Activate Fellow News: October 2026
November 5, 2026
October was a big month for Activate Fellows. Cohort Companies announced grid-scale storage projects, won national pitch competitions, closed new funding, and landed on TIME, MIT Technology Review, and Fast Company lists of the year’s top innovations. Here’s a roundup of what they achieved:
MAJOR FELLOW MILESTONES
- Antora Energy (Andrew Ponec & Justin Briggs, Cohort 2018, David Bierman, Cohort 2017) and Pratt Energy announced a nearly 6-gigawatt-hour thermal battery project to deliver affordable energy and strengthen the Kansas economy.
- Pascal (Jinyoung Seo & Adam Slavney, Cohort 2023) raised $9.3 million to advance initial commercial deployments of its next-generation cooling technology, featured in TechCrunch’s exclusive, “Heat pump tech is 170 years old—Pascal thinks it’s time for an update.”
- Qunnect (Mael Flament, Cohort 2021) made TIME’s Best Inventions of 2026 with Qu-Mem, the first commercially available quantum memory that stores entangled photons without deep freezers.
- Inlyte Energy (Antonio Baclig, Cohort 2021) and CutPeak Energy announced an 80-megawatt-hour battery project at a Massachusetts ski area.
- TerraFlow Energy acquired FlowCellutions (Becca Segel, Cohort 2025), expanding its flow battery technology capabilities.
- PAGE Technologies (Elliot Strand & Payton Goodrich, Cohort 2025) deployed its real-time water chemistry monitoring system at South Platte Renew, marking two firsts for the company: its first fully winterized outdoor installation and its first deployment at a municipal wastewater treatment facility.
- rStream (Ian Goodine & Ethan Walko, Cohort 2024) released a case study on how Gillette Stadium uses its AI robotics to sort waste.
FELLOW FUNDING
- Blaze Energy (Rok Sitar, Cohort 2023) raised $6.5M for low-carbon shipping retrofits.
- Bairitone Health (Meagan Pitcher, Cohort 2024) closed an oversubscribed $2.4M seed round to support Bairitone’s clinical site expansion, FDA-facing work, and the continued product development of its SOMNAR technology.
- Daqus Energy (Harish Banda, Cohort 2024) secured a nearly $2M U.S. Army Phase II SBIR contract.
FELLOW PARTNERSHIPS
- Pulsenics (Essam Elsahwi & Mariam Awara, Cohort 2022) partnered with Scribner on the new 830 Stack Fuel Cell Test System.
- Tyfast (GJ La O’ & Haodong Liu, Cohort 2022) announced a partnership with Australian Vanadium Limited to build a U.S.–Australia vanadium supply chain for its fast-charging batteries.
- florrent (Jose LaSalle, Cohort 2023) joined CurrENT Europe as a new member.
FELLOW AWARDS
- Raven Space Systems (Blake Herren, Cohort 2024) won the $1M grand prize at the inaugural Horizon Manufacturing Cup, hosted by the American Center for Manufacturing & Innovation at Indiana University Bloomington.
- Intero Biosystems (Charlie Childs, Cohort 2025) won Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.
- Fervo Energy (Tim Latimer & Jack Norbeck, Cohort 2018) and Brimstone (Cody Finke, Cohort 2019) were named to MIT Technology Review’s 2026 Climate Tech Companies to Watch.
- BluumBio’s (Katherine French, Cohort 2022) PFAS destruction work was named one of Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech in the Sustainability & Energy category.
- REEgen (Alexa Schmitz, Cohort 2022), Prospect Growth (Wyatt Arnold, Cohort 2024), Every Electric (Andrew Wang & Richard May, Cohort 2024), and Coflux Purification (Alec Ajnsztajn, Cohort 2024) were recognized in Cleantech Group’s 2026 Cleantech 50 to Watch.
- Found Energy (Peter Godart, Cohort 2022), Tandem PV (Colin Bailie & Chris Eberspacher, Cohort 2016), and Still Bright (Jon Vardner, Cohort 2022) were listed on the Norrsken100.
- Solidec (Ryan DuChanois & Yang Xia, Cohort 2024) and Aralez Bio (Tina Boville, Cohort 2019) were named to C&EN’s 10 Start-Ups to Watch.
- Pheronym (Fatma Kaplan & Cameron Schiller, Cohort 2021) won first place at the GrowTECH Fest 2026 startup pitch competition.
- Deco Labs (Natalie Rubio & John Yuen, Cohort 2026) won the Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein at NC State startup pitch competition in Raleigh, NC.
- Teragen Energy (Ruofan Wang & Joshua Persky, Cohort 2026) won the 2026 start@ETS competition.
- Elateq (Lily Rajic, Cohort 2024) won the Water & Waste Management category at the 2026 THRIVE Global Impact Challenge by SVG Ventures.
- AIMM (Luis Estevez, Cohort 2025) won the 2026 Ocean Exchange Neptune Award.
FELLOW FEATURES
- Antora Energy (Andrew Ponec & Justin Briggs, Cohort 2018, David Bierman, Cohort 2017) was featured in The New York Times article, “A New Kind of Battery Is Taking Off. This One Stores Blistering Heat.”
- Tandem PV (Colin Bailie & Chris Eberspacher, Cohort 2016) was featured in The New York Times article, “U.S. Solar Panel Makers Try to Catch China With a Big Leap in Technology.”
- Akhila Mallavarapu (Vividence Labs, Cohort 2026) was featured in the Penn Today article, “Harnessing technology to help farmers assess crop health earlier.”
- Kathy Andersen (Brint Tech, Cohort 2026) was featured in the Interesting Engineering interview, “The laser sensor that can spot tiny hydrogen leaks in seconds.”
- Anning Corporation (Sophie Broun, Cohort 2026) was featured in the Interesting Engineering article, “Hydrogen cheaper than gasoline could come from rocks 10,000 feet underground.”
- Calectra (Nate Weger & Pauliina Meskanen, Cohort 2024) was named in C&EN’s five chemistry start-ups on our radar in 2026.
- Solidec (Ryan DuChanois & Yang Xia, Cohort 2024) was featured in the October 2026 issue of AIChE’s Chemical Engineering Progress as an NSF SBIR highlight.
- Intero Biosystems (Charlie Childs, Cohort 2025) was featured in the newest issue of the Colorado BioScience Association magazine.
- Coastal Assembly (Walt Zesk, Cohort 2026) was featured in Accuweather's, “AI-powered reefs may help beaches rebuild as erosion worsens.”
FELLOW PUBLICATIONS & APPEARANCES
- Antonio Baclig (Inlyte Energy, Cohort 2021) joined host Adam Tiefenthaler on the Watts Up Renewables Podcast.
- Hitesh Manglani (Supercarb, Cohort 2024) was featured in gener8tor’s Founder Series Spotlight.
- Coastal Assembly (Walt Zesk, Cohort 2026) is showcased in the Sensing Oceans exhibition at the MIT Museum.
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