Bobby Tudor, one of Houston's most recognized energy business leaders, joined the board of directors at the San Francisco-based Puloli, an emissions technology company.
Tudor, the co-founder and former chairman of energy investment bank Tudor, Pickering, and Holt, joined as part of a deal that saw his new advisory and investment firm Artemis Energy Partners invest in Puloli's reopened Series A round.
Terms of Artemis' investment were not disclosed, but according to its website and the firm's Crunchbase profile, the funding would be its first capital commitment since Tudor founded the firm last year after retiring from TPH.
Puloli provides a service for real-time methane emissions monitoring, allowing companies to comply with regulations on methane emissions. The company has pilot projects underway with two producers in the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas, according to Artemis. Puloli CEO Kethees Ketheesan praised Tudor’s energy experience and said he would lend credibility to the company's expansion.
Tudor has recently devoted time to working on advancing energy transition efforts in Houston. He currently chairs the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, which was launched by the Greater Houston Partnership in 2021 following analysis and recommendations from McKinsey and Co. as well as various nonprofits and business leaders.
Tudor is one of several business leaders in Houston’s energy sector to highlight a need for established capital to progress the energy transition both locally and worldwide. During CERAWeek 2021, Tudor estimated that $2 trillion a year annually would be needed to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. He also said renewables projects would need to deliver more in returns to interest investors.
After joining HETI, Tudor has spoken about the potential of renewable hydrogen as one pathway Houston could take to become a hub for energy transition investment. The Center for Houston’s Future, a nonprofit affiliated with the GHP, released a report in May 2022 that highlighted Houston’s existing production network and clean power access as reasons the region could become a major player in the hydrogen industry.
The CHF took a step further in 2023 by joining a consortium bidding for a piece of $8 billion in funding offered by the Department of Energy for regions to develop hydrogen hubs. The CHF-affiliated bid, known as the HyVelocity Hub, is one of two from the Houston region alongside the LIGH2T Hub, which was submitted by a consortium including the University of Houston and Southern States Energy Board.
Hydrogen has seen significant investment in Houston, with two local members of the climate tech incubator Greentown Labs securing around $500 million in investment. Houston-based Energy Transition Ventures and Fort Worth-based TPG Capital Group led a $250 million Series C investment into California-based green hydrogen company Ohmium, which will be used to open an office in Houston.
Meanwhile, Generate Capital agreed on a $250 million commitment towards Ambient Fuels’ green hydrogen electrolyzer projects. Ambient CEO Jacob Susman told the Houston Business Journal that projects in the Corpus Christi area would be able to progress thanks to the funding.
