Antares, a company building modular microreactors for use on Earth and in space, announced Wednesday that it raised a new batch of funding to forge ahead with development.
The $30M Series A round was led by Caffeinated Capital and AltCap. It also included participation from Rogue, Uncommon Capital, Shrug, Banter Capital, Box Group, and Shine Capital.
- Antares has now raised more than $38M to date, including a seed round last year that involved a handful of the same investors, including Caffeinated Capital, Rogue, Shrug, and Uncommon Capital.
- The company has $4.3M booked in government contracts on top of its fundraising.
“America needs to return to iterative development of nuclear reactors through a design, build, and learn approach,” Antares CEO Jordan Bramble said in a release. “Nuclear energy will increase our national security, and the same technology will enable human and industrial expansion into outer space and contribute substantially to industrial decarbonization.”
Earth and space: The Redondo Beach, CA-based company isn’t concerned with building for the grid. Its microreactor is designed to be deployable just about anywhere, including off-Earth applications. The idea is that it’s useful in situations where power is hard to come by—like remote locations, critical military deployments, and future in-space settlements—and where customers are willing to pay a premium for reliable energy.
- The whole system is designed to be transportable on a truck, easy to set up, and quick to start generating energy.
- The R1 reactor is designed to produce 100-300 kW of power and generate continuously for three years before needing refueling.
The road ahead: Now that it’s raised its Series A, Antares is building out its team. The company is hiring for a handful of engineering positions as it builds its first test system. The 240 kW electrically heated demonstration unit (EDU) is under construction and scheduled to come online by mid-2025.
Lead Reporter of Ignition
