Growth spurt

Fast-growing tech firm leads list of Houston companies on Inc. 5000

Houston-based Action1 landed at No. 29 nationally and No. 1 in the software category in this year's Inc. 5000 ranking.

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Dozens of Houston-area businesses appear in this year’s Inc. 5000 ranking of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., with a security software provider capturing the region’s No. 1 spot on the list.

Landing at No. 29 nationally and No. 1 in the software category, the top-ranked Houston-area private company is Houston-based Action1. The company recorded median revenue growth of 7,188 percent from 2021 to 2024, according to the Inc. 5000.

It’s the first appearance on the Inc. 5000 list for Action1, founded in 2018.

Action1 produces patch management software. A patch, or fix, quickly repairs software to resolve functionality problems, improve security or add features, according to TechTarget.

“Modern organizations understand that proactive patch management is essential to staying ahead of today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape,” Mike Walters, co-founder and president of Action1, said in a news release. “Our continued hypergrowth reflects the increased demand for enterprise cybersecurity innovation. You can’t be just powerful and secure — you must also be simple to deploy and scale and cost-effective.”

Below are the Houston-area businesses that earned a ranking among the top 1,000 companies, including their industries and their three-year growth rate. To see the other Houston-area companies in the Inc. 5000, visit inc.com/inc5000/2025.

No. 29 Houston-based Action1, software (7,188 percent)
No. 49 Spring-based Bogey Bros Golf, retail (5,540 percent)
No. 84 Houston-based Turtlebox Audio, consumer products (3,818 percent)
No. 87 The Woodlands-based Allied Wealth, financial services (3,796 percent)
No. 319 Houston-based Strategic Office Support, business products and services (1,228 percent)
No. 324 Houston-based Novo Communications, security (1,212 percent)
No. 363 Houston-based OptiSigns, software (1,101 percent)
No. 385 Houston-based Cart.com, business products and services (1,053 percent)
No. 421 Houston-based Sydecar, financial services (962 percent)
No. 471 The Woodlands-based Acuity Technology Partners, IT services (869 percent)
No. 577 Stafford-based Dahnani Private Equity Group, real estate (718 percent)
No. 706 Houston-based Why Not Natural, consumer products (585 percent)
No. 709 Stafford-based Signarama Sugar Land, manufacturing (584 percent)
No. 744 Houston-based FINBOA, software (557 percent)
No. 747 Houston-based Amundson Group, human resources (557 percent)
No. 793 Houston-based Field Industries, manufacturing (533 percent)
No. 957 Friendswood-based Good Ranchers, food and beverage (448 percent)
No. 999 Houston-based ARIA Signs & Design, business products and services (428 percent)

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This story originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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Innovation Station

Texas maintains its status as one of 15 most innovative states in the U.S.

Houston skyline

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During a SXSW reception March 12 at the Governor’s Mansion in Austin, Gov. Greg Abbott hailed Texas as the No. 1 state for innovation. Personal finance website WalletHub sees it a little differently though.

In a new study from WalletHub, the Most & Least Innovative States (2026), Texas is assigned the No. 13 ranking for innovation among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

D.C. comes out on top, followed by Massachusetts, California, Colorado, and Washington. Mississippi appears at the bottom of the list.

Texas earns a total innovation score of 49.56, compared with 69.13 for top-ranked D.C. In two broad categories, Texas ranks 12th for human capital and 13th for innovation environment.

To identify the top places for innovation, WalletHub evaluated the 50 states and D.C. by reviewing 25 key indicators of innovation friendliness. The indicators include:

Share of STEM professionals
Forecast for Share of STEM professionals
Forecast for STEM jobs
Eighth-grade math and science performance
Concentration of tech companies
R&D spending per capita
Share of science and engineering graduates age 25 and over
Average internet speed
Venture capital funding per capita

“The most innovative states are especially attractive to people who have majored in science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, as they offer abundant career opportunities and investment dollars, both for jobs at existing companies and for startups,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said in the report.

“These states also instill young students with the skills they need to succeed in the current workforce, skills which are useful whether or not they pursue a STEM career,” he added.

Texas held steady in the 2026 report, receiving the same ranking as in 2025 (at No. 13), but improving its overall score slightly, up from 48.96. In 2024, Texas was ranked No. 14 in the U.S., marking its first appearance within the top 15 most innovative states. In recent years, Texas has consistently moved up the ladder among most innovative states.

Texas zeroes in on semiconductor industry
On the innovation front, Abbott and other state leaders have focused intently on growing the state’s semiconductor industry, which generates roughly $30 to $60 billion in economic activity per year. Texas ranks among the top states for semiconductor manufacturing, with major operations in North Texas and Central Texas.

To bolster the industry, Abbott signed the Texas CHIPS Act into law in 2023. The law established the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund, which issues grants for semiconductor research, design and manufacturing, and the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Consortium, which advises the governor and state legislators on matters related to the semiconductor sector.

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This article originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.com.

texas wallethub rankings innovation

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Innovation Station

Texas maintains its status as one of 15 most innovative states in the U.S.