Ion entrepreneurial programs train founders, researchers, innovators, and corporate leaders to drive positive, disruptive societal change by building scalable enterprises. These programs teach skills, business development, startup skills—and more. Our newest program for software entrepreneurs is Software Day at the Ion. Learn more and apply for office hours.
Get
Involved
Innovation is an invitation to build the world you want to see.
Ion supports businesses at all stages of the innovation lifecycle and provides resources for those seeking to engage in the innovation ecosystem. We invite you to join our network and become a part of Houston’s HQ for innovation.
Accelerators
Current
Accelerators
RED Labs Class 13
RED Labs and OwlSpark are run jointly over the summer at the Ion. RED Labs Summer Accelerator Program is a 12-week program designed to help UH students, faculty and recent alumni accelerate their business or business idea. The RED Labs and OwlSpark program begins May 2025. RED Labs Class 13 coming soon!
OwlSpark Class 13
RED Labs and OwlSpark are run jointly over the summer at the Ion. OwlSpark, Rice’s startup and small business accelerator supporting students, faculty and alumni, has supported 104 ventures which have raised nearly $116 million in funding. The RED Labs and OwlSpark program begins May 2025. Learn more about OwlSpark Class 13 below!
ACCEL
Now in its third year, ACCEL from Greentown Labs and Browning the Green Space (BGS), is bolstering BIPOC-led startups as they develop critical climatetech solutions by offering access to funding, networking connections, resources, and opportunities that structural inequities put out of reach.
DivInc
DivInc’s 12-week tech startup development programs accelerate your business growth. They connect you to a network of industry-specific mentors and investors and provide the critical resources you need to turn your idea into a thriving company.
Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator
The Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator supports the success of emerging, tech-enabled ventures who are advancing decarbonization solutions and efficiency strategies that accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy. The Clean Energy Accelerator – Class 5 will begin their 2025 program on July 8th at the Ion.
Interested in exploring more entrepreneurship opportunities?
Meet the
Cohorts
- Aerospace
- AI
- Consumer
- Energy
- Food
- Industry Agnostic
- Logistics
- Media
- Medical
- Software
- Sports Tech
VentriTech
An ultrasound-based ablation system to treat ventricular arrhythmias.
UCoreAlly
Provides fractional business support for biotech startups in marketing, business development, customer support, HR, and accounting.
Right Design
A platform connecting creatives with vetted employers, mentors, and projects via job matching and commissions
PeriShield
A catheter-integrated sensor device that detects early infection in peritoneal dialysis patients.
NextStep
An AI-powered multilingual assistant helping underserved communities navigate healthcare resources.
Lizzy’s Gourmet Gains
High-protein, flavor-forward dips and dressings with health benefits.
Klix
Automates early-stage clinical trial management, from document screening to AI-driven patient outreach and eligibility checks.
JustKindHumility
Customized, faith-based travel journals.
Johnnie
A lightweight, AI-powered records management software for rural and mid-size first responder agencies.
Diagnos
A wearable-integrated wellness platform to monitor health and prevent injuries in collegiate athletes.
EasilyBEE
A web and mobile platform that boosts family and community engagement in K–12 schools.
ACCEL is an accelerator that bolsters BIPOC-led startups as they develop critical climatetech solutions by offering access to funding, networking connections, resources, and opportunities that structural inequities put out of reach.
DivInc’s Sports Tech Accelerator supports startups using technology to drive innovation across human performance, fan experience, future of media, NIL (name, image, and likeness). 10 startups will take part in the 12-week hybrid program which will run from April through July 2025. In-person programming will be hosted at the Ion, the center of Houston’s innovation corridor.
Check back soon to see Cohort 15!
The Clean Energy Accelerator helps startups from around the world developing clean energy solutions achieve technical and commercial milestones that accelerate development, establish market adoption, and expand their reach. The accelerator works with companies that have demonstrated the feasibility of their technology/solution and are looking to scale or refine (TRL 3 to 7). Check back soon to see the Class 5 participating companies!
