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Houston's biotech industry is catching fire and adding to the economic diversity of the local economy.
A European biotech company with a significant Houston presence is adding to its local footprint with a laboratory expansion.
Switzerland-based contract development and manufacturing organization Lonza Group Ltd. announced the completion of 15,000 square feet of laboratory space on Feb. 2. Behnam Ahmadian Baghbaderani, Lonza’s head of process development for cell and gene therapy, said the space would allow Lonza to host more customers looking to manufacture cell and gene therapy as well as to expand offerings to new treatments involving exosomes, which could allow human bodies to regenerate.
Lonza confirmed the labs were already operational and partner clients had been secured, though it could not disclose the names of any specific companies due to confidentiality agreements. Baghbaderani said the expansion was a continuing commitment to Pearland, where the company opened a 300,000-square-foot building at 14905 Kirby Drive in 2018.
“The Houston area is emerging as a rapidly growing [area] for life science in the U.S. and is commonly viewed as a third coast,” Baghbaderani said. “The success of cell and gene therapy programs, in the sense of moving from clinical to commercial, is going to be a key factor.”
READY FOR LIFTOFF of another SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelling a Dragon Spacecraft for Axiom space to the ISS and lifting the economic diversity of the Greater Houston economy.
Houston space company announces historic flight crew.
Houston-based company is making history with its next commercial flight mission.
Axiom Space announced that Axiom Mission 2, or Ax-2, the second all-private mission to the International Space Station, will have members of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's national astronaut program aboard. It will also be the first private mission commanded by a woman: Peggy Whitson, Axiom's director of human spaceflight and former NASA astronaut.
“Axiom Space’s second private astronaut mission to the International Space Station cements our mission of expanding access to space worldwide and supporting the growth of the low-Earth orbit economy as we build Axiom Station,” says Michael Suffredini, president and CEO of Axiom Space, in a news release. “Ax-2 moves Axiom Space one step closer toward the realization of a commercial space station in low-Earth orbit and enables us to build on the legacy and achievements of the ISS, leveraging the benefits of microgravity to better life on Earth.”
Axiom aims to build its own commercial space station to launch in late 2025. Axiom’s first mission completed last April, and the company, deemed a unicorn with a $1 billion valuation, has raised $200 million, including a $130 million series B round in 2021.
This is a bittersweet article regarding Houston’s GDP involving the fiscal year of 2021.
The bad is what we already knew which is that O&G got hammered during the pandemic which affected the region as a whole. So really news there.
The sweet is that despite this making Houston’s GDP be in the lower portion of the national metropolitan distribution, it was still a net positive year even taking into account the slump in the O&G sector during the time studied. It also showed the slump holding back manufacturing but just enough to still be slightly positive.
The leading sector of the growth during this time was financial services which grew by a margin of 16.7%. Financial services has since remained one of Houston’s fastest growing sectors (also the first that employee me when I moved back here that same year!). This is expected to grow (Geico announcement timed well here).
Next year’s study, Houston will likely being one of if not the fastest growing region in GDP% given that it’s O&G’s recovery year mixed in with the growth of the other industries.
Fortune 1000? I don’t think it has the revenue for F500.
Yeah. Numbers aren’t easy to track since it was private but Almost certainly F1000 while almost certainly not F500. KKR did consolidate some of their software businesses into BMC (which is good for us) but highly doubt it’s enough to get it to the 5-6B range in revenue.
The targeted market cap does make it a potential S&P 500 component though
Yeah. Numbers aren’t easy to track since it was private but Almost certainly F1000 while almost certainly not F500. KKR did consolidate some of their software businesses into BMC (which is good for us) but highly doubt it’s enough to get it to the 5-6B range in revenue.
The targeted market cap does make it a potential S&P 500 component though
Forbes has them on their list of America's largest private companies, and shows their annual revenue as $2.3 Billion. Number 500 on last year's Fortune 500 had revenue of almost $6.4 Billion.
$2.3 Billion would have put them around 959 in the 2022 list.
Today we have another potpourri of economic diversity in the Greater Houston economy from a tech acquisition to a renewable energy IPO, to a government grant to a Houston space company Lunar Resources, to study the feasibility of building an oxygen pipeline on the Lunar surface.
A local benefits administration company is expanding employee communication offerings with the acquisition of an Austin-based tech startup.
Houston-based Empyrean has Enspire, which will launch a new software called +YOU on Empyrean’s platform to combine the companies' technology. Enspire, a private employee communication and engagement platform, will continue to offer its existing services as a standalone product as well.
Empyrean produces a benefits administration platform that uses artificial intelligence to offer employees personalized recommendations based on individual health data. In addition to its platform, Enspire also offers teams of consultants for employers as well as mobile app for employees.
Empyrean said the combined technologies would help simplify employee experiences and add more data analytics for employers.
After being named to the Houston Business Journal’s Fast 100 in 2018, Empyrean itself was acquired by Minnesota-based insurance and investment solutions company Securian Financial in late 2019. At the time, the company had over 700 employees in Houston, Nashville and Minneapolis.
The Enspire acquisition is another recent move in the local human resources and benefits platform industry, following Houston-based GoCo.io's acquisition of Canada-based WFHomie earlier this month.
Verde Clean Fuels begins trading after completing SPAC merger
Houston has a new publicly traded company in the renewable energy sector thanks to a special purpose acquisition company, also called a blank-check company or SPAC.
