Tip-offs
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Each week, we surface promising startups & founders through data signals.
This week, we're spotlighting the AI power stack →
Compute is bottlenecked. Power isn't.
AI data centers run at 60% of the electricity they could. The other 40% is a software problem.
AI data centers are deliberately overbuilt for rare power spikes that occur less than 0.1% of the time. The rest of the time, massive capacity sits idle. On a typical 100 MW site, this unused headroom equals roughly 30,000 GPUs installed but unpowered.
Smart software solves this. Tools that predict spikes, smooth demand at the chip level, and spread workloads across the fleet can unlock up to 30% more compute without new cables, new substations, or new power plants.
New nuclear reactors are years away. Software can deliver more GPUs today.
AI Data Center & Grid Startups
Recently funded startups building demand-side AI power optimization, grid software & chip-to-grid efficiency for data centers. Ranked by website visit growth over the past 3 months.
Amperesand | 72% growth in 3 months
Energy infrastructure company building Solid State Transformer (SST) semiconductor technology for faster, denser & more reliable power delivery to AI data centers. Raised a $80M Series A in November 2025.
Singapore
Aravolta | 32% growth in 3 months
Data center management software (DCIM, BMS, and EPMS) providing unified visibility & advanced electrical monitoring to optimize power capacity & operational efficiency. Raised a $5.1M Seed in December 2025.
San Francisco, US
DG Matrix | 26% growth in 3 months
Power routing technology — the "DG Matrix Power Router" — that simplifies & optimizes power management for data center, building and vehicle electrification. Raised a $60M Series A in February 2026.
Raleigh, US
Hammerhead | 25% growth in 3 months
Flexible infrastructure platform for AI data centers, optimizing power, cooling, and compute to enable efficient, scalable operation of AI workloads. Raised a $10M Seed in November 2025.
Kentucky, US
Verdigris | 21% growth in 3 months
AI-powered electrical intelligence platform that provides granular power monitoring for data centers. Raised a Series A in March 2026.
Mountain View, US
AI Data Center & Grid Founders
Recently funded founders building the demand-side software for AI compute.
Daniel Kultran
Former CTO of Epirus (directed-energy defense). Now co-founder & CEO of Claros, a chip-to-grid power management software cutting data center. Raised $30M Seed in March 2026.
Torrance, US
Wannie Park
4x Founder, 3x Exits. Former SVP at Bidgely (AI-powered energy SaaS) and CEO of Zen Ecosystems. Now founder & CEO of PADO AI, AI orchestration of power, compute and cooling to maximize compute per megawatt. Raised $6M Seed in March 2026.
San Francisco, US
Tomer Timor
Alum of Israel's elite technological intelligence units. Former COO at Paragon Solutions (spyware company). Now co-founder & CEO of Niv-AI, electrical fingerprinting that predicts GPU power spikes. Raised a $12M Seed in Mar 2026.
Tel Aviv, Israel
Athanasios Caramanolis
Former energy trader at Morgan Stanley & Powerex. Built AWS's renewable energy optimization program. Now co-founder & CEO of Soma Energy, AI orchestration of generation, storage & controllable loads across US power markets. Raised $7M combined Seed & Pre-Seed in April 2026.
Vancouver, Canada
Varun Sivaram
Former CTO of ReNew Power, CSIO at Ørsted. Now founder & CEO of Emerald AI, load orchestration that throttles AI workloads during grid stress events while preserving SLAs. Raised a $25M Strategic Expansion Round in March 2026.
Washington, US
Carried Interest
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