Syzygy Plasmonics, one of Houston’s emerging clean tech startups, has finished building out the Pearland manufacturing facility it moved into last year. For CEO Trevor Best, it is the culmination of a strong upward trajectory for the company following its 2018 incorporation.
“As we speak, [Syzygy] is now making the transition from a research and development company to a company with a product,” Best said in an interview with Houston Inno at the Venture Houston 2023 event. “Scaling up technology like this is not easy, but we hired a fantastic team.”
Best said the company would soon be raising a new round of funding. Syzygy sealed a $76 million Series C round in November, which was used to complete development of its reactor and create a sales pipeline.
Syzygy, which spun out of Rice University, is developing a photocatalytic chemical-reactor platform technology for users in the industrial gas, chemicals and energy sectors. Although reactors generally rely on fossil fuels to trigger the chemical reactions necessary to produce plastics, fuels, fertilizers, hydrogen and other chemicals, Syzygy’s photocatalytic reactor instead relies on the light from LEDs.
Best described the reactor as a step toward replacing traditional combustion-driven refineries that transform hydrogen or ammonia, which he called the building blocks of civilization, into raw materials for products ranging from tools and fuel to clothing and housing.
“If you drive through the Ship Channel and you see all the smokestacks, a lot of those are venting combusting gases,” Best said. “What we do is eliminate the need for combustion.”
The company has landed several pilot trials sponsored by current and potential customers for the reactors. In addition to a demonstration at North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park sponsored by Norway-based Equinor ASA (NYSE: EQNR) and a 2022 field trial with South Korea-based Lotte Chemical, Best revealed a future trial taking place in California, though he could not disclose the parties involved.
The idea to develop the technology into a business came from a framework Best and his co-founder, Suman Khatiwada, developed to evaluate new technologies.
“Every other idea we put through the framework fizzled out,” Best said. “After seven months of trying to kill it, we eventually realized, like, 'Yeah, this one isn’t gonna die.'"
Best also commented on navigating the funding environments of the past several years. He noted that Syzygy closed its latest funding round when the market was beginning to soften and credited the company’s ability to secure customers as a reason why investors remained interested.
“We were able to show good progress, which kept investors excited,” Best said. “Even now, the market conditions might not be the best, but if you're getting customer traction, if you're scaling technology, investors want to be a participant.”
Asked to name the areas of clean technology where he was most interested in seeing development, Best chose Syzygy’s photocatalysis, long-term energy storage and small modular nuclear reactors. He also offered advice to fellow founders in clean tech.
“The one thing that [founders] really need is the vision and ability to tell their story,” Best said. “You need to have a bold vision for the future, and you need to be able to communicate that to people effectively.”
