IBM and Boxes recently partnered to integrate the IBM watsonx Assistant into Boxes devices, providing a way for consumer packaged brands to find out more than ever about what its customers like and want. Photo courtesy of Boxes

With the help of a new conversational artificial intelligence platform, a Houston startup is ready to let brands get up close and personal with consumers while minimizing waste.

IBM and Boxes recently partnered to integrate the IBM watsonx Assistant into Boxes devices, providing a way for consumer packaged brands to find out more than ever about what its customers like and want.

The Boxes device, about the size of a 40-inch television screen, dispenses products to consumers in a modern and sustainable spin on the old-fashioned large vending machine.

CEO Fernando Machin Gojdycz learned that business from his entrepreneur father, Carlos Daniel Machin, while growing up in Uruguay.

“That’s where my passion comes from — him,” Gojdycz says of his father. In 2016, Gojdycz founded Boxes in Uruguay with some engineer friends

Funded by a $2,000 grant from the University of Uruguay, the company's mission was “to democratize and economize affordable and sustainable shopping,” in part by eliminating wasteful single-use plastic packaging.

“I worked for one year from my bedroom,” he tells InnovationMap.

Fernando Machin Gojdycz founded Boxes in Uruguay before relocating the company to Greentown Houston. Photo courtesy of Boxes

The device, attached to a wall, offers free samples, or purchased products, in areas of high foot traffic, with a touch-screen interface. Powered by watsonx Assistant, the device asks survey questions of the customer, who can answer or not, on their mobile devices, via a QR code.

In return for completing a survey, customers can get a digital coupon, potentially generating future sales. The software and AI tech tracks sales and consumer preferences, giving valuable real-time market insight.

“This is very powerful,” he says.

Boxes partnered in Uruguay with major consumer brands like Kimberly-Clark, SC Johnson and Unilever, and during COVID, pivoted and offered PPE products. Then, with plans of an expansion into the United States, Boxes in 2021 landed its first U.S. backer, with $120,000 in funding from startup accelerator Techstars.

This led to a partnership with the Minnesota Twins, where Boxes devices at Target Field dispensed brand merchandise like keychains and bottles of field dirt.

Gojdycz says while a company in the Northeast is developing a product similar in size, Boxes is not “targeting traditional spaces.” Its software and integration with AI allows Boxes to seamlessly change the device screen and interface, remotely, as well.

Boxes aims to provide the devices in smaller spaces, like restrooms, where they have a device at the company's headquarters at climate tech incubator Greentown Labs. Boxes also recently added a device at Hewlett Packard Enterprise headquarters in Spring, as part of HPE’s diversity startup program.

Boxes hopes to launch another sustainable innovation later this year, in universities and supermarkets. The company is also developing a device that would offer refillable detergent and personal cleaning products like shampoo and conditioner with a reusable container.

Since plastic packaging accounts for 40 percent of retail price, consumers would pay far less, making a huge difference, particularly for lower-income families, he says.

“We are working to make things happen, because we have tried to pitch this idea,” he says.

Some supermarket retailers worry they may lose money or market share, and that shoppers may forget to bring the refill bottles with them to the store, for example.

“It’s about..the U.S. customer,” he says, “….but we think that sooner or later, it will come.”

Boxes has gotten funding from the accelerator startup branch of Houston-based software company Softeq, as well as Mission Driven Finance, Google for Startups Latino Founders Fund, and Right Side Capital, among others.

“Our primary challenges are scaling effectively with a small, yet compact team and maintaining control over our financial runway,” Gojdycz says.

The company has seven employees, including two on its management team.

Gojdycz says they are actively hiring, particularly in software and hardware engineering, but also in business development.

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

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ExxonMobil invests over $200M in Texas advanced recycling sites

doubling down

ExxonMobil announced that it plans to invest more than $200 million to expand its advanced recycling operations at its Baytown and Beaumont sites that are expected to start in 2026. The new operations can help increase advanced recycling rates and divert plastic from landfills, according to ExxonMobil.

“We are solutions providers, and this multi-million-dollar investment will enhance our ability to convert hard-to-recycle plastics into raw materials that produce valuable new products,” says Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Product Solutions, in a news release.

The investment plans to add 350 million pounds per year of advanced recycling capacity at Baytown and Beaumont, which will bring ExxonMobil’s total capacity to 500 million pounds annually. The first Baytown facility started in 2022 and represents one of the largest advanced recycling facilities in North America by having processed more than 70 million pounds of plastic waste.

“At our Baytown site, we’ve proven advanced recycling works at scale, which gives us confidence in our ambition to provide the capacity to process more than 1 billion pounds of plastic per year around the world,” McKee said in a news release. “We’re proud of this proprietary technology and the role it can play in helping establish a circular economy for plastics and reducing plastic waste.”

Advanced recycling works by transforming plastic waste into raw materials that can be used to make products from fuels to lubricants to high-performance chemicals and plastics. Advanced recycling allows for a broader range of plastic waste that won't be mechanically recycled and may otherwise be buried or burned.

ExxonMobil will continue development of additional advanced recycling projects at manufacturing sites in North America, Europe and Asia with the goal of reaching 1 billion pounds per year of recycling capacity by 2027.

Houston-based Fervo Energy collects $255M in additional funding

cha-ching

A Houston company that's responding to rising energy demand by harnessing geothermal energy through its technology has again secured millions in funding. The deal brings Fervo's total funding secured this year to around $600 million.

Fervo Energy announced that it has raised $255 million in new funding and capital availability. The $135 million corporate equity round was led by Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund II with participating investors including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, CalSTRS, Congruent Ventures, CPP Investments, DCVC, Devon Energy, Galvanize Climate Solutions, Liberty Mutual Investments, Mercuria, and Sabanci Climate Ventures.

The funding will go toward supporting Fervo's ongoing and future geothermal projects.

“The demand for 24/7 carbon-free energy is at an all-time high, and Fervo is one of the only companies building large projects that will come online before the end of the decade,” Fervo CEO and Co-Founder Tim Latimer says in a news release. “Investors recognize that Fervo’s ability to get to scale quickly is vital in an evolving market that is seeing unprecedented energy demand from AI and other sources.”

Additionally, Fervo secured a $120 million letter of credit and term loan facility from Mercuria, an independent energy and commodity group that previously invested in the company.

“In surveying power markets across the U.S. today, the need for next-generation geothermal is undeniable,” Brian Falik, group chief investment officer of Mercuria, adds. “We believe in Fervo not just because their EGS approach is cost-effective, commercially viable, and already being deployed at scale, but because they set ambitious targets and consistently deliver.”

In February, Fervo secured $244 million in a financing round led by Devon Energy, and in September, the company received a $100 million bridge loan for the first phase of its ongoing project in Utah. This project, known as Project Cape, represents a 100x growth opportunity for Fervo, as Latimer explained to InnovationMap earlier this year. As of now, Project Cape is fully permitted up to 2 GW and will begin generating electricity in 2026, per the company.

Other wins for Fervo this year include moving into its new headquarters in downtown Houston, securing a power purchase agreement with California, growing its partnership with Google, and being named amongst the year's top inventions by Time magazine.


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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.