Four startups headquartered in Colorado, Florida and Texas have been selected as winners of the 2026 Rose Rock Bridge Showcase. Austere Environmental, BiaTech, BigMachine AI and Intellicess will receive a share of $400,000 in non-dilutive funding and establish a presence in Tulsa to pilot and advance their technologies over the next year.
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The 2026 Rose Rock Bridge Showcase featured presentations from startups participating in Tulsa Innovation Labs’ venture studio, where founders worked alongside industry partners to develop and pilot solutions for real-world challenges in the energy sector.
The winning startups were selected from a pool of 85 highly qualified applicants. Collectively, they have already raised over $2 million in funding and piloted their solutions with energy majors. Their technologies are designed to improve how the energy industry recovers, operates and manages resources.
- Austere Environmental reduces drilling cost and environmental risks by recovering oil that is currently treated as waste during drilling operations.
- BiaTech uses AI to analyze live production and asset data to improve efficiency, maintenance, and safety.
- BigMachine AI helps engineers work more efficiently by transforming complex engineering drawings into searchable digital data.
- Intellicess uses AI to help predict and prevent costly drilling failures before they happen.
Rose Rock Bridge, a venture of Tulsa Innovation Labs, was created to connect leading energy companies with the technologies they need to solve industry challenges. Through the program, startups work directly with industry partners including Devon Energy, H&P, ONEOK and Williams to deploy their innovations in real-world settings.
“The technologies selected this year are tackling some of the most important challenges facing the energy industry today,” said Jennifer Hankins, Managing Director of Tulsa Innovation Labs. “When we bring innovation like this to Tulsa, we’re creating opportunities for investment, jobs and long-term economic growth while strengthening our region’s role as an energy leader.”
“Through Rose Rock Bridge, we’re bringing the nation’s most promising energy innovations to Tulsa, positioning our region as a destination for energy technology leadership and attracting the entrepreneurs and capital driving the industry’s future,” said Nishant Agarwal, the Rose Rock Bridge Innovation Manager at Tulsa Innovation Labs.
Through the one-year pilot phase, all four startups will work alongside one or more industry partners in Tulsa to advance their technologies. This phase includes planned collaborations with the University of Tulsa and has the potential to create more than 135 Oklahoma jobs as participating startups scale their operations.
About Tulsa Innovation Labs
Tulsa Innovation Labs fuels economic opportunity in our region through innovation — by connecting resources, ideas, and people. We bring unique partners together to identify opportunities in our community and design solutions, like programs that train the next generation of our workforce, attract and develop new businesses, and support industry needs as they transition to an innovation-driven future. Learn more about Tulsa Innovation Labs at www.tulsainnovationlabs.com.
About Rose Rock Bridge
Rose Rock Bridge is the early-stage innovation and investment engine of Oklahoma’s largest energy companies. Founded by Tulsa Innovation Labs to establish Tulsa as a national hub for energy entrepreneurship and innovation, Rose Rock Bridge sources, commercializes and integrates nascent energy innovations with established corporations to solve industry’s most challenging pain points. Rose Rock Bridge provides select energy technology startups with funding, access to customers and place-based support in the Tulsa region. For more information, visit www.roserockbridge.com.
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