Activate Updates: September 2022

Activate Updates

Sep 15

Written By Leanna Yu

This Month's Features

Launching our search for a new CEO
Applications are now open for Activate Cohort 2023!
Celebrating $1B in follow-on funding for fellows
Welcoming new Activate board members

Plus

Activate Fellow wins
Ecosystem news
Job opportunities

The search begins!

In partnership with Diversified Search Group, we have launched the search for our new leader and CEO. With input from our team and Activate community, we developed a position profile that sketches out the characteristics sought in our next leader. Ultimately, Activate’s next CEO will be excited to lead the effort of creating powerful, positive impact and outcomes through a “people-first” organization with a “fellows-first” mission.

Learn more

Activate Cohort 2023 applications are open!

Applications are open to become part of Activate’s newest cohort! The two-year Activate Fellowship affords fellows the time and financial resources needed to experiment, assess, and iterate their approach to market. And the fellowship’s tailored support, prioritizing fellows’ well-being and self-discovery, allows them to forge their own paths and explore what’s possible. Applications close October 31.

Want to help us get the word out? Learn more about the recruitment timeline and use this outreach toolkit to help amplify the fellowship opportunity with your networks so that we can find our next cohort of incredible Activate Fellows.

Want to be a technical reviewer and help choose the next cohort? If you are an expert in any of our eight focus industries and could spend approximately five hours reviewing applications in November, we would love to have you join our team of external reviewers. Complete this form to express your interest.

find out more

One. Billion. Dollars.

Nearly a year ago we were celebrating how Activate Fellows had collectively attracted more than $370 million in follow-on funding across six years and seven cohorts. One year and cohort later, it is hard to believe that our 144 fellows and their 106 companies have already surpassed the one billion dollar mark.

Read On

Introducing three new powerhouse board members
Liesel Pritzker Simmons, investment strategist and principal of Blue Haven Initiative, has just joined the Activate board of directors. She joins Troy Brewster, senior audit manager at Blazek & Vetterling, and Morrow (“Morry”) Cater, founding principal and president of Cater Communications, who joined the board in August 2021.

Meet the Newest members

Join us for #ClimateWeekNYC

Climate Week is the biggest climate event on earth. This year, Activate has arrived. We will be hosting or co-hosting several exclusive events, bringing together Activate staff, fellows, and alums, as well as investors, government, non-profit, and academic leaders in climate tech—culminating on September 22 in a showcase of entrepreneurs from hard-tech fellowships and accelerators throughout the New York region. Interested in joining us? Let us know.

If you will also be in New York for Climate Week, get in touch to discuss partnerships or other ways to engage with the Activate New York community.

get in Touch

Activate and Robigo win Startup Boston's Community Awards!

Thanks to all who voted for Activate and Robigo, co-founded by Andee Wallace (Cohort 2022), for the 2022 Startup Boston Community Awards! We’ve been named this year’s Best Accelerator/Incubator and Robigo was named Best Student-Founded Startup. This award means so much to us because it recognizes the effectiveness of our two-year entrepreneurial fellowship that provides innovators with the time, resources, education, and community they need to be successful.

Thank you to all who voted and supported us over the past few weeks through nominations and public voting!

Funding Milestones
In the past month, Fervo Energy (co-founded by Tim Latimer and Jack Norbeck, Cohort 2018) and Zanskar (co-founded by Joel Edwards and Carl Hoiland, Cohort 2020) raised $138M and $12M respectively, indicating a high interest in geothermal energy coinciding with the announcement of a new DOE Energy Earthshot to reduce the cost of geothermal power.

Also reaching a funding milestone, Sync Computing (co-founded by Jeffrey Chou and Suraj Bramhavar, Cohort 2020) led a $15.5M funding round in August to be put toward customer acquisition, R&D, marketing and sales, and product development.

Ben Jennet & Aaron Hall: Finalists in Biomimicry Institute Ray of Hope
The Biomimicry Institute's Ray of Hope Prize provides key mentorship, funding, and exposure to nature-inspired innovators. Intropic Materials, founded by Aaron Hall (Cohort 2021), and Metavoxel, founded by Ben Jennett (Cohort 2021), are both finalists for this year’s prize, recognized for their potential to reduce or eliminate many current extractive industries and practices while revitalizing degraded ecosystems.

CalWave successfully concludes wave energy pilot
CalWave, co-founded by Marcus Lehmann (Cohort 2015), successfully completed its 10-month wave energy pilot program–the first at-sea, long-duration wave energy project in California. During this test off the coast of San Diego, which was supported by an award from the DOE, CalWave’s pilot device showed over 99% system uptime throughout the deployment. Next, CalWave will test a larger version of the technology with the potential to power 3,000 households.

Activate Fellows are #ScientistsOnAMission.

Track our fellows' progress in real-time on our social media feeds.

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

Upcoming Events

Greentown Labs’ Climatetech Summit 2022 will feature 200+ startups and their climate-tech solutions; keynotes and sessions featuring leaders across finance, policy, and justice; and networking with key climate action stakeholders. Register to attend virtually or in person in Houston, TX or Somerville, MA on November 2 and 3.

2022 is the 18th year of Cleantech Open (CTO), a blockbuster event from October 25-27 at the San Jose Convention Center showcasing 91 CTO startups plus pitch competitions. Register to attend using this Eventbrite link (or use the code PARTNER30) and get a 30 percent discount. More information can be found here.

Relevant Opportunities

As part of the Lam Capital Venture Competition, ten startups will have the chance to compete on October 7 at UC Berkeley for a $250,000 SAFE investment from Lam Capital. The theme of this year’s competition is "Engineering a Greener Fab" and will focus on advancing environmental sustainability for semiconductor fabrication equipment and processes. Applications are due September 16.
The Hello Tomorrow Global Challenge provides connections, visibility, and up to €100K in equity-free funding to a deep-tech startup or project that uses advanced technology to answer a societal or industrial challenge. Applications are open until September 23.
Elemental Excelerator’s Innovation Challenges create opportunities for visionary entrepreneurs to implement and scale their solutions with some of the largest customers in the world to help them accelerate their decarbonization goals. Up to $2.5M is available for funded pilots across three challenges. Review eligibility criteria and apply by October 4.

Activate Voices

Liminal, co-founded by Andrew Hsieh and Barry Van Tassell (Cohort 2016), announced the launch of its EchoStat® platform, an in-process inspection innovation that improves the reliability of EV batteries based on ultrasound and machine learning.
Gradient, co-founded by Vince Romanin (Cohort 2017), won the House Beautiful 2022 Live Better Award for its sleek heat pump. The award described the device as “an air conditioner that's not only good-looking but multi-functional, too.”
Ray Weitekamp (Cohort 2015), co-founder of polySpectra, joined the Climate Tech Cocktails podcast to talk about 3D printing and how augmented reality can help leverage digital manufacturing to reduce global energy usage.

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Activate empowers scientists to reinvent the world by bringing their research to market. Our team brings a diversity of experience and a deep track record to helping our fellows bridge the science-to-market gap.

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