Activate Updates: May 2024

Activate Updates

May 29

Summer starts on Memorial Day, but the ARPA-E Summit is when the conference season begins to wind down for climate-tech fans. Recent clean-tech conferences have showcased significant advancements in our sector, with gatherings highlighting the latest innovations, policy discussions, and collaborative efforts to tackle the world’s biggest problems.

The 2024 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, held in Dallas, brought together leaders from government, industry, and academia to discuss cutting-edge research in energy technology. We were particularly excited to host the Female Founders & Funders Happy Hour, where ARPA-E Director Evelyn Wang championed the importance of women in the climate-tech field. "I know all of you will be super successful because you're all women, you're resilient, and you're focused on making an impact," she told participants. Wang has connected Activate with five of our current Activate Fellows, and we're continuously grateful for her involvement, effort, and support. As well, we hosted 300 of our closest friends at the Gaylord Texan, with opening remarks from Brenna Teigler, Activate's Chief Fellowship Officer, and Jolene Gurevich from Breakthrough Energy, our event sponsor.

We also had a great time at SF Climate Week, an event growing into a powerhouse attraction similar to Climate Week NYC. Activate decided to jump in this year, hosting a series of events in our own backyard, including a reception where over 400 people joined us in downtown San Francisco for networking and conversations, and a series of panel discussions in partnership with Anglo American’s Decarbonisation Ventures that explored the dynamics of early-stage startup potential through corporate venture capital. Finally, we enjoyed mingling with some of Activate’s BFFs in Autodesk Gallery’s unique event space.

Energized by emerging partnerships and ideas, we are ready for summer, Activate’s Cohort 2022 graduation, and welcoming Cohort 2024!

Breaking Ground: From Bright Ideas to Hard Lessons

By Jeremy Pitts, Managing Director of the Activate Houston Community

In the early 2000s, I worked as a mechanical engineer developing solar trackers and concentrators for a startup. Our goal? To build a commercially viable rooftop tracking solar concentrator. We had a team of tremendously smart and talented people who devised some clever and innovative designs. In our eyes, we were poised for success.

The only problem was that all that shine made us go a little blind. We didn’t realize we were about to stumble into some hard lessons—all of which I’m about to share.

Learn More

Science on a Mission Episode Two: Catalyzing Change with Philanthropy

In episode two of Science on a Mission, Cortney Newell, Senior Director of Development at Activate, moderates a conversation with Olivia Strader of LH Capital/Lyda Hill Philanthropies, Margaret Lee from Prime Coalition, and Pat McGrath from the Schmidt Family Foundation about how philanthropic organizations can uniquely contribute to the advancement of climate tech by leveraging their resources, convening power, and innovative funding strategies.

Listen to episode two

Bringing Justice to Climate-Tech Innovation

The energy transition requires a wide-scale deployment of green technologies to harness, store, and distribute energy—ideally, renewable energy—to electrify entire sectors of the economy and transform the built environment. In this massive effort to move toward a clean-energy future, Jose LaSalle (florrent, Cohort 2023) says we need to ask, “Who will benefit? Who will bear the costs? And will it reduce or reinforce inequalities?”

READ ON

Activate Fellows and staff at the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit with ARPA-E Director Evelyn Wang

Attendees connect at the Activate's networking reception

Female Founders & Funders Happy Hour

ARPA-E's Priyanka Bakaya, Orion's Mollie Wilkinson, ARPA-E Director Evelyn Wang, Activate Berkeley Managing Director Jill Fuss, and Activate Senior Partnership Associate Kavi Reddy at the Female Founders & Funders Happy Hour

Activate at ARPA-E

Last week at ARPA-E, we had the opportunity to connect with innovators driving groundbreaking advancements in energy technology. Highlights included co-hosting a Female Founders & Funders Happy Hour and putting on a networking reception for visionaries in the energy community.

When ARPA-E Director Evelyn Wang spoke during the Female Founders & Funders Happy Hour, she championed the importance of hosting women-only events for climate tech.

"Yes, we're at a female founders and funders event. And here, it looks like there are so many of us. But out in the conference, it's like a sea of men all around us! Some of whom are some of the best and most amazing supporters of women, by the way," Wang said. "But see, this event is a spotlight. Use it as a spotlight and make the most of it. People will remember you. Because you're not a sea of men. Use that to your advantage. I know all of you will be super successful because you're all women, you're resilient, and you're focused on making an impact."

Wang has connected Activate with five of our current fellows and we're continuously grateful for her involvement, effort, and support. Looking forward to seeing more women climate leaders at our other events to come!

Thank you to all our event participants and partners!

In Our Ecosystem

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

Upcoming Events

Taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah on June 13, Progression 2024 will showcase startups that have the potential to make progress in the nonprofit Protect Our Winters’ fight against climate change. Bringing together an audience of investors, this event aims to connect fundraising startups with potential funders.
On June 25, the full-day conference Urban Future Forum: Equity in Piloting Climate Solutions is designed to increase connectivity within the climate-tech ecosystem, explore strategies for advancing equitable pilot projects, and accelerate the deployment of climate solutions. With panels and fireside chats, this New York City-based event will provide insightful discussions and networking opportunities.
The New York Venture Summit on September 4-5 brings 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.

Relevant Opportunities

Elemental Excelerator provides up to $3M in funding and tailored support to companies looking to strengthen their core growth strategies or deploy commercial products. Applicants must be startups addressing climate change and related issues, with the most impact for startups at the pre-Seed through Series D+ stage. Applications are due May 31.
The NSF Engines program encourages regional teams of innovators and ecosystem builders from industry, higher education, nonprofits, tribal nations, and state and local governments to form regional coalitions and submit proposals aimed at building innovation ecosystems across the United States. These individuals and entities are interested in catalyzing and fostering technology translation and development. Each NSF Engine can receive up to $160M. Letters of intent are due June 18.
Hosted by Cemex Ventures, the Construction Startup Competition 24 will provide winners with networking opportunities, equity-free cash prizes, visibility for piloting technologies, and a pitch day with the biggest stage for construction investors. Applications are due June 30.

Activate Voices

Zanskar (Carl Hoiland and Joel Edwards, Cohort 2020) announced the close of $30M in new funding led by Obvious Ventures. The company will use the funding to scale its AI-led exploration technology to develop new geothermal resources.
Limelight Steel (Olivia Dippo and Andy Zhao, Cohort 2022) was featured in a Fast Company article about the company's use of lasers to produce low-carbon steel.
Inside Climate News covered Electrified Thermal Solutions (Joey Kabel and Dan Stack, Cohort 2021) and how the company is using a $5M U.S. Department of Energy grant to help build its first commercial-scale demonstration project.
Pascal (Jinyoung Seo and Adam Slavney, Cohort 2023) raised an $8M Seed round led by Engine Ventures, with Khosla Ventures and Blindspot Ventures participating. The company will use the funding to productize its solid refrigerant-based system for high-efficiency climate-friendly heat pumps.
The Washington Post covered the momentum building around Cella's (Claire Nelson, Cohort 2023) initial demo project and its role in accelerating Kenya's green industrialization.
In a peer-reviewed study published in Nature, Geolabe (Claudia Hulbert, Cohort 2023) developed the first-ever method to automatically detect methane emissions at high spatial and temporal resolution and global scale.
Suraj Bramhavar (Cohort 2016) was featured in an interview with IEEE Spectrum about his new role with ARIA in the United Kingdom, where he's heading the agency's first program that aims to develop new technology to make AI computation a thousand times more cost efficient than it is today.