We’re now Accepting Applications for Cohort 2023
We’re expanding our fellowship to accelerate impact and meet growing demand.
From Fellow to Managing Director: Jill Fuss is a New Kind of Activate Success Story
It was inevitable that at some point an Activate Fellow would return to the community as an Activate staff member. But that doesn’t make it any less inspiring.
FLO Materials Creates Infinitely Recyclable Eyewear, Commercializing Findings in Berkeley Lab Research
Promising results from a recent Berkeley Lab study could lead to infinitely recyclable plastic. One of the study’s co-authors, Peter Christensen, began work to commercialize the material in 2021, through FLO Materials, a startup that he co-founded with Kezi Cheng.
Activate 2020 Fellows on Cultivating and Nurturing Company Culture
As their cohort completes the two-year fellowship, three 2020 fellows reflect on what they’ve learned about building company culture.
Meet the 39 New Activate Fellows Who Are on a Mission to Build a Cleaner, Safer Society
Cohort 2022 fellows are pursuing imperatives to permanently remove carbon dioxide, forge carbon-free manufacturing pathways, grow the bioeconomy, advance the efficiency and power of information technology, and sustainably secure minerals essential to the clean energy transition.
Startup to Sale: How Cohort 2015 Fellow Tom McDonald Built and Sustained Mosaic Materials
Baker Hughes has acquired the startup and plans to deploy its carbon dioxide capture technology across the industrial value chain.
Brimstone Raises $55M Series A to Build Pilot Plant, Grow Team
Brimstone has developed a pathway to decarbonize cement, the essential material that contributes 7.5 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions each year.
Finalists Share Visions of a Better Future
In early March, Cohort 2022 finalists made their final pitches to the Activate community. At stake for the finalists: the chance to dig in deep as they launch their startups with the financial, educational, research, technical, and network support of the Activate Fellowship.
For Activate Fellows, 2021 Was the Year of Pilots, Products, and Partnerships
We’ve rounded up some of the most exciting products, partnerships, and pilots that our cohort companies have launched or announced in 2021.
Stripe Climate to Purchase up to $500,000 in Carbon Removal from Fellows' Startups
We have forged a landmark partnership with Stripe, a technology company that builds economic infrastructure for the internet, in support of Activate Fellows whose technology innovations promise to permanently remove and store atmospheric CO2.
Why Decarbonizing Industry Can’t Wait
After a steep decline in 2020, emissions are surging back up, highlighting the need for permanent carbon reductions across our physical infrastructure and industrial markets.
These Tomatoes are Fighting Climate Change
Activate Fellows Joshua McEnaney and Jay Schwalbe spent much of last summer toiling in a research farm in Fresno, piloting their startup Nitricity’s approach to decarbonizing nitrogen fertilizer. The harvest produced very positive results—and a big batch of salsa..
Raymond Weitekamp Can’t Stop Inventing
For a young deep-tech startup, polySpectra has an impressive customer list, including Fortune 500 firms and government agencies. But its CEO Raymond Weitekamp won’t consider the company successful until it becomes the go-to 3D printing provider for engineers, designers, and inventors. To make that happen, the Activate alumnus is getting creative and building a community.