Silicon Valley · PR for Startups & VCs
Activate is a PR firm built exclusively for startups and venture funds. 100+ announcements. Front pages, not press-release graveyards.
Recent clients
Paradigm
Sumble
Workhelix
Memories.ai
Nox Akooda
Nectir
Human.org
Yo Egg
NFX
Rec
Breakout Overmoon
Hauler Hero
Stone Mountain 100+
Announcements led
35+
Publications placed
150+
Startups advised at NFX
8 yrs
In startup PR
The proof
Wall Street Journal 2026 The Race to Dethrone Excel Has a New Entrant
Features & profiles ↗
Forbes 2026 50 Most Promising AI Startups of 2026 - 3x clients recognized
Awards & lists ↗
Bloomberg 2024 How San Francisco's Nerdiest Neighborhood Could Save It
Features & profiles ↗
Fortune 2024 A 22-year-old is betting on ‘swarms of AI agents’ to radically transform the humble spreadsheet
Features & profiles ↗
Time 2024 Best Inventions of 2024
Awards & lists ↗
Business Insider 2026 The 25 most influential people in artificial intelligence in 2026
Awards & lists ↗
Wall Street Journal 2026 FDA Turns to AI to Speed Up Clinical Trials
Features & profiles ↗
Wall Street Journal 2026 New Fund for a New Age: Wisdom Ventures Raises $77.7 Million
Funding news ↗
Fast Company 2026 I vibe-coded a video game for under $25 with Moonlake AI. Here’s how it went
Features & profiles ↗
Wall Street Journal 2025 AI Researcher Christopher Manning Takes Leave From Stanford for AIX Ventures
Features & profiles ↗
The coverage index
108 shown
WSJ New Fund for a New Age: Wisdom Ventures Raises $77.7 Million ↗
TC Nomadic raises $8.4 million to wrangle the data pouring off autonomous vehicles ↗
WSJ FDA Turns to AI to Speed Up Clinical Trials ↗
CRNCH CPA-Founded Juno Raises $12M To Make Tax Returns Less Painful With AI ↗
FRB 50 Most Promising AI Startups of 2026 - 3x clients recognized ↗
TC Linq raises $20M to enable AI assistants to live within messaging apps ↗
FC Ellis just made it easier for your company to hire immigrant tech workers ↗
AXS Ranger AI raises $8.4M to automate industrial bidding ↗
CBI The 100 Most Promising AI Startups of 2026 ↗
BI The 25 most influential people in artificial intelligence in 2026 ↗
TC Hauler Hero collects $16M for its AI waste management software ↗
FH Chromie Health picks up $2M in pre-seed funding for AI-powered nurse staffing agent ↗
FC I vibe-coded a video game for under $25 with Moonlake AI. Here’s how it went ↗
AXS Santé raises $7.6M seed round for liquor POS software ↗
WSJ Slate of Biotechs Heads to the Public Markets, Spurring Optimism ↗
ZDNET The most exciting AI wearable at CES 2026 might not be smart glasses after all ↗
TC Risotto raises $10M seed to use AI to make ticketing systems easier to use ↗
FRB Under 30 2026 - 10x clients recognized ↗
WSJ The Race to Dethrone Excel Has a New Entrant ↗
FRB Why Moonlake AI Thinks Gaming Worlds Could Be The Answer To AI’s Data Problem ↗
TC Sumble emerges from stealth with $38.5M to bring AI-powered context to sales intelligence ↗
CRNCH Founded By Uber Alumni, Archy Raises $20M To Put Dental Practices ‘On Autopilot’ ↗
TC Why Paradigm built a spreadsheet with an AI agent in every cell ↗
FRB This AI Startup Is Training The Next Generation Of Accountants ↗
INC Best in Business 2025 ↗
TBPN Moonlake AI Raises $28M Seed to Let Anyone Vibe Code Interactive Worlds ↗
GB Moonlake AI unveils AI model for building player-created game worlds 100x faster ↗
BI AI startup Zingage says healthcare belongs inside the home. Read the pitch deck that it used to raise $12 million. ↗
WSJ AI Startups See New Use Case: Senior Care ↗
