Hemp Lime Homes creates hemp-based building materials — hempcrete, essentially a mix of hemp, lime, and water — for residential and commercial construction, aiming to offer an energy-efficient, cost-effective, and carbon-negative alternative to conventional building materials through the CO2 the hemp absorbs as it grows. The company took second place at the 7th Startup Texas Demo Day for the Emerging Industries track on December 14, 2023, the event that closed out that year’s 12-week Emerging Industries Accelerator program, which CEO Jim Turner completed alongside eight other founders. The program is sponsored by the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation (BCIC) in partnership with UTRGV’s Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Center (ECC) and taught at the eBridge Center.
As the competition’s second-place finisher, Hemp Lime Homes was awarded a $20,000 Startup Texas grant — double the standard $10,000 prize most cohort companies receive — to help scale operations in Brownsville. Under the company’s signed 2024 Performance Agreement, the funding was earmarked for building a hemp processing facility for tool storage, prototyping, and fabricating modular hemp panels ($15,000); purchasing a trailer to transport hemp, lime, and mixing equipment for offsite construction ($3,500); and developing a website and marketing materials ($1,500). The company committed to completing its onsite hemp processing facility by the end of 2025 and to sourcing hemp from quality growers in the South Texas region.
At a glance
- Founder: Jim Turner
- Startup Texas program: 2023 Startup Texas Accelerator, Emerging Industries cohort
- Pitched at: Startup Texas Emerging Industries Demo Day 2023