx is poised to be the leading U.S. HTS producer, closing the supply gap and bringing dramatic capacity to high power innovations and applications. Their progress and potential are unmatched in the field, and we are proud to support their growth."

The fresh funding will go toward advancing the company's Xeus HTS wire technology for key energy transition applications by expanding MetOx's U.S.-based manufacturing capabilities to meet demand.

"This funding marks a pivotal step in our mission to revolutionize the energy and technology sectors with our advanced power delivery technology and accelerate delivery for our customers and partners. HTS is critical to enhancing the efficiency of our electric grid and enabling technological developments that, in many cases, would not be viable or even possible without superconductor technology," adds Bud Vos, CEO of MetOx. "Support from investors such as Centaurus and NSV not only provides the financial resources and strategic support required for accelerated scaleup, but also validates the broad reach of our technology across energy, data center, medical, and defense industries."

HTS wire technology is critical for the energy transition, especially amid rising data center growth, and for next generation wind turbines and interconnections.

MetOx's technology originated out of the University of Houston and was founded in 1998 by Alex Ignatiev, UH professor emeritus of physics and a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Last year, the company secured $3 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to support the advancement of its proprietary manufacturing technology for its HTS wire.

"MetOx's HTS technology aligns with our systems-level research and offers a unique opportunity to dramatically accelerate the energy transition," says Ian Samuels, founder and managing partner at NSV. "MetOx's Xeus wire stands to be a force multiplier in clean energy generation and high-power transmission and distribution, enabling load growth and the deployment of power-dense data centers. NSV is excited to support MetOx as it scales domestic manufacturing capacity."

———

This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

Fervo Energy went from a 5,158-square-foot space to a 23,782-square-foot office in downtown Houston. Photo via Hines

Houston geothermal energy startup grows local office presence

report

On the heels of landing more than $240 million in venture capital, Houston-based geothermal power provider Fervo Energy has more than quadrupled the size of its headquarters.

Fervo previously occupied 5,158 square feet at 114 Main St. in downtown Houston. The company recently left the Main Street space and leased 23,782 square feet at downtown Houston’s 910 Louisiana office tower. Houston-based commercial real estate company Hines owns and manages the 50-story former One Shell Plaza.

“We believe Houston is the center of the energy transition, and downtown Houston has long been its center of activity,” Tim Latimer, co-founder and CEO of Fervo Energy, says in a news release. “The availability of dining options, parks, and biking infrastructure continue to be great assets and a huge draw for our team. For these reasons and more, the only place for Fervo’s headquarters is downtown Houston.”

In February 2024, Fervo announced it had raised $244 million in an investment round led by Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-based hydrocarbon exploration company Devon Energy. Fervo has collected $431 million in funding since its founding in 2017.

Energy companies like Fervo occupy about 43 percent of office space in downtown Houston, according to a new report from the Downtown Houston+ organization. Nineteen new tenants set up shop last year in downtown Houston, with 10 of them operating in the energy sector.

Other energy companies that recently leased office space in downtown Houston include:

AES Clean Energy
Axip Energy Services
EnLink Midstream
MRC Global
Repsol Renewables
Stonepeak

———

This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

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Texas grid report and more Houston energy transition news to know

Trending news

Editor's note: It's time to look back on the top energy transition news for the second half of February. The five most-read EnergyCapital stories feature a prestigious prize for a Rice professor, an Austin startup powering up in Houston, solar news, and more. Get the details below.

1. Houston clean energy pioneer earns prestigious Welch Foundation award

Rice professor and Solidec co-founder Haotian Wang's research enables CO2 to be converted into valuable chemicals and fuels. Photo courtesy Welch Foundation.

A Rice University professor has earned a prestigious award from the Houston-based Welch Foundation, which supports chemistry research.

The foundation gave its 2025 Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research to Haotian Wang for his “exceptionally creative” research involving carbon dioxide electrochemistry. His research enables CO2 to be converted into valuable chemicals and fuels.

The award included $100,000 and a bronze sculpture. Continue reading.

2. Austin energy startup expands to Houston, offering electricity with backup batteries

Justin Lopas and Zach Dell founded Base Power in 2023 and are now expanding the company's electricity and backup battery offerings to Houston. Photo courtesy Base Power.

An Austin startup that sells electricity and couples it with backup power has entered the Houston market.

Base Power, which claims to be the first and only electricity provider to offer a backup battery, now serves the Houston-area territory served by Houston-based CenterPoint Energy. No solar equipment is required for Base Power’s backup batteries.

The company is initially serving customers in the Cy-Fair, Spring, Cinco Ranch and Mission Bend communities, and will expand to other Houston-area places in the future. Continue reading.

3. Solar farms are booming and putting thousands of hungry sheep to work

A photo of BP's new solar farm in Texas. Photo via bp.com

On rural Texas farmland, beneath hundreds of rows of solar panels, a troop of stocky sheep rummage through pasture, casually bumping into one another as they remain committed to a single task: chewing grass.

The booming solar industry has found an unlikely mascot in sheep as large-scale solar farms crop up across the U.S. and in the plain fields of Texas. In Milam County, outside Austin, SB Energy operates the fifth-largest solar project in the country, capable of generating 900 megawatts of power across 4,000 acres.

How do they manage all that grass? With the help of about 3,000 sheep, which are better suited than lawnmowers to fit between small crevices and chew away rain or shine.

The proliferation of sheep on solar farms is part of a broader trend — solar grazing — that has exploded alongside the solar industry.Continue reading.