TC Willow’s voice keyboard lets you type across all your iOS apps — and actually edit what you said ↗
AXS Nectir's AI tutors coming to California Community Colleges ↗
LABJ AI Tutors are Here ↗
FC How the AI boom is transforming education in 2025 ↗
AXS Wildfire detection startup raises $14M ↗
FRB Biotech Startup Tahoe Therapeutics Raised $30 Million To Build AI Models Of Living Cells ↗
BI Memories.ai founder offers $2M packages to poach AI researchers ↗
TC Samsung backs a video AI startup that can analyze thousands of hours of footage ↗
PCW ‘Memories will win’: Qualcomm partnership unveils superpowered AI photo search ↗
BI Tesla battery storage rival Kora has raised $2.6 million with this pitch deck ↗
AXS Centivax Raises $45M for Flu Vaccine, Says Tech Could Eventually Tackle COVID, HIV ↗
TBPN Centivax Raises $45M Series A for First Universal Flu Vaccine ↗
BI An AI startup that wants to be the Canva of video has raised $9.2 million ↗
AXS Therna Biosciences raises $10M for RNA platform ↗
WSJ AI Researcher Christopher Manning Takes Leave From Stanford for AIX Ventures ↗
TBPN AIX Ventures' Richard Socher on the State of AI Investing ↗
FRB How AI And Mini-Organs Could Replace Testing Drugs On Animals ↗
TC Workhelix taps years of research to help enterprises figure out where to apply AI ↗
ENDPT ALIGNMT AI raises $6.5M to keep healthcare AI in check ↗
FRB The Wild West Of AI Search And How One Startup Is Helping Brands Navigate The Post-Google Era ↗
PB Wisdom Ventures is raising a second fund to invest in wellness ↗
BI AI video calling platform Lyra raises a $6 million seed round from Y Combinator and 468 Capital ↗
INC This Serial Founder Made Customizing an Engagement Ring as Easy as Ordering a Pizza ↗
UPST Meet The Startup Trying To Build The Berkshire Hathaway For AI Services ↗
ENDPT Exclusive: Startup raises $45M for universal flu vaccines made with mRNA ↗
WSJ The Companies Betting They Can Profit From Google Search’s Demise ↗
FRB The AI Gold Rush Hits Insurance And Where Investors Are Doubling Down ↗
TC Context gets $11M to build an AI-powered office suite ↗
BI AI video startup OpusClip raises $20 million from SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 at a $215 million valuation ↗
FRB These Startups Are Helping Businesses Show Up In AI Search Summaries ↗
ENDPT Organoid startup raises $21M to test drugs and vaccines in human lymph nodes-in-a-dish ↗
AXS Ryght AI raises seed to shrink clinical trial timelines ↗
TC Anna Patterson’s Ceramic.ai looks to help enterprises build AI models faster and more efficiently ↗
TEL Universal antivenom within reach thanks to man bitten over 200 times – on purpose ↗
ENDPT Ex-Calico scientist launches Stately Bio with new way to study cells ↗ AIM Spot AI Unveils Iris a Conversational Tool for Building Custom Video AI Agents ↗
BI A startup building a platform to prove you're human and not AI just raised $7.3 million ↗
ATH Longevity Startup Hundred Health Acquires BellSant ↗
TC eBay backs WunderGraph to build an open source GraphQL federation ↗
AIN Spot AI introduces the world’s first universal AI agent builder for security cameras ↗
BI Endeavor is using AI to modernize manufacturing. Check out the 9-slide deck it used to raise a $7 million seed round. ↗
FRB Under 30 2025 - 2x clients recognized ↗
TC Livestream app Favorited, a new TikTok alternative, snaps up $1.3M ↗
FRTN A 22-year-old is betting on ‘swarms of AI agents’ to radically transform the humble spreadsheet ↗
WSJ Market Volatility to Drive Closer Collaboration Between Biotech Startups, Large Pharma ↗
