Today, Activate announced that applications are open for their 2024 cohort, starting September 19 and closing October 17, 2023. The window to apply begins during Climate Week NYC, at the tail end of the hottest summer ever on record, where Activate Fellows and partners will be presenting hard-tech solutions to our most pressing decarbonization challenges and beyond. 

Activate’s new CEO brings impressive science, business, and government experience to deliver impact at scale.

In pursuing our mission of empowering brilliant minds to solve some of the biggest challenges in our collective history, Activate works with various entities, including the U.S. government, private funders, philanthropies, and state governments to achieve these goals. We are proud and grateful to note that all of our geographic communities in Berkeley, Boston, and New York (not including our recently announced Houston location) now receive support from state governments that provide funding for scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs at the local level to drive climate-tech innovation.

The Journey to Well-Being: A series on mental health and the unique demands of entrepreneurship

Many successful entrepreneurs are creative thinkers who can maintain intense, seemingly inexhaustible focus on their mission. They are willing to operate without assurances—and in fact seem to thrive despite uncertainty. But the traits that make these entrepreneurs extraordinary can also make them vulnerable.

The struggles of women in science are particularly acute for those who wish to pursue entrepreneurship, as they often face additional obstacles in launching and growing successful ventures. Despite these difficulties, women are increasingly breaking through barriers to make significant contributions to their fields, and inspiring future generations of women to do the same. We asked some Activate Fellows about their inspiring personal stories.

After a day of presentations at the ARPA-E Innovation Summit on topics including grid storage and federal policy for energy startups, along with a collection of tech demos, Activate welcomed approximately 120 old and new friends to a local pub for a reception, our Houston expansion announcement, and a panel talk, followed by two hours of networking, food, and conversation. 

We are thrilled to announce Activate’s expansion to Houston, the emerging capital of the global clean energy transition. The new Activate Houston Community joins a growing innovation ecosystem that builds upon the region’s energy leadership with an important new focus on enabling a low-carbon future. We look forward to cultivating high-impact science entrepreneurs in the Houston region to help drive forward this exciting transition.

Houston, the United States’ fourth largest city, is an industrial powerhouse with several claims to fame. It boasts the largest life science complex in the world: the Texas Medical Center. It is home to the NASA Johnson Space Center and earned the name “Space City” during the pivotal space exploration era of the 1960s. It has been named the most diverse city in the United States. And it is perhaps most famous for being the energy capital of the world.

We in the Activate community are deeply saddened by the passing of Alexei Marchenkov on January 31, 2023.

For Tim Latimer (Cohort 2018), the energy transition in Texas is personal. He was born in Houston, returned as a drilling engineer in the oil and gas industry, and is now back home again—this time, creating a carbon-free future as CEO and co-founder of Fervo Energy, a Houston-based next-generation geothermal company.

You can’t guarantee that an early-stage entrepreneur will succeed, but you can bias them toward success. This is what Activate uniquely sets out to do by providing funding, networking opportunities, mentorship, research facilities, and community to scientists and engineers who are poised to make a big impact with their innovations.

By any measure, this year was Activate’s biggest yet. Here are some of 2022’s most significant wins.

As the year comes to a close, we’ve asked the fellows and team about their favorite songs of 2022. We’ve pulled together the soundtrack to innovation: these are the songs that Activate Fellows and staff sang along to, tapped their toes to, and changed the world to. 

Chris Thomas joined Activate in October as vice president of engagement and strategic communications. He brings a dynamic perspective to Activate, cultivated through years of diverse experiences in Europe and the United States. Though his career has centered around digital strategy, it started in a science lab — or perhaps even earlier — with a homemade computer rig that landed him in trouble (find out how that story ends below!). He ultimately considers joining Activate a “coming home of sorts to the science world.”

The world is awash in problems, yet there’s a small but exciting group of scientists, entrepreneurs, and funders who are aiming at a potentially better future with real – and perhaps revolutionary – solutions.

By Andrew Chang, Activate New York Managing Director. COP27 concluded this week with mixed results. As global leaders continue to look for solutions to our climate crisis, Activate Fellows aren’t waiting—they are already urgently building new tools that will make it easier for people around the world to transition away from fossil fuels toward a more resilient, low-carbon economy.

By Eva Koehler, Activate New York Fellowship Manager. Climate Week NYC is billed as the biggest climate event on Earth. This year’s event, focused on the theme “Getting It Done,” brought together experts from around the world—including Activate Fellows, for the first time.

By Aimee Rose, Executive Managing Director. This country has invested so much in me. Thanks to federal education support, I was able to study science for free until I was almost 30. As a chemistry student and post-graduate, I engaged with world-class researchers at world-class institutions. I translated that education into an explosives detection startup that, also with the help of federal funding, protected U.S. warfighters and the traveling public.

We’ve launched a national search, in partnership with a global executive search firm, seeking Activate’s next CEO for a new era of impact.

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.

We’re expanding our fellowship to accelerate impact and meet growing demand.

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.

We are thrilled to introduce Naomi Baer, Activate’s new chief operating officer, a seasoned operational leader with a track record in scaling non-profits.

For a few jam-packed hours at the Activate Summit, we reconnected with friends and partners, celebrated the graduating Cohort 2020 fellows, welcomed the incoming 2022 fellows, and marveled at the gorgeous San Francisco Bay from our perch at the Exploratorium.

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.

Baker Hughes has acquired the startup and plans to deploy its carbon dioxide capture technology across the industrial value chain.

Brimstone has developed a pathway to decarbonize cement, the essential material that contributes 7.5 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions each year.

As much of the workforce confronts burn-out, re-evaluates career goals, and ponders their long-term impact, many are looking for more purposeful work in climate tech startups. These new entrants, as well as our fellows, all share a sense of urgency. This work can’t wait.

ISV will spur private investment to boost the impact of world-changing science-based startups—including, to date, nine Activate Fellow-led companies. ISV will also serve as the inaugural partner in a new Activate program, to be officially launched this summer, that will bring together early-stage technology investors and Activate cohort companies.