4. Houston venture firm invests in Virginia fusion power plant company in collaboration with TAMU

NearStar Fusion team Andrew Case, Chris Faranetta, Douglas Witherspoon, Amit Singh and Marco Luna. Photo courtesy NearStar Fusion.

NearStar’s power plants are designed to retrofit traditional fossil fuel power plants and are expected to serve heavy industry, data centers and military installations. Continue reading.

5. Report: Texas solar power, battery storage helped stabilize grid in summer 2024, but challenges remain

Solar power met nearly 25 percent of midday electricity demand within the ERCOT grid during some of 2024's hottest summer days. Photo by Red Zeppelin/Pexels

Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas shows that solar power and battery storage capacity helped stabilize Texas’ electric grid last summer.

Between June 1 and Aug. 31, solar power met nearly 25 percent of midday electricity demand within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) power grid. Rising solar and battery output in ERCOT assisted Texans during a summer of triple-digit heat and record load demands, but the report fears that the state’s power load will be “pushed to its limits” soon.

The report examined how the grid performed during more demanding hours. At peak times, between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the summer of 2024, solar output averaged nearly 17,000 megawatts compared with 12,000 megawatts during those hours in the previous year. Between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., discharge from battery facilities averaged 714 megawatts in 2024 after averaging 238 megawatts for those hours in 2023. Solar and battery output have continued to grow since then, according to the report. Continue reading.

Pioneering Houston professor earns prestigious 2025 Franklin Institute Award

medal winner

Rice University professor and nanoscience pioneer Naomi Halas has received the 2025 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry.

In addition to her role at Rice, Halas is co-founder and technical advisor of Syzygy Plasmonics, a Houston startup that relies on light instead of combustion as an energy source. This enables efficient, sustainable transformation of low-carbon ammonia into hydrogen when powered by renewable electricity.

Halas earned the Franklin Medal “for the creation and development of nanoshells — metal-coated nanoscale particles that can capture light energy — for use in many biomedical and chemical applications,” according to a release from Rice.

Halas’ work has pioneered insights into how light and matter interact at small scales, according to Rice. She joined Rice in 1989 to support the late Richard Smalley’s advancements in nanoscale science and technology.

“A lot of people were talking about nano like it was something completely new,” Halas said in the release. “But I realized it was really just chemistry viewed in a different way, and that really got me thinking about how I can combine the worlds of laser science and nanoscience.”

That shift in perspective led to the development of nanoparticles that spawned innovations in fields such as cancer therapy, water purification, and renewable energy.

“Naomi’s contributions to nanoscience have not only expanded the boundaries of our understanding but also transformed real-world applications in medicine, energy and beyond,” Rice President Reginald DesRoches added. “Her pioneering work on nanoshells exemplifies the spirit of innovation that defines Rice.”

One of Halas’ projects led to the founding of Syzygy, which develops light-driven, all-electric chemical reactors for inexpensive, sustainable production of hydrogen fuel. The company was named to was named to Fast Company's energy innovation list last year.

Halas is the first Rice faculty member to be elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering for research carried out at the university. She also has been elected to the National Academy of Inventors, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters. Halas holds 30 patents in the fields of medicine, chemistry, physics and engineering.

The Franklin Medal is awarded by the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. Many scientists who have received the award have gone on to win Nobel prizes.

As a recipient of the Franklin honor, Halas will receive a $10,000 honorarium and a 14-karat gold medal during an award ceremony May 1 in Philadelphia.

International wind turbine manufacturer opens corporate office in Houston

new to hou

Wind turbine manufacturer Vestas has set up a corporate office in Houston. The Danish company employs more than 500 people in Texas and over 5,200 people in North America.

“Houston is the ideal location to expand our office operations in the U.S. due to its central proximity to many of our wind projects, customers, and suppliers,” Laura Beane, president of Portland, Oregon-based Vestas North America, said in a news release.

One of those customers is Houston-based renewable energy company Engie North America. In 2023, Vestas announced a 270-megawatt order from Engie for 60 wind turbines. The turbines were expected to start producing energy in early 2025.

“Producing homegrown energy, powered by the hard work of Americans nationwide is critically important and we look forward to increasing our presence in Texas and continuing to provide generational jobs to Americans across the state,” Beane added.

In a statement, Houston Mayor John Whitmire welcomed Vestas to the city.

“The company's decision to establish a new corporate office underscores our city’s commitment to sustainable energy and promises to provide quality jobs and economic growth,” Whitmire said. “We are excited to support Vestas’ mission to drive innovation in renewable energy. We look forward to a prosperous partnership that benefits our community.”

Texas is the No. 1 state for wind energy capacity and energy production, representing 28% of all U.S. wind-generated electricity in 2024, according to Vestas. The company says it has installed over 3,500 wind turbines in Texas, helping supply power to nearly 7 million homes.

Steve Kean, president and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership, says the Vestas announcement represents “a significant and exciting development” for the Houston area.

“This decision underscores Houston’s position as a premier energy hub and desirable location for businesses, bolstered by our talent, world-class infrastructure, and a pro-business environment,” Kean said in a release.

Aside from the Oregon and Houston locations, Vestas maintains offices in Boston and Portland, Maine, and operates factories in the Colorado cities of Brighton and Windsor. Vestas services 315 wind farms in 31 states.

Vestas predicts its 2025 revenue will range from about $19 billion to $21 billion, up from about $18 billion in 2024.

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