Gigascale, a venture firm led by former Meta CTO Mike Schroepfer, announced Monday that it has raised $250 million in funding to support startups “rebuilding the physical economy.”
The new fund will focus on energy, grid infrastructure and critical minerals through the lens of climate technologies. By maintaining an explicit climate focus, Gigascale is overturning conventional wisdom that has undermined the “climate tech” thesis.
Gigascale’s second fund will be a continuation of the kind of investments Schrep has made in the three years since he started Gigascale. The company has backed some of the biggest startups in climate technology, including Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Heron Power, Mill, and Form Energy.
Gigascale was born out of Schrep’s climate technology research during COVID-19, and the new fund is the first to focus on early stage and include institutional investors.
Climate technology has always been a broad field, and Gigascale’s portfolio reflects this. However, in recent years the sector has become increasingly focused on energy and infrastructure, a change largely driven by the demand for AI.
It’s no surprise, then, that power is an important focus of the new fund. As demand for electricity increases, there is an opportunity to invest in new energy sources and new ways to deliver them to businesses and homes.
Schroepfer pointed to solar as a recent example of a cleaner technology that is faster, cheaper and can win the market.
Solar and batteries have come to dominate the conversation about clean power, but Schroepfer clearly sees more opportunities. AI and widespread electrification trends have made it difficult for businesses to connect to the power grid. In response, many have tried to develop their own power sources, but competition is fierce there too. For natural gas turbines, for example, waiting lists stretch into the early 2030s.
The power crisis presents an opportunity for energy startups. In energy-intensive industries, self-powering “will become a competitive advantage over time,” Schroepfer said on the Inevitable podcast last year. Startups that can provide cheaper and more flexible power can win on that advantage alone.
But Gigascale also expects its energy investments to expand across generations, citing grid infrastructure, critical minerals and physical AI as other places the company will look for opportunities.
“The companies we support win because they are cheaper, faster and more reliable,” Schroepfer said in a statement. “This is how adoption scales. Climate impact is a result of better performing systems.”
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