2025 C2M Summit showcases innovative cleantech solutions

Kim Girard

large group of students at Haas at a summit — All eight teams gathered for a photo during the C2M Summit, which calls on graduate students to help commercialize cleantech solutions. Photo: Michaela Vatcheva

Eight graduate student teams pitched ideas ranging from improving metal recycling to increasing the efficiency of water treatment during the Strauch Cleantech to Market (C2M) Summit held last Friday at UC Berkeley Haas. Nearly 400 people attended the event.

C2M, founded in 2008, is a unique partnership between graduate students, startups, and industry professionals to help accelerate the commercialization of cleantech solutions. The program identifies promising cleantech at existing startups, accelerators and incubators, government-sponsored programs, and top-tier universities and national labs. Then, graduate student teams from more than 20 UC Berkeley disciplines are matched to work with cleantech professionals. Each team spent nearly 1,000 hours working with founders, assessing new technologies, and investigating paths to commercialization. The course concludes with the annual summit, where prize money is awarded to the startups that the students have supported throughout the semester.

Winners of the 2025 MetLife Climate Solutions Awards, determined by a panel of five independent judges, included:

First place ($40,000): Carbon Plus, an affordable carbon fiber that reduces costs by 75% and CO2 by 50%, enabling high performance, energy efficient applications across industries.

Team members: Lu Wang and Grant Thorne, EWMBA 26; Walter Russ and Mohamed Kante (both Master of Climate Solutions); and Ali Najam Mian (Master of Development Practice).

five people standing behind a bike holding a large check — Team Carbon Plus took the $40,000 first prize. Photo: Michaela Vatcheva

Second place ($20,000): Rapid Radicals, a technology promising to treat water 22 times faster with a 90% smaller footprint, providing additional capacity to cities and industry.

Team members: Johann von Sothen, MBA 26; Noam Aberin Anglo (MEng, Developmental Engineering); Zoe Hall, Rashel Bajaj, and Anurag Pal (all MCS); and Jiliwosy Salainti (Master of Development Practice).

group of people holding a large check in front of a metflife sign — Team Rapid Radicals. Photo: Michaela Vatcheva

Third place ($10,000): Sunchem, a nanotechnology company that selectively separates critical metals from complex mixtures in the metal recycling and mining space.

Team members: Peiyao Wu (PhD candidate, chemical and biomolecular engineering); Max Yu, Frances Swanson, and Benjamin Dennis (all MCS); and Phillip Healy (MS, civil engineering, concentration in energy, civil infrastructure, and climate).

The Hasler Award (for best incorporation of the foundational elements of the C2M curriculum):

Prospect Growth, which develops nanoparticle fertilizers that allow farmers to reduce their impact on the climate without changing how they farm.

Team members: Adoley Swaniker and Natalie Tussy, both MBA 26; William Mee, EMBA 26; Laura Coronado and Katrina Midgley (both Master of Climate Solutions); and Ian Moor, MBA/MCS 26.