After a 24-year career at 3M, including running its corporate venture capital arm in Asia, Michelle Bellanca made a major career change. “I had a passion for the startup world and the disruptive impact novel technologies could have on society,” she says. At the University of Minnesota, she was introduced to technology that was the kernel of what Claros would become. The company, which has raised $39.6 million, has developed a product that destroys PFAS (“forever chemicals”). “We provide a closed-loop system that permanently breaks the carbon-fluorine bond for every species of PFAS,” she says. Her primary goal in 2026 is doing a commercial rollout of the technology.