Activate Updates: August 2024

Activate Updates

Aug 23

It’s been a busy summer so far! We announced Cohort 2024, celebrated Activate’s ninth birthday, and our fellows broke $2.4B in total follow-on funding! (Don’t miss our list of big fellow-funding wins below, and all their great news coverage.) We also released another episode of our Science on a Mission podcast, and are excited to share an insightful perspective on climate philanthropy from our very own Chief Growth Officer, Karin Lion. Stay tuned to our upcoming newsletters—as there's plenty more innovation and inspiration coming your way!

BREAKING GROUND: DON’T GIVE UP ON CLIMATE PHILANTHROPY

By Karin Lion, Activate Chief Growth Officer

Activate Chief Growth Officer Karin Lion shares her past experience managing a $150M portfolio and the challenge of evaluating impact in the social sector. Now at Activate, she sees our fellows demonstrating a clear and compelling ROI that she hadn’t witnessed in all her years of philanthropy work. Even in this moment of uncertainty for philanthropy, here’s why she doesn’t want climate philanthropists to give up.

Read On

Where does climate investment currently stand?

We dive into this question with three investors in the new episode of our podcast, Science on a Mission. Recorded live at SXSW, Activate Director of Investments Calvin Cupini moderates a conversation with investor and journalist Molly Wood, Matthew Nordan of Azolla Ventures, and Craig Lawrence of Energy Transition Ventures. They discuss how funding strategies in the climate sector have evolved, trends they expect to see, and advice for founders. Listen now to “Flex Factor: Adaptive VC Strategy Fuels Future Climate Tech.”

A Must-Listen for Science Entrepreneurs

Our very own Calivin Culpini, Activate’s Director of Investments, was a guest on the Deep Tech Catalyst podcast, where he discussed what makes a successful deep-tech founder. He dove into the unique challenges founders encounter, how to switch your mindset from the lab to entrepreneurship, how to articulate a vision to investors, and much more. The episode is packed with advice for bringing your scientific research to market.

AeroShield Celebrates New Site and New Funding

AeroShield Materials (Elise Strobach and Kyle Wilke, Cohort 2020) held an event to celebrate its new manufacturing site in Waltham, MA, a $14.M grant from ARPA-E, and the close of a $5M funding round from Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, MassVentures, MassMutual, and others. Activate was honored to help organize the gathering and see AeroShield recognized for creating windows that have the power to make our homes and buildings more energy-efficient.

Climate-Tech Breakthrough Gets $6.6M in Backing

SirenOpt (Jared O’Leary, Cohort 2023) recently closed a $6.6M Seed round co-led by Voyager Ventures and TOMORROW. SirenOpt’s manufacturing intelligence platform provides rich real-time insights to improve manufacturing for advanced coatings, thin films, and nano-scale materials—significantly increasing efficiency in the production processes behind everything from semiconductors and batteries to turbine blades and smartphone screens. TOMORROW’s Sebastian Pollok called SirenOpt’s technology “a climate technology breakthrough.”

In Our Ecosystem

Upcoming events, relevant opportunities, and what we're reading.

Upcoming Events

During the 2023 Channel Partner Awards Report Out webinar, Launch Alaska, Grid Catalyst, AgLaunch and Urban Future Lab will report on what they did with their award funding, sharing case studies and key takeaways for peers interested in replicating a similar effort. Feel free to invite team members from your organization who may benefit from this knowledge exchange. The event will take place on August 28 from 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. MT/1:00-3:00 p.m. ET.
Join us for an exciting evening of networking and innovation in Golden, CO, at the Activate Fellows Networking Happy Hour with Czero Inc. on August 28! Meet Activate Fellows, alumni, and staff, and Activate’s community of supporters. Register.
This year’s New York Venture Summit will bring together investors and innovators for a series of networking opportunities and talks about the issues facing investors and startup CEOs alike. A select group of innovators will be chosen to showcase their technologies to an exclusive audience of venture capitalists, corporate investors, private investors, and more. The event will take place on September 4-5 at the Javits Center in New York City. Get your tickets before August 29 for a discount.
Jill Fuss, Managing Director of the Activate Berkeley Community, will speak at the Bakar ClimatEnginuity Hub (BCH) Symposium on Climate Change Technology on September 6. The recently announced BCH will serve as a nexus for excellence in climate and energy innovation and entrepreneurship, and help lower barriers to impactful discoveries. Request to attend.
How can varied backgrounds and experiences fuel your clean energy startup? Attend the ConNEX Workshop with New Energy Nexus California and Momentum on September 12 from 11 a.m.- 12p.m PT. Learn how to recruit and retain a powerhouse team! Register.
Brenna Tiegler, Activate’s Chief Fellowship Officer, will join an influential panel on September 18 at the California Battery Innovation and Manufacturing Ecosystem conference. The panel discussion, co-hosted by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will bring together Activate alum and battery technologies expert Richard Wang, Prelude Ventures climate-tech VC Matt Eggers, Congruent Ventures managing partner Josh Posamentier, and Sylvatex co-founder and CEO Virginia Klausmier. Don’t miss the chance to see leaders in the field discuss the critical pre-competitive ecosystem investments needed to support the success of next-generation battery companies in California.

