Zeno Power raises $50M for next-gen nuclear batteries
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An artist's conception shows a lunar rover powered by a nuclear battery. (Zeno Power Illustration)
Zeno Power, a startup that's headquartered in Seattle as well as Washington, D.C., today announced the completion of a $50 million funding round to boost the development of nuclear batteries for maritime and space applications.
The Series B round was led by Hanaco Ventures, with participation from Seraphim, Balerion Space Ventures, JAWS, Vanderbilt University, RiverPark Ventures, Stage 1 Ventures, 7i Capital, Beyond Earth Ventures and others. The fresh funding follows a $20 million Series A round in 2022 and brings total investment to $70 million.
Zeno got its start at Vanderbilt in 2018 with the goal of creating new types of radioisotope power systems.
Radioisotope thermoelectric generators, or RTGs, have been around for decades — for example, for space missions ranging from the Apollo moonshots to the years-long treks of Mars rovers. Those power systems depended on plutonium-238, but Zeno is pioneering lightweight systems that use strontium-90 instead.
Strontium-90 is produced as a byproduct in nuclear fission reactors and could serve as an abundant fuel for power-generating systems. In 2023, Zeno worked with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to demonstrate a strontium-based heat source. The company is also looking at americium-241 as a potential fuel source for nuclear batteries.
Since its founding, Zeno has secured more than $60 million in contracts from the U.S. Department of Defense and NASA to provide radioisotope power systems for applications where traditional power sources fall short — for example, to provide long-lasting energy for seabed infrastructure, satellites and lunar landers.
'With great power competition rising, the ocean floor, Arctic and lunar surface are becoming the front lines of global security and economic progress – but they remain energy deserts,' Zeno co-founder and CEO Tyler Bernstein said in a news release. 'With this round of funding, we're on track to demonstrate full-scale systems in 2026 and deliver the first commercially built nuclear batteries to power frontier environments by 2027.'
An artist's conception shows Zeno's radioisotope power system on the seafloor. (Zeno Power Illustration)
Last month, Zeno announced an agreement with iSpace-U.S. for the joint development of technologies that enable lunar missions to survive the harsh lunar night. The companies are targeting a demonstration mission by as early as 2027.
Zeno says it has more than 65 team members and aims to boost that number to more than 100 by the end of the year. Jonathan Segal, a co-founder who serves as Zeno's chief operating officer, told GeekWire in an email that about 45 of those team members are currently working full time in the Seattle area. He expects the Seattle-area contingent to rise to roughly 60 employees by year's end.
Also today, Zeno announced that retired Navy Adm. John M. Richardson has joined the company's board of directors. Richardson served as the director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program from 2012 to 2015, and as chief of naval operations from 2015 until his retirement from the Navy in 2019. In addition to his role at Zeno, Richardson is a member of Boeing's board of directors.
In today's news release, Richardson said he was 'proud to join Zeno Power at a strategic moment for nuclear innovation.'
'Zeno's nuclear batteries provide safe, reliable and long-lasting power from the seabed to space, where traditional energy sources can't reach,' he said. 'Competition is on in these newly contested domains, and Zeno will help power us forward to stay ahead.'
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