Led · Series D · Aug 2025

Group14 is a battery materials startup that manufactures silicon anode materials for lithium‑ion batteries. Its product is a scaffold with internal voids that hold silicon, allowing the silicon to expand without crumbling; the material can be blended with graphite or replace it entirely. Group14 says the material can improve energy density by up to 50% and cut fast‑charging times below 10 minutes. The company operates three factories—two in the U.S. and one in South Korea—and plans to expand its manufacturing footprint using proceeds from the recent round. It closed a $463 million funding round to support that expansion, a move investors took as a sign of continued confidence in EV battery technology despite softer EV demand headlines. The broader lithium‑ion battery market is expected to grow more than 15% annually and quintuple in size over the next decade, according to Precedence Research. Group14 Technologies is a commercial manufacturer and supplier of advanced silicon battery materials, producing SCC55 silicon‑carbon battery active materials. The company operates a commercial-scale Battery Active Materials (BAM-1) factory in Woodinville, Washington, with a nameplate capacity of 120 tons per year. It launched BAM-1 in April 2021 and is developing additional manufacturing capacity through a joint-venture factory with SK, Inc. in South Korea and a second U.S. factory. Group14 plans to use recent Series C funding to build its second commercial-scale BAM-2 factory. The company is led by CEO and co-founder Rick Luebbe. Recent financings indicate institutional backing from strategic and climate-focused investors. Group14 Technologies is a Woodinville, Washington–based maker of advanced silicon battery technology founded in 2015. The company developed a silicon‑carbon composite material designed to replace graphite anodes in lithium‑ion batteries, which it says improves performance by about 50% and enables faster recharging. Group14 launched its first commercial-scale Battery Active Materials factory in Woodinville in April 2021. It will use a $100 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy to build two 2,000‑ton‑per‑year commercial manufacturing modules at a second facility in Moses Lake, Eastern Washington, and expects to hire 500 employees for construction, commissioning and operations. The DOE funding is part of a first phase deploying more than $7 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to boost domestic battery production. The company raised $400 million in May in a funding round led by Porsche AG and has raised $441 million to date. Group14 produces a silicon‑carbon powder (branded SCC55) that can replace or augment graphite anodes by infusing a porous carbon scaffold with a silicon‑containing gas to create nanoscale silicon particles. The company says SCC55 can store about 50% more energy than traditional graphite anodes and can be blended with existing graphite anodes with minimal production-line changes. Group14 currently has one battery‑materials plant online and is building two more: a joint venture plant with SK Group coming online later this year and another plant slated to begin production in 2023. The company appears to be targeting production for Porsche battery packs in 2024. Prior to the new financing, Group14 had secured roughly $41.5 million combined in venture funding and government grants. The startup is based in Woodinville, Washington. Group14 Technologies develops silicon-carbon composite materials for lithium-ion markets, with flagship product SCC55™ that promises up to 50% more energy density than conventional graphite. The company has ramped pilot production and planned to supply its first commercial customers in consumer electronics in Q1 2021. It secured $17 million in Series B funding to scale production and meet rising demand for its lithium-silicon technology. Group14 plans to break ground on a hydroelectric-powered production facility in Moses Lake, Washington to build out a domestic lithium-ion battery supply chain. Earlier investors include Amperex Technology Limited (ATL), Showa Denko, Cabot Corporation, BASF, and OVP Venture Partners. Founded in 2015 and based in Woodinville, Washington, the company has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy for its drop-in nanomaterials and industrial-scale process.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2023

Superblock, based in Seoul, South Korea and led by founder Ben (Jae-Yun) Kim, builds products, developer tools and decentralized applications to grow the Over Protocol. Over Protocol is a new layer-1 blockchain built on a protocol called "Ethanos" that treats only active accounts as valid, letting full nodes discard obsolete data and operate with less storage. That design reduces storage requirements so that anyone can run a node and become a validator on a home PC. Superblock raised $8 million across two funding rounds and plans to use the funds to expand operations and accelerate development efforts. Investors in the rounds include SK, Netmarble, DSC, E&Investment, Schmidt, SpringCamp and NaverZ. The company emphasizes enabling broader decentralization by making node operation feasible for ordinary users.

