Lowercarbon Capital

After a natural disaster, you can use AI can estimate the damage and get an insurer on the line, but tough luck getting it to rip out wet drywall. Joey Kim and Longview Restoration are building an AI-enabled company factory that sets up local contractors with all the tools they need to help people reconstruct after their toughest day. Restoration is an $80b annual market that is unfortunately only getting bigger as the weather gets worse. Longview is now in five markets with $15m trailing revenue. Joey is our kind of founder. Caie Kelley and Duncan Carlson wrote about why we led Longview's seed round at the link. https://lnkd.in/gNsQ8Wcp

We found Joey Kim through a viral LinkedIn post he wrote about realizing $3m in revenue in less than six months from formation. Duncan Carlson texted me the link late at night, and we hopped into his inbox. It hasn't happened often, but sometimes, the social media machine really works. Joey opened our first meeting by laying out every reason we shouldn't invest in his company. In that meeting, and in every one since, I have admired how much he can bridge the gap between "I am a person building a real company in the real world" where a huge part of the job is standing in a flooded basement and figuring out the most efficient way to get the water out, and "I need to use AI to completely productize the way you stand up a new business." The result is a company that I truly think only Joey can build - one that runs from the first days in Indiana after immigrating from South Korea, to Harvard, to McKinsey, to Takeoff, to today. There is so much more ink to spill on Longview Restoration, but we are grateful to be along for the ride. And yes - this is a belated round announcement 😊. Lowercarbon Capital led the seed. Sometimes even a growth investor gets inspired to go early!

Yesterday, under the cool shade of a large tent in the bright New Mexico sun, with heavy machinery and the spectacular Sandia Mountains framing the background, Pacific Fusion broke ground in equally spectacular fashion on their $1 billion Research & Manufacturing Campus in Albuquerque. Their campus name is rather modest, given that this will be just the second privately funded #fusionenergy machine under construction designed to achieve Q>1. Pacific intends to go even further with “net facility gain,” where the fusion energy released exceeds the fusion machine’s total initial stored energy. Both are big deals. A few things stood out to me about this day. First, the leaders who showed up were a statement in itself, indicating to the world the significance, opportunity, and imperative that Pacific’s groundbreaking represents for both energy security and the stewardship of our nuclear deterrent. In attendance were three U.S. Senators, NM’s Lieutenant Governor, the Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), lab directors of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), a whole bunch of NM state legislators, a leader from the New Mexico State Investment Council, the mayor of Albuquerque, the CEO of the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), Pacific’s adoring investors (see photo), Pacific’s own most senior executives, and more. Second, as emphasized at the event, this occasion was made possible both by the decades of federal investments starting with the Manhattan Project and the uniquely American innovation/financial ecosystems, where public-sector innovation underpins private-sector entrepreneurship and willingness to move at speed and at risk, and where investors put up literally billions of dollars with no assurance of returns. The U.S. Government must find a way to leverage this opportunity in an increasingly competitive world returning toward major-power competition. The leadership at this event was truly fantastic to see, but people within government, lab, and company trenches must work closely together to implement and support effective, timely, and creative mechanisms to maximize this opportunity. Finally, this event marks a full circle of sorts. Robert Oppenheimer selected northern NM for the Manhattan Project in part because he had been visiting this enchanting corner of the world for 20 years by 1942, enjoying the beauty of the mountains and plateaus, as well as the area’s unique multi-cultural heritage. Companies like Pacific are coming to NM to benefit from synergies with the descendants of the Manhattan Project up and down the Rio Grande valley. But they are also coming for the beautiful environment that their employees/families will enjoy, and the visionary benefits provided by the state to build the technologies and economies of the future, for the future of NM, its children, and the world. Let’s go!

Everyone's chomping at the bit to break ground on new data centers and power plants to feed them. Meanwhile, about 100 GW is already sitting on the grid, paid for and underused. Emerald AI's software pulls data center loads back when utilities are strained and ramps them up when there's room to spare. They're already helping Silicon Valley Power manage 55 data centers across just 20 square miles. Now, they've closed a $150 million Series A to run the same play wherever the grid is groaning and the town halls are packed. Massive congratulations to Varun Sivaram and the Emerald team. Proud to be a part of this one.

Heart Aerospace just flew the largest electric aircraft in history for $5 of electricity. Yesterday, twenty-five thousand pounds lifted off from Plattsburgh, New York, at dawn and successfully landed 8 minutes later. The latest leap towards modern air travel happened not with a boom, but with a nearly inaudible buzz. We backed Anders Forslund and the team back when this idea existed as a blueprint. Aviation punishes newcomers, and the erratic cost of jet fuel has stagnated innovation. No problem for Heart. Within a year, they've built a behemoth aircraft capable of carrying 30 passengers on cheap electrons. The 250-mile regional route is coming back. Feel that electricity in the air? You can now ride it. Story link in the comments, and a massive congratulations to the Heart team for pulling off this milestone.

Today, CFS announced another major advance in our fusion energy push: we raised an additional $1 billion in funding. This is the largest investment round in commercial fusion worldwide since our $1.8 billion funding round in 2021, bringing our total capital raised to $4 billion. This investment reflects growing confidence from new partners in our technical progress, our team, and our commercialization path. It comes at a time when it’s clear the world needs a new energy option that provides safe, clean, and firm electricity. “CFS is making what once was impossible into inevitable,” said CFS CEO and Co-founder Bob Mumgaard. “In the 2030s, we will put commercial fusion on the grid. We have the science that works and the proven execution that’s consistently validated by the market. We regularly welcome investors from around the world to our headquarters in Devens, Massachusetts, where they see real and tangible progress as we ready support systems and finalize the assembly of SPARC. In unlocking commercial fusion energy, we’re on a path to make an impact at a civilizational level.” CFS will use the funds raised to further accelerate our commercialization progress. In parallel to completing the assembly of our SPARC fusion demonstration machine, we’ll continue to develop the world’s first grid-scale fusion power plant, called ARC, at our Fall Line Fusion Power Station in Chesterfield County, Virginia. #FusionEnergy