Khosla-Backed Energy Startup Nabs $258 Million to Help Power
Summary
The technology works by creating a flameless reaction of air and fuel that helps produce electricity.The demand has been really quite outstanding, said Samir Kaul, founding partner and managing director at Khosla Ventures, a follow-on investor who gave the company its first check in 2010. Thats helpful because data centers need cheap, reliable power, which is getting increasingly hard to access amid growing competition. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas which oversees the states grid projects 30 nuclear plants worth of electricity will need to come online by 2030 to meet demand.The Menlo Park, California-based company is shipping generators capable providing tens of megawatts of power to US data center customers this year, said chief executive officer and co-founder Shannon Miller, adding that the generator provides power at a cost thats competitive or even lower than power from the grid in many locations. When compared to traditional gas engines or turbines, it has a lower total cost of ownership with a three-year payback period.The Series F round was led by General Catalyst, and the firms senior advisor Tom Linebarger will join the Mainspring board, along with Bethany Mayer, former chief executive officer of public technology company Ixia. The timeline may shift due in part to President Donald Trumps push to boost fossil fuels and scale back investments in clean energy.