In August, Houston-based Cenaq Energy Corp. agreed to combine with Bluescape Clean Fuels Intermediate Holdings, which has locations in Houston and New Jersey. At the time, the deal valued Bluescape at an implied $280 million enterprise value and a pro forma equity value of approximately $500 million, assuming no redemptions. The deal closed Feb. 15, creating Verde Clean Fuels Inc. (Nasdaq: VGAS).
Verde developed and owns a proprietary syngas-to-gasoline technology, dubbed STG+, to produce renewable gasoline from waste feedstocks, such as biomass, municipal solid waste and mixed plastics, as well as natural gas and other feedstocks. The technology, which has been developed over the past 15 years, has been tested at the company's demonstration facility in New Jersey. According to Verde, the technology can create renewable gasoline with a more than 60% reduction in carbon intensity versus traditional hydrocarbon-based gasoline.
“Traditional gasoline used today is refined from crude oil and makes up over half of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the U.S. transportation sector. We believe our proprietary STG+ system will enable everyday consumers of gasoline to seamlessly and materially participate in the decarbonization of our atmosphere, without changing their automobiles or fueling habits,” said Ernie Miller, co-founder and CEO of Verde. “Our renewable and lower carbon gasoline will work within the existing gasoline infrastructure and in the global fleet of internal combustion engines. We estimate that the replacement of conventional hydrocarbon-based gasoline with Verde's renewable gasoline would be comparable to removing six of every ten cars on the road today. The introduction of Verde’s renewable gasoline to reduce greenhouse gases is a new and significant solution to global decarbonization.”
Houston company’s pitch for a pipeline on the moon wins NASA innovation grant
Houston-based Lunar Resources is receiving $175,000 from NASA to study the plausibility of building an oxygen pipeline on the moon.
A Houston company might build an oxygen pipeline on the moon, enabling NASA to transport a key ingredient for making rocket propellant and bringing astronauts home.
It’s an obvious solution for an oil-and-gas town accustomed to underground conduits. But for NASA, it was a slap-on-the-forehead moment warranting attention from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Program.
And to up the ante, Houston-based Lunar Resources plans to build the pipeline with metals extracted from the moon’s soil. It’s receiving $175,000 from NASA to research the plausibility of this project.
Today's post contains 3 examples of Houston's growing economic diversity. One renewable energy startup bringing 40 new jobs into the local economy secondly an Alabama based bank is forming an international office for its operations here in Houston and lastly a business development company is investing in tech and aerospace companies in Texas and elsewhere.
First:
Renewable energy startup signs full-floor lease at Buffalo Heights
Houston-based BKR Memorial has landed a new office tenant for its Buffalo Heights mixed-use development in the Washington Avenue corridor.
Rev Renewables, a New York-based renewable energy and storage solutions startup, is in the process of building out the entire third floor of One Buffalo Heights for the company’s Houston office.
When the build-out is completed, Rev's office will feature custom-formed felt baffles lining exposed 20-foot ceilings. The office will also include 48 workstations, a 20-seat boardroom, private offices, conference rooms, a traders’ area and wellness room. High-end IT and audio-visual systems will compliment the space.
Rev Renewables was founded in 2021 to oversee the development, acquisition and operation of renewable and energy storage assets. The company currently has more than 100 full-time employees nationwide. In addition to its New York headquarters, the other offices are in the San Francisco Bay Area, St. Louis and Princeton, New Jersey.
The Houston office will be the company’s newest and largest office, with 40 employees.
Exclusive: Regions Bank forms new international banking group with top leader in Houston
Birmingham, Alabama-based Regions Bank has formed a new international subsidiaries banking group, which will have its top leader and multiple bankers on the team based in Houston.
The new group will add to Regions' existing business model of being able to connect clients with industry and product experts. While the new group won’t offer any new products and services the bank doesn’t already have, it will allow the bank to have a specialization in international business, giving the bank the opportunity to deepen relationships with U.S. subsidiaries of international corporations, said Bryan Ford, head of corporate sales and treasury management for Regions.
Regions is looking to hire as many as seven members for the new group, Ford said. The bank has already hired two — a Korean company specialist based in Dallas and a general banker based in Atlanta — has extended an offer to one more banker and is prepared to offer a job to another. While the group will have members across Regions’ footprint, most of the group will be based in Houston.
“(Houston) being a port city, and one that does have a variety of industries that is attracting a tremendous amount of investment from foreign entities, it matches up perfectly with our go-to-market strategy of local bankers and leveraging the experience and product expertise of individuals,” Ford told the Houston Business Journal. “It makes a lot of sense to us to anchor this here while we cover the rest of our markets, as well.”
Regions, the banking subsidiary of Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF), is No. 16 on the HBJ’s 2022 Largest Houston-Area Banks List, based on its $2.14 billion in local deposits. The bank has $159.79 billion in total deposits across its entire footprint, which covers parts of the Southeast and Midwest U.S.
Atlas Credit Partners invests $85M into Austin semiconductor company Coherent Logix
Houston-based Atlas Credit Partners has invested $85 million into an Austin-based semiconductor company that works in the aerospace and defense markets.
The investment into Coherent Logix Inc. will be used for growth capital after the company completed several recent deals.
Atlas focuses on investments and partnerships into medium-sized businesses. Recent investments include an $85 million loan facility for New Jersey-based battery manufacturing company Eos Energy.
Nationwide, the semiconductor industry gained another boost after President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS Act into law last year. The act grants federal subsidies in the form of tax credits and loans to the industry to concentrate chip production in the United States.
Major recent tech manufacturing investments in the Houston area include electronics manufacturing platform MacroFab closing a $42 million Series C round to capitalize on changing supply chains.
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