Energy infrastructure company Heron Power announced that it raised $38 million in Series A funding led by Capricorn Investment Group’s Technology Impact Fund, with participation from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, Gigascale Capital, Powerhouse Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, and former Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn. This funding round brings the total raised by Heron Power to $43 million.
Value proposition: In the last decade, technologies like solar, batteries, and data centers have scaled faster than anyone imagined, growing from a few gigawatts in 2014 to more than 500 GW in 2024, equivalent to roughly two-thirds of the U.S. peak demand. However, while energy technologies have advanced significantly, the equipment connecting them to the grid has remained essentially unchanged for a century.
Outdated medium-voltage transformers (MVTs) are massive, built with 10 tons of grain-oriented electrical steel and copper submerged in oil, and designed for a one-way, analog grid. They offer no real-time control, cannot regulate voltage or frequency, and are unable to adapt to dynamic grid conditions. As energy demand surges, transformers have become a critical bottleneck in the energy sector. Lead times stretch up to 24 months, and U.S. manufacturing meets less than 20% of demand, as prices have spiked 60-80% since 2020.
What the company does: The company is developing industrial power electronics purpose-built for the 21st-century grid, helping the electricity sector to grow faster with scalable, reliable, and software-integrated infrastructure.
Heron Link: Heron Power’s first product, the Heron Link, eliminates the need for a legacy transformer and connects directly to medium voltage. It is a modular megawatt-scale power converter built on the latest advances in wide-bandgap semiconductors. Designed for high power density and ease of maintenance, it offers greater reliability and lower costs for renewable energy storage and data center developers. With integrated voltage and frequency regulation, Heron Link also enhances grid stability, helping to prevent cascading outages, such as the one in Spain in early 2025.
Heron Power has partnerships with significant energy and datacenter developers. The company is targeting an internal pilot in 2026, followed by partner installations in early 2027, and plans to manufacture the Heron Link in the US. The team brings deep technical expertise, having collectively designed and deployed over 80 gigawatts of grid-connected power electronics over the past decade.
How the funding will be used: Heron Power will utilize the new funding to expand its team and complete the engineering of the Heron Link. This solid-state transformer solution displaces legacy transformers and power converters.
KEY QUOTES:
“We’re at an inflection point where clean, abundant energy is ready to come online—but grid interconnection challenges hold us back. Heron Power aims to bridge that gap. With electrification on a path to triple electricity demand and AI’s exponential need for power, we’re moving fast on the opportunity to modernize the grid with more capable hardware.”
Drew Baglino, Founder and CEO of Heron Power
“Power electronics innovation brings the power of ‘Moore’s law’ to energy. For two decades, we’ve sought out and invested in transportation, aviation, electronics, materials and energy companies with innovative power electronics at the core of their products. Heron Power’s team is singularly impressive: they have the technical depth, execution experience, and clarity of intention to reinvent utility-scale power electronics.”
Dipender Saluja, co-managing partner of Capricorn’s Technology Impact fund
