Geothermal drilling startup Quaise Energy secures $40m in new funding

Transmission line element of drilling technology (source: Quaise Energy)

Geothermal drilling technology startup Quaise Energy, planning to unlock terawatt-scale geothermal, announced today the closing of a $40M Series A financing round led by Safar Partners with participation from Prelude Ventures, Fine Structure Ventures, The Engine, Collaborative Fund, Nabors Energy Transition Ventures, and others. Safar Partners’ Arunas Chesonis and Mark Cupta from Prelude Ventures have joined Quaise Energy’s Board of Directors as part of the financing.

Geothermal is the only renewable, clean source of energy capable of providing baseload power at the scale of the energy transition. 

Quaise Energy plans to harness deep geothermal by introducing millimeter wave drilling systems capable of reaching depths between 10-20 km. At these depths, geothermal energy is power-dense, virtually unlimited, and available everywhere on the planet. 

“A rapid transition to clean energy is one of the biggest challenges faced by humanity,” said Arunas Chesonis, Managing Partner of Safar Partners. “Geothermal energy can provide a lot more power using fewer resources. We have to approach the clean energy transition from both of those angles. Quaise’s solution makes us optimistic for a future where clean, renewable energy will secure the future of our planet.” 

The funding will be used to accelerate product development. The company will build field-deployable drilling machines to demonstrate the capabilities of this novel drilling technology in the field by 2024. It will also expand its multi-disciplinary teams based in Boston, Houston, and Cambridge, UK, doubling its number of engineers and creating new roles to refine and execute its commercialization strategy. 

“This funding round brings us closer to providing clean, renewable baseload energy,” said Carlos Araque, CEO and co-founder of Quaise Energy. “Our technology allows us to access energy anywhere in the world, at a scale far greater than wind and solar, enabling future generations to thrive in a world powered with abundant clean energy.”

The company plans to use its novel drilling technology to repower traditional power plants, saving infrastructure costs and utilizing the current oil and gas industry’s workforce to accelerate the shift towards a sustainable energy industry.

“We need a massive amount of carbon-free energy in the coming decades,” said Mark Cupta, Managing Director at Prelude Ventures. “Quaise Energy offers one of the most resource-efficient and nearly infinitely scalable solutions to power our planet. It is the perfect complement to our current renewable solutions, allowing us to reach baseload sustainable power in a not-so-distant future.”

“The ubiquity and constancy of deep geothermal energy is tantalizing but economically inaccessible with conventional drilling technologies,” said Allison Hinckley, Senior Associate at Fine Structure Ventures. “Quaise’s radically different drilling technology offers a path to access this resource at a global scale with commensurate reductions in carbon emissions.”

Quaise Energy spun out of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center in 2018. The company has raised $63M to date, including $18M in seed funds and $5M in grant money. 

Source: Company release