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Activate Updates: April 2026

Written by Leanna Yu | April 29, 2026

The Activate community spent this month building, connecting and launching—moving hard tech forward at the speed the moment demands.

A first-of-its-kind battery facility. A landmark IPO filing. Innovators making their case directly to lawmakers.

From a factory floor in Fremont to a demo hall in San Francisco to a keynote stage in Washington, D.C.—we showed up at SF and DC Climate Weeks because hard tech doesn’t scale in silos.

At Activate, we know that community is the connective tissue of breakthrough innovation. Defining milestones are built on many small moments along the way. This month showed us what this momentum looks like—and what becomes possible when the right people, across every sector, keep showing up together.

 

 

Fervo Energy Slated to Be First Activate Company to Go Public

Fervo Energy (Tim Latimer and Jack Norbeck, Cohort 2018) has filed for an IPO and is on its way to becoming the first Activate Fellow-led company to go public. The next-generation geothermal company promising 24/7 carbon-free energy also recently secured $421M in non-recourse project financing for the first phase of its flagship Cape Station development and closed a $462M Series E in December.

 

 

Activate Hosts FOUNDERS Day on Capitol Hill

Activate recently hosted our FOUNDERS Day (Fostering Opportunities for Unleashing New Development in Entrepreneurship and Research-driven Solutions) Technology Breakfast on Capitol Hill—bringing together members of Congress, staff from a number of science and technology offices, federal agency leadership, and Activate Fellows advancing breakthroughs in energy, quantum, semiconductors, aerospace, and more.

 

 

 

Celebrating Climate Week from Coast to Coast

What happened at SF and DC Climate Weeks? The Bay Area buzzed with demos at Activate’s Live From the Future deep-tech showcase. Meanwhile, Margaret Lumley (Roca Water, Cohort 2022) won a pitch competition for women in clean tech and sustainability. On the opposite coast, Activate Chief Development Officer Amy Gilbert Fehir rallied support for climate hard tech as the keynote speaker at DC Climate Week. And much more!

 

 

 

Elysium Robotics Is Pointing to the U.K. Next

Rodrigo Alvarez-Icaza (Elysium Robotics, Cohort 2024) spent years building a technology that could redefine what robots are capable of—and he nearly watched it disappear. Find out how his company survived a “near-death experience” and then went on to thrive—now with plans to open an ARIA-funded office in the U.K. this summer—all while moving closer to bringing human-like robotic hands into the world.

 

 

 

Activate Players Launch the Electrochemistry Foundry

Two of Activate’s co-founders and an Activate Fellow alum have joined forces to launch the Electrochemistry Foundry (ECF), the nonprofit building California’s first open-access, shared-use battery pilot manufacturing facility. ECF’s innovative new model could significantly reduce the time and cost to validate breakthrough battery technologies. Read more here.


 

Startup Trends from the Front Lines of Deep Tech

The selection process for Activate’s next class of fellows provides a unique window into the most cutting-edge trends in hard tech. In Axios Pro Deals, Activate CEO Cyrus Wadia shares which emerging ideas are gaining traction at the earliest stages—from AI embedded in physical systems to programmable biology and domestic supply chains. Read more here.

 

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