Read: 4 min
Highlight: Climate tech is getting funded. Just not for climate.
Welcome to Climate CEOs: Actionable insights from my work with 300+ climate CEOs on growth, capital, and leadership.
Everyone wanted a piece of a foundational AI model.
Turns out the model needs a power plant before it needs a prompt.
Verse. Aston Power. Antora.
None of them are selling a cleaner planet. They are selling an outlet before your competitor finds one.
This also helps companies like Commonwealth Fusion ($1B) and Thea Energy ($100M) raise massive rounds. Climate tech can now tap into AI infrastructure budgets.
Somewhere, a fusion physicist is thanking a chatbot.
Takeaway: The addressable pool of capital just got bigger.
Antares sells into military installations.
Sila reduces dependence on Chinese battery materials.
Foundation Alloy strengthens domestic manufacturing.
Different technologies. Same shift.
Takeaway: National security can underwrite technologies climate markets couldn’t.
Terra AI helps find minerals.
Cuprum helps squeeze more copper from existing resources.
Neither requires customers to adopt a new green product category.
They’re selling into an existing shortage.
Takeaway: Removing a bottleneck may be easier to finance than replacing an incumbent.
Revoy targets diesel economics.
Lydian targets cost-competitive SAF.
NxLite sells retrofit ROI.
The interesting shift isn’t that green products need to compete on cost. We’ve known that forever.
Investors are less willing to subsidize a green premium.
Takeaway: Climate capital is behaving more like normal growth capital.
This is the thread connecting the other four.
AI needs the power.
The military needs resilient energy.
Industry needs copper.
Customers need cheaper products.
Carbon reduction still matters. But increasingly, it’s not the lead.
It lives in the appendix. (And, oh, how I loved appendices.)
Takeaway: The strongest climate thesis may be the one that survives without climate.
Note: I’m focusing only on North American corporate raises over $12M. And I surely missed some!
Commonwealth Fusion Systems - $1B equity financing
Commercial fusion power using high-field tokamak technology
CEO: Bob Mumgaard
Investors: institutional investors, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds
Antora Energy - $550M Series C
Thermal batteries for power and heat to data centers and industry
CEO: Andrew Ponec
Investors: G2 Venture Partners, Eclipse, Breakthrough Energy Ventures
Antares - $470M Series C ($370M equity, $100M is debt)
Compact nuclear microreactors for remote and defense applications
CEO: Jordan Bramble
Investors: Paradigm, Caffeinated Capital, Point72 Ventures
Thea Energy - $100M Series B
Simplified stellarator fusion plants using modular magnet systems
CEO: Brian Berzin
Investors: USIT, General Innovation Capital Partners, Linse Capital
Verse - $54M Series B
Software helping data centers secure and manage power
CEO: Seyed Madaeni
Investors: Bessemer Venture Partners, GV, NVIDIA
Endurance Energy - $54M Series A
Offshore geothermal systems tapping heat beneath the seafloor
CEO: Andrew Redd
Investors: Founders Fund, Construct Capital, Felicis Ventures
Aston Power - $20M Series A
Power delivery platform for AI data centers and large-scale industrial infrastructure
CEO: Greg Robinson
Investors: TDK Ventures, Building Ventures, JLL Spark
Sila - $300M private financing
Silicon-carbon anodes increasing lithium-ion battery energy density
CEO: Gene Berdichevsky
Investors: Atreides Management, Sutter Hill Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners
Foundation Alloy - $22M Series A
Advanced metal alloys manufactured without conventional melting processes
CEO: Jake Guglin
Investors: Voyager Ventures, Yamaha Motor Ventures, Material Impact
Terra AI - $20M Series A
AI modeling for mineral and subsurface resource exploration
CEO: John Mern
Investors: Khosla Ventures, BHP Ventures
Cuprum Metals - $19.4M Series A
Water-based technology extracting copper from challenging ore deposits
CEO: Roger Pettman
Investors: Lundin Family Office, Woodline Partners, BHP Ventures
NxLite - $13.1M Series A
Energy-control coatings for windows and other transparent surfaces
CEO: David Mather
Investors: Crabtree Lane Alt, VoLo Earth Ventures, Earth Foundry
Lydian - $43M Series A
Lower-cost synthetic aviation fuel production technology and projects
CEO: Joe Rodden
Investors: Breakthrough Energy Ventures, AP Ventures, Builders Vision
Evotrex - $30M Series A
Electric RV trailer with battery storage, solar, and onboard power generation
CEO: Alex Xiao
Investors: GSR United Capital, Forebright Concerto Capital, Unique Capital
Revoy - $27M Series A
Electric propulsion system retrofitting existing diesel tractor-trailers
CEO: Peter Reinhardt
Investors: Standard Capital, XYZ Venture Capital, Doerr Capital, Y Combinator
Captura - $12.5M Series B first close
Electrochemical platform for ocean carbon and direct lithium extraction
CEO: Steve Oldham
Investors: Equinor Ventures, EDP Ventures, Eni Next, Hitachi Ventures
P2 Science - $23M growth round
Green chemistry converting renewable feedstocks into specialty materials
CEO: Oihana Elizalde
Investors: Sofinnova Partners, BASF, Chanel
Hippo Harvest - $30M Series C
Robotic greenhouses growing produce with fewer natural resources
CEO: Eitan Marder-Eppstein
Investors: Cox Farms, Collaborative Fund, Congruent Ventures
Phytokana Ingredients - C$25M financing
Plant-protein ingredients produced through dry fractionation technology
CEO: Chris Theal
Investors: Strategic investor and existing shareholders
Leaf Agriculture - $13M Series B
Data infrastructure connecting farm machinery and agricultural software
CEO: G. Bailey Stockdale
Investors: Leaps by Bayer, undisclosed strategic and financial investors
Make it a great week. It’s usually a choice.
Climate CEO Coach, Founder, Investor, Board Member, Professor
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