Antora Energy closes $550 million thermal battery funding round to scale US production
Antora Energy closed a $550 million Series C thermal battery funding round to expand US manufacturing and deploy heat-storage systems for data centers.
Photo by Mark Stebnicki on Pexels
California-based Antora Energy said on July 30, 2026 that it has closed a $550 million Series C thermal battery funding round, co-led by G2 Venture Partners and Eclipse, to expand US manufacturing of its heat-storage technology and speed up large-scale project deployment, according to the company’s release and reporting by Canary Media and ESG Today. The round brings Antora’s total corporate and project financing to around $1 billion, Canary Media reported.
Antora’s system runs electricity through a resistance heater to bring large blocks of solid carbon to extremely high temperatures inside an insulated module, then releases the stored heat directly for industrial processes or converts it back to electricity using the company’s thermophotovoltaic technology, according to ESG Today. Canary Media has previously described the approach as functioning like ”an enormous toaster.”
What the thermal battery funding round will pay for
Antora said the new capital will fund a second US manufacturing hub, expand production capacity at its existing San Jose, California campus, accelerate deployment of large-scale projects, and strengthen its domestic supply chain. The company said it has a ”growing pipeline of signed agreements” with hyperscale data center operators and industrial companies, including biofuels, chemical, and food and beverage manufacturers, though it declined to name specific customers, Canary Media reported.
The round follows Antora’s first commercial-scale deployment: a 5-gigawatt-hour thermal battery system at a Poet Bioprocessing ethanol plant in Big Stone City, South Dakota, which began commissioning in May 2026 and comprises more than 200 individual battery modules, according to ESG Today. The system converts wind energy into steam the plant uses to process corn into ethanol, reducing its reliance on coal-fired boilers, Canary Media reported. Antora described the South Dakota project as one of the largest battery storage systems in the world once fully operational.
| Antora Series C detail | Figure |
|---|---|
| Round size | $550 million |
| Round type | Series C |
| Co-lead investors | G2 Venture Partners, Eclipse |
| Total corporate and project financing to date | Approximately $1 billion |
| Flagship deployment | 5 GWh thermal battery, Big Stone City, South Dakota |
| Deployment modules | 200+ battery units |
| Deployment timeline | Construction to energy delivery in under 12 months |
| Company founded | 2017 |
Other participating investors named in the company’s release include Ribbit Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Activate Capital, Kleiner Perkins chairman John Doerr, Westly Group, StepStone Group and Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures, alongside existing backers Decarbonization Partners, Impact Science Ventures, Trust Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Lowercarbon Capital, according to ESG Today.
“From factories to data centers, energy is the bottleneck to industrial growth,” said Andrew Ponec, Antora’s co-founder and CEO, in the company’s release, as quoted by ESG Today. “Antora has shown we can help break that bottleneck, delivering energy fast, at massive scale, with American innovation.”
The funding round adds to a broader surge in climate tech venture capital funding, which Winss has reported reached $26.1 billion in the first half of 2026. Antora’s carbon-block approach is one of several thermal storage technologies competing for that capital alongside sand batteries, another heat-storage technology being developed for industrial and grid use.
About Antora Energy
Antora Energy is a thermal battery company founded in 2017 and based in San Jose, California, according to ESG Today. The company launched its first pilot project in 2023, a 5-megawatt-hour system installed at a Wellhead Electric facility near Fresno, California, before raising a $150 million round from corporate and venture investors to scale up production at its San Jose manufacturing campus, which has since grown into a three-building site, Canary Media reported. Antora is also developing an electricity tariff structure with utility Otter Tail Power designed to reward the company for charging its South Dakota system during periods of surplus renewable generation, a model it says it is working to replicate with other utilities. The $550 million Series C extends that manufacturing and deployment push as demand for industrial and data center power continues to rise.
Sources: Business Wire (Antora Energy); Canary Media; ESG Today
Featured image: photo by Mark Stebnicki on Pexels (free Pexels license).
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I specialize in sustainability education, curriculum co-creation, and early-stage project strategy. At WINSS, I craft articles on sustainability, transformative AI, and related topics. When I’m not writing, you’ll find me chasing the perfect sushi roll, exploring cities around the globe, or unwinding with my dog Puffy — the world’s most loyal sidekick.
