Happy Sunday!
Our friends at YTexas report that Texas has drawn headquarters relocations from 10 different states so far in 2026, plus one from New Zealand. So while California companies tend to get the attention, the migration to Texas is coming from all over the map. Check out the full list of 2026 relos so far here.
This week’s deal roundup follows a closer look from pH Partners at Fort Worth-based Healthcare Shares and its physician-backed venture model.
Healthcare Shares: Fund Raise
It was recently announced that Healthcare Shares (Fort Worth), a physician-backed venture capital firm that invests in early-stage healthcare startups, completed a raise for their fund, bringing their recent total to $2.5M. As reported on their website, Healthcare Shares reports ~20 portfolio companies across digital health, diagnostics, life science and care delivery. Their current community consists of over 2,000 members, including physicians, healthcare executives, and researchers.
Healthcare Shares’ stated mission is to “balance delivering financial returns with improving clinical outcomes, reducing healthcare costs, and improving patient and clinician satisfaction.” Their strategy is rightly premised on the observation that early-stage healthcare companies need more than just capital; they need access to healthcare KOLs with the relevant expertise and network.
With Texas’ continued emergence as a healthcare frontier for both companies and
investors, this is another welcome development. Texas is home to more than 6,100 biotech and life sciences firms and ranks third in the country for total biotech-related establishments, as reported by AngelMatch. In 2025, Texas’ healthcare sector had an aggregate transaction value of about $1.78B, the third-largest sector in the state behind tech/media/telecom ($4.18B) and energy/utilities ($2.38B), according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. In July 2026, Texas came in second nationally for VC dollars raised by companies, at $2.37B, behind only California.
While several of these metrics point to continued investor momentum in Texas, they are still skewed towards later-stage companies in the energy and tech space rather than new entrants in healthcare. So there is an opportunity for Healthcare Shares or other physician-investor networks to emerge and provide real value to life science companies in Texas.
However, it must be noted that this is by no means a new model and comes with its challenges.
Whether it is physician communities like Doximity and Sermo or investment-focused networks like the former AngelMD, the challenge is always generating enough engagement to make it useful to everyone involved. For Healthcare Shares, the task will not only be to bring high-quality companies to their physician and KOL network for investment, but to extract meaningful time, insights, connections, pilot projects and commercialization support from said network for their portfolio companies.
We look forward to following the progress here with Healthcare Shares and are excited to see more creative models of investment emerging here in Texas for healthcare and life science companies.
—Analysis by the pH Partners Team
pH Partners is an Austin-based boutique investment bank focused on Healthcare, Technology, and Consumer markets. Learn more at phpartners.com.
Austin
HiddenLayer, a provider of security software for agentic, generative, and predictive AI applications, raised $100M in a Series B led by Delta-v Capital, with participation from Ten Eleven Ventures, Morgan Stanley, M12 and Booz Allen Ventures. Approximately $156M raised to date.
Light, a provider of an API platform enabling businesses to offer branded electricity plans, raised $46M in a Series A led by Matrix, with participation from Activate Capital, Spark Capital, Mischief, Gigascale Capital, MCJ and BoxGroup. Approximately $60M raised to date.
Bevel, a provider of AI-powered personal insurance brokerage and property-claims services, announced a $6M seed round backed by SHAKTI, Resolute Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and individual investors. $6M announced to date.
Greater Texas Market
Critical Materials Group (Talpa), a developer of modular, automation-ready production systems for energetic materials used in defense manufacturing, announced a $10.3M seed round led by Overmatch Ventures, with participation from Victory Six Advisors and Fulcrum Ventures. $10.3M announced to date.
M&A Activity in Texas
Flex (Austin) agreed to acquire EPC Power, a California-based provider of power-conversion technology for data centers and grid applications, for $4.4B. EPC Power will become part of Flex’s Cloud and Power Infrastructure segment, which Flex plans to spin off as an independent public company in 2027.
SLB (Houston) agreed to acquire Kelvion, a German manufacturer of cooling and thermal-management equipment, for $3.4B in cash and the assumption of approximately $700M in debt. The acquisition expands SLB’s data-center infrastructure business.
Diversified Energy agreed to acquire Birch Permian Holdings, a Permian Basin oil and gas producer, from affiliates of Elliott Investment Management for approximately $1.8B. The transaction includes approximately 46,000 net acres, 480 net wells and related gathering, processing and water infrastructure.
Solaris Energy Infrastructure (Houston) acquired Omega Foundation Services, a provider of engineering and heavy-civil construction services for data centers and other infrastructure projects. Solaris paid approximately $101M in cash, assumed $28M in debt and leases, and issued approximately 3.6 million shares.
Stewart Information Services (Houston) acquired ProTitleUSA and DocSolutionUSA, providers of title, mortgage-document and due-diligence services. Terms were not disclosed.
Stewart Information Services (Houston) also acquired Tower Title, a national provider of telecommunications-focused title services. Terms were not disclosed.
Shell Oil Products US (Houston) agreed to acquire the remaining 67% of Tri Star Energy, a Nashville-based convenience-store operator and fuel distributor. The transaction will add 320 company-owned retail locations and supply agreements with 552 dealer-owned locations. Terms were not disclosed.
Salute (Austin) agreed to acquire T5 Operations, the data-center operations division of T5 Data Centers. The combined business will manage more than 15 gigawatts of data-center capacity across more than 150 markets. Terms were not disclosed.
Fortrea agreed to acquire Worldwide Clinical Trials’ Early Phase Services division, including a bioanalytical laboratory in Austin, a 200-bed clinical pharmacology unit in San Antonio and a biospecimen-storage facility in Pflugerville. Terms were not disclosed.
Comstock Resources (Frisco) signed a letter of intent under which Azerbaijan’s state-owned SOCAR would acquire minority interests in Comstock’s Haynesville assets and Pinnacle Gas Services for $1.65B in cash. The parties are targeting a definitive agreement by October 31; the proposed transaction has not yet been finalized.
See you next week!
—Mason & Joel
This edition was supported by Malik Osumah.
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