Activate and The Engine, Built by MIT, today announced a strategic alliance that ensures more hard tech breakthroughs achieve commercialization. Now, Activate and The Engine will offer more programming and support along the entire pathway for early technical founders – from ideation and lab R&D, to customer pilots and commercialization. Deep tech entrepreneurs will be able to tap into more joint curriculum, training, and expert support for every stage of the founder journey. Both Activate and The Engine serve founders and teams who are developing breakthrough solutions that solve critical global issues. These entrepreneurs are building leading-edge technologies that address humanity’s most pressing challenges including climate solutions, advanced manufacturing and robotics, new uses of chemistry and materials, reimagined food and agriculture, space innovations, and more.
The Engine and Activate have similar philosophies around “just in time” learning, providing deep tech founders with the precise tools they need along the founder journey while they’re building a company. In coming together, the organizations will identify gaps in the founder pathway for scientists and can offer new programs to fill those gaps for up-and-coming science entrepreneurs. The alliance will draw on their complementary offerings that are already successful such as The Engine’s Whiteboard and Blueprint, which invite research professors and scientists to explore forming companies around their discoveries; these same teams may subsequently take advantage of Activate’s Fellowship, a two-year program for emerging science and engineering entrepreneurs where they receive the entrepreneurial training they need to establish a successful hard-tech business while they continue to build their technical idea in the lab.
Emily Knight, President and CEO of The Engine, said, “Our organizations share a fundamental belief in the power of technologist entrepreneurs to drive meaningful change. By combining our expertise and resources, we will create a more robust, supportive pathway for Tough Tech founders that ultimately reduces the time between breakthrough research and meaningful societal impact. This means more Tough Tech solutions reaching the markets and communities that need them most.”
“If we’re going to move with more speed and see the next generation of amazing ideas go live in the market, then we need like-minded organizations like Activate and The Engine to link arms and move progress forward,” said Cyrus Wadia, CEO of Activate. “Our collective founder communities are working on some of the hardest problems in the world, and they’re using the most novel approaches in science. If we can help their ideas reach the market and achieve scale, all of humanity will benefit. These are bold promises—but they’re possible.”
About Activate
Founded in 2015, Activate empowers scientists to reinvent the world by launching startups to address climate change and other global challenges. Working between government, philanthropy, universities, and the private sector, Activate transforms scientists into high-impact entrepreneurs through the Activate Fellowship, a two-year immersive experience that equips science entrepreneurs with the skills, networks, infrastructure, and funding they need to quickly and effectively bring their groundbreaking research to market. Activate is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and does not charge any fee nor equity for fellows to participate. Activate’s entrepreneurial fellowship model originated at Cyclotron Road, founding Activate partner and the first U.S. Department of Energy’s Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program (LEEP) started at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Activate supports fellows in communities across the United States: Activate Berkeley, Activate Boston, Activate New York, Activate Houston, and Activate Anywhere. Learn more at Activate.org.
About The Engine
The Engine was built by MIT to support and accelerate any and all Tough Tech companies solving the world’s most challenging problems, as they move from research breakthroughs to commercial impact. The Engine provides the critical infrastructure, programs and ecosystem early-stage Tough Tech companies need to thrive. Learn more at www.engine.xyz or contact press@engine.xyz.
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