El Paso Startups to Watch in 2027: Verified Companies in Defense Tech, Manufacturing, Water and Software
El Paso, Texas sits on the US-Mexico border next to Ciudad Juárez, and together the two cities form one of the largest binational regions in North America, often called the Borderplex. Its startup scene is small but real: a university with a strong 3D printing research centre, an airport that rents factory space to young manufacturing companies, a medical campus with its own incubator, and a downtown incubator that has worked with founders since 2011. The 2026 version of this article listed ten names. When we checked them, most had no website or official source we could find, one turned out to be a listed holding company with no El Paso link, and three were support organisations rather than startups. For this 2027 edition we started again: in October 2026 we checked each company on its own website to confirm that it exists, that it is based in El Paso and what it publishes about its products and funding. El Paso is a small ecosystem, so the list is short. We did not pad it with names we could not verify. What happened to the old names is listed near the end.
Quick answer: the El Paso startups to watch in 2027 are Direct Kinetic Solutions (decades-long nuclear micro-power for sensors and defense), FundMiner (fund management software for universities and nonprofits, led by a female co-founder), Atlas Sensor Technologies (sensors that tell water softeners when to regenerate), PM Technologies (3D manufacturing that travels in a shipping container), Infinite Elements (recovering critical metals from mining waste with microbes, led by a former NASA scientist) and Ferveret (data centre cooling, with its factory in El Paso). For support, start with Pioneers 21, the Medical Center of the Americas Foundation and UTEP's Keck Center.
Are you getting customers from ChatGPT yet?
More and more traffic is coming from Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok and other AI tools.
👉 Rank on ChatGPT
Why El Paso Matters for Founders in 2027
Three things shape the El Paso startups on this list. The first is advanced manufacturing: the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) runs the W.M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation, and the city, the airport and UTEP run the Innovation Factory, a building at El Paso International Airport for early-stage manufacturing companies in aerospace, defense and advanced manufacturing. The second is defense: Fort Bliss is next door, and several companies here sell to the US military. The third is the border: The Bridge Accelerator connects small suppliers on both sides with the large factories in Ciudad Juárez, and many founders sell into Mexico as well as the US.
For the wider picture, compare our guide to the best startup cities in North America and our city lists for San Diego, another border city, and Mexico City, the largest startup hub on the other side of the border.
El Paso Startups to Watch in 2027 Compared
Sources: each company's official website or own press release, checked 31 October 2026; FundMiner's 2023 round as reported by Pulse 2.0.
The El Paso Startups to Watch in 2027
1. Direct Kinetic Solutions: power that lasts for decades
Direct Kinetic Solutions builds radioisotopic power systems: tiny power sources that deliver microwatts of continuous energy for decades, so sensors and devices in remote or extreme places never need a battery swap. It calls its design the world's smallest nuclear power plant; its products include the Litzee power core and the Nucleon integrated power and management system. Its website gives its corporate headquarters as El Paso, Texas, with manufacturing in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. It lists support from US Air Force SBIR Phase I, II and III awards, an NSF SBIR Phase II award, a NASA SBIR Phase I award, AFWERX and an Army research lab agreement, but publishes no funding amounts, so we cite none.
Lesson for founders: Direct Kinetic Solutions used federal research grants (SBIR) to fund hard, slow technology before raising large private rounds. Non-dilutive defense and science money can carry a deep tech startup through its riskiest years.
Best for: founders in deep tech, energy, defense and aerospace.
2. FundMiner: showing donors where their money went
FundMiner makes software for fundraising organisations such as universities, health systems and community foundations. It brings fund management, impact reports and donor portals together, so teams can see whether donated money is being spent as promised and show each donor what their gift achieved. It was co-founded by Chelsea Lamego, its CEO, and Alejandro Stevenson-Duran, its chief product and technology officer, and UTEP appears among its customers. Its own November 2025 partnership release with Donor Relations Group is datelined El Paso and Austin, and it won Blackbaud's 2025 Marketplace Growth Award. According to Pulse 2.0, it raised $1.725 million in July 2023 in a round led by Sonoran Founders Fund, with Techstars and Cascade Seed Fund.
