Channel Partners
September 12, 2024—In 2023, the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN²) chose seven winners for its seventh Channel Partner Strategic Awards cycle. This funding addresses gaps in the cleantech and agtech ecosystems, with the goal to eliminate barriers startups face on the road to commercialization.
Many awardees focused on supporting pilot and demonstration projects for startups, particularly those with underrepresented founders and helping underserved communities. Here is the story of how one winner used their award and the impact they made in less than a year.
With its Strategic Channel Partner award, Urban Future Lab (UFL) at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering rallied the climate tech ecosystem, uniting key players across the entire industry lifecycle at a groundbreaking event.
“We saw momentum from our March 2023 event series, Climate as the New Economy, and knew we needed to dig deeper,” said Jeannette Williams, chief operating officer of UFL.
In June 2024, UFL hosted the Urban Future Forum: Equity and Piloting Solutions, drawing more than 160 attendees to four dynamic panel discussions. To ensure the event truly resonated, UFL engaged with nearly two dozen organizations to shape the agenda around the community’s needs and wants.
“We went on a listening tour to really check some of our assumptions,” Williams said.
During the Urban Future Forum, attendees grappled with some key questions about the climate tech and cleantech industry. These included:
- How can innovators bake equity into their work and ensure that these efforts are not just add-ons, but integral parts of internal goals?
- What are the critical, yet often overlooked, industry challenges faced in piloting and deploying innovations?
- What progress has been achieved in cultivating the green workforce and what remaining obstacles require attention?
Representatives from the New York City Mayor’s Office, Con Edison, fellow Channel Parnter network member Elemental Excelerator, and more attended.
UFL launched in 2009 with its flagship ACRE (Accelerator for a Clean and Resilient Economy) Incubator, which supports startups for two to three years as they grow and scale. UFL has since expanded to include three additional six-month programs: the Carbon to Value Initiative, the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub, and the Innovate UK Global Incubator Programme. Several IN2 portfolio companies have gone through the programs.
“It’s about giving startups tailored assistance to help them on their business journey,” Williams said. “The focus is on solutions for the urban environment and the necessary infrastructure to support them.”
In June 2024, UFL hosted the Urban Future Forum: Equity and Piloting Solutions, drawing more than 160 attendees to four dynamic panel discussions. Photo courtesy of UFL
The panels at UFL’s June event focused on piloting climate solutions while centering equity. During the first panel, IN2 portfolio company NineDot Energy highlighted its partnership with the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning, discussing a nearby installation and their involvement in a STEM engagement program. NineDot actively shares sustainability practices and information with the students, fostering a strong community connection.
“NineDot is now deeply interconnected with the school, and there is so much value with the two organizations working together,” Williams said.
The second panel tackled myth-busting, addressing and clarifying the assumptions different stakeholders held about each other.
“It was both candid and refreshing for everyone,” Williams said. “The discussion revealed a strong desire for clearer communication and a shared understanding of our common goals. It’s not easy to achieve that level of alignment at an event, but it’s crucial for progress.”
The third panel addressed the role of communities and cities as customers, while the fourth panel focused on building the new green workforce.
“They discussed not only the need to upskill people and introduce them to green jobs, but also the gap between training and actual careers,” Williams said. “The clean energy transition is powered by people. Nobody is going to use the new technology if no one is there to install it and maintain it.”
UFL hopes to make the event an annual tradition, but it is searching for funding to make that possible. In the meantime, Williams finds great inspiration in the Channel Partner network.
“We’re united in solving the same issues,” she said. “There are plenty of problems for all of us to work on, and the Channel Partner network is instrumental in helping us tackle them together.”