Downtown Houston has long played a part in the cultivation of business across the Bayou City. From its state-of-the-art theaters to its world-class cuisine, the downtown area serves as the epicenter of culture and commerce in Houston, making it an increasingly popular place to live and work. As the city’s main business hub, downtown Houston naturally plays host to many of the city’s most noteworthy tech companies, which span a variety of major industries.
Like other companies located in and around Houston, these organizations are doing their part to disrupt leading industries such as oil and gas — a sector defined by its Texan roots. While one company has created a blockchain specifically for social impact organizations, another is making it easier for those in the energy industry to collect and share data. For Houston’s downtown leaders, finding new ways to confront long-term challenges is essential to bolstering the city’s tech community. Take a look at these tech companies turning downtown Houston into a bustling business center.
Founded: 1986
Focus: Banking Services
What they do: Digital banking and payment services provider Discover is one of the largest card issuers in the U.S. Alongside its credit card offering, the company provides checking and savings accounts, cash rewards, private student loans, home loans and more. Discover also operates the Discover Global Network which features cash access locations, ATM and debit services and a dining benefits club.
Founded: 2009
Focus: Centralized Log Management
What they do: Graylog is a centralized log management solution designed to capture, store and enable real-time analysis of terabytes of machine data. The company’s approach is intended to remove complexity from data exploration, compliance audits and threat hunting, making it so that users can easily find meaning in data and quickly take action. Graylog serves organizations from a wide range of sectors including government, financial services, telecommunications and education.
Founded: 2017
Focus: Blockchain
What they do: Topl has built an impact blockchain designed specifically to help organizations prove their ethical and sustainable practices. The company’s technology enables users to prove, maximize and monetize their impact, designed to allow a stable transaction fee rather than fees based on volatile cryptocurrencies. Past projects include a traceability platform that enables mines, distributors and retailers to securely capture and highlight their products’ journeys.
Founded: 2019
Focus: Mineral Acquisition
What they do: M1neral seeks to reinvent the mineral and royalty acquisition process. Utilizing AI, the company collects data and enriches it to provide actionable intelligence. M1neral’s built-for-purpose platform leverages workflow automation tools so transactions can be completed more quickly and efficiently.
Founded: 2006
Focus: IT Solutions
What they do: Founded by Ian Uriarte, Timbergrove is a creative tech studio that specializes in delivering IBM software solutions to a diverse range of clients. The company’s suite of solutions encompasses business planning and alignment, service-oriented-architecture (SOA), asset tracking and management, procurement management, and cloud computing enablement. Timbergrove uses a variety of IBM technologies including WebSphere MQ Series, Maximo Asset Manager and WebSphere Business Process Manager.
Founded: 2017
Focus: Virtual Reality
What they do: HTX Labs develops immersive learning experiences that help organizations maximize human effectiveness and preparedness. Utilizing virtual reality, the company specializes in creating training simulations designed to help businesses reduce workplace safety incidents, improve retention and learning, and support career growth and development. Serving global enterprises and government organizations, HTX Labs is guided by the aim to elevate training and preparedness in the workforce and in our communities.
Founded: 2015
Focus: Automated Documentation + IT Security
What they do: Liongard offers visibility to MSPs through automated documentation, actionable alerts and reporting. The company’s Roar platform offers teams daily snapshots of rich configuration data for cloud, network and on-site premise systems, making it so that teams can identify exactly when and where changes were made and resolve issues before they become major complications. Liongard aims to help teams more easily manage changes, minimize user error, report across customers and build trust with clients.
Founded: 2018
Focus: Industrial Rental + Services Management
What they do: Hitched has developed technology that helps companies partner with reliable industrial rental suppliers so as to eliminate the hassle of logistics. The company’s platform is designed to help providers, suppliers and manufacturers increase utilization and revenue, enabling users to source and schedule rental equipment and services, compare and buy products on-demand and manage equipment and track costs across job sites through daily reports and analysis. Hitched is guided by the aim to help its clients gain greater visibility, simplify their operations and save money.
Founded: 2014
Focus: Oil + Energy
What they do: Launched by Joshua Adler, Sourceenergy offers a data-driven water intelligence platform for organizations within the oil and gas industry. The platform gathers data from dozens of sources, granting organizations the ability to access key insights as well as the chance to visualize, research and purchase from a broad range of water source, recycling and disposal providers. Sourceenergy’s mission is to improve the reliability and efficiency of the upstream energy water supply chain and reduce environmental and community impacts.
Founded: 2013
Focus: Oil + Energy
What they do: Petro.ai helps asset teams within the oil and gas industry organize, share and interact with data. The company’s analytics platform allows users to pull data from a wide range of sources, thus empowering teams to deploy off-the-shelf analytics workflows or build their own. Petro.ai is intended to break up silos, foster collaboration and unify processes while granting teams greater access to mission-critical information.
Founded: 2018
Focus: Marine Supply Chain Management
What they do: Voyager has developed a platform built for marine supply chain management. Designed for marine transportation of non-containerized cargo, the company’s workflow and analytics platform enables teams to automate manual processes and collaborate more effectively, granting access to real-time analysis and predictions on vessel arrivals, inventory levels and more. Voyager’s aim is to advance the energy industry towards a zero waste and transparent marine supply chain.
Founded: 2017
Focus: Environmental + Energy Solutions
What they do: AquaNRG develops and delivers advanced tech solutions to organizations within the energy, water and environmental sectors. The company’s AiRock technology enables users to run simultaneous chemistry and physics simulations with greater accuracy, speed and cost-efficiency. AquaNRG acquires critical information for a variety of organizations related to oil and gas, mining, nuclear waste management and environmental consulting.
Founded: 2002
Focus: Data Solutions
What they do: Stone Bond Technologies specializes in offering solutions for data management, federation and virtualization. The Enterprise Enabler data virtualization platform offers a wide range of advantages such as the ability to federate data from disparate sources without staging or conversion to native mode. Stone Bond Technologies serves clients from a variety of industries including healthcare, hospitality, education and telecommunications.
Founded: 2016
Focus: Drone Control
What they do: Founded by former NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski, Fluidity Technologies has developed a drone controller designed to be simpler and more precise. The company’s FT Aviator allows users to maintain control with one hand, thus making flying easier and more intuitive. While Fluidity Technologies’ controller is designed to be operated by people of all ages and skill sets, the technology is also suitable for use in commercial photography and videography, real estate, inspection, cinematography and public safety.
Founded: 2008
Focus: Trading Management
What they do: Enuit offers enterprise risk management solutions for energy and commodities trading companies. The company’s trade management software, Entrade, allows all trading activities to be managed within one system, thus helping companies track their transactions through the entire deal lifecycle. Enuit’s technology is designed to enable traders to mark positions to market and calculate value at risk at any time without interfering with company operations.
Founded: 1968
Focus: Energy
What they do: Enterprise Products is a midstream energy services provider that serves producers and consumers of natural gas, petrochemicals and more. The company’s operations include natural gas processing plants, crude oil pipelines and services, natural gas pipelines and services, and octane enhancement. Enterprise Products currently operates throughout North America.
Founded: 1992
Focus: Fintech
What they do: DRW is a trading firm that uses tech development and research capabilities to fuel innovation for financial markets and exchanges in multiple time zones. Its portfolio of business subsidiaries covers cryptoassets, for example, and real estate investing. Houston is one of four cities in the United States where the international company has set up operations.
