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Houston company that delivers fresh greens, grown in a warehouse, to Whole Foods scores $50M investment
An entrepreneur’s dream often begins with a problem. For Zain Shauk, it was wilted lettuce.
Shauk grew up in Santa Monica, Calif., where the greens were always greener. When he moved to Houston in 2010, he found the packaged, pre-washed produce lacking. “I’d get home and I’d open the container and it was already steamy and slimy, and I’d say, ‘What gives?’”
That simple solution inspired the launch of Dream Harvest, a company that uses hydroponics and technique known as vertical farming to grow lettuce, kale, herbs and baby greens inside a low-slung industrial building in southwest Houston. Today, Dream Harvest, founded in 2015, delivers fresh produce to 46 Whole Foods locations in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas, as well as Sweetgreen stores across Texas.
More growth is on the way. The company recently raised a $50 million investment from the private equity firm Orion Energy Partners, which has offices in New York and Houston. The capital will fund a new, 100,000-square foot growing facility in Southwest Houston and create 40 new jobs, more than doubling the workforce of 26.
Data Gumbo is using blockchain technology to increase security in business transactions and increase the areas economic diversity.
Andrew Bruce was ready for his presentation at an oil-and-gas conference several years ago in Amsterdam: A pitch for a data-aggregation company that would help companies analyze and pay invoices faster.
“They came up to me afterwards and said, you know what, if you can automate a contract for drop pipe connections, then you can also use it for delivering water or delivering diesel or delivering people or measuring services or whatever else you want,” Bruce said. “They said I should go for it.”
Since then, his Houston-based company, Data Gumbo, has emerged as a leader in the new industrial blockchain category. It’s seeking Series C investors, and in the past 12 months, its workforce has grown to 72 from 41. More than $1 billion in transactions flow through Data Gumbo’s systems, and more than 100 companies provide the company with data about the work they’re performing.
While most of the company’s work in the beginning was energy focused, Bruce said, Data Gumbo is expanding into other industries such as salmon farming, accounting for carbon credits, insurance agreements, commercial real estate and shipping logistics.
It also can track a company’s progress on environmental, social and governance — or ESG — practices and improvements. Investors have increasingly demanded that companies show how they are reducing their carbon footprints or investing in communities or incorporating more diversity among leadership positions.
More foreign investment in renewable energy and in Houston is helping to diversify the local economy.
A U.S. subsidiary of Japan’s biggest power generation company is doubling down on its Texas investments - and growing its Houston workforce and expanding its office space in the process.
JERA Americas, the U.S. subsidiary of Tokyo-based JERA, is planning a string of renewable energy projects in Texas after increasing its stake in Freeport LNG. The Texas investments are on top of its growing presence in the Northeast, where it invests in power plants. To support its growth, JERA is relocating its North American headquarters from the Galleria area to bigger digs in downtown Houston, with plans to double its headcount to about 150 from 70 over the next two to three years.
JERA has grown its U.S. employment from about six in 2013 to 90, including the Houston workers, said Steve Winn, chief executive of JERA Americas. Last year, JERA hired 35 employees and expects to exceed that growth this year. JERA also has a regional office in San Francisco and a virtual office in the Northeast.
JERA also is aiming to reach 2,000 megawatts of renewable power generation in North America by 2025, Winn said.
To that in end, in December, JERA Americas bought Apex Clean Energy’s planned El Sauz Wind Power Project in Willacy County in southeast Texas. Construction on the 300-megawatt wind project is expected to start early this year with operations planned to begin by the fourth quarter 2022.
Access to Houston’s talent pool and network of energy companies makes the area an attractive location launch JERA’s ambitions in the United States, Winn said.
“We [have seen] a lot of commitment from our [Tokyo] headquarters for expansion into the U.S. market,” Winn said. “From [a standpoint of] building an infrastructure quickly, it's easier to do it here than it might be some other places.”
Inside some political legislation is some interesting facts about Houston's relationship with hydrogen and perhaps a future of greater economic diversity using hydrogen as a fuel source.
Civic leaders have said Houston is an ideal testing ground for hydrogen thanks to the region’s existing oil and gas infrastructure that includes hundreds of miles of pipelines, chemical refineries and engineering talent.
Already, Houston is the largest producer of hydrogen in the country, churning out about one third of the annual U.S. total. There are 48 hydrogen production plants here, along with more than 900 miles of pipelines specifically designed for hydrogen — about one-third of all hydrogen pipelines globally.
Recycling plastics is adding both jobs and economic diversity to the greater Houston economy.
A Houston-based plastics recycling and waste management company is venturing into new business in a joint venture with Charlotte, North Carolina-based Honeywell (Nasdaq: HON).
Houston-based Avangard Innovative and Honeywell’s new venture will develop, own and operate chemical recycling plants, the companies announced Jan. 27.
The first new facility will be an expansion of Avangard’s existing traditional recycling plant in Waller, about 40 miles northwest of Houston, Avangard founder and CEO Rick Perez said.
The expansion will require a roughly $50 million investment from the JV, entirely funded through the partners’ internal capital, Perez said in an interview with the Houston Business Journal.
