2021 by the Numbers
By just about any measure, 2021 was a remarkable year at Activate.
Despite the many logistical challenges and uncertainty wrought by the ongoing pandemic, we doubled our communities from two to four, and by launching Activate Anywhere we expanded not only where we’ll support fellows but also how. We also grew our community of funding partners and struck a new type of partnership. As part of our (also new) CDR Imperative, Stripe will purchase carbon removal from Activate Fellows' startups with promising carbon removal technologies through $500,000 procurement contracts. This means qualifying fellows will have their first customer from day one.
“By providing the fellows with foundational support, we kept those early-stage companies in the game and gave them the time and support to keep building.”
Speaking of early financial backing, we must note the incredible funding and growth Activate cohort companies achieved in 2021. In March, we celebrated the first successful exit of a cohort company: the Swedish battery giant Northvolt acquired Cuberg (Richard Wang, Cohort 2016). Cuberg commercialized groundbreaking lithium-metal technology and is now serving as Northvolt’s global Advanced Technology Center for EV and grid electrification.
In total (not counting the undisclosed Cuberg acquisition price), Activate Fellows raised $302 million in dilutive and non-dilutive funding in 2021. That’s up 500 percent from 2020, and it pushed the cumulative funding that fellows have raised since Activate’s founding past the $500 million mark.
Interested in working for an Activate cohort company? See the latest Activate Fellow and alumni job listings here.
In a year marked by huge growth in venture funding for climate tech, perhaps it’s not surprising that cohort companies closed sizable rounds: $57M for Twelve (Etosha Cave and Kendra Kulh, Cohort 2015); $16M for Sepion Technologies (Peter Frischmann, Cohort 2016); $28M for Fervo Energy (Tim Latimer and Jack Norbeck, Cohort 2018). What’s important to consider, however, is that back when those founders became Activate Fellows, their innovations were promising yet immature and the investment market had little interest in funding ideas for recycling carbon emissions back into products, or improving geothermal energy generation, or advancing material science for better, safer batteries. By providing the fellows with foundational support, we kept those early-stage companies in the game and gave them the time and support to keep building.
Roughly half of the $302 million raised is non-dilutive funding, mostly government grants. But the biggest single non-dilutive award, and the largest amount of funding of any type raised by Activate Fellows to date, was a $60 million, eight-year grant to Semiotic AI (Sam Green and Ahmet Ozcan, Cohort 2021) from the trade association non-profit The Graph. That’s an unusual example, but trade associations (who tend to award grants through competitions) are part of an increasingly diverse base of organizations that support Activate Fellows. These include catalytic capital funds, corporate venture funds, individual investors, and foundations.
As we continue to grow and support more fellows—a new wave of scientists and engineers each year who have incredible ideas but need the time and infrastructure to build—so should the variety and volume of organizations that support and fund them.
We saw in other ways how the fruit of these past years of support has bloomed for Activate Fellows and dubbed 2021 the year of pilots, products, and partnerships. And the amount of press attention (170 media mentions; more than 400 minutes of podcast interviews) and the number of awards (64) and speaking engagements (57) in 2021 eclipsed past years.
Programming by the Numbers
In 2021, we doubled our fellowship staff and engaged fellows in more than 94 hours of programming (much of it via screens, but Boston-based fellows enjoyed weekly in-person workshops, talks, and colloquiums). Twenty Activate-archetype startup founders (scientists and engineers) shared their stories with fellows, and we held an equal number of interactive workshops. Eleven fellows presented deep-dives of their work via cohort colloquiums.
Network by the Numbers
Collisions
While we’re digging deep into data, it’s worth noting another metric we’ve long-tracked but have not, until now, shared publicly: Collisions. That’s our internal moniker for the interactions we curate between fellows and the many investors, technologists, policy experts, and service providers that comprise Activate’s network. In 2021, we tallied 401 collisions, and that is definitely worth celebrating. It’s a 33 percent jump over 2020 or the same number of fellows. We can all but guarantee that many of those collisions will turn into partnerships or funding rounds, or maybe pivots or new team members for our cohort companies.
Partners
We added ten funding partners to our network in 2021 for a total of 36. We are so thankful to all the organizations that are making our work possible through direct funding and donations of time, money, equipment, or services. Without this dedicated and forward-thinking network, we could not provide fellows such comprehensive financial, scientific, and professional support.
Interested in partnering with us this year? Reach out.
Leadership Council
The 2021 Activate Leadership Council comprises 50 high-tech-focused and visionary leaders across government, philanthropy, venture, corporations, and academia and is committed to supporting the success of Activate and its fellows.
We are honored to partner with the Leadership Council members in this next stage of our growth.
Activate Team
We added 14 new staff positions in 2022—bringing our total team roster to 32. The Activate team has deep experience across the science innovation landscape—we're scientists at heart, entrepreneurs in practice, and we’re currently hiring for seven open positions.
Learn more and join us.
Incoming Fellows
Twenty-three fellows joined our Berkeley & Boston communities. We selected these 23 Cohort 2021 fellows from 46 finalists and a pipeline that included nearly 400 applicants from 30 countries and 32 U.S. states.
All of them bring a wealth of scientific talent and ambition to turn their innovations—in everything from quantum computing and robotics to bio-based materials, ag-tech, and carbon-free energy systems—into much-needed products and services, with speed and at scale. Meet Cohort 2021.
Graduating Fellows
Congratulations to the 13 Cohort 2019 fellows who graduated in 2021! We are inspired by your growth and accomplishments, and we look forward to celebrating your future successes.
We honor the memory of Cohort 2019 fellow Adrian Albert.
Imperatives
This year, we defined three imperatives—all specific, timely, and critical opportunities for outsized impact:
The Advanced Manufacturing Imperative
The Carbon Dioxide Removal Imperative
The Microelectronics Imperative
Communities
As part of our goal to support 100 new fellows each year across the U.S., we rolled out two new communities in addition to Berkeley and Boston: Activate Anywhere and Activate New York. We have a clear opportunity and the needed resources to expand our fellowship nationwide.
Commitment
