Karman Industries builds industrial-scale heat pumps that use high-speed turbomachinery compressors to transfer heat while minimizing footprint. The company targets industrial-heat applications such as breweries, food and beverage processors, chemical manufacturers, and paper mills as a replacement for traditional boilers. Its turbomachinery approach claims to achieve the same temperature lift in one or two stages versus the five or six stages typical of other systems, and its compressors are oil-free to simplify design and maintenance. Karman’s largest compressor fits in a frame up to eight feet long and six feet in diameter; smaller models are four to five feet long and two to three feet in diameter. The first model, Thermal01, is expected to be pilot-ready for customer installation in the first half of 2026, and the company anticipates it will be cost-competitive with natural gas in certain regions and processes. Karman emerged from stealth and has raised a $4 million pre-seed led by Riot Ventures with participation from Space VC; co-founders include CEO David Tearse and CTO Chiranjeev (CJ) Kalra.

Total raised

$4M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Sep 2024