A Note From IN2’s Program Directors:
As we look back on 2025, one thing is clear: the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2) has established a strong foundation—and we’re really starting to build on it.
Over the past year, the program continued to grow in ways that matter. We focused on strengthening the core of what IN2 does best: connecting strong technologies with the people and organizations ready to put them to work. Our framework of trusted partners, real-world validation, and a growing network of adopters is what launches innovation that lasts.
The built environment remained our central focus in 2025. In this space, both energy challenges and energy opportunities show up every day. The startups in IN2’s portfolio continue to deliver technologies that improve efficiency, resilience, and performance. From automation controls to new materials, the Emerging Tech track made real progress toward advancing building technologies at scale. We also took constructive steps with IN2’s scalable programming, designed to directly address adoption barriers. By pairing startups with organizations ready to deploy technology, IN2’s Scalable Tech track helps move solutions out of the lab and into real buildings, campuses, and municipalities, all while creating models that others can follow.
This year also marked an important extension for IN2’s agricultural technology (AgTech) portfolio. After putting the right infrastructure and relationships in place over several years, we worked carefully to transition our AgTech focus to a trusted Channel Partner, who will take this work to the next level, while keeping the community and mission intact. This effort reflects a strength of the IN2 model: knowing when the groundwork is solid and the platform is ready for others to take it further.
Our Channel Partner Strategic Awards are another example of the scaffolding we built for the entire technology innovation ecosystem. The 2025 cycle of funding supported partners to coordinate across state borders and build stronger regional resources by leveraging existing expertise and technology in those areas.
These efforts extend IN2’s reach well beyond any single cohort and reinforce our belief that strong local and regional collaboration is essential to lasting impact. IN2 has always been about more than individual success stories. It’s about creating something durable—a program, a network, and a way of working that helps innovation succeed in the real world.
In 2025, that framework proved its value.
Looking ahead, we’re excited to continue building IN2, connecting technologies up and down the value chain, and addressing challenges in more integrated, scalable ways. The foundation is in place, the momentum is real, and the timing is right.
We invite you to read the 2025 IN2 Annual Report.
Sincerely,
Sarah Derdowski, IN2 Program Manager, National Laboratory of the Rockies & Jeffrey Schub, Head of Sustainability, Wells Fargo
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