breakthrough-energy-fellow
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Eric McShane
Eric McShane is the co-founder and CEO of Electroflow Technologies, a San Bruno startup turning dilute saltwater brines into battery-ready lithium with an electrochemical process that collapses a ten-step mining chain into three. A UC Berkeley PhD and former Stanford postdoc, he is betting that the missing ingredient for cheap American batteries (LFP, which is 99% made in China) can be made domestically for 40% less. Electroflow has raised about $13 million from Union Square Ventures, Voyager Ventures and Breakthrough Energy, and reports lithium recovery rates near 96% versus the 40-60% typical of evaporation ponds.
Molly Yang
Molly Yang is the co-founder and CEO of Hgen, a Los Angeles climate-tech company building modular, mass-manufacturable alkaline electrolyzers to make clean hydrogen cheap enough for heavy industry. A former energy product lead at Tesla, she teamed up with childhood friend and ex-SpaceX engineer Colin Ho to shrink the electrolyzer roughly twentyfold and package it into shipping containers that need only water and electricity. Hgen has raised $7M total from Founders Fund, Seven Seven Six, and Fontinalis Partners, and Yang was named a 2022 Breakthrough Energy Fellow.
Kevin Bush
Kevin Bush is the co-founder and CEO of Molten Industries, an Oakland-based deep tech company using methane pyrolysis to crack natural gas into clean hydrogen and battery-grade synthetic graphite. A Stanford-trained materials scientist who set perovskite solar efficiency records before co-founding Swift Solar, Bush is a Breakthrough Energy Fellow and Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree. He started Molten in a Stanford garage in 2021 and raised a $25M Series A in 2024 to build its first modular commercial reactor.
Sarah Lamaison
Sarah Lamaison is the co-founder and CEO of Dioxycle, a Paris- and Bay Area-based climate-tech company building electrolyzers that turn industrial CO2 into ethylene and other chemicals using only water, electricity, and waste carbon. A chemist trained at Ecole Polytechnique, Cambridge, College de France, and Stanford, she turned her PhD on artificial photosynthesis into a company aiming to decarbonize one of the planet's dirtiest industries while staying cost-competitive with fossil feedstocks. She raised $17M in Series A funding led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Lowercarbon Capital, won the L'Oreal-UNESCO Young Talent award, and was named to Forbes 30 Under 30.