Led · Series D · Oct 2022

Swift Navigation offers Skylark, a real-time cloud-based precise positioning service that corrects GNSS errors to deliver centimeter-level accuracy for high-volume applications. Skylark is designed for mass-market adoption and operates entirely in the cloud without the need for expensive physical data centers. The service is certified to meet ISO 26262:2018 functional safety standards for road vehicles. Swift reports that Skylark supports over 10 million ADAS-enabled and autonomous vehicles and contributes to global programs for more than 20 automotive OEMs and leading robotics companies. With the new funding, Swift plans to expand adoption across use cases including digital mapping and precision mobile navigation. Timothy Harris is cited as Co-Founder and CEO in the announcement. Swift Navigation offers a comprehensive GNSS platform used across automotive, industrial, and consumer markets. Its products include Skylark, a global wide-area cloud-based GNSS precise positioning service, and Starling, a receiver-agnostic client software positioning engine, along with a variety of Swift and third-party compatible receivers. The platform supports single- and multi-frequency, multi-constellation automotive and commercial-grade GNSS measurement engines and chipsets. Use cases include improved mobile phone positioning (navigation, traffic, augmented reality), continent-wide rail tracking and safety, and enhanced RTK for machine control and guidance in agriculture, construction, and robotics. Customers include automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, last-mile delivery providers, mobile handset and application companies, and builders of rail, industrial machine control, and IoT platforms. The company intends to use new funding to accelerate growth and expand operations, and to date has raised over $200 million in funding. Swift Navigation builds GNSS and precise positioning technology, including the cloud-based Skylark precise positioning service, the receiver-agnostic Starling software positioning engine, and RTK hardware such as Piksi Multi and Duro devices. Its platform delivers centimeter-accurate, continent-scale positioning across the U.S., Europe, Japan, South Korea, Australia and a growing number of countries. Customers include automotive OEMs, last-mile delivery providers, mobile providers and makers of rail, industrial, micromobility and IoT platforms. The company emphasizes integration with automotive sensor suites and mobile devices to enable lane-level accuracy with privacy and security. Swift plans to use the Series C proceeds to scale customer deployments and continue worldwide expansion. To date the company has raised $97.6 million in funding. Swift Navigation is a San Francisco-based company founded in 2012 by Timothy Harris that develops centimeter-accurate GNSS/GPS technology. Its core products include Piksi Multi, a multi-band, multi-constellation high-precision GNSS receiver with seconds-level convergence, and Duro, a ruggedized version for harsh outdoor deployments. The company serves over 2,000 customers across autonomous vehicles, precision agriculture, UAVs, robotics, maritime, transportation/logistics and outdoor industrial applications. In June 2017 it raised $34M in a Series B, bringing total funding to $47.6M. Swift plans to use the funds to scale customer deployments, grow its team, and invest in core engineering and R&D. It also intends to introduce additional next-generation products in 2017. Swift Navigation develops accurate Real Time Kinematics (RTK) GPS positioning technology for applications including unmanned aerial vehicles, precision agriculture, self-driving cars, robotics and surveying. Led by CEO Tim Harris, the company has sold its first product, Piksi™, to over 1,200 customers. Swift is planning to introduce two next-generation products in 2016. Financially, the company has raised a total of $13.6M to date. The firm intends to use new funding to scale and grow its team and to invest in core engineering and R&D.

Led · Equity · Aug 2022

Atom Power offers the world’s first commercial solid‑state digital circuit breaker and a PURPL EV charging solution that digitizes power delivery from meter to car. Its technology converts analog power distribution into a flexible, software‑defined system intended to change EV charging economics and speed deployments. The company says it has landed dozens of corporate customers and secured the largest single multi‑family EV charging project in New York City. Atom Power is headquartered in Huntersville, North Carolina, and is led by CEO Ryan Kennedy. Financially, the company completed a $100 million growth round led by SK Inc. and SK Energy, and SK also acquired an additional $50 million stake via prior investors. The funding is intended to support U.S. expansion and eventual global growth in partnership with SK. Atom Power designs and manufactures a suite of intelligent products including a digital circuit breaker, distribution panel and software that enable complete control and customization of electrical infrastructure for commercial and industrial applications. Led by CEO Ryan Kennedy, the company focuses on scaling its intelligent power management platform. It raised $17.75m in a Series B and has raised $23m in total funding. Atom Power intends to use the funds to develop the next-generation digital circuit breaker and to scale its platform. The company plans to integrate renewables into the grid, build more efficient data centers and support other sustainable energy initiatives. It will also apply its technology to advanced e-mobility to change how EV charging infrastructure is deployed through inherent demand management that saves energy and costs. Atom Power Inc. is a Charlotte-based energy startup founded in 2014 that develops solid-state switching technology. The company developed the first commercially viable solid-state circuit breaker and targets commercial and industrial power distribution. Its CEO is Ryan Kennedy. In a recent SEC filing the company disclosed it raised $3 million in a private equity and options offering. The filing said the funds came from three investors and noted earlier in the year Atom Power secured a large, undisclosed investment from Siemens.

Led · Equity · Aug 2022

TerraPower develops Natrium sodium‑cooled reactors that operate at a steady state and store heat in molten sodium to enable dispatchable output when demand rises. The Natrium design intentionally uses excess sodium to heat and store energy, allowing steam turbines to draw from the stored heat rather than ramping the reactor. A completed Natrium reactor is designed to generate 345 megawatts, and its thermal storage system is designed to produce up to 500 megawatts for more than five hours. The company shifted from an earlier reactor design to pursue Natrium and began building its first commercial plant in Wyoming in June 2024, though it does not yet have reactor approval and expects permits sometime next year. TerraPower claims it can complete a reactor within three years after the first batch of concrete is poured, but the Associated Press reported project costs could reach $4 billion, roughly half of which might be shouldered by the Department of Energy. A new $650 million funding round will support construction of the first commercial power plant. TerraPower develops advanced nuclear energy technologies and nuclear medicine solutions, including the Natrium™ demonstration plant and the TerraPower Isotopes (TPI) program. The company is constructing the Natrium demo plant at a retiring coal facility in Wyoming and is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). Part of the ARDP award requires a 50% match of project costs, up to $2 billion, and TerraPower says the new funding will support current implementation efforts. TPI is advancing next-generation isotopes and has unique access to Actinium-225 for pharmaceutical development. TerraPower emphasizes global deployment of its technologies and collaborations between public and private sectors. The company will remain privately held. TerraPower, a Seattle-based spinout of Intellectual Ventures (founded by Nathan Myhrvold), is developing traveling-wave reactors that generate electricity using much smaller amounts of enriched uranium combined with recycled uranium from existing plants. The company says its recycling reactors could run on their own byproducts for many more years than current reactors, potentially reducing hazardous waste and long-distance fuel shipments. The technology is not yet commercialized and the company describes the recent funding as a stepping stone toward a working commercial reactor. TerraPower aims to have a demonstration-scale reactor up and running within about 10 years. Its long-term, manufacturing-heavy ambitions run counter to recent cleantech investing trends that favor capital-efficient plays. The company has attracted high-profile backers and interest from potential partners such as Toshiba.