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§ Private Profile · Manchester, NH, USA
Geothermal technology company developing water-jet drilling rigs for affordable ground-source heat pumps in buildings.
Based in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, Dig Energy develops compact, water jet drilling rigs designed to bore geothermal wells for individual homes and commercial buildings. The company's proprietary hardware aims to reduce upfront drilling costs by up to 80 percent, facilitating the broader installation of affordable ground source heat pumps across the residential real estate sector. By utilizing the earth's stable subterranean temperatures, these systems provide highly efficient heating and cooling solutions intended to displace traditional fossil fuel infrastructure and decarbonize domestic energy consumption. In September 2025, the enterprise officially emerged from stealth mode and secured $5 million in seed funding led by prominent climate tech venture capital firms Azolla Ventures and Avila VC, while expanding its executive team with Chief of Staff Bela Bogdanovic. Dig Energy was founded in 2023 by Dulcie Madden and Thomas Lipoma.
Dig Energy has raised $5.0M across 1 funding round.
Dig Energy has raised $5.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Dig Energy has raised $5.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Dig Energy's investors include Avila VC, Azolla Ventures, Drew Scott, Baukunst, Conifer Infrastructure Partners, Koa Labs, Mercator Partners, Suffolk Technologies.
Dig Energy has raised $5.0M across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $5.0M Seed in September 2025.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 1, 2025 | $5M Seed | Avila VC, Azolla Ventures | Drew Scott, Baukunst, Conifer Infrastructure Partners, KOA Labs, Mercator Partners, Suffolk Technologies | Announced |
# Dig Energy: Unlocking Geothermal's Cost Barrier
Dig Energy is a geothermal drilling technology startup that develops purpose-built drilling equipment to make geothermal heating and cooling systems cost-competitive with fossil fuels and air source heat pumps.[1] The company addresses a critical market inefficiency: while geothermal heat pumps represent the most efficient method for heating and cooling buildings, prohibitively high drilling costs have limited adoption to approximately 1% of building installations in the United States.[3][4]
The company's core offering is a compact, water-jet drilling rig that replaces traditional carbide drill bits with high-pressure fluid drilling technology, reducing drilling costs by up to 80%.[1][3] By targeting drillers as customers rather than end-users directly, Dig Energy aims to democratize geothermal access across the built environment. The company operates from Manchester, New Hampshire, and recently raised $5 million in seed funding to advance pilot installations of its patented technology.[1]
Dig Energy was founded by Dulcie Madden (CEO) and Thomas Lipoma (CTO), a husband-and-wife team who began exploring the geothermal space five years ago after winding down their previous startup, Rest Devices.[3] The founding insight emerged from a practical question: could they build a lower-cost drill to make geothermal economically viable?
The breakthrough came when Madden and Lipoma discovered decades-old research describing water-jet drilling techniques—an approach that had been largely overlooked in the geothermal context.[3] Rather than pursuing incremental improvements to existing drilling methods, they recognized that a purpose-built, compact rig using fluid dynamics could fundamentally reshape the economics of shallow geothermal installation. The company operated in stealth for five years before publicly announcing its $5 million seed round in September 2025, co-led by Azolla Ventures and Avila VC.[1][3]
Dig Energy operates at the intersection of three converging trends: the decarbonization imperative, the electrification of heating, and the cost-curve dynamics of clean energy technology.
Heating and cooling account for 35% of all energy consumption globally, predominantly powered by fossil fuels.[1] As grid stress increases and energy prices rise, the economics of switching to efficient alternatives improve. Geothermal heat pumps represent the most efficient on-site heating and cooling solution available, yet market penetration remains negligible due to installation costs. Dig's technology directly addresses this adoption gap by making the economics work without reliance on subsidies or policy changes—a critical requirement for scaling beyond early adopter markets.
The timing is particularly favorable: the clean energy sector has demonstrated that cost reduction through innovation (rather than policy support alone) drives exponential adoption curves. Dig's 80% cost reduction mirrors the trajectory seen in solar photovoltaics and battery storage, suggesting potential for geothermal to transition from a niche solution to mainstream infrastructure.
Dig Energy has identified and is attacking one of the most stubborn barriers to climate-aligned building infrastructure: the upfront cost of geothermal installation. If the company successfully scales its drilling technology and achieves the promised cost reductions in real-world deployments, it could unlock a genuinely massive market—closing the gap between the current 1% adoption rate and the theoretical 100% addressable market.
The path forward hinges on three factors: successful pilot installations that validate the technology's reliability and cost performance; adoption by professional drillers who control the installation supply chain; and the company's ability to manufacture and distribute rigs at scale. The founders' vision—"Geothermal should be in 100% of buildings"—is ambitious, but the underlying economics suggest it's not unrealistic if the technology delivers as promised.[3]
What makes Dig particularly compelling is that it solves a *cost* problem, not a *physics* problem. The technology works; the challenge is making it affordable. That's precisely the kind of constraint that venture-backed hardware companies can crack.