Zeno Power, a startup that’s headquartered in Seattle as well as Washington, D.C., today announced the completion of a $50 million funding round to boost the development of nuclear batteries for maritime and space applications.
The Series B round was led by Hanaco Ventures, with participation from Seraphim, Balerion Space Ventures, JAWS, Vanderbilt University, RiverPark Ventures, Stage 1 Ventures, 7i Capital, Beyond Earth Ventures and others. The fresh funding follows a $20 million Series A round in 2022 and brings total investment to $70 million.
Zeno got its start at Vanderbilt in 2018 with the goal of creating new types of radioisotope power systems.
Radioisotope thermoelectric generators, or RTGs, have been around for decades — for example, for space missions ranging from the Apollo moonshots to the years-long treks of Mars rovers. Those power systems depended on plutonium-238, but Zeno is pioneering lightweight systems that use strontium-90 instead.
Strontium-90 is produced as a byproduct in nuclear fission reactors and could serve as an abundant fuel for power-generating systems. In 2023, Zeno worked with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to demonstrate a strontium-based heat source. The company is also looking at americium-241 as a potential fuel source for nuclear batteries.
Since its founding, Zeno has secured more than $60 million in contracts from the U.S. Department of Defense and NASA to provide radioisotope power systems for applications where traditional power sources fall short — for example, to provide long-lasting energy for seabed infrastructure, satellites and lunar landers.
