Activate is going global! We’ve just announced plans to launch our new Activate Global – Singapore Fellowship. This is the first international milestone for Activate’s Innovation Labs by expanding our mission beyond the United States, supporting science entrepreneurs in new geographies and at every stage of their journeys. Already piloting programs that are shaping the future of science entrepreneurship, Innovation Labs is growing fast, with Singapore as the first of many new initiatives.
These efforts are creating fresh pathways for founders to launch ventures, explore new opportunities, and amplify the impact of their research on a global scale.
Scaling Impact Beyond Borders
The Activate Global – Singapore Fellowship brings our proven fellowship model to an international stage, opening new doors for Singapore-based scientists to accelerate their ventures and join a thriving global community of founders. At the same time, this expansion enriches our existing network, creating opportunities for cross-border collaboration, shared learning, and collective impact. By linking founders, mentors, and partners worldwide, we are creating unprecedented opportunities for scientists everywhere to turn breakthroughs into ventures that advance technology and society.
Innovating toward a resilient hard-tech ecosystem
This year at Climate Week NYC, we focused not just on innovative technologies, but on ecosystem-wide innovation, including bold new approaches to funding, cross-sector collaboration, and entrepreneurial support that can catalyze and sustain the future of hard tech for good. From our signature hard-tech showcase, to thought partnership opportunities and curated roundtables, we put our new community-oriented mission into practice.
Etosha Cave’s Full-Circle Journey Back to Activate
Dr. Etosha Cave represents a proud success story for Activate: As a fellow in Activate’s very first cohort in 2015, she co-founded and served as CSO at Twelve, an industry-disrupting carbon transformation company that uses electrochemistry to turn CO2 into essential products. Now she’s bringing her experience back to Activate to serve as Executive-In-Residence and directly support fellows in the Activate New York Community as Interim Managing Director.
Watch the Launch: Activate’s Singapore Expansion
See our Activate Global - Singapore launch in action! Watch the video from the Singapore SWITCH event to hear from our team about what this international expansion means for science entrepreneurship and the global Activate community. Watch here.
Cohort 2026 Applications Have Closed
Applications for Cohort 2026 of our flagship program have officially closed! If you missed your chance to join the next cohort of U.S.-based science entrepreneurs, sign up for the interest list for Cohort 2027 and be the first to hear when applications open. Sign up now.
Upcoming events, relevant opportunities, and what we're reading.
Fellow News
- Fervo Energy (Tim Latimer & Jack Norbeck, Cohort 2018) is featured in the Wall Street Journal article, “We Finally Know How to Get the One Renewable Energy Source Loved by Both Parties.”
- Gallox Semiconductors (Jon McCandless, Cohort 2025), Circe (Shannon Nangle & Marika Ziesack, Cohort 2021), Still Bright (Jon Vardner, Cohort 2022), and PAGE Technologies (Elliot Strand & Payton Goodrich, Cohort 2025) all listed as Cleantech 50 companies to watch.
- Found Energy (Peter Godart, Cohort 2022) is featured in the MIT Tech Review article, “This startup is about to conduct the biggest real-world test of aluminum as a zero-carbon fuel.”
- Copper (Sam Calisch, Cohort 2020) becomes the first major appliance company to be certified as a B Corp.
- Lithios (Mo Alkhadra, Cohort 2022) launches its first field pilot to test and validate the potential of the company’s Advanced Lithium Extraction (ALE) technology.
- Oleo (Gabi Dweck & Kelly Redmond, Cohort 2024) wins first place at the Harvard Business School Climate Symposium Pitch Competition.
- Fervo Energy (Tim Latimer & Jack Norbeck, Cohort 2018) wins the Subsurface Modeling and Analysis category at Bentley Systems' 2025 Year in Infrastructure Awards.
- Sirenopt (Jared O'Leary, Cohort 2023) raises $6.5M to scale PlasmaSens, its AI-powered platform for real-time, non-destructive manufacturing inspection.
- Rhoic (John Slack, Cohort 2024) is selected for mHUB and Current’s 2025 Sustainable Water Tech Accelerator cohort.
- Westwood Aerogel (Patricia McNeil, Cohort 2023) is featured in ResearchAndMarkets.com's Global Aerogels Market 2026-2036 report.
- Allium Engineering (Steve Jepeal, Cohort 2023) is featured in the TechCrunch article, “One startup’s paper-thin stainless steel could change how bridges are built.”
- Takachar (Kevin Kung, Cohort 2018) provides technology for the Philippines' first-ever Rice Straw Bioenergy Hub.
- SirenOpt (Jared O'Leary, Cohort 2023) is awarded $2.4M by the California Energy Commission to advance the development and commercial readiness of its PlasmaSens manufacturing intelligence platform.
- Qunnect (Mael Flament, Cohort 2021) is awarded a contract by the U.S. Air Force to advance quantum networking for defense applications.
- Turnover Labs (Marissa Beatty, Cohort 2022) is a winner from the 2025 MassChallenge Switzerland cohort, selected from 130+ startups shaping a more sustainable future.
- Gradient's (Vince Romanin, Cohort 2017) Boston housing project is featured in the Bloomberg article, “Boston Public Housing Upgrades Units with Window Heat Pumps.”
- 4th State Energies (Pankaj Ghildiyal, Cohort 2025) is awarded a $1.1M U.S. Department of Energy Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) II grant.
- Brimstone (Cody Finke, Cohort 2019) is mentioned in a CNBC article on the Sustainable Concrete Buyers Alliance, founded by Amazon, Meta, Prologis, and other organizations, to use collective purchasing power for low-carbon concrete.
- Vycarb (Garrett Boudinot, Cohort 2022) raises a $5M seed round to scale its sensor-driven carbon storage technology.
- Twelve (Etosha Cave & Kendra Kuhl, Cohort 2015) and Nitricity (Josh McEnaney & Jay Schwalbe, Cohort 2020) are among awardees at the FOAK Summit hosted during Climate Week NYC.
- Fervo Energy (Tim Latimer & Jack Norbeck, Cohort 2018) is named to MIT’s 2025 Climate Tech Companies to Watch list.
- Roca Water (Margaret Lumley, Cohort 2022) is a runner up for the 2025 Wilkes Climate Launch Prize.
- Leah Ellis (Sublime Systems, Cohort 2020) is featured in the Nature article, “Scooped by a cupcake business: why we called our green-cement company Sublime Systems.”
- REEgen (Alexa Schmitz, Cohort 2022) is awarded a $1.1M U.S. National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) II grant.
- PHNX Materials (Krish Mehta, Cohort 2024) opens a pilot facility in San Francisco, the company’s first major step in proving its technology to refine coal ash to onshore supply chains for critical products.
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