LiquidPiston develops compact, scalable combustion engines built on its patented High‑Efficiency Hybrid Cycle (HEHC or “The Shkolnik Cycle”) and engine architecture innovations. Its engines are designed to be scalable from one horsepower to over 1,000 hp and to deliver roughly 1.5 hp per pound, and can run on fossil or renewable fuels. The company targets applications across UAS, mobile power generation, APU, automotive, aerospace, and broader power-generation markets. LiquidPiston has secured significant U.S. Department of Defense funding (about $65 million total), including a recent $35 million contract from the U.S. Air Force. The company plans to use new capital to accelerate research and development, expand operations, and push its technology closer to commercialization. LiquidPiston works with DealMaker to run digital equity crowdfunding campaigns to reach a broad base of individual investors. LiquidPiston develops advanced rotary combustion engines designed to be compact, powerful and fuel-efficient and is working to commercialize that technology. In early January 2020 the company launched a Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) campaign on StartEngine and met its $1.07M goal in under nine hours. The offering continued to oversubscribe its account by several million dollars and attracted thousands of individual investors. The company framed its product around environmental efficiency and smaller, lighter power solutions to broaden appeal to individual backers. LiquidPiston leveraged StartEngine’s platform, marketing support, and investor newsletters to reach a passionate fanbase of gearheads, hobbyists, and technically minded supporters. Co-founder and CEO Dr. Alexander Shkolnik provides technical and commercial leadership; he holds a Ph.D. from MIT, has 44 patents issued or pending, and has authored 25 peer-reviewed publications. LiquidPiston develops advanced internal combustion engines centered on its rotary X Engine. The X Engine is described as lightweight, compact, quiet, low-vibration, multi-fuel capable (including diesel, JP8, gasoline, and natural gas) and scalable from less than 1 to over 1,000 HP. The company claims the design can be 2–3x more fuel-efficient than today’s engines and 5–10x smaller/lighter than comparably powered diesel engines, with potential specific power of 2 HP/lb and 3 kW/kg. LiquidPiston announced a first closing of a $6.5 million Series C to support continued development of the X Engine and engagement with industry partners. Northwater Capital Management and Adams Capital Management led the round, and the company added David Habiger to its board. Based in Bloomfield, CT, LiquidPiston says it will work with industry partners to develop the engine for market applications that value high power-density, fuel-efficiency, low-noise, and low-vibration. LiquidPiston is a Bloomfield, CT-based developer and manufacturer of compact, efficient internal combustion engines. The company designs rotary internal combustion engines that use an innovative thermodynamic cycle called the high-efficiency hybrid cycle (HEHC) to boost average-load efficiency above 50%. Its engines are designed to reduce fuel consumption by as much as threefold compared with conventional engines. LiquidPiston was co-founded by Nikolay and Alec Shkolnik. The company is pursuing commercialization of HEHC engines and plans to use recent funding to deliver proof points for prospective corporate partners. LiquidPiston recently closed a $5M Series B to support development and commercialization efforts. LiquidPiston is developing a novel internal combustion engine with an architecture the company says is inherently scalable from lawnmowers to locomotives. The firm claims efficiencies that could someday make a 100 mile-per-gallon automobile possible. It will use the financing to build and test a working prototype. Earlier this year LiquidPiston received a $70,000 Phase I grant from the Army SBIR program. The company is led by immigrant physicist Nikolay Shkolnik and his son Alexander Shkolnik, a graduate student at MIT’s engineering school. LiquidPiston is based in Cambridge, Mass.

Total raised

$44M

Funding rounds

5

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Oct 2023