Relevant Opportunities

The Hello Tomorrow Global Challenge has opened applications for its 10th edition. This is a world-renowned competition designed to unearth early-stage startups that are developing cutting-edge, ‘deep’ technologies to tackle worldwide challenges. Selected participants will have the chance to win equity-free prize money of up to €100K, customized coaching sessions, and personal introductions with investors and corporates. They also get access to a dedicated Investor Day for 1-on-1 meetings with investors on March 12, 2025, as well as opportunities to pitch and showcase in front of an exclusive audience of investors and industry leaders at the annual Hello Tomorrow Global Summit, the biggest gathering of the deep-tech ecosystem, which will be held on March 13-14, 2025, in Paris. Applications are now open until September 22.
Chevron Studio is accepting applications for its Cohort 5. Chevron Studio provides an opportunity for entrepreneurs to commercialize technologies developed at universities and national labs. This unique program, launched from a partnership between Chevron and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, supports scale-up and commercialization of technologies (including opportunities to field trial) that have the potential to enable a lower-carbon future. Technology focus areas include carbon capture, hydrogen and renewable energy, circular economy, batteries and energy storage, wireless energy, and robotics. Applications for Cohort 5 are open until September 17.

Funding Wins

Twelve (Etosha Cave and Kendra Kuhl, Cohort 2015) closed two loans worth $45M in part to help build out the company’s first sustainable aviation fuels plant in Moses Lake, WA.
Fervo Energy (Tim Latimer and Jack Norbeck, Cohort 2018) was featured in the Washington Post following the announcement of two power purchase agreements totaling 320 megawatts with Southern California Edison, one of the nation’s largest utilities.
Antora Energy (David Bierman, Cohort 2017, Justin Briggs and Andrew Ponec, Cohort 2018) was chosen by ARPA-E for a $14.5M award to accelerate the launch of its heat and power thermal battery product.
Foray Bioscience (Ashley Beckwith, Cohort 2022) raised a $3M Seed round to help restore ecosystems through biomanufacturing. The startup has raised over $3.87M in total funding so far.
Feon Energy (Wenxiao Huang and Zhiao Yu, Cohort 2023) secured a $6.1M Seed round for electrolyte innovation and achieved the UN 38.3 certification for lithium-metal batteries.
AeroShield Materials (Elise Strobach and Kyle Wilke, Cohort 2020) announced the opening of their new manufacturing facility in Waltham, MA, and the close of $5M in additional funding.
Electrified Thermal Solutions (Joey Kabel and Dan Stack, Cohort 2021) was selected for over $40M in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.

In the News

We highly recommend checking out this engaging deep dive into the trials and tribulations of science entrepreneurship by C&EN reporter Matt Blois. The piece features multiple Activate Fellows including Sudharsan Dwaraknath (Quorum Bio, Cohort 2022), Andrew Wang and Richard May (Standard Potential, Cohort 2024), and Raymond Weitekamp (polySpectra, Cohort 2015)—as well as Activate Chief Fellowship Officer Brenna Teigler.
Leah Ellis (Sublime Systems, Cohort 2020) was featured on NBC10Boston, where she explained Sublime Systems’ innovative new process for creating low-carbon cement.
Found Energy (Peter Godart, Cohort 2022) was featured in the Boston Globe for the company’s revolutionary method of using stored energy in aluminum to heat buildings, power factories, and maybe even light our homes. Godart was also a special guest on the Climate Tech Cocktails podcast, discussing how Found Energy is setting new standards in the climate-tech arena.
Brimstone (Cody Finke, Cohort 2019) was featured in a KALW audio piece that brings listeners inside Brimstone’s lab to explore how the company makes carbon-free cement.
After raising $240M in venture capital, Houston-based Fervo Energy (Tim Latimer and Jack Norbeck, Cohort 2018) has taken the opportunity to expand–more than quadrupling the size of its headquarters.
Garrett Boudinot (Vycarb, Cohort 2022) was a guest on the Product Talk podcast, where he gave Activate a shout-out for being a fantastic resource in the science entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Katy Jinkins (SixLine SemiConductor, Cohort 2023) was profiled in the Capital Times, for her work to revolutionize electronics by replacing silicon.
MIT did a story on SiTration (Brendan Smith, Cohort 2020) for its revolutionary process for recovering and extracting critical materials, saying that SiTration is “pioneering the future of materials extraction.”
Concerto Biosciences (Jared Kehe and Cheri Ackerman, Cohort 2020) received FDA clearance to initiate a clinical trial for its live biotherapeutic product designed to treat atopic dermatitis. This marks a significant step forward in developing a new treatment option for this common skin condition.
Eli Hornstein (Elysia Creative Biology, Cohort 2024) was profiled by North Carolina State University. Hornstein explains how he is working to reduce methane emissions from livestock with innovative feed additives that not only cut down on methane but also boost livestock health.