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mHUB Announces Compute-Energy Nexus Cohort of Energy Tech Accelerator
Eight startups selected for the cohort and CoreSite joins Equinix Foundation, Generac, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Foundation, Marmon Holdings, and Salesforce as a program partner
CHICAGO – [October 7, 2026] — mHUB, the nation’s largest independent hard tech innovation center, today announced the startups selected for the Compute-Energy Nexus cohort of its Energy Tech Accelerator. The six-month program was designed to advance technologies that meet the rapidly growing energy and infrastructure demands of AI, data centers, and advanced computing.
The cohort will be supported by industry partners Equinix Foundation, Generac, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Foundation, Marmon Holdings, Salesforce, and newly announced partner CoreSite, a leading hybrid IT solutions provider and subsidiary of American Tower Corporation. CoreSite will provide the cohort with industry insight into the operational, technical, and commercial requirements of deploying emerging technologies within interconnected, high-performance data center environments. The program is also supported by The Rockefeller Foundation as well as programmatic partner Evergreen Climate Innovations and legal partner Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP.
As AI and digital infrastructure scale, data centers are providing the essential foundation for businesses to innovate and compete by offering the secure space, cooling, power, and connectivity required to support high-density compute while enabling everyday digital life and supporting communities through economic growth, energy-efficient operations, and local partnership. The accelerator brings together startups, industry leaders, investors, and technical experts to accelerate the commercialization of technologies addressing challenges such as power generation and transmission, cooling, energy storage, grid resilience, and physical systems.
Selected from a global applicant pool, the participating startups include, in alphabetical order:
- Aerate (San Francisco, CA) – reinventing the air handler for commercial buildings with bolt-on hardware that cleans and recirculates already-conditioned air, reducing energy costs while upgrading existing HVAC systems.
- Alchem8 (New York, NY)– developing a bio-based drop-in fluid replacement for water/glycol blends that aims to reduce data center energy needs by up to 20% through lower pumping requirements.
- Cabomba (Greylake, IL) – making air filtration more energy efficient.
- Carbonext (Houston, TX) – developing advanced graphene-enhanced aluminum products for data center cooling, power systems, and next-generation energy applications.
- ChargeWheel Co (San Francisco, CA) – enabling faster deployment of data centers and EV charging sites through its software and battery storage stack.
- Morel Energy (Delafield, WI) – accelerating DC datacenters through superior battery power conversion.
- NETenergy (Chicago, IL) – developing integrated thermal energy storage and cooling systems for data center and battery applications.
- SPARK (Denver, CO) – transforming buildings into flexible power resources for the grid.
“Compute demand is growing at a pace that requires us to rethink the physical infrastructure behind it,” said Ryan Fant, Executive Director, mHUB Accelerator. “What makes this cohort particularly exciting is the range of technologies represented. These founders are attacking the challenge from different points across the system, and through this program we can put them directly in conversation with the companies building, operating, powering, and investing in the infrastructure where their solutions can have an impact.”
“As demand for AI and high-density computing accelerates, the challenge isn’t simply delivering more capacity, it’s finding smarter ways to deliver the power, cooling and infrastructure that capacity requires,” said Alec Gramont, Vice President of Product Strategy and Edge, CoreSite. “Partnering with the mHUB Accelerator gives CoreSite an opportunity to engage directly with entrepreneurs that share in our prioritization of efficiency, reliability, and performance for the next generation of energy and infrastructure.”
Each company in the cohort will receive an initial investment just over $200,000 from mHUB Ventures in exchange for 6.5% equity, including $142,500 in cash and $60,000 of in-kind benefits. Over the six-month program, founders will have access to mHUB’s state-of-the-art prototyping labs and technical resources, dedicated mentors, and expert-led programming.
Industry partners will engage with the cohort throughout the program, bringing expertise from across the energy, data center, technology, and manufacturing sectors and helping founders validate solutions against real-world industry needs.
The Compute-Energy Nexus cohort will be welcomed into the mHUB Ventures Energy Tech portfolio and join the broader mHUB ecosystem. The program will conclude with a Demo Day in April 2027, where participating companies will present their progress to investors, industry leaders, and other stakeholders.
To follow the cohort and learn more about the mHUB Energy Tech Accelerator, visit mhub.org/energy-tech-accelerator.
The program will conclude in April with a Demo Day event. To follow the cohort, subscribe to updates.# # #
About mHUB
mHUB is an innovation platform that drives the commercialization of hardtech, helping companies build, scale, and innovate with speed and purpose. The platform includes a Chicago-based incubator and prototyping lab; venture and real estate investment company, mHUB Ventures; and an engineering and product consulting arm. Together, infrastructure, capital, and expertise combine to enable emerging technologies, create new manufacturing businesses, and strengthen U.S. industry. To date, mHUB has worked with over 200 public and private partners and supported over 500 startups that have collectively generated $5B in economic activity. Learn more at mhub.org.
About mHUB Ventures
mHUB Ventures is the investment management arm of mHUB, governing both venture capital and real estate funds to accelerate hardtech innovation and strengthen U.S. industrial competitiveness. Its venture platform invests in early-stage startups across energy, medical technology, and advanced manufacturing, leveraging mHUB’s world-class prototyping facilities, engineering talent, and corporate partnerships to reduce risk and speed commercialization. Its real estate platform focuses on transformative industrial redevelopment and next-generation manufacturing facilities designed to support the full lifecycle of product development. Together, these integrated platforms create a unique engine for scaling physical technologies and driving manufacturing industry growth.
CoreSite, an American Tower company (NYSE: AMT), is a leading interconnection data center platform that empowers businesses to future-proof their digital transformation initiatives. For more than 20 years, CoreSite’s purpose-built, highly interconnected data center campuses and team of experts have delivered the cloud-enabled, resilient and flexible digital ecosystems required for customers to quickly scale and interoperate their businesses to support the increasing demands of critical workloads, like AI and high-density applications. For more information, visit CoreSite.com and follow CoreSite on our Connect[ED] blog, LinkedIn and YouTube channels.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains statements about future events and expectations, or “forward-looking statements,” all of which are inherently uncertain. We have based those forward-looking statements on management’s current expectations and assumptions and not on historical facts. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties. For important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in our forward-looking statements, we refer you to the information set forth under the caption “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of American Tower’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K, and other risks described in documents American Tower subsequently files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Neither we nor American Tower undertake any obligation to update the information contained in this press release to reflect subsequently occurring events or circumstances.
