Quaise has raised $79.0M in total across 4 funding rounds.
Quaise's investors include 7BC Venture Capital, Audrey Capital, Bain Capital, Bold Capital Partners, Prelude Ventures, Preston-Werner Ventures, Safar Partners, Samsung NEXT Ventures, The Hit Forge, Ulu Ventures, Bob Young, Tobias Lutke.
Quaise Energy is a technology company developing millimeter-wave drilling systems to access superdeep geothermal energy, enabling the conversion of existing fossil fuel power plants to clean, always-on baseload power.[1][2][3][4] It targets superhot rock at depths up to 20 km where temperatures exceed 400°C, using gyrotron technology to vaporize rock without mechanical bits or fracking, producing supercritical geothermal steam that delivers 10 times more energy per volume than traditional methods.[1][2][4] The company serves power plant operators and utilities worldwide, solving the intermittency and land-use issues of solar/wind while matching fossil fuel output with a small footprint (less than 1% of other renewables' land needs) and no emissions or waste.[1][4] Growth includes a 2025 test well at 100 meters, Series A1 funding of $21M in 2024, and plans for a 10x more powerful gyrotron and a Western U.S. pilot plant by 2028.[1][2]
Quaise Energy was founded in 2018, spinning out of over a decade of research at MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center led by Dr. Paul Woskov, who pioneered millimeter-wave drilling concepts from fusion technology.[2][3][4] Co-founder and CEO Carlos Araque, with prior experience at Schlumberger in oilfield tech and as technical director at MIT's The Engine, drove commercialization to replace fossil fuels with supercritical geothermal.[3] Early milestones include 2021 gyrotron testing at Oak Ridge National Lab, a full-scale rig targeted for 2024, and the 2025 100-meter test well, building pivotal traction toward 100MW output by 2026 and full plant conversion by 2028.[1][2]
Quaise rides the global push for firm, dispatchable clean energy amid rising demand for terawatts-scale decarbonization, as intermittents like solar/wind falter on grids without massive storage.[1][4] Timing aligns with falling fusion-derived gyrotron costs, maturing geothermal policy (e.g., U.S. incentives), and oil/gas workforce transitions, enabling rapid retrofits of 50,000+ existing plants worldwide.[1][3][4] Market tailwinds include energy security needs post-crises and net-zero mandates, with superhot geothermal unlocking 10x more resource than shallow methods—potentially replacing all fossil baseload.[2][4] Quaise influences the ecosystem by bridging oil/gas expertise to renewables, fostering a "green workforce" and proving deep-Earth heat as the planet's largest untapped source, accelerating the shift from finite fuels.[3][4]
Quaise is poised to deliver its first 100MW by 2026 via enhanced gyrotrons, scaling to pilot plants by 2028 and commercial conversions thereafter, contingent on deeper tests proving speed/costs.[1][2] Trends like AI-driven energy demand, advanced materials for waveguides, and international geothermal subsidies will propel it, potentially expanding to hydrogen production or direct industrial heat.[2][4] Its influence could evolve from innovator to operator, dominating baseload clean power and enabling true energy independence—ultimately swapping every oil/gas well for geothermal equivalents, as Araque envisions.[3] This positions Quaise as a linchpin in the equitable, terawatt-scale energy transition it set out to ignite.
Quaise has raised $79.0M across 4 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $21.0M Series A in December 2023.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 1, 2023 | $21.0M Series A | 7BC Venture Capital, Audrey Capital, Bain Capital, Bold Capital Partners, Prelude Ventures, Preston-Werner Ventures, Safar Partners, Samsung NEXT Ventures, The Hit Forge, Ulu Ventures, Bob Young, Tobias Lutke | |
| Jun 1, 2022 | $12.0M Series A | 7BC Venture Capital, Audrey Capital, Bain Capital, Bold Capital Partners, Prelude Ventures, Preston-Werner Ventures, Safar Partners, Samsung NEXT Ventures, The Hit Forge, Ulu Ventures, Bob Young, Tobias Lutke | |
| Feb 1, 2022 | $40.0M Series A | 7BC Venture Capital, 8090 Industries, Audrey Capital, Bain Capital, Bold Capital Partners, Deep Insight, Helium-3 Ventures, MizMaa Ventures, Prelude Ventures, Preston-Werner Ventures, Safar Partners, Samsung NEXT Ventures, The Engine, The Hit Forge, Ulu Ventures, Aaron Peterman, Bob Young, George Godula, Justin Mateen, kobi marenko, Rob May, Sam Altman, Tobias Lutke, Vishal Rao | |
| Jun 1, 2020 | $6.0M Seed | Craig Shapiro, Khosla Ventures, Maveron, The Engine |