The new chemical recycling business in Waller will also create about 50 to 70 new jobs, Perez said. That’s in addition to the roughly 200 people who already work there.
On the other side of Houston, Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) is building a chemical recycling facility at its chemical complex in Baytown. The new facility is expected to reach 30,000 metric tons of waste plastic processing capacity by the end of 2022.
Honeywell announced its proprietary chemical recycling method, which it calls the UpCycle Process Technology, in November. The company’s performance materials and technologies division that created the process moved its headquarters to Houston in August.
“We believe there's a larger footprint that could be throughout the country, to be able to satisfy the demand for chemical recycling,”
Port Houston is breaking records with record imports of goods and additional distribution assets are working together bringing increased economic diversity to the Greater Houston economy.
Bolstered by growth in imports during the pandemic, cargo tonnage handled through the Port of Houston broke records in 2021, according to recently released figures.
After facing trade disruptions during Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020, a cybersecurity attack possibly committed by a nation-state and ubiquitous supply chain issues, processing of shipping containers through the Port of Houston reached record highs last year. The port processed nearly 3.5 million containers — measured in 20-foot equivalent units, or TEUs — during 2021, a 15% increase from when the port's container volume came in above 3 million TEUs for the first time in 2020.
Total cargo tonnage through the Port of Houston reached nearly 52 million tons, more than the record cargo tonnage handled by the port in 2019, according to figures released Jan. 25.
The port noted that imports were a driving factor for the majority of the growth in processed cargo last year. The Port of Houston handled 148,301 TEUs of loaded imports in December, compared to 90,660 TEUs of loaded exports. Imports of steel, bagged goods, autos, lumber and wind-power equipment all saw increases compared to 2020 levels. Steel imports alone grew 52% year over year.
Along with the boom in imports, the Houston area is seeing a boom in distribution center development, the port said. During 2021, 5 million square feet of warehouse space became operational. Another 7.3 million square feet is under construction and expected to deliver during 2022.
Looking ahead, the port will receive three new container cranes that will be able to unload cargo from neo-Panamax vessels. Those cranes are expected to arrive in February.
The sky is the limit, or is it? Axiom space is going orbital with plans to build a movie studio attached to the ISS bringing Tom Cruise into space and more economic diversity to the Greater Houston economy.
Axiom Space plans to build a movie studio module for the International Space Station by 2024
By Scott Snowden published 9 days ago
Tom Cruise is involved (because of course he is).
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Axiom Space plans to build a movie studio module for the International Space Station by 2024
By Scott Snowden published 9 days ago
Tom Cruise is involved (because of course he is).
U.K.-based Space Entertainment Enterprise (SEE) has announced plans to launch a movie production studio module intended to connect to the International Space Station (ISS).
The company, which is co-producing Tom Cruise's upcoming unnamed space movie, has commissioned Houston-based Axiom Space to build an inflatable space station module that contains a production studio — including a sports arena — by December 2024.
According to a SEE statement, the module — currently named SEE-1 — is "intended to host films, television, music and sports events as well as artists, producers and creatives who want to make content in the low orbit, microgravity environment. The facilities will enable development, production, recording, broadcasting and livestreaming of content." The company intends to produce its own content and events in the module while also making it available to third parties.
Yes, the concept artwork would have us think that it looks like a PlayStation Move motion controller, or a giant, galactic-sized golf ball. But according to Axiom Space, it has a diameter of about 20 feet (6 meters).
Not as big as Exxon but a renewable energy company moves it's HQ to Houston too, using it's renewable technology to cut emissions and bring renewable economic diversity to the Greater Houston econonmy.
Archaea Energy's CFO, general counsel to depart after co. goes public, moves HQ to Houston
Two executives are stepping down from Archaea Energy Inc. (NYSE: LFG) after the newly public company moved its headquarters to Houston.
The appointments came after Pittsburgh-based Rice Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, often called a SPAC or blank-check company, announced it would acquire Archaea Energy LLC and Aria Energy LLC in deals worth more than $1 billion, the Pittsburgh Business Times reported in April.
Archaea Energy Inc. is one of the largest RNG producers in the U.S., with an industry-leading platform and expertise in developing, constructing, and operating RNG facilities to capture waste emissions and convert them into low carbon fuel. Archaea’s innovative, technology-driven approach is backed by significant gas processing expertise, enabling Archaea to deliver RNG projects that are expected to have higher uptime and efficiency, faster project timelines, and lower development costs. Archaea partners with landfill and farm owners to help them transform potential sources of emissions into RNG, transforming their facilities into renewable energy centers. Archaea’s differentiated commercial strategy is focused on long-term contracts that provide commercial partners a reliable, non-intermittent, sustainable decarbonizing solution to displace fossil fuels.
I read an article about that TMC3 development.
Looks pretty ambitious.
It will be a nice economic diversity boost for Houston.
Although Houston has long been a great city for medicine, research and medical breakthroughs. It hasn't been very good in capitalizing on all the brilliant work.
This project, the Ion Innovation district, Texas A&M Innovation Plaza, and UH Technology Bridge has the potential to diversify Houston's $$$ in Technology, Health Sciences, Manufacturing, Engineering...
The ability to develop home grown talent is always a plus.
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