By the end of 2021, our sister publication Global University Venturing had reported 74 rounds raised by university spinouts developing energy-related technologies, up a whopping 80% from the 41 recorded in the previous year.
The level of estimated total capital deployed in 2021 stood at $4.19bn, a multi-fold jump from the $707m recorded in 2020. By the end of August this year, we had already tracked 43 rounds, worth an estimated total of $938m.
In the full energy report:
Energy deals continue to boom despite market downturn
Value of corporate-backed energy deals quadruples
Energy funds are back in vogue
Wave of job moves amid energy bull market
Funding spikes for university energy spinouts
This suggests that interest in energy-related innovation stemming from academia is holding up well, despite the overall bear market in VC. In fact, the most notable and sizeable deals worth mentioning had to do with interesting alternative energy sources and water.
Zap Energy, a US-based fusion energy spinout of University of Washington, raised $160m in its series C round led by Lowercarbon Capital, a venture capital firm focused on technologies that reduce carbon emissions.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures as well as Shell Ventures and Chevron Technology Ventures, respective vehicles for oil and gas companies Shell and Chevron, also contributed to the round. Zap Energy’s technology relies on confining and compressing plasma that carries a current which generates its own magnetic field, foregoing the need for superconducting magnets. That field, in turn, “pinches” the plasma to a heat and density where fusion can occur.
Fervo Energy, a US-based geothermal energy technology developer, closed a $138m round, led by DCVC and backed by oil and gas service providers Helmerich & Payne and Liberty Oilfield Services. Fervo Energy has created technology to increase the efficiency and lower the cost of harnessing carbon-free geothermal energy. The technology was developed thanks to a grant from Stanford University’s TomKat Center, and a fellowship for co-founder and chief technology officer Jack Norbeck at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Cyclotron Road Division, sponsored by Activate.org. The funds will be used to expand into supporting geothermal resource development.
US-based water sourcing company Source Global, a spinout of Arizona State University, raised $150m in a series D round from Gr8day investments, putting the company’s pre-money valuation at $950m. Breakthrough Energy Ventures and utilities company Duke Energy also participated in the round. Launched in 2014, the company has developed a hydro panel technology intended to provide safe, clean drinking water for industrial, commercial, residential, and community applications, using advanced materials science to pull water from even extremely dry conditions.