Lesson for founders: FundMiner counts UTEP, the university in its home city, among its customers. A local anchor customer that will give you a reference can be worth more than your first investor.
Best for: female founders, B2B SaaS founders and anyone selling to nonprofits or universities.
Boost Your SEO by Getting Featured in Our Blogs and get a backlink.
We publish content about startups, education, tech, funding, etc. that ranks well not only in Google but also in Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok and other AI tools.
👉 Get featured now!
3. Atlas Sensor Technologies: knowing when soft water turns hard
Atlas Sensor Technologies, on the old list, makes IoT sensors for the water industry, not the general factory automation sensors the old article described. Its sensors detect when a water softener stops working and hard water breaks through, then raise an alarm or start regeneration automatically, and upload data to the cloud. Its first product was the CatSen1; in 2026 it released the CatSen2 with a display and flow sensor. It also says a 2025 study with the Danforth Plant Science Center completed Phase 3 trials of its AnSen1 nitrate sensor for hydroponics. Its office is at 4171 N. Mesa Street in El Paso. In 2018 the Medical Center of the Americas Foundation gave a team called Atlas Regeneration Technologies its $20,000 first prize to commercialise a water hardness sensor invented at UTEP, the same technology Atlas describes on its site.
Lesson for founders: Atlas turned a university patent into a product for one clear customer problem, then found a second market for the same technology in farming. Start narrow, then look for adjacent uses.
Best for: founders in hardware, IoT, water tech and university spinouts.
4. PM Technologies: a factory that fits in a shipping container
PM Technologies combines digital engineering with on-demand manufacturing, so customers can design, test and produce parts where they need them instead of waiting for a supply chain. Its products include AFMF (a printer that mixes materials as it prints), ElectroForge (polymer printing plus metal traces) and LEMMS, a laser metal printing system built into a standard 20-foot shipping container. Its site lists its address as 501 George Perry Blvd in El Paso. Its founder and CEO, Philip Morton, was born in El Paso and studied mechanical engineering at UTEP; UTEP's Keck Center lists the company, founded in 2019, among its alumni ventures. It does not publish funding figures.
Lesson for founders: PM Technologies grew out of a university lab and sells to defense customers who need parts in the field. Build where your expertise and your customer meet: here, a 3D printing research centre next to a large army base.
Best for: founders in advanced manufacturing, defense tech and drones.
Boost Your SEO by Publishing Your Startup Press Release with us.
We publish content about startups, education, tech, funding, etc. that ranks well not only in Google but also in Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok and other AI tools.
👉 Publish Press Release
5. Infinite Elements: mining metals with microbes
Infinite Elements uses biology to recover critical metals such as copper, cobalt and rare earth elements from mining waste, low-grade ores and electronic waste. Its BioDissolve and BioCapture processes use microbes to pull out metals selectively, with less environmental damage than traditional refining. It was founded in 2021 and says it has built a pilot facility in El Paso; the airport's Innovation Factory lists it as a tenant. Its president and CEO, Dr. Jesica Urbina, is a former NASA scientist with more than 15 years in bioengineering for resource extraction. It does not publish funding figures.
Lesson for founders: Infinite Elements works with mines and manufacturers, which already have the waste it needs. Look for customers who are paying to get rid of something you can turn into value.
Best for: female founders in deep tech, climate tech, biotech and critical minerals.
