Activate Global
Activate is a Berkeley-based nonprofit fellowship that turns research scientists into hard-tech founders with non-dilutive funding and takes no equity. Founded in 2015 out of Cyclotron Road at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Activate has backed nearly 300 fellows across energy, manufacturing, agriculture, and water.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Activate pays scientists to become founders. The fellowship hands a researcher a stipend, lab access, and a mentor network for about two years, and asks for no equity in return, which makes it closer to a public good than to the angel label our funds directory hangs on it. The model began in 2015 as Cyclotron Road inside Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, started by Ilan Gur, before spinning out into the independent Activate that today runs communities in Berkeley, Boston, New York, Houston, and a remote Anywhere cohort.
Activate spreads across energy, advanced materials, manufacturing, and agriculture, so water is one thread in a hard-science portfolio rather than the whole cloth. The single water company in my Leviathan database, across the two deals the directory counts, is Dottir Labs, an MIT spinout founded by Nili Persits that shrinks Raman spectroscopy, a light-based way to read chemistry, into compact fiber-linked sensors for real-time water and aquaculture monitoring. The co-funders on that work tell the story: DARPA, the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, NYSERDA, and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, almost all non-dilutive grant money rather than priced venture rounds.
As of October 2025, Activate took its model abroad for the first time with Activate Global Fellows in Singapore, a S$12 million programme run with Nanyang Technological University and funded by Singapore's National Research Foundation, with the first cohort opening applications that November. For an impact-curious investor, that is the useful read on Activate: it is the stage before the venture stage, where deep water science gets de-risked on grant money, and where a fund hunting the next Dottir Labs might look two years early.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 1 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Activate invest in?
- Activate backs hard-tech science startups across energy, advanced materials, manufacturing, agriculture, and water. In water, (don't) Waste Water's database tracks one company, Dottir Labs, a real-time chemical-sensing spinout. Activate provides non-dilutive fellowship funding and takes no equity, so it acts as early scientific capital rather than a priced investor.
- Is Activate a venture capital fund?
- Activate is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit fellowship, not a venture capital fund. Activate gives scientist-founders a roughly two-year stipend, lab access, and mentorship without taking equity. Our funds directory lists it among investors because it backs companies financially, but Activate's support is non-dilutive grant-style capital, not equity rounds.
- Who runs Activate?
- Activate is led by chief executive Cyrus Wadia, who joined in 2023 after senior roles at Amazon, Nike, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Activate was founded in 2015 by Ilan Gur, who built its forerunner Cyclotron Road at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
- Where is Activate based?
- Activate is headquartered in Berkeley, California, with fellowship communities in Boston, New York, Houston, and a remote Anywhere cohort. As of October 2025, Activate also runs its first international programme, Activate Global Fellows in Singapore, with Nanyang Technological University.
- How many water companies has Activate backed?
- In (don't) Waste Water's database, Activate has backed one water company, Dottir Labs, across two early deals. Activate is a generalist hard-tech fellowship, so water is a small slice of the nearly 300 fellows and 236 ventures it has supported across all sectors since 2015.