Amrit Jalan

pH7 Technologies is a Canadian company developing next-generation critical-mineral extraction technologies for both primary and secondary resources. Through its proprietary closed-loop organo-electrochemical process, pH7 enables mining and recycling operators to economically recover metals from low-grade ores, tailings, and complex feedstocks that have historically been uneconomic or technically challenging to process. The company operates a commercial PGM extraction facility in Vancouver and is rapidly scaling its mining-sector applications, beginning with copper.

DG Matrix is redefining how the world powers AI and electrification. As AI workloads drive unprecedented electricity demand and legacy grid infrastructure struggles to keep pace, DG Matrix has commercialized the world’s first multi-port solid-state transformer. Our Interport™ platform transforms how large-scale power systems are designed, deployed, and managed. Interport accelerates time to power from years to months while delivering future-ready infrastructure that integrates any AC or DC energy sources and loads seamlessly at scale anywhere in the world. We are setting a new benchmark for modern grid architecture by enabling faster deployment, lower energy costs, and flexible energy integration for AI data centers, microgrids, and mass electrification. DG Matrix is building the infrastructure required to power the future.

Tidal Vision is the world leader in technologies involving chitosan extraction, modification, formulation and application. Tidal Vision is working to unlock scalable chitosan biomolecular solutions for humanity’s greatest chemistry and pollution challenges in the water treatment, agriculture, and material industries. Tidal Vision is composed of the following commercial divisions: Tidal Clear®, Clear Water Services™, Tidal Grow®, and Tidal-Tec®. Tidal Clear offers a chitosan-based product line of powerful turnkey biopolymer coagulants & flocculants. Clear Water Services specializes in applying Tidal Clear, and offers innovative mobile and modular water treatment solutions utilizing a comprehensive data-backed approach. With industry-leading automation, built-to-order filtration components, and locations across the country, Clear Water Services provides a network of equipment and services to tackle evolving water quality and emerging contaminant issues from coast to coast. Tidal Grow is Tidal Vision’s agriculture division. By leveraging novel technologies, their offerings deliver new levels of effectiveness in plant nutrition and crop protection, providing impressive ROI for growers. With their Tidal Grow® Integra Technology, they engineer how fertilizer, such as nitrogen, and crop protection products are delivered to the crop. The Tidal Grow® Bioactive product portfolio harnesses the power of nature to create effective plant nutrition and crop protection products. Tidal Grow® increases crop input effectiveness to deliver more yield per unit applied. Tidal-Tec was formed in response to the growing global appetite for safer materials that benefit both humanity and the planet. This division’s cutting edge biomolecular technologies deliver consistent and scalable performance solutions for pressing challenges throughout material science. Tidal-Tec is uniquely built for partnering with leading materials companies who want the next generation performance materials.

Radical AI is accelerating materials R&D. Through the integration of artificial intelligence, engineering, materials science, and applied research, we are changing the way materials are designed, developed, and discovered. In doing so we are tackling the worlds most pressing problems.

Mantel is developing the first molten-salt based carbon capture technology. Our molten borates are designed to operate at the high temperatures found inside boilers, kilns, and furnaces – enabling highly efficient carbon capture that has not been possible until now. Carbon capture can be applied across industry to reduce emissions - and even achieve net-negative emissions. By solving for efficiency Mantel can reduce energy losses by more than 60% and cut costs in half, unlocking carbon capture’s role in reaching global net zero.

The ocean is an immensely powerful force of nature, and our greatest ally to reverse the tides on climate change. By studying the planet’s natural cycles, Captura designed a solution that removes CO2 from the ocean and harnesses its ability to heal the climate—a process known as Direct Ocean Capture. Developed and proven in Caltech’s laboratories, our unique Direct Ocean Capture technology runs with just two ingredients: seawater and renewable electricity. It extracts CO2 directly from seawater to be permanently stored or reused. This amplifies the natural equilibrium between the ocean and atmosphere, drawing carbon out of the air and into the ocean to rebalance. Captura’s approach requires no rare-Earth minerals, adds nothing to the ocean, and leaves no chemicals behind. It’s a low-cost, large-scale carbon removal solution that is environmentally sound.