6. Ferveret: cooling for AI data centres, built in El Paso
Ferveret makes liquid cooling systems for data centres, AI infrastructure and crypto mining, inspired by the way nuclear reactors are cooled, so more of a facility's power goes into computing instead of cooling. It was founded in 2021 by Dr. Reza Azizian and Dr. Matteo Bucci, who met at MIT, and was accepted into Y Combinator the same year. Its timeline says it opened its innovation factory in El Paso in 2024 and in 2025 raised seed funding and received an economic development incentive package from the City of El Paso. Its headquarters is in San Jose, California, so it is an El Paso manufacturer rather than an El Paso-born startup. It does not publish the size of its rounds.
Lesson for founders: Ferveret kept its headquarters in Silicon Valley but builds in El Paso, where factory space and city incentives are available. You can split your company: sell where your customers are and build where it costs less.
Best for: founders in hardware, climate tech and data centre infrastructure.
Where El Paso Startups Get Support
- Pioneers 21: a nonprofit business incubator in downtown El Paso that says it has supported more than 280 startups since 2011 (City of El Paso papers list it as formerly The Hub of Human Innovation). Its programmes include a business incubator, a Venture Mentoring Service, an AI accelerator and a CapitalEdge and NSF I-Corps accelerator, and it lists El Paso Startup Week among its events.
- Medical Center of the Americas Foundation (MCA): founded in 2006, it runs an Innovation Center for health and life sciences startups on the third floor of the Cardwell Collaborative building, with labs, offices and seed funding opportunities. In December 2025 it and Pioneers 21 won a $75,000 award from the SBA Growth Accelerator Fund Competition, as one of 76 winners, to run financial literacy and investor academy pilots. Its news page also links a December 2025 El Paso Inc. report that HealthAtlas, a local health records startup, won its tech challenge and $15,000.
- UTEP's W.M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation: a research centre for additive manufacturing (3D printing) that also runs the DRIVE AM training programme and lists startups founded by its alumni.
- The Innovation Factory: led by the City of El Paso, El Paso International Airport and UTEP, it opened in 2023 with 30,000 square feet for early-stage manufacturing companies and has grown to 50,000 square feet; its first phase was funded by $3 million in federal grants.
- The Bridge Accelerator: on the old list, a 12-week binational programme, running since 2019, for established small and medium suppliers in the El Paso-Juárez region that want to sell to large manufacturers. It charges a $2,500 registration fee and says 109 companies have completed it.
- Fab Lab El Paso: on the old list, a nonprofit tech and education organisation with a STEAM makerspace; useful for prototyping and for founders building education products.
- El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce: on the old list, a chamber that serves small and women-owned businesses, with a Women's Border Business Center and procurement training.
Also worth knowing: SuperCity, an AI app for city services, says it launched first with the City of El Paso on 29 September 2025; one co-founder, Miguel Gamiño Jr., was formerly the city's technology chief. Its site does not say where the company is headquartered, so we left it out of the list.
El Paso Companies From the Old List That Changed or Could Not Be Verified
The 2026 version of this article listed ten names. Here is what we found when we checked each one in October 2026:
- Kept: Atlas Sensor Technologies, with a corrected description: it makes water hardness sensors, not general factory automation sensors.
- Moved to the support section: The Bridge Accelerator, Fab Lab El Paso and the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce are real and active, but they are a programme, a nonprofit and a chamber of commerce, not startups.
- NL Industries: now called NLI Holdings, a listed holding company for CompX International and a stake in Kronos Worldwide. Its site shows no El Paso link and it is not a startup, so we removed it.
- Internbytes, Flyer Technologies, Digital Health Innovators, GreenHub Urban Solutions and ModuCom: we found no official website or primary source showing an El Paso company by these names, so we removed them.
We also removed the old article's unsourced claims of a "$2.3 billion valuation" for the local tech sector and "1,500 high-paying jobs", and its links to third-party startup lists.
Which El Paso Startup Should You Learn From?
- You build deep tech or energy: study Direct Kinetic Solutions, which funded slow, hard technology with federal research grants.
- You sell software to institutions: study FundMiner, which counts the local university among its customers.
- You have a university patent: study Atlas Sensor Technologies, which turned a UTEP invention into a product and then a second market.