TC Nectir lets teachers tailor AI chatbots to provide their students with 24/7 educational support ↗ AIM Ceramic AI Launches with a 2030 Prediction That Every Enterprise Will Own Its Model ↗
BI Ex-Googlers raise $3.25 million for AI sales agent startup ↗ AIM AI Leaders Mistake Activity for Progress Says Workhelix CEO James Milin ↗
TC Hauler Hero wants to bring waste management software into the 21st century ↗ AIM Workhelix Raises $15 Million to Fix AI Adoption Failures That Cost Companies Billions ↗
LABJ How VC Paige Finn Doherty Finds the Right Match ↗
THR Reddit, Zynga Founders Funding New Platform for Creators to License Content to AI Firms (Exclusive) ↗
TC MariaDB spinout SkySQL secures seed funding to ‘bring conversational AI to databases’ ↗
ATH Hundred Health, a Stealth Longevity Startup, Gears for Launch ↗
LABJ Nectir's Kavitta Ghai on How to Raise from VCs ↗
BI Top YouTuber MrBeast has acquired a startup that aims to be the LinkedIn for the creator economy ↗
TIME Best Inventions of 2024 ↗
TC Reshape wants to help decode nature by automating the visual part of lab experiments ↗
LABJ Nectir Raises $4 Million Seed Round ↗
AXS AI agent startup Novus raises $2.5M seed ↗
TC Rec emerges from stealth to modernize Parks & Rec management and booking ↗
FRB Next Billion Dollar Startups 2024 ↗
BBG How San Francisco's Nerdiest Neighborhood Could Save It ↗
VB Paradigm launches to reinvent the spreadsheet with generative AI, filling in 500 cells per minute ↗
FRB Top 50 AI Companies of 2024 ↗
ENDPT ZipBio launches using generative AI to make compact proteins ↗
DBJ How VC newcomer John Diaz raised millions from finance bigwigs by age 30 ↗
FRB 30 Under 30 ↗
FC The 6 Next Big Things in Enterprise Technology ↗
FRB The Future of Payments: Fintech 50 2024 ↗
TC Airbnb or hotel? Overmoon’s vacation rental model aims to combine the best of both ↗
BI The VC firm NFX makes software to help startup founders navigate the fundraising maze — and it's free for anyone ↗
FRTN Payments startup Ramp adds 40 national currencies that can be exchanged for crypto ↗
TC Akooda is using AI to help companies understand their business with fewer meetings ↗
FC The World's Most Innovative Companies ↗
TC ScaleOps looks to cut cloud bills by automating Kubernetes configurations ↗
FRB This Biotech Entrepreneur Just Raised $10 Million To Develop A Universal Flu Vaccine ↗
BI An ex-Googler reveals why she's selling her construction startup to a Saudi company with still a year of runway in the bank ↗ Nothing matches — try clearing a filter.
The founder
Riley has spent 8+ years leading PR for startups and venture funds — over 100 announcements, with coverage in Forbes, Fortune, TechCrunch, Business Insider, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Axios.
He previously led PR at NFX, the early-stage venture firm, where he advised the fund and its 150+ portfolio companies. He has worked in-house, agency-side, and everywhere in between.
Depending on scope, Riley leads your campaign himself — or connects you with vetted senior PR consultants and agencies from his network. Either way, no junior handoffs.
How it works
01
The brief
A working session on your announcement, timing, and the story only you can tell. If PR isn't the right spend yet, Riley will say so.
02
The build
Narrative, target list, embargo strategy, and founder prep — run directly by Riley, or matched to a vetted senior operator from his network.
03
The break
Coordinated launch-day coverage across the outlets that matter to your buyers, your hires, and your next round.