Channel Partner Network

Powering the Pipeline of Innovation

The Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2) relies on a nationwide network of Channel Partners to serve as a trusted pipeline into the program. This select group of incubators, accelerators, and university entrepreneurial programs plays a vital role in identifying and referring high-potential startups during each IN2 application window.

Channel Partners share IN2’s mission to accelerate the market adoption of energy technologies and act as a bridge for innovation to and from NREL.

See the complete list of Channel Partners.

Channel Partner Awards

With support from Wells Fargo & Company, IN2 directly invests in Channel Partners through strategic awards that strengthen local and regional energy innovation programs. These awards fund new initiatives, scale successful models, and address commercialization barriers that prevent startups from reaching the market.

This high-impact model catalyzes innovation across the country. Its investments create measurable benefits while building trust and momentum across a growing energy innovation ecosystem.

Learn about 2025 Strategic Award winners.

A meeting room full of people listens to a panel of five people speak.

March 26, 2025 - IN2 Program Manager Sarah Derdowski introduces the IN2 Scalable Tech Panel at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center Annual Channel Partner Meeting. Channel Partners refer startups to two of NREL’s flagship incubation programs: The Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator, an energy technology program funded by Wells Fargo & Company and coadministered by NREL, and the Shell GameChanger Accelerator Powered by NREL, whose mission is to discover and advance emerging energy technologies with the potential to alter the future global energy landscape dramatically. (Photo by Agata Bogucka / NREL)