Led · Seed · Jul 2026

Fast Metals applies a multi-step chemical process—developed by co-founder Sumedh Gostu during his doctoral studies—to red mud, a caustic alumina-refining byproduct, using an additional refinery waste stream to make extraction economical. The process separates iron and sequentially precipitates other valuable minerals, including titanium, aluminum and rare earth elements such as scandium. The company says iron sales cover operating expenses while higher-value products (titanium dioxide, scandium oxide) generate profit; the article cites market prices as context (around $2.50–$3/kg for titanium dioxide and ~$750/kg for scandium oxide). Fast Metals plans to scale up with proceeds from its pre-seed round and has secured a commercial contract with Metalox to treat one ton per week later this year. The founding team includes CEO and co-founder Sumedh Gostu and co-founder Anthony Staley.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2026

NxLite develops proprietary permanent, low-emissivity coatings applicable to both glass and polymeric substrates that aim to reduce energy consumption while cutting weight versus conventional alternatives. The company partners with leaders in the window industry, commercial refrigeration, transportation and other sectors and reports having secured commercial agreements and offtake. Since its first close in October 2025, NxLite has been adding capacity and enhancing full-scale manufacturing capability at its Advanced Innovation & Manufacturing (AIM) Center in Canton, Michigan. Financially, NxLite completed a $13.1 million Series A final close and obtained a $3.5 million debt facility from RSF Social Finance to support its manufacturing scale-up. The company appointed Erin Sawyer, a supply-chain and operations leader, to its board to help accelerate operational execution and compress timelines. NxLite is actively scaling its technology for broader commercial application across multiple use cases.

Participated · Seed · Jul 2026

Piq Energy builds an agentic grid planning platform that sits on top of industry engineering tools to connect models, data and workflows and automate complex engineering studies. The company aims to streamline interconnection processes by enabling agents to run studies simultaneously, unlock existing grid capacity, and accelerate adoption of flexible transmission solutions. Piq launched in 2025 after stealth development and reports managing more than 1,000 transmission grid models and completing over 10,000 engineering workflows while supporting customers running dozens of analyses daily. The company was founded in 2023 and is headquartered in San Francisco. Its founders, Tom Nudell, PhD (CEO), and Dionysios Stamatiadis, MSc (Chief Engineer), bring experience from utilities and technology firms including Smart Wires, UK Power Networks, EirGrid, APS, Oncor, Palantir and C3 AI. The recent $5 million seed raise led by Active Impact Investments will fund the next phase of product rollout to utilities and developers and further development of Piq’s grid intelligence layer.

Participated · Seed · Mar 2026

Coral provides a platform to make energy-efficiency upgrades for homes more accessible and affordable by simplifying financing for homeowners. The company focuses on bridging the cost gap to enable climate-conscious home improvements. Following its 2026 $7.5M seed raise, Coral plans to expand its platform to reach more households and accelerate adoption of energy-efficient systems. The articles do not report revenue, user counts, founding year, location, or prior funding details. Coral positions itself at the intersection of green financing and home-improvement, responding to rising demand for sustainable, cost-effective upgrades.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2026

Lucend’s core product is a Transparent AI platform that links to a data center’s existing sensors and infrastructure—no new hardware required—to transform static systems into adaptive, self-learning environments. The software ingests roughly 300 billion historical sensor readings and analyzes billions of data points daily to deliver prescriptive, explainable recommendations that operators can vet before implementation, maintaining a ‘human-in-the-loop’ workflow. Deployed across dozens of facilities in Melbourne, Singapore, Paris, London, Amsterdam and Chicago, the technology has driven ~40 % improvements in PUE, ~25 % reductions in power consumption, ~30 % lower water use, and ~40 % gains in team efficiency for customers such as Digital Realty, Global Switch, and T5. With more than half of the world’s data centers located in the United States, Lucend is using its new capital to expand sales, operations and customer support in that market. The company’s strategy focuses on helping operators maximize existing assets’ lifespan and defer CapEx while meeting rising AI-driven demand for capacity. Industry partners like Mitsubishi Electric plan to pair Lucend’s software with their hardware to enhance customer value. To date, Lucend has raised a $3.3 million seed round to fund this expansion.