June brings about the end of the fellowship for Activate Cohort 2023, a group of brilliant minds who have now completed their two years of Activate programming and are transitioning from fellow to alum. To mark the moment, we’ve asked some of our Cohort 2023 Fellows to reflect on their journeys and experiences from throughout their fellowship. This special series captures the growth, grit, and insights of our fellows and will continue throughout the summer. This month, explore lessons from fellows in the New York and Anywhere communities including navigating the shift of technology from lab to market and the personal shift from scientist and engineer to company and industry leader.

Check out this month’s news.

Lessons from Cohort 2023: Shifting Mindsets from Science to Business

Activate Anywhere’s Cohort 2023 has spent the past two years building ventures that span from decarbonizing shipping to revolutionizing methane tracking. Rok Sitar of Blaze Energy Technologies, used his time during the Activate fellowship to go “110 percent” into entrepreneurship and is now at the helm of a company with the potential to reshape maritime fuel infrastructure. Sitar says, "Having Activate’s support structure...people who are there to support you—that is how the toughest challenge can be overcome with the highest conviction."

Lessons from Cohort 2023: Engineering for Scale

Xiaoyang Shi, co-founder and CEO of Arbon Corp and new graduate of Activate New York, spent the last two years building, validating and now piloting their material that has proven to capture 10 tons of CO2 a year. Shi shares his learnings on scaling Arbon quickly, saying "that mindset shift-engineering for scale, not just performance-was crucial." As we celebrate Activate New York’s graduating Cohort 2023, dive into how one fellow’s journey from academia to entrepreneurship led to rapid breakthroughs—and what his story says about the future of carbon removal and hard-tech innovation.

In Our Ecosystem

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

Fellow News

Pulsenics (Cohort 2022) has a new publication in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy.

Feon (Cohort 2023) opened a new 13,000-square-foot headquarters and future pilot manufacturing facility in Massachusetts.
Takachar (Cohort 2018) has commissioned its T100 equipment with the World Food Programme Iraq and Iraq Department of Agriculture to produce biochar from locally available crop residues, like olive pits, to boost farming resiliency in water-scarce regions.
Photonect Interconnect Solutions (Cohort 2023) has been awarded a $1.25M SBIR Phase II grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Tyfast (Cohort 2022) announced a new partnership with GUS Technology, a Taiwan-based battery manufacturer.
Tim Latimer (Fervo Energy, Cohort 2018) has been named to the 2025 Watch List Leaders by Mechanical Engineering Magazine.
Fervo Energy (Cohort 2018) celebrates a new milestone in ultradeep geothermal well productivity after successfully drilling 15,000+ feet in only 16 days of drilling and a $206M raise to continue construction of a new power plant in Utah-poised to be the largest next-generation geothermal plant in the world.
Elise Strobach (Aeroshield, Cohort 2020) has been named to Boston Globe Media’s 2025 Tech Power Players, a list of the most influential figures in tech in New England.
Sublime (Leah Ellis, Cohort 2020) featured in MassLlive article exuding optimism in the midst of recent funding cuts.
Aepnus Technology (Cohort 2022) celebrated surpassing 4,000 continuous operating hours on its sub-scale electrolyzer system.
Opera Bioscience (Cohort 2023) has been awarded a 1.25M Phase II grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation to scale its technology.
Inlyte (Cohort 2021) was featured in the Cool Down article, “Researchers use once forgotten tech to completely transform the energy grid.”
Allium (Cohort 2023) has been featured in Canada’s Daily Commercial News article, “(this) rebar technology could triple the life of concrete structures.”

Fellow Events

Francesco Benedetti (Osmoses, Cohort 2021) will speak on a breakfast panel at Fidelity Private Shares on July 9 in Boston.
Jared O'Leary (SirenOpt, Cohort 2023) will be giving a lightning talk at Voyager on June 23 during Deep Tech Week in San Francisco.
Find more Activate Fellows at San Francisco’s Deep Tech Week starting June 22.

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