Innovation Day
Global Innovation Challenge — Live Finalists
From a global pool of climate and planetary technology ventures, the Sustainable Innovation Council selects a Top 50 — companies demonstrating scientific rigor, technical depth, and real-world relevance.
From this cohort, 20 finalists are invited to pitch live at UC Berkeley before a curated audience of venture investors, corporate innovation leaders, infrastructure capital, and ecosystem partners.
Registration and Morning Coffee
Opening Remarks: From Innovation to a Symbiotic Civilization
Innovation is no longer neutral. Every system we design either strengthens or weakens the living systems that sustain life. This opening frames Symbiotic Civilization as a new North Star for innovation—where technologies, capital, and governance align with Earth's living systems.
The session explores why innovation is inherently ecological, why deployment must be measured by coherence with life, and why the future will be shaped not by the most advanced technologies alone, but by those that integrate with planetary systems and enable regeneration at scale.
From Drawdown to Regeneration: Investing in a Planet-Positive Future
Chad Frischmann, architect of the Drawdown Solutions Framework and founder of Regenerative Intelligence, takes audiences on a journey from the groundbreaking work of Project Drawdown to the next frontier: regeneration. Drawing from decades of research and implementation, Chad illustrates why sustainability alone is insufficient, and how regenerative systems—designed to restore ecosystems, strengthen communities, and unlock cascading benefits—represent both the greatest moral imperative and the greatest economic opportunity of our time.
Guardians of the Living Planet: Where a Symbiotic Civilization Is a Lived Reality
Innovation Day of the Imagine Next Summit focuses on planet-first innovations and the capital needed to support a Living Planet. But what does a Living Planet actually mean?
For Indigenous peoples of the Amazon, this is not an abstract idea or a future vision. It is daily life — protecting forests, rivers, and communities while facing illegal mining, deforestation, and the ongoing pressure placed on their territories.
Before we speak about technologies, investment, and innovation systems, we listen to the voices of those who have protected the forest for generations.
From Friction to Flow: Navigating Legal and Structural Barriers in Early-Stage Startups
This keynote explores the often-overlooked legal and structural bottlenecks that slow early-stage startups—and how to navigate them strategically. From entity design to fundraising structures, it offers practical pathways to reduce friction, accelerate execution, and build companies ready for real-world deployment.
Crafting Fundable Milestones
A practical workshop on turning innovation into investable execution. Participants will learn how to:
- •Identify core market and technology risks
- •Prioritize mitigation strategies
- •Translate risks into clear, value-creating milestones
- •Build an executable project plan and capital roadmap that investors can confidently underwrite
Live Pitch Session — Block I: Top Finalists
Each company presents followed by direct Q&A. Disciplined format: 4-minute pitch, 4-minute investor questions.
- •Halo Materials — Clean graphite production eliminating toxic chemicals while co-producing hydrogen for a low-emission battery supply chain
- •AINovo Biotech — Generative AI designing climate-resilient crops to transform agricultural productivity under environmental stress
- •Sansuro Bio — Enabling offshore seaweed cultivation at scale through probiotic-mineral innovations for the bioeconomy
- •ChargeCatalyst — Turning idle EV chargers into grid assets through intelligent utilization and pricing
- •Bioverse — AI-powered biodiversity mapping enabling measurable, investable nature-based solutions
- •Resiliocs Intelligence — Embedding climate risk intelligence into infrastructure to prevent failure and protect ecosystems
- •PalmPro Enzymes — Enzyme-based innovations transforming palm oil processing into a cleaner, more sustainable supply chain
- •Spiritus — Scaling durable carbon removal for long-term climate stabilization
- •Kinetix — Flywheel energy storage delivering long-lifetime, high-efficiency grid stability for renewables
Curated Lunch & Sector Networking
Live Pitch Session — Block II: Top Finalists
Continuation of finalist presentations and investor Q&A.
- •Sunchem — Recovering critical metals from waste streams to enable circular, low-impact supply chains for clean energy
- •RESET — Ultra-fast, low-energy manufacturing of fully recyclable composites for next-generation industrial systems
- •BioTwinOme — Digital twin platform optimizing bioprocesses in real time to improve efficiency and scalability in biotech production
- •Waste Lens — AI-powered coordination of waste systems, turning fragmented flows into traceable circular infrastructure
- •Airbuild — Self-powered microalgae systems that treat wastewater, capture carbon, and generate valuable biomass
- •EVOLOH — Modular electrolyzer technology converting renewable electricity into hydrogen and industrial chemicals at scale
- •Rapid Analytix Division Inc. — Advanced analytics enabling faster, more accurate decision-making for sustainable industrial systems
- •Well Water Finders — Data-driven groundwater discovery and management for resilient water access in a changing climate
Break
Jury Feedback: What Stood Out, What Scales
Reflections from investor and corporate jury members on the pitch sessions:
- •What stood out
- •Where gaps remain
- •What signals real-world deployment readiness
Recognition & Advancement
Rather than a single winner, Innovation Day recognizes startups demonstrating:
- •Technical & R&D Excellence
- •Deployment Readiness
- •Corporate Integration Potential
- •Alignment with Living Systems
Closing Reflection: From Innovation to System Transformation
Final remarks connecting Innovation Day to Capital Day and the broader mission of advancing scalable, coherent climate solutions.
Evening Reception
Why Innovation Day Matters
The climate challenge is not constrained by ideas. It is constrained by the gap between innovation, ecological coherence, and deployment at scale.
Innovation Day exists to close that gap.
This is where serious climate innovation meets disciplined evaluation.
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