Participated · Series E · Dec 2025

Fervo Energy develops next-generation geothermal power using innovations in horizontal drilling, fiber-optic sensing and advanced reservoir engineering to make geothermal scalable and competitive. Its flagship Cape Station project in Beaver County, Utah is slated to deliver first power to the grid in 2026, reach about 100 MW of operating capacity by early 2027 and has plans to scale to 500 MW. Cape Station is fully contracted through power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison, Shell Energy and community choice aggregators. The company secured long-term non-recourse project financing for the first phase of Cape Station to fund remaining construction costs and meet counterparty credit support requirements. Fervo positions its technology and commercial contracts as enabling Enhanced Geothermal Systems to be treated as a bankable, utility-scale infrastructure asset.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2024

ThinkLabs AI builds a high-performance, physics-informed AI platform that simulates, plans and optimizes electric grid operations far faster than traditional tools. Its technology can run up to 10 million scenarios in 10 minutes while maintaining more than 99.7% accuracy on grid power flow, enabling utilities to identify constraints and solutions rapidly. The company emphasizes transparency, explainability and auditability in its models to meet regulated-utility requirements. ThinkLabs targets use cases including interconnection, system planning and operational studies as electricity demand grows from data centers, AI workloads and electrification. The recent $28 million Series A will fund expanded customer delivery, enhancements to AI-powered digital twins and agents, and scaled deployments with ecosystem partners. The company is based in New York.

Led · Series C · Feb 2024

Lilac Solutions is an Oakland, CA–based company that develops patented ion-exchange (IX) technology and ion-exchange media (IXM) to produce lithium from brine resources. Its IXM is designed to be selective for lithium and to enable economically viable lithium production where prior IXM solutions were not practical. The company offers a full-service package for lithium resource developers, including test work, Front-End Loading (FEL) engineering, on-site piloting, and turnkey commercial production with design, build, operation, and supply of IXM. Led by CEO Dave Snydacker and COO Raef Sully, Lilac’s mission is to scale global lithium production to support the electric vehicle industry and the energy transition. The company recently raised a $145M Series C (bringing total capital raised to $315M). Lilac intends to use the proceeds to expand operations, ramp up manufacturing capacity of its proprietary IX material, and support commercial deployment at projects worldwide. Lilac Solutions is a lithium extraction technology company based in Oakland, California that has developed a patented ion-exchange process to produce lithium from brine resources. The company has proven its technology on a variety of brines and recently completed its first field pilot, demonstrating rapid deployment and strong process performance. Lilac’s approach uses ion exchange beads to recover lithium and allows brine to be returned underground after extraction, minimizing environmental impact compared with evaporation-pond methods. Management says the technology is significantly faster to deploy, offers better financial returns, and can enable production from lower-grade brine resources. Lilac plans to use the new capital to ramp production of its ion exchange beads, expand engineering and field operations teams, and deploy the technology globally. The company positions its solution as a way to scale lithium supply for the electric vehicle transition while protecting local communities and ecosystems. Lilac Solutions has developed a patented ion exchange technology and proprietary ion-exchange beads that enable faster, lower-cost, and more scalable lithium extraction from abundant brine resources. The technology was developed by CEO Dave Snydacker and Lilac's engineering team in Oakland and has been demonstrated at large scale with dozens of brine resources. Lilac positions its system as having an ultra-low environmental footprint compared with conventional extraction processes. The company has projects under development across the United States and South America and plans to deploy the technology globally. The recent capital raise will fund expansion of the engineering team and scale-up of bead production to support broader deployments. Lilac's stated mission is to increase lithium supplies needed for electric vehicles and renewable energy storage.

