Zanskar Raises $30 Million for Clean and Affordable GeoThermal Power
May 06, 2024, Salt Lake City, Utah
Zanskar Geothermal & Minerals ("Zanskar"), a Salt Lake City-based geothermal exploration company, has announced the closing of $30 Million in new funding led by Obvious Ventures (San Francisco). Previous investors: Munich Re Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Safar Partners, and First Star Ventures, as well as newcomer Clearvision Ventures, also participated in the round.
Zanskar will use the funding to scale its AI-led exploration technology to develop new greenfield geothermal resources and to serve new partnerships.
"We are ready for this next phase of growth and are excited to bring Obvious onto the team," said Carl Hoiland, Zanskar's CEO and Co-founder. "We want to make geothermal the cheapest and most widely deployed firm renewable on the planet. Since our Series A, we beat industry discovery records and developed new tools to unlock a deep pipeline of new geothermal resources needed in our energy transition."
As demand rises with more intensive computing and electrification of industries such as transportation, geothermal is an alternate, sustainable energy source that stabilizes a carbon-free grid and provides affordable electricity when the US existing energy infrastructure can’t meet demand.
Named after an Indian high desert region in the rain shadow of the Himalayas (see header image) and somewhat analogous to the dry, high-elevation landscapes of the local Great Basin, the Utah-based company Zanskar utilizes AI to improve the geothermal discovery and development process.
In its work to decarbonize electricity generation, the company is generating a pipeline of new discoveries and increasing the scalability of geothermal power generation. Geothermal utilizes heat from under the ground to produce 24/7 renewable energy, which Zanskar can pinpoint to expand the supply of power projects.
Since its last fundraise in 2022, Zanskar's accomplishments include winning multiple contracts with the United States Department of Defense's Defense Innovation Unit to explore new geothermal resources and advance their mission of energy resilience. In addition, its field data collection program collects more low-cost, early-stage field data every three months than what industry and academia combined did over the prior ten years. This early-stage field data program, in addition to rapidly iterating model predictions, enabled Zanskar to make more greenfield geothermal discoveries than the industry made over the prior ten years combined.
"Energy requirement forecasts for the electrification of industries like transportation, oil, and big tech data centers massively underestimated how much power will be needed in the U.S. and around the world to meet growing demand," said Andrew Beebe, Managing Director at Obvious Ventures. "We’ve been scouring the planet for scalable clean power solutions to help address the current energy crisis and believe Zanskar has the disruptive technology needed to help the world avoid gridlock. With its AI-powered platform, Zanskar has made geothermal discovery more accessible and cost-effective, creating opportunities to find and distribute massive supplies of green energy now."
"I still get excited every time we make a new discovery; it never gets old," said Joel Edwards, Zanskar's CTO and Co-founder. "We have an incredible team who are running through all the barriers that prevent geothermal discovery and de-risking. I’m blown away by what the team has accomplished; at this pace, we’re set to do some incredible work with the new funding by bringing new tools to geothermal."
Zanskar will deploy the funds to accelerate technology development and advance its portfolio of greenfield power projects to serve new partnerships. The Salt Lake City-based company is currently hiring several high-impact roles.
For more information about Zanskar, visit www.zanskar.com.
