Antora Energy closed a $550 million Series C on July 30, 2026 to accelerate deployment of its solid-carbon thermal batteries into industrial sites, data centers and the grid — capping a 12-month sprint that ended with the commissioning of Project Big Stone, one of the largest battery storage projects on Earth.
G2 And Eclipse Co-Lead A $2.47B Valuation Round
G2 Venture Partners and Eclipse co-led the oversubscribed round at a $2.47 billion valuation, joined by new investors Ribbit Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Activate Capital, John Doerr, Westly Group, StepStone Group and Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures. Existing backers Decarbonization Partners, Impact Science Ventures, Trust Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Lowercarbon Capital also participated.
"From factories to data centers, energy is the bottleneck to industrial growth," said co-founder and CEO Andrew Ponec. "Antora has shown we can help break that bottleneck — delivering energy fast, at massive scale, with American innovation."
Solid-Carbon Blocks, Round-The-Clock Heat
Antora's thermal batteries store cheap renewable electricity as heat inside insulated blocks of solid carbon and dispatch it around the clock as steam, hot air or power. Because the modules are factory-built and use abundant materials rather than supply-constrained critical minerals, Antora can install them faster than conventional peaker plants or transmission upgrades — a critical selling point as hyperscaler load growth outstrips the pace of new grid capacity.
Project Big Stone Sets The Pace
In May 2026 Antora and POET brought online a 5 GWh thermal system at POET's Big Stone City ethanol facility in South Dakota, moving from initial construction to first energy in under 12 months. The Series C bankrolls a second US manufacturing hub alongside Antora's expanded three-building San Jose campus, plus a growing pipeline of signed contracts with hyperscalers and industrial customers.
The financing follows a wave of cleantech capital chasing AI-power demand, including Eos Energy's Nebraska microgrid deployment, Holtec's SMR-300 restart plan at Oyster Creek and Microsoft Azure's $100B annual run rate.
Reporting based on coverage from Antora Energy, Business Wire, Energy-Storage.News, Bloomberg and Crunchbase News.