Participated · Equity · Aug 2023

TechMet is an investment company focused on building businesses across the critical minerals value chain from extraction and processing to refining and recycling. Its target minerals include lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earths. The company intends to use newly raised funds to develop existing assets and continue building its portfolio with strategic projects that scale production and refining of those minerals. Since inception TechMet has invested more than $450m into projects across North and South America, Europe and Africa, and its portfolio includes Brazilian Nickel, Cornish Lithium, EnergySource Minerals, US Vanadium, Trinity Metals, Xerion Advanced Battery Corp, TechMet‑Mercuria, Rainbow Rare Earths, REEtec and Momentum Technologies. TechMet met a $300m fundraising target with the latest investments and is now valued at well over $1 billion. Major shareholders include the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), S2G Ventures and Mercuria. Founded in 2017, TechMet is an investment company focused on building businesses across the full critical metals value chain—from extraction and processing to recycling and supply‑chain management. The firm has opened a new $300 million equity funding round and secured an additional $50 million equity commitment from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). DFC’s extra commitment raises its total investment in TechMet to $105 million following an initial investment in 2020. TechMet is valued at over $1 billion and has invested more than $250 million into critical metals projects across North and South America, Europe, and Africa during 2022 and 2023. Its portfolio includes stakes and capital deployed to Rainbow Rare Earths, Brazilian Nickel, US Vanadium, REEtec, Xerion Advanced Battery Corp., Energy Source Minerals, Momentum Technologies, and Trinity Metals. Management says it will use the latest DFC tranche to exercise an option to deploy $50 million directly into the Phalaborwa Rare Earths project in South Africa, and emphasizes environmentally and socially responsible scaling of supply chains for clean energy technologies. TechMet develops projects and investments to secure the supply chain of critical metals used in electric vehicles, energy storage and renewable energy. The firm has invested more than $180 million into critical-minerals companies over the last 12 months. It recently raised a $200 million equity round and paid a maiden dividend to shareholders last year. TechMet says it is on track to exceed a billion-dollar valuation in the coming months. Leadership plans to deploy further capital into mining and processing projects and to launch an additional fundraising round in Q4. The company emphasizes building environmentally responsible supply chains for the clean-energy transition.

Led · Series B · Mar 2023

ClearFlame Engine Technologies develops patented technology that enables heavy-duty engines to run on a range of renewable liquid fuels. Its system is designed to deliver the same power, durability and performance as today’s diesel engines while integrating into existing manufacturing, fueling, maintenance and repair ecosystems. The company is targeting long-haul trucking and is piloting five trucks in collaboration with some of the largest fleet operators in North America. ClearFlame is pursuing penetration of the more than $200 billion global trucking market and is exploring partnerships and applications in mining, agriculture, and power generation. Led by CEO BJ Johnson and CTO Julie Blumreiter, the company intends to use funding to bring market-ready solutions that lower costs for manufacturers and reduce carbon and soot. ClearFlame is based in Chicago, IL. ClearFlame Engine Technologies develops net‑zero engine technology that allows low‑carbon renewable fuels like ethanol to be integrated into existing diesel engine platforms while meeting diesel performance and efficiency requirements. The company’s ClearFlame‑enabled engines aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and particulate matter, offering a lower‑emission, lower‑cost alternative to diesel. ClearFlame plans to commercialize its technology for long‑haul trucking, agriculture and power generation sectors using the new funding. The company is led by CEO and co‑founder BJ Johnson and is based in Geneva, Illinois. Prior to this round, ClearFlame received $4M in non‑dilutive and grant funding from state corn growers associations, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and others, and completed a $3M Series Seed in early 2020 led by Clean Energy Ventures. ClearFlame Engine Technologies has developed a way to modify diesel engines so they can operate on decarbonized fuels such as ethanol (and, with injection tweaks, methanol, natural gas and ammonia) while retaining 80–90% of existing diesel parts. The technology enables replacing 100% of petroleum fuel with renewable fuels, which the company says reduces net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% and cuts particulate matter and NOx to near-zero levels. Their approach focuses on retrofitting existing engines or integrating the modifications into new engines, with a go-to-market strategy of partnering with OEMs to leverage supply chains and aftermarket channels. The core tech originated in a Stanford University lab where the co-founders earned their Ph.D.s; the founders are CEO BJ Johnson and CTO Julie Blumreiter. ClearFlame has completed proof-of-concept demonstrations on a Caterpillar engine at Argonne National Laboratory and is conducting a demonstration on a Cummins platform supported by DOE funding. On the financing side, the company announced a $3 million round led by CleanEnergy Ventures and has also received several million dollars in grant funding, including SBIR awards from NSF, DOE and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.