Partners
Ion creates pathways for corporate innovators to collaborate, create, grow, learn, and lead. Together we explore opportunities to strengthen Houston’s economic resiliency and competitiveness by investing in the region’s industries. Join us as we take Houston’s talent and sprawl and connecting it all—catalyzing the development of better products and technologies, workforces and businesses.
Prototyping
Interested in prototyping? In the district, you can become a member at Greentown Labs to access Prototyping Lab at Greentown Labs. The Ion District also collaborates with TXRX, where you can access a makerspace and prototyping support in Houston’s East End Maker Hub.
Ion Investor Studio
Ion Investor Studio is a unique, private gathering space for investors to land. It is a studio that can be scheduled/reserved where investors can interact and meet with founders, entrepreneurs, corporate innovators, and other investors. The pipeline of deals in Houston is growing, and through connections and a convenient space to facilitate meetings, we will help find the next big investments.
Artist Residency
Ion District’s developing Art Program is committed to creating opportunities for local and regional artists by creating long-term platforms to create, innovate, and collaborate. As the center for Houston’s innovation ecosystem, Ion recognizes the importance of cross-disciplinary connections creating and fostering innovation. Creative expression and ideation are an essential part of Ion’s bigger picture and mission.
Current
Programs
Eye On Art
Eye on Art pays homage to the original department window store displays of the beloved Sears building on which Ion was built by engaging local artists to create site-specific art installations. The display windows are a unique opportunity to reimagine Sears’ store windows and build on the collective memory of the space’s past, present, and future. Ion is committed to creating opportunities for Houston-based artists by providing long-term platforms to create, innovate, and collaborate.
Ion Plaza
Waves is an interactive installation fabricated by the talented by Hyperlocal, the team of Zhicheng Xu and Moon, that is designed to instill the Ion Plaza with an immediate dose of vitality as visitors enter and exit the building. Now on display as Houston enters one of its most pleasant stretches of the year, Waves will remain a fixture at the Ion for a six-month duration, from May – November.
Meet the Artists
Joel Zika
Houston based Australian artist Joel Zika’s latest work uses digital technology to explore our relationship with ornament in public space.
Acanthus is an installation work featuring digital sculptures and holographic projections that audiences can control. The unique combination of technology in the work allows particpants to manipulate richly decorative sculptures as if they were flowers in a garden.
This work continues Zika’s exploration into the way we communicate through our built environment, using Victorian floral decoration to create an immersive environment that encourages and involves its inhabitants.
Luisa Duarte
Urban Sentinels is a site-specific installation composed of four three-dimensional sculptures derived from my abstract geometric works on paper. These sentinels are not traditional protectors of territory or warriors in defense—they are quiet observers, guardians of presence who offer reflection rather than control.
In the imagined harmonious world, a sentinel is not a figure of defense, but a presence of care—one who holds space, bridges transitions, and watches not for danger, but for meaning. These sculptural forms step into that role within the urban landscape. They are not barriers, but beacons—custodians of invisible thresholds where the personal and public intersect.
Rooted in architectural language, the forms echo the rigor of design while embracing intuitive color and rhythm. Their vibrant planes and angles interact with their surroundings, creating moments of stillness within the city’s constant motion. In a time, shaped by urgency, these sentinels invite a pause—a space to breathe, contemplate, and reconnect.
Installed within a large window, their “home” is framed by a green-painted mural reminiscent of urban vegetation. A smaller painted window offers a visual companion, while a suspended mobile—evoking the clouds above the city—adds a playful, dreamlike presence. By night, projection mapping animates the sculptures, transforming them into illuminated vessels of memory and imagination.
These sentinels do not guard against harm—they guard possibility. They defend the imagination and open space for poetic presence. Ultimately, Urban Sentinels is not merely an installation, but a living architecture of hope, attention, and belonging. In their stillness, they speak—softly yet profoundly—reminding us to see, to remember, and to dream.
Inquire
Interested in learning more about our programming or how to get involved? Let’s chat!
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