Energy Storage Was Already Hot and Just Got Hotter: Antora Energy Raises $50M, Focusing Its Thermal Battery on Decarbonizing Industry
Antora’s three co-founders came together as Activate Fellows. Today, they are among the country’s top energy storage innovators.
Images of solar farms and massive turbines evoke hope for the clean energy transition, but they obscure the real work involved in capturing, storing, and using that energy to power the industries most reliant on fossil fuels today. Antora Energy, co-founded by Cohort 2018 fellows Andrew Ponec and Justin Briggs and Cohort 2017 fellow David Bierman, has developed a key solution to this hurdle: turning wind and solar into cheap, reliable energy—supplied as heat or electricity—all day, every day, for every shift.
The startup recently raised more than $50 million to scale its technology and grow the Antora team, as reported by CNBC. Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Lowercarbon Capital co-lead the funding. Additional investors include Shell Ventures, BHP Ventures, Grok Ventures, Trust Ventures, Overture VC, Impact Science Ventures, and existing investor Fifty Years VC.
“The manufacturing sector—including notoriously hard-to-decarbonize industries like cement, steel, and petrochemicals—accounts for a staggering 30 percent of global greenhouse gasses,” says Ponec. Antora Energy’s technology offers a scalable path to eliminating those emissions which currently come from combusting coal and gas to produce power and heat.
Antora’s solution is to collect electricity from inexpensive, renewable sources like wind and solar and store it as high-temperature heat, creating a thermal battery. This stored thermal energy can then be used directly to provide process heat up to 1500°C, which many industrial processes require, or it can be converted back to the electricity needed to operate heavy industry.
The Antora Energy team
Ponec, Briggs, and Bierman bring far more than scientific curiosity, technical acumen, and product vision to the Activate community; they bring a deep sense of mission and passion for their work. “I believe startups have an incredible ability to change the world,” Ponec said upon entering the fellowship. “And I think Antora will do that.” Briggs was very clear about what drew him to developing inexpensive energy storage: “I want to improve people's lives globally,” he said.
Ponec has been intensely interested in energy systems and climate change since childhood. He was finishing his undergrad studies at Stanford when he met Briggs, a doctorate in applied physics with a decade of renewable energy research experience. Merging with David Bierman, a fellow from Cohort 2017 and a leading expert in thermophotovoltaic who is equally driven to redefine what’s possible in clean energy storage, gave Antora Energy a powerful founding team.
“Andrew, Justin, and David were determined from the beginning of the fellowship to create a company with massive climate impact. It’s been great to see their talent, focus, and determination combine to advance that mission—from evolving and solidifying their concept to breaking world records, building their team, and attracting support from investors and customers,” says Activate CEO Ilan Gur. “It’s no surprise they’ve now earned support from some of the best investors out there, and with it a chance to change the game.”
"Since day one, Activate has been one of Antora Energy’s biggest supporters,” says Briggs. “Activate provided essential lab and technical resources and financial support that allowed us to focus on the company. Ilan Gur and the entire Activate community helped guide Andrew, David, and me through the early stages of commercialization. We’re so grateful to be able to put that mentorship to good use as we provide zero-carbon heat and power to heavy industry and build a team that shares our mission to stop climate change for the future of humanity."