Impact Science Ventures Invests in Cohort Companies, Catalyzes New Investment Partnership Program at Activate

We’re thrilled to share the news that Impact Science Ventures (ISV), a venture capital firm co-founded by Activate’s former VP of investments and focused on scaling scientific breakthroughs for global impact, has invested in nine companies founded by Activate Fellows, including Antora Energy, UMARO Foods, Sepion Technologies, and Liminal (formerly Feasible). ISV is also the co-creator of a new Activate program, to be officially launched this summer, that will bring together early-stage technology investors and Activate cohort companies. 

ISV’s managing partners and co-founders, Robert Ethier, Michelle Kiang, and Alain Harrus, united during their time supporting Activate Fellows. Ethier served at Activate as investment director in 2018, leaving the organization as VP of investments last year to launch the firm. Both Kiang and Harrus have supported Activate as subject matter experts and advisors to a number of fellows. All three share a common vision of how their investment and operational experiences can help build the next generation of industry-leading companies.

“As an investor, Michelle brings her experience as an entrepreneur but also as someone who has worked in large corporations. She was already a trusted advisor for more than a year before ISV formed and invested in Liminal,” says Andrew Hsieh, Cohort 2016 fellow, and CEO of Liminal (formerly known as Feasible), which recently announced its Series A. “ISV, and all of our investors, believe in our mission and product, and they’re proven themselves to be real partners.”

ISV is an early-stage, deep-tech-focused venture firm designed to capitalize on science-based innovations developed by the world’s top scientists across critical impact sectors, including energy, manufacturing, materials, semiconductors, biotech, and agriculture. The ISV model is built on its managing partners’ relationships and hands-on experience across the science R&D and startup ecosystem and their engagement with leading incubation programs as mentors/advisors to help first-time founders accelerate technology and product/market fit derisking. ISV believes this approach gives its partners the first look into the world’s most promising technologies that have the greatest potential for commercial success.  

Michelle Kiang

“ISV believes that science-based innovations hold the key to solving humanity's biggest challenges—especially climate change," says ISV managing partner and co-founder Michelle Kiang. She likens launching ISV to running a startup, “but this time my success will mean having helped many more climate-focused startups and founders bring their innovations to market,” she says. “Plus, women and people of color are still more or less unicorns in the VC world, so I’m doing my part to start moving the statistics in the right direction.”

A Ph.D. quantum physicist, Kiang got her start in entrepreneurship shortly after grad school to commercialize her invention as part of her thesis and spent her early career building semiconductor and communications products as co-founder and CEO/CMO at a number of successful startups. She also held executive roles in strategy and corporate development at Micron Technology and NeoPhotonics, and, prior to joining ISV, was a venture partner at Industrial Technology Investment Corporation.

Alain Harrus

Alain Harrus got his start as a research scientist at Bell Laboratories, applying his Ph.D. in solid-state physics to breakthrough process technologies that kept semiconductor manufacturers on track with Moore’s Law. This was key to his later role as CTO at Novellus Systems (now Lam Research). Harrus then spent 11 years as a venture capital investor (at Compass Venture Partners and Crosslink Capital). Most recently he led Kateeva, a pioneer in production equipment for the low-cost mass-production of OLED displays, as CEO before transitioning to chair its board.

Ethier joined Activate in 2018 to help close the funding gap between hard technology innovators and product commercialization by advising Activate Fellows and building Activate’s investor network. Before joining Activate, he consulted with startups across all spectrums, focusing on business strategy and fundraising. Prior to 2017, he was an institutional investor, managing a multibillion portfolio for an insurance company. In this role, Ethier excelled at finding opportunities in volatile and uncertain markets, creating a peer-beating portfolio. He is also a CFA charterholder.

Robert Ethier

“There is a renaissance in investing in science right now,” says Ethier. “Investors are seeing both need and opportunity: the need for innovation to really move the planet forward, and the opportunity to gain outsized returns, in this space.”

A New Investor Partnership Program to Accelerate Impact 
The ISV team brings a wealth of hands-on experience in building and funding deep tech companies from the earliest stage to commercial success, and they will bring that experience and commitment to a new investor partnership program that we are launching this summer.

Over the last six years, Activate has seen how a lack of access to even just a small amount of investment capital can delay the commercialization of hard-technology innovations that could directly and substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions, open new markets, improve lives, and infrastructure, and boost national security.

A typical Activate Fellow-led company is a team of just one or two people that have demonstrated a scientific breakthrough and has phenomenal access to research facilities and advisors but lack access to capital that can be used to ensure the business model matures in pace with the technology breakthroughs. 

To address this challenge, ISV approached Activate to explore the possibility of offering early-stage investments to every new Activate Fellow. Activate recognized this could be an effective way to catalyze more early-stage capital to support the growth and success of fellows and is working with ISV to pilot the program. “ISV is committed to supporting early-stage founders and is uniquely positioned to be an invaluable resource to Activate Fellows throughout their entrepreneurial journey,” says Matt Price, Activate co-founder, and president.

The goal is to create a program whereby mission-aligned investors can easily and seamlessly make investments across Activate cohort companies that have demonstrated a clear pathway for creating commercial value with their ventures. We are also seeking additional investment partners for the launch this summer.

“Our fellowships serve a market failure by supporting talent at the earliest stages. This new program will grow that support by accelerating investment in deep science startups at their earliest stages,” says Ilan Gur, Activate’s founder and CEO. “We can catalyze the private sector to engage in world-changing ideas earlier than they might otherwise. The net effect is that we increase the odds and pace at which cutting-edge research can get out of the world of academic publications and into the world of new products, industries, and infrastructure to serve society.”

In addition to ISV, Activate envisions working with a handful of other investors whereby each Activate Fellow-led company is provided with the option to draw down a pre-seed investment from the pool of investors at pre-established terms once those companies reach certain milestones in the Activate Fellowship. 

“We are excited to see this program accelerate the speed and impact delivered by fellows without compromising returns to investors,” says Price.

If you are an investor and are interested in learning more about participating in the pilot of this Activate program this summer, please complete this short form by May 13, 2022.  

Note: Activate is an independent, non-profit organization, and though ISV has a deep history with Activate, we have no financial ties to ISV.