Leading geothermal exploration company Zanskar Geothermal & Minerals announced the closing of $30 million in new funding led by Obvious Ventures. The funding round, which includes participation by previous investors such as Munich Re Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Safar Partners, First Star Ventures, and new investor Clearvision Ventures, will enable Zanskar to scale its AI-led exploration technology to develop new geothermal resources.
While demand rises with more intensive computing and electrification of industries like transportation, geothermal is an alternate and sustainable energy source that stabilizes a carbon-free grid and provides affordable electricity when the US existing energy infrastructure can’t meet demand. And geothermal utilizes heat from under the ground to produce 24/7 renewable energy, which Zanskar can pinpoint to expand the supply of power projects dramatically.
Since the last funding raise in 2022, Zanskar established itself as a leader in geothermal discovery. The company’s public accomplishments include winning multiple contracts with the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit to explore new geothermal resources and advance its energy resilience mission. The company’s 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 and iterating model predictions enabled Zanskar to make more greenfield geothermal discoveries than the industry combined over the prior ten years.
Zanskar will use the funds to accelerate technology development and advance its portfolio of greenfield power projects to serve new partnerships.
KEY QUOTES:
“We are ready for this next phase of growth and are excited to bring Obvious onto the team. 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.”
– Carl Hoiland, Zanskar CEO and Co-founder
“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. 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.”
– Andrew Beebe, Managing Director at Obvious Ventures
“I still get excited every time we make a new discovery; it never gets old. 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.”
– Joel Edwards, Zanskar’s CTO and Co-founder
