OUR STORY
Together, we’re building solar that works where it never could before.
At Active Surfaces, our team blends deep technical expertise with strategic market insight to revolutionize solar energy. Co-founders Shiv Bhakta and Dr. Richard Swartwout bring a unique mix of commercial and scientific leadership—Shiv with experience at DOE and ExxonMobil and an MS/MBA from MIT, and Richard with over a decade of solar R&D and printed electronics innovation at MIT.
We are supported by a world-class advisory board—including Nobel Laureates and deeptech pioneers from MIT, Konarka, ExxonMobil, and US Department of Energy—as well as a growing team of engineers, scientists, and operators with proven track records in climate tech, advanced manufacturing, and solar materials. Together, we’re building solar that works where it never could before.
The leadership
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Shiv Bhakta
CEO & Co-Founder
Passionate climate solutions advocate with experience at the Department of Energy, ExxonMobil, Verizon, and MUUS Climate Partners. MIT Sloan MBA, MIT MS, & University of Houston BS. His expertise in corporate sustainability and deeptech commercialization makes him a key driver of capital, customer acquisition, and talent recruitment. Named on Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
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Richard Swartwout
CTO & Co-Founder
Dr. Swartwout, an MIT PhD in Solar R&D and Printed Electronics, has over a decade of experience in energy innovation. As a Tata Center Fellow, he co-developed MIT's GridEdge program and recognized the potential of flexible solar panels for remote areas. He brings deep technical expertise, inventing 3 of the patents in Active Surface’s IP portfolio.
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Jeremiah Mwaura
Chief Manufacturing Scientist
Dr. Mwaura was a Research Scientist at MIT’s ONE Lab, focusing on scalable printing processes and materials for organic thin-film flexible solar. He has over 20 years of experience in the field, having led technical teams at companies like Konarka, Sunew, and Armor, specializing in organic photovoltaics (OPV) development and scaling. Jeremiah holds a PhD in Chemistry and Materials Science from the University of Connecticut and is a veteran in roll-to-roll manufacturing scale-up.
Interested in working with us or investing in the future of solar?
Our Advisors
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Dr. Matthias Grotevent
Advisor
Dr. Grotevent brings nearly a decade of experience advancing perovskite solar technologies. At MIT, he developed scalable approaches to improve stability and efficiency of high performance solar devices, helping push perovskites toward real-world deployment. His earlier work at ETH Zurich and Empa focused on advanced materials and device engineering.
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Dr. Vladimir Bulovic
Advisor
Prof. Bulović is a pioneer in thin-film and nanostructured electronics, with more than two decades advancing printed and flexible optoelectronic devices. At MIT, he holds the Fariborz Maseeh Chair in Emerging Technology and is founding director of MIT.nano, where his Organic and Nanostructured Electronics Laboratory builds solar cells, LEDs, and related devices from organic, quantum-dot, and hybrid materials. He has co-founded several companies translating that research to market, including Ubiquitous Energy, Kateeva, and QD Vision.
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Dr. Seth Coe-Sullivan
Advisor
Dr. Coe-Sullivan is a quantum-dot pioneer with more than two decades taking nanomaterial devices from lab to market. He earned his PhD at MIT developing the quantum-dot LED techniques that helped launch the field, then co-founded and served as CTO of QD Vision, whose quantum-dot display technology was acquired by Samsung in 2016. He is currently co-founder and CEO of NS Nanotech, where he continues to commercialize advanced display and lighting materials.
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