Bluecore Energy announced Tuesday an oversubscribed $50 million seed round — just months after raising a $10 million pre-seed and coming out of stealth.
As TechCrunch previously reported, the company, founded earlier this year by Kofi Asante, builds small nuclear reactors (SMRs) on floating barges, rather than fixed locations, to generate clean energy for ports and nearby infrastructure. This means that energy can be transported to wherever it is needed, an idea Asante hopes can bring clean power to those who need it most.
“The Navy is doing this as we speak, for the last 70 years, and has never had an accident,” Asante said about the use of portable technology in a new interview with TechCrunch. “We just made it smaller, so you can actually move things around in a way that doesn’t take years” — or a new set of infrastructure — ”but days.”
Asante wasn’t planning on fundraising this year, but calls kept coming after their pre-seed launch. Many of their pre-seed investors, including Slauson & Co., Harlem Capital, and Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, doubled down on this new round, with new capital coming from investors like Collab Capital, Kevin Hart’s HartBeat Ventures, and angel investors from Tesla, Uber, Amazon, and Google. Silverton Partners led this new seed round, and it took eight weeks to close.
“I just kept having to figure out a way to make more room” — on the cap table, Asante said. “I wasn’t anticipating us raising that level of capital in that period of time, but really fortunate that we have so many investors and partners who are excited.”
When it emerged from stealth in July, it became the first nuclear company headquartered at a major port: the Port of Long Beach. It has since launched two floating barges and has struck a partnership with the Department of Transportation Maritime Division, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and the U.S. Coast Guard. Bluecore Energy is now undergoing review with the NRC and the Coast Guard on its product design, which, if successful, will lead to certification of its floating nuclear power plant.
“We have been talking to them both since the inception of the company and design, but officially started the formal engagement in August,” Asante said.
The fresh capital will fund continued product development, regulatory work, nuclear fuel purchases, and hiring. Asante anticipates the biggest challenge to be the supply chain, securing hardware to build the right portable electricity infrastructure at a pace that can match consumer demand. He said that Bluecore Energy has seen inbound interest from “multiple ports, AI data centers and communities that need clean energy and water.”
“Our team comes from SpaceX, Rivian, and Toyota, so we are applying similar strategies to be able to secure critical parts,” he said. “We already have barges and a reactor and are now about to order nuclear fuel to go to our partner at a national nuclear lab.”
It all goes back to the core mission, Asante said, “to democratize access to clean energy.”
“My philosophy is that access to clean energy and also clean water should be a human right,” he said.
Source: TechCrunch Startups