- You build hardware for defense: study PM Technologies, which grew out of UTEP's 3D printing centre near Fort Bliss.
- You are a female founder in science: study FundMiner and Infinite Elements, both led by women, in software and in climate tech.
- You need a factory: look at the Innovation Factory, where Ferveret, Infinite Elements and PM Technologies rent space.
- You are just starting: talk to Pioneers 21, and if you build in health, to the MCA Innovation Center.
Is your startup on ChatGPT?
More and more traffic is coming from Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok and other AI tools.
👉 Rank on ChatGPT
How Founders Use El Paso's Startup Scene
Notice where the early money comes from in El Paso: federal SBIR grants, defense contracts, city incentives and local prizes come first, and private investors usually come from outside the region. If you build here, plan for both. Compare investors in our guides to angel investors in North America, early-stage VC firms and deep tech VCs in North America, and look at programmes in our list of AI accelerators in North America. Non-dilutive money matters even more here: see our lists of deep tech grants in North America and grants for female entrepreneurs.
If you are still choosing a base, compare El Paso with the best cities for early-stage startups and with other mid-sized ecosystems we have checked: Columbus startups to watch and Raleigh-Durham startups.
Before you copy any of these business models, validate your startup idea with real customers. Most of these companies sell far beyond El Paso, so they need to be easy to find online: list your startup in the F/MS marketing directories, publish your startup press release, and write about your product with the F/MS AI SEO Tool or the AI SEO Blog so customers, investors and AI assistants can find you.
FAQ About El Paso Startups to Watch in 2027
Which El Paso startups should I watch in 2027?
Our verified list: Direct Kinetic Solutions, FundMiner, Atlas Sensor Technologies, PM Technologies, Infinite Elements and Ferveret (which builds in El Paso but has its headquarters in San Jose). Each was checked on its own website in October 2026.
Why is the list shorter than ten?
El Paso is a small ecosystem, and most names on the old list had no official source. We only include companies whose own website confirms that they exist, operate and are based in El Paso.
Which El Paso startup has raised the most money?
Few of them publish amounts. FundMiner raised $1.725 million in 2023, according to Pulse 2.0, and Ferveret says it raised seed funding in 2025 without giving a figure. Direct Kinetic Solutions lists federal SBIR awards but no amounts.
Are there female-founded startups in El Paso?
Yes. FundMiner is led by co-founder and CEO Chelsea Lamego, and Infinite Elements by Dr. Jesica Urbina, a former NASA scientist. Our guide to grants for female entrepreneurs lists more funding options.
Is El Paso good for manufacturing and defense startups?
Yes. UTEP's Keck Center is a 3D printing research centre, the Innovation Factory at the airport rents space to young manufacturers, and Fort Bliss is next door. PM Technologies and Direct Kinetic Solutions both sell to the military.
Where can El Paso startups get help?
Pioneers 21 runs a downtown incubator and accelerators, the Medical Center of the Americas Foundation runs an Innovation Center for health startups, and The Bridge Accelerator helps suppliers sell to factories in Ciudad Juárez.
Is El Paso a good place for health tech startups?
It has a medical campus with its own incubator, the MCA Innovation Center, which runs a health tech challenge. In December 2025 a local health records startup, HealthAtlas, won its $15,000 prize, according to El Paso Inc.
What happened to the startups on the old list?
Atlas Sensor Technologies stays, with a corrected description. The Bridge Accelerator, Fab Lab El Paso and the Hispanic Chamber are support organisations, NL Industries is a holding company with no El Paso link, and five other names had no official source.
What can founders learn from El Paso startups?
Use federal grants for hard technology, win a local anchor customer, turn university research into one clear product, and build where space and incentives are available even if you sell elsewhere.
Where can I get a backlink by writing about my startup?
You can publish a guest post in one of the Fe/male Switch startup blogs, which rank in Google and in AI tools. Get a quality backlink.
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
