*|MC:SUBJECT|*

Dear Friends of Greentown Houston,

It’s been an incredible year for the energy transition here in Houston!

In 2023, we’ve seen exciting growth for the ecosystem, including the Houston area being selected as a hydrogen hub by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)—which could bring up to $1.2B in federal funding and create about 45,000 local jobs. The city’s important role was underlined in March when U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm chose to make a second visit to Greentown Houston, bringing representatives from the DOE’s Economic Impact and Diversity, Loan Programs, ARPA-E, and SBIR/STTR teams. In another win for both Houston and our incubator, we were proud to receive a grant from the Economic Development Administration's Build to Scale program, which strengthens regional economies, for our "Houston Ion District Investor Activation" project—read more here.

One of Greentown Houston’s key aims is to convene this growing, promising, vibrant energy transition ecosystem in order to advance collaborative climate action. Some highlights from our events this year include Greentown Houston’s Climatetech Summit, which focused on technologies, funding sources, and collaborations; the showcase for ACCEL, an accelerator from Greentown and Browning the Green Space designed to bolster BIPOC-led climatetech startups; a pitch day for our members with BCG X; the Energy/Green Tech afternoon of the annual Houston Tech Rodeo (now H-Town Roundup); and an Investor Speaker Series event featuring representatives from investing groups that prioritize and celebrate founders’ unique identities. I was thrilled to see many of you at our events this year, and hope you’ll join us for even more in 2024; stay tuned for news on our Q1 events lineup early in the new year.

While Houston is already playing an outsized role in the energy transition, it stands to have an even greater impact in the years to come—and this future promise was on display throughout this year’s TEX-E activities. Focused on catalyzing the next generation of climatetech leaders, the Texas Entrepreneurship Exchange for Energy (TEX-E) is a first-of-a-kind collaboration among The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, University of Houston, Rice University, and Prairie View A&M University—powered by Greentown and MIT’s Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship—to create a powerful, student-driven entrepreneurship ecosystem in Texas.

The inaugural TEX-E Prize, a multi-round startup competition for Texas students who are developing innovative technologies and business models to advance the energy transition and address climate change, saw pitches from five fantastic finalists during CERAWeek. The winners took home a total of $50k in cash prizes, and we're thrilled to share that the first- and second-place winners, Helix Earth Technologies and FluxWorks, have since become Greentown members!

TEX-E also worked with dozens of fellows from local universities in 2023 and was excited to host more than 100 attendees at the TEX-E Bootcamp for Climatetech Entrepreneurship, where students from Texas universities connected with educators from the Lone Star State and MIT to learn from leading academic minds in the field of energy innovation, work together on collaborative projects, and gain an enhanced readiness to tackle the climate crisis. We have exciting plans in store for 2024; sign up for TEX-E updates to be the first to hear about opportunities!

To see the effects of this swell of momentum for climate action here in Houston, one need look no further than the incredible accomplishments our startups have achieved in 2023. Here’s just a sampling:

Cemvita will provide up to 1 billion gallons of sustainable air fuel to Greentown partner United Airlines and opened a pilot plant in Houston to produce eCO2 oil, a soybean oil replacement made from converted carbon emissions.
Fervo Energy and Google’s next-generation, 3.5-MW geothermal plant, called Project Red, began supplying carbon-free electricity in Las Vegas.
Ohmium, a startup making the production of green hydrogen easy and efficient, closed a $250M Series C round.
Ambient Fuels secured $250M in project financing from Generate Capital Partners for its growing pipeline of green-hydrogen-infrastructure projects.
SmartAC.com raised $22M to ramp up sales of its HVAC monitoring system.
H2Pro is partnering with Sumitomo Corporation for green-hydrogen projects.
Ebb Carbon raised a $20M Series A round to deploy its ocean-based CO2 removal systems.

On a personal note, I’d like to share that it’s been an incredibly exciting time to take the helm at Greentown Houston. Since beginning my role as Houston General Manager and SVP earlier this year, I’ve had the opportunity to see so much progress on climate—from innovations in our prototyping lab, to connections made under our roof, to dedication across the ecosystem to making Houston the energy transition capital of the world.

In addition to this fantastic work from our members, partners, and ecosystem collaborators, I'd like to extend a heartfelt thanks to the Greentown team, which works tirelessly to support our startups. Looking back on 2023, I was immensely proud to see our Senior Director of Community Kendrick Alridge recognized for his efforts with an "Ecosystem Builder" nomination in this year's Houston Innovation Awards and am grateful for the entire team's hard work.

I know that the year ahead will be even more chock-full of innovation and collaboration—and I’d like to invite you to be part of it with us. Here’s how you can take action with Greentown and our startups in December, 2024, and beyond!

Investors: get connected with our world-changing entrepreneurs.
Corporates: explore partnering with Greentown and our startups.
Industry experts: mentor a startup.
Job seekers: work at one of our startups—there’s a place for you, no matter your background or skill set.
Other climate champions: donate to support Greentown’s mission of bolstering climatetech startups and attend an event in the new year to engage with our member companies and the climatetech ecosystem.

I wish you and your loved ones a joyful end to 2023 and look forward to hitting the ground running with you in 2024!

Warmly,

Timmeko Moore Love
Houston General Manager and Senior Vice President

Thank You to Our Founding + Grand Opening Partners 🌎

A Year of Momentum for the Energy Transition

From The Ecosystem

A Year of Momentum for the Energy Transition