Antora Energy, a San Jose-based thermal battery startup, raised $550 million in a Series C funding round announced Thursday. The round was co-led by G2 Venture Partners and Eclipse, with participation from Decarbonization Partners, Lowercarbon Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, John Doerr, and Ribbit Capital. Since its 2017 founding, Antora has raised $770 million in total, including a $150 million Series B round in February 2024, according to news.crunchbase.com.
The company plans to use the new capital to accelerate deployment of large-scale battery storage projects across the U.S., aiming to meet rising energy demand driven by data centers and artificial intelligence growth. Antora recently completed a 5 gigawatt-hour system in South Dakota, one of the world’s largest battery storage projects. Its technology stores electricity as heat in insulated solid carbon blocks, delivering power or heat continuously without relying on critical minerals or long construction periods.
Antora’s thermal battery technology differentiates itself by offering factory-built modules that serve diverse sectors such as chemical plants, food production, steelmaking, data centers, and the grid. This approach contrasts with conventional battery storage reliant on scarce materials and lengthy build times. The company’s ability to provide cheap, clean, and fast energy storage addresses increasing demand for sustainable power solutions amid the AI-driven data center expansion, positioning it among notable cleantech players backed by investors like Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
The latest funding round brings Antora’s total capital raised to $770 million since inception, reinforcing its capacity to scale thermal battery deployments nationwide. The company’s recent 5 gigawatt-hour project in South Dakota exemplifies its growing footprint in large-scale energy storage solutions, as detailed by news.crunchbase.com.