One Activate Fellow’s Journey From Scientist to Founder to Venture Capitalist

Josué López (Cohort 2020) models a new kind of success story as the first Activate Fellow alum to become a venture capitalist. An MIT-trained electrical engineer and nanoscientist, López founded Kyber Photonics, a chip-scale semiconductor company building sensors for autonomy, which he led for two-and-a-half years. Now, he enriches the innovation ecosystem in a new way, bringing his experience as a technologist, science entrepreneur, and diversity and equity leader to venture capital.

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Experiencing Climate Solutions in New York City

After living through the hottest summer on record, leaders from across sectors and the world will gather at Climate Week NYC from September 17–24 to accelerate climate action. Activate is hosting or sponsoring a series of thought-leadership-driven gatherings during the week, including a showcase of Activate Fellow technologies followed by a fireside chat between Evelyn Wang, Director of ARPA-E, and climate journalist and former Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood.

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Scientists: Are you ready to make the pivot from science to entrepreneurship? Applications open for Cohort 2024 in a few short weeks! Sign up for exclusive updates on how to apply.

Want to learn more about how each of the Activate Communities can help you build your hard-tech company? In a series of webinars in September, meet our community teams and current fellows to get all your community questions answered.

Our team is always on the lookout for talented scientists and engineers interested in making an impact with their technologies. Our community members—you!—are often the best scouts for these incredible individuals. Nominate a fellow for Cohort 2024, and we can connect them to additional resources, help them build a strong application, and ensure they’ll be the first to know about any upcoming events or deadlines.

Activate was named one of 13 semifinalists to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management as part of its DAC Energy Programs for Innovation Clusters (EPIC) Prize.

With this funding, Activate will layer new, targeted, direct air capture programming into our entrepreneurial fellowship. This will support three to five new direct air capture startups yearly, including direct recruitment of diverse direct air capture founders leveraging generative artificial intelligence and natural language modeling.

Activate Fellow companies Antora Energy (David Bierman, Cohort 2017; Justin Briggs and Andrew Ponec, Cohort 2018), Fervo Energy (Tim Latimer and Jack Norbeck, Cohort 2018), and Twelve (Etosha Cave and Kendra Kuhl, Cohort 2015) were named on Norrsken’s 2023 Impact100 list, which recognizes the world's most promising impact startups.

Calion Technologies (Drew Lilley, Cohort 2023) and Eva Technology (Murat Onen, Cohort 2023) each received a $500K award from ARPA-E's CREATE project, which recognizes disruptive energy-related technologies with the potential for large-scale impact.

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

Upcoming Events

Will you be attending NYC Climate Week from September 17-24? Use this list of carbon removal and key climate tech events to help you plan your schedule for the week. See you there!
The Rice Alliance will host the Energy Tech Venture Forum on September 21 in Houston, featuring keynotes, panels, networking sessions, private investor meetings, and pitches from 40 emerging and successful energy ventures.
The SOSV Climate Tech Summit on September 26-27 aims to convene the climate-tech startup ecosystem of founders, investors, technologists, corporates, policymakers, and media to discuss the extreme challenges ahead. Register for this live, virtual, and free event featuring panels and breakout sessions with the founders and venture capitalists who are inventing our decarbonized future.
Carbon Unbound—a two-day, in-person summit that brings together carbon dioxide removal leaders to accelerate innovation, investment, and collaboration in the sector—will host its first European edition in London on October 3-4.
On November 7, the Investor Corporate Customer Connect (ICCC) will convene in Boston and help to accelerate commercialization for clean-tech and climate-tech startups by offering one-on-one connections with aligned investors and customers.

Relevant Opportunities

Applications are now being accepted for Chevron Studio Cohort 3. In partnership with Chevron Technology Ventures and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Chevron Studio provides up to $40K for entrepreneurs scaling up technologies in carbon utilization, hydrogen, and renewable energy, energy storage systems, and solutions for a circular economy. Applications are due on September 12.
Successful applicants to Elemental Excelerator’s Innovation Challenges can win up to $2M in funding and the opportunity to partner with Amazon or Technip Energy. Applications are due September 15.
The Designer Fund Partnership is a $500K investment and design support offer for early-stage startups that helps founders hire and manage design teams, provides expert product and brand advice, and accelerates the fundraising process. Applications close September 22.
The Hello Tomorrow Global Challenge is a world-renowned competition designed to unearth early-stage startups that are developing cutting-edge, hard-tech innovations to tackle worldwide challenges. Selected participants will have the chance to win equity-free prize money of up to €100K, customized coaching sessions, and personal introductions with investors and corporates. Applications are due September 22.
The Direct Air Capture (DAC) Pre-Commercial Technology Prize awards up to $3.2M in cash prizes and $800K in technical assistance vouchers to teams that identify a critical need in the DAC industry, develop a solution to address this gap, and test the idea to a degree of scale. Submissions are due September 26.
The American-Made Solar Prize Round 7 is a $4.2M prize competition designed to energize U.S. solar innovation through a series of contests that accelerate the entrepreneurial process from years to months. Submissions are due September 27.
NYSERDA’s NextGen Building Innovation Challenges Program, PON 3519, is offering up to $18M for projects that target building envelope systems and components, ground source heat pump cost compression, intelligent buildings, and thermal storage. Applications are due September 27.

Activate Voices

Ivu Biologics (Auggie Zvinavashe, Cohort 2022) was named a finalist for the Biomimicry Institute’s 2023 Ray of Hope Prize.
Resonant Link (Grayson Zulauf, Cohort 2020) was ranked No. 34 on the 2023 Inc. 5000 Energy, its annual list of the fastest-growing private companies in America in the energy category.
Katy Jinkins (Sixline Semiconductor, Cohort 2023) was featured on the WisBusiness.com "The Show" to discuss her company and how SixLine’s technology can be used to advance various industries.
KQED featured CalWave, co-founded by Marcus Lehmann (Cohort 2015), in a story about harnessing wave power as a source of renewable energy. Following a successful ten-month pilot project off the coast of San Diego, CalWave is now working to build a test site in Newport, Oregon, that could generate enough power to supply a few thousand homes once fully operational in 2025.
Claire Nelson (Cella, Cohort 2023) was featured on the Carbon Curve podcast, where she discussed Cella’s novel carbon mineralization solutions and how technologies are utilizing carbon that's removed from the air.
Co-founded by Tim Latimer and Jack Norbeck (Cohort 2018), Fervo Energy was featured prominently in a New York Times article about the future of geothermal energy, which explored how Fervo and other geothermal companies are using technologies developed for oil and gas to tap into this renewable resource.

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Activate empowers scientists to reinvent the world by bringing their research to market. Our team brings a diversity of experience and a deep track record to helping our fellows bridge the science-to-market gap.

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