Aether Fuels is a next-generation climate technology company aiming to decarbonize “hard-to-abate” industries including aviation and ocean shipping with breakthrough solutions for producing sustainable fuels that are practical, economical, and scalable. Our innovations span novel process flows, plant configurations, catalysts, and unique equipment that dramatically reduce capex and feedstock costs. Our designs maximize efficiencies and yield to make sustainable fuels truly viable for customers looking to decarbonize. We’re experts in bio-fuels, e-fuels, gasification, syngas production, and liquids synthesis, and proven veterans in developing and operating pilot and commercial-scale energy and fuel production facilities. Our shared obsession is applying out-sized innovation to solve big problems that threaten the planet. Aether was established in 2022 as a spin-out of Xora Innovation, a deep-tech early-stage investment platform of Temasek, and is based in the United States and Singapore. www.aetherfuels.com

AI-first company building next generation solar and semiconductor technologies

Swift Solar is a U.S. company developing advanced solar technology that outperforms anything on the market today. Swift Solar is a spinout of Stanford, MIT, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The team includes world-leading technologists with deep expertise in perovskite PV science, technology, and manufacturing. Swift Solars technologies range from specialized solar cell architectures to advanced manufacturing techniques.

At OXCCU, we are at the forefront of scientific advancement, shaping the future of sustainable aviation fuel production. Founded in 2021 as a spin-out from the University of Oxford, OXCCU is led by CEO Andrew Symes alongside co-founders CTO Dr Tiancun Xiao, Dr Jane Jin and Dr Benzhen Yao. The company is headquartered in the UK, with operations at Begbroke Science Park, Oxford, and London Oxford Airport. Our mission is to develop the world’s lowest cost, lowest emission pathways to make both jet fuel and chemicals from waste carbon, allowing people to continue flying and using hydrocarbon products without the climate impact. At the heart of our process is a one-step catalyst and reactor built to convert the widest range of CO₂, CO and H₂ compositions from multiple waste carbon sources, directly into liquid hydrocarbons for fuels and chemicals . Our technology consolidates the traditional production process from a two-step Reverse Water Gas Shift (RWGS) and Fischer Tropsch (F-T) reaction into a single catalytic conversion. Fewer steps, lower energy input and higher yield. Our catalyst system has leading conversion and selectivity, enabling cost effective liquid hydrocarbon production from a range of waste feedstocks. This ability to work with the broadest range of different syngas compositions, with or without CO2, provides advantages in Power-to-Liquids (PtL), biogas to SAF (GtL) and biomas to SAF (gasification). The focus is always the same: reducing both cost and carbon intensity. The company’s first demonstration plant, OX1, based at Oxford Airport, produces SAF, branded OXFUEL™, marking a first-of-its-kind achievement and a major step towards scaling a clean, cost-effective alternative to fossil jet fuel. Technoeconomic analysis shows that OXCCU’s technology simplifies fuel production and cuts capital costs by 50% compared to conventional e-fuel or biofuel pathways.

Energy Dome is a company with revolutionary technology for large scale and long duration energy storage. Our proprietary technology is based on a thermodynamic process that uses CO2 to store electricity cost-effectively with unprecedented round-trip efficiencies. The simplicity of the process as well as the use of readily available off-the-shelf equipment opens the way for Energy Dome to quickly become an important player in the energy storage market. With our technology it is possible to store large quantities of energy for long periods of time anywhere without any site dependency and deliver all the typical services of utility-scale storage systems, including grid regulation services, maximizing investment returns for our customers.

EnergyX is a sustainable energy company focused on direct lithium extraction, refinery and battery technology. Combining these technologies from brine to battery will create a process dramatically lowering the cost of lithium resources. The company’s goal is to develop technology and assets that turn it into one of the premier, low-cost lithium providers for the growing lithium-ion battery industry. The electric vehicle (EV) and energy storage revolution is generating high demand for lithium, with some analysts forecasting orders-of-magnitude demand increases. As the EV market rapidly expands, millions of large-scale battery packs will be in demand. The estimated annual production of EV’s is 20,000,000 per year. For one 85-kWh car, the price of the lithium in the battery is approximately $2,945 per car. Residential (home) and commercial batteries are also gaining market demand traction, and California has implemented law stating by 2020 all new homes will require solar arrays. Companies already producing lithium are attempting to increase production as battery cell manufacturers are scaling up lithium-ion production with mega factories and actively acquiring raw materials through long term off-take supply agreements. In the Lithium Triangle, where 50-70% of the world’s known lithium reserve is located, current methods of extraction are based off outdated, natural evaporation pond technology, which takes 18 months, and loses 50-70% of the lithium due to co-precipitation. Our solution is to optimize and apply a highly scalable lithium extraction membrane to the process. The ability to efficiently extract and aggregate the lithium elements from the salt brines using proprietary, multi-level, synthetic ion separation techniques can increase time efficiency by 100x and recovery rate by 300%.

