Active Surfaces Wins Inaugural MIT.nano PITCH.nano Competition, Accelerating Next-Gen Solar Manufacturing
Cambridge, MA — October 20, 2025 — Active Surfaces, an MIT-spun-out solar startup, has won the first-ever PITCH.nano competition, hosted by MIT.nano’s hard-tech accelerator START.nano. The event brought together twelve leading startups advancing breakthroughs in climate, energy, materials, and quantum technologies.
Active Surfaces develops ultra-light, flexible solar sheets designed to power rooftops and infrastructure that can’t support conventional panels. By replacing heavy glass and aluminum with roll-to-roll printed perovskite films, the company’s modules are 10× lighter, install with simple adhesives, and can cut solar’s soft costs by more than half. The technology enables clean power generation directly where it’s used—from logistics hubs to aging commercial roofs—unlocking a new frontier for distributed solar.
“Winning PITCH.nano is a huge validation of the deep-tech foundation we’ve built,” said Shiv Bhakta MBA ’24, SM ’24, Co-Founder and CEO of Active Surfaces. “MIT.nano has been instrumental in compressing our path from lab to market. Access to world-class tools and the START.nano community lets us accelerate our device scaling, prototype faster, and reach customers sooner.”
As the grand-prize winner, Active Surfaces received $25,000 in nanoBucks, equivalent to lab credits at MIT.nano facilities, which will directly fund fabrication and testing of next-generation prototypes bound for upcoming pilot installations.
The win highlights MIT.nano’s growing role in catalyzing hard-tech ventures ready to scale from research to manufacturing. With access to cleanrooms, advanced characterization tools, and a collaborative startup ecosystem, START.nano helps founders turn scientific discoveries into commercial products.
Read the full announcement on MIT News:
🔗 Solar energy startup Active Surfaces wins inaugural PITCH.nano competition
About Active Surfaces
Active Surfaces is redefining distributed solar with a new class of ultra-light, flexible modules designed for rooftops and infrastructure that can’t support conventional panels. Built on over a decade of MIT research, the company’s perovskite solar technology delivers power-per-area on par with silicon while performing better in hot, dusty environments. Roll-to-roll manufacturing on commodity materials enables low-labor, scalable, and localized production. Active Surfaces is based in Woburn, MA, with global partners across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
