mHUB and Rockefeller Foundation Power HardTech Innovation to Strengthen U.S. Economies

New $1 million grant will support mHUB's work to lower barriers for hardtech founders and scale innovations in clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and sustainability – creating jobs and economic opportunity across the United States.

CHICAGO and NEW YORK, March 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Rockefeller Foundation has awarded a two-year, $1 million grant to mHUB—the nation's largest independent hardtech innovation center—to deepen its support for hardtech founders in the United States and launch a new accelerator focused on data center sustainability solutions. The funding will advance hardtech innovation and lower barriers for undercapitalized founders who are driving innovations in clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and industrial sustainability. Through this new collaboration, mHUB and The Rockefeller Foundation aim both to create jobs and ensure that industrial investments in hardtech benefit American communities.

"We are proud to help American entrepreneurs turn their bold ideas into cutting-edge solutions that help people thrive amid rising energy costs and the effects of climate change," said Derek Kilmer, Senior Vice President of U.S. Program and Policy at The Rockefeller Foundation. "mHUB has already supported more than 1,100 entrepreneurs and helped create nearly 7,000 jobs in energy storage, grid management, clean manufacturing, and more. We look forward to working with mHUB to help more entrepreneurs make big bets to help tackle today's energy and climate challenges and create jobs."

Every year, mHUB supports over 300 startups to commercialize new physical products in areas such as medical devices, energy, sustainability, and smart manufacturing. While hardtech and physical technologies will play an outsized role in solving some of society's biggest challenges, from devices that transform patient outcomes in healthcare to industrial solutions that mitigate impacts of the compute-energy nexus, the value chain of bringing a physical product to market is capital-intensive. It requires materials, manufacturing costs, and supply chain alignment at an early stage. Meanwhile, software companies secure more than twice as many early-stage rounds as hardtech companies where execution and capital risk is lower up-front. These barriers can hold back America's entrepreneurs, particularly those facing challenging socioeconomic limitations.

Funding from The Rockefeller Foundation will allow mHUB to continue overcoming the common pitfalls that stall hardtech innovation and commercialization. The grant will support resources and interventions for founders at all stages, from idea to growth, including the funding of mHUB's Experts-in-Residence program, a pre-accelerator for idea stage founders, and pilot and manufacturing readiness technical assistance for later stage founders. Additional funding will partially support a cohort of mHUB's venture-backed accelerator with a focus on data center sustainability.

"mHUB is proud to collaborate with The Rockefeller Foundation to strengthen U.S. hardtech commercialization and advance a new era of industrial revitalization," said Haven Allen, CEO and Co-founder of mHUB. "The next chapter of American innovation will be defined by physical technologies that are complex, resource-intensive, and built in the real economy. Creating clear pathways is essential to scaling solutions from lab to market and ensuring the economic benefits of reindustrialization are widely realized. This backing enables mHUB to expand support for founders at critical stages of commercialization and to put sustainability, communities, and prosperity for all at the center of this transition."

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 consulting and engineering arm. Together, infrastructure, capital, and expertise combine to enable emerging technologies, create new manufacturing businesses, and strengthen US industry. To date, mHUB has worked with over 200 public and private partners and supported over 500 startups that have collectively generated $4.5B in economic activity.

About The Rockefeller Foundation
Investing $30 billion over the last 113 years to promote the well-being of humanity, The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on unlikely partnerships and innovative solutions that deliver measurable results for people in the United States and around the world. We leverage scientific breakthroughs, artificial intelligence, and new technologies to make big bets across energy, food, health, and finance, including with our affiliated public charity, RF Catalytic Capital (RFCC). For more information, sign up for our newsletter at www.rockefellerfoundation.org/subscribe and follow us on X @RockefellerFdn, Instagram @rockefellerfdn, and LinkedIn @the-rockefeller-foundation. 

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SOURCE The Rockefeller Foundation