Our mission is to make the carbon in natural gas an asset instead of a liability. Our technology breaks hydrocarbons into hydrogen and solid carbon so that the value of each product can be independently maximized.

www.m2x.energy

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/15-mit-startups-to-watch

pH7 Technologies is a Canadian company developing next-generation critical-mineral extraction technologies for both primary and secondary resources. Through its proprietary closed-loop organo-electrochemical process, pH7 enables mining and recycling operators to economically recover metals from low-grade ores, tailings, and complex feedstocks that have historically been uneconomic or technically challenging to process. The company operates a commercial PGM extraction facility in Vancouver and is rapidly scaling its mining-sector applications, beginning with copper.

DG Matrix is redefining how the world powers AI and electrification. As AI workloads drive unprecedented electricity demand and legacy grid infrastructure struggles to keep pace, DG Matrix has commercialized the world’s first multi-port solid-state transformer. Our Interport™ platform transforms how large-scale power systems are designed, deployed, and managed. Interport accelerates time to power from years to months while delivering future-ready infrastructure that integrates any AC or DC energy sources and loads seamlessly at scale anywhere in the world. We are setting a new benchmark for modern grid architecture by enabling faster deployment, lower energy costs, and flexible energy integration for AI data centers, microgrids, and mass electrification. DG Matrix is building the infrastructure required to power the future.

Our roots are in one of America’s great entrepreneurial success stories. Fidelity Investments was founded in 1946 and grew from a single mutual fund into one of the largest asset management firms in the world, with over $2 trillion in assets under management. For the last forty years, our venture capital group has had the privilege of backing other great entrepreneurs as they built ground-breaking companies in technology and life sciences, including Atari, MCI, ROLM Corp., Alibaba, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, and Ultragenyx. Today our funds are larger and more global, but our teams are still small and local. We stay true to our entrepreneurial roots. In the US and Europe, we are F-Prime Capital investing in healthcare (formerly Fidelity Biosciences) and in technology (formerly part of Devonshire Investors). In other geographies, our sister fund is called Eight Roads (formerly Fidelity Growth Partners), with investment teams in London, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Mumbai. Together we bring a world of insight, domain expertise and relationships to support our entrepreneurs. Without the pressure of fundraising from outside investors, we focus all of our time finding and helping great entrepreneurs build important companies.

Fine Structure Ventures is a venture capital fund affiliated with FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments. We focus on early stage investments in disruptive scientific and technological innovation. As of July 1, 2024, Fine Structure Ventures is an F-Prime fund (www.fprimecapital.com)

Tidal Vision is the world leader in technologies involving chitosan extraction, modification, formulation and application. Tidal Vision is working to unlock scalable chitosan biomolecular solutions for humanity’s greatest chemistry and pollution challenges in the water treatment, agriculture, and material industries. Tidal Vision is composed of the following commercial divisions: Tidal Clear®, Clear Water Services™, Tidal Grow®, and Tidal-Tec®. Tidal Clear offers a chitosan-based product line of powerful turnkey biopolymer coagulants & flocculants. Clear Water Services specializes in applying Tidal Clear, and offers innovative mobile and modular water treatment solutions utilizing a comprehensive data-backed approach. With industry-leading automation, built-to-order filtration components, and locations across the country, Clear Water Services provides a network of equipment and services to tackle evolving water quality and emerging contaminant issues from coast to coast. Tidal Grow is Tidal Vision’s agriculture division. By leveraging novel technologies, their offerings deliver new levels of effectiveness in plant nutrition and crop protection, providing impressive ROI for growers. With their Tidal Grow® Integra Technology, they engineer how fertilizer, such as nitrogen, and crop protection products are delivered to the crop. The Tidal Grow® Bioactive product portfolio harnesses the power of nature to create effective plant nutrition and crop protection products. Tidal Grow® increases crop input effectiveness to deliver more yield per unit applied. Tidal-Tec was formed in response to the growing global appetite for safer materials that benefit both humanity and the planet. This division’s cutting edge biomolecular technologies deliver consistent and scalable performance solutions for pressing challenges throughout material science. Tidal-Tec is uniquely built for partnering with leading materials companies who want the next generation performance materials.