Decarbonization Partners
Assembly Line
Guidewheel raises $31M Series B to scale AI-powered FactoryOps across factory floors globally
Guidewheel, the leader in AI-powered FactoryOps, raised an oversubscribed $31 million Series B funding round led by Decarbonization Partners, a partnership between BlackRock and Temasek. Ecolab, Rethink Impact, and GSBackers also participated in this round, alongside existing investors Greycroft and Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), among others.
Guidewheel provides the first way to bring AI to the factory floor at scale—every machine, in every factory. Inspired by the universal truth that every machine on the factory floor uses power, Guidewheel starts with non-invasive sensors that simply clip like a smartwatch on the power draw of any machine to bring its real-time “heartbeat” into a connected, AI-powered FactoryOps platform. Guidewheel empowers teams to reduce lost production time, increase efficiency, and enhance performance over time, delivering fast, concrete ROI through its technology, with customers reporting an average of 41% more production from their existing assets. Within the same FactoryOps platform, Guidewheel builds in all the tools manufacturers need to track and manage energy and carbon towards sustainability goals.
Guidewheel’s recent momentum has been marked by acquiring some of the world’s leading manufacturers as customers, including General Motors, Igloo, Kimberly Clark, JELD-WEN, DRiV/Tenneco, CEMIX, TricorBraun, Reliance Steel & Aluminum, Madison Industries, BorgWarner, U.S. Steel, Berry Global, Myers Industries, and Johnson & Johnson.
Antora Energy Raises $150 Million to Slash Industrial Emissions and Spur U.S. Manufacturing
Antora Energy, a leader in zero-emissions industrial heat and power, raised a $150 million Series B funding round led by Decarbonization Partners, a partnership between BlackRock and Temasek. This financing round will enable Antora to ramp production of its factory-made thermal batteries to deliver billions of dollars of zero-emissions energy to industrial customers. Emerson Collective, GS Futures, The Nature Conservancy, and a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC also participated in this round, alongside existing investors Trust Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, BHP Ventures, Overture VC, and Grok Ventures.
Antora is unlocking zero-emissions industrial energy, cheaper than fossil fuels. Antora leverages renewable electricity to heat blocks of solid carbon—a low-cost, earth-abundant, and safe storage medium that’s used extensively across industries—to glowing hot temperatures in an insulated module. The stored heat is then reliably delivered at the scale and temperatures that large industrial operations demand. Additionally, Antora’s thermal battery can output electricity at breakthrough efficiencies using Antora’s thermophotovoltaic (TPV) technology, which converts the stored heat directly into electricity without the drawbacks of a conventional heat engine.
🔋 Ascend Elements Raises $542 Million to Accelerate Production of U.S.-engineered Lithium-Ion Battery Materials
Ascend Elements, a U.S.-based manufacturer of sustainable, engineered battery materials for electric vehicles, today announced it has raised $542 million in new equity investments, including $460 million in Series D investments and $82 million of additional investments from earlier this year. Ascend Elements’ Series D round was led by Decarbonization Partners, Singapore-based investment firm Temasek, and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). Other investors include Tenaska, Alliance Resource Partners, PULSE - CMA CGM Energy Fund, BHP Ventures, Fifth Wall, Hitachi Ventures, Mirae Asset, At One Ventures, Agave Partners, Alumni Ventures and other leading global investors.
The funding will advance construction of Ascend Elements’ Apex 1 facility in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which will be North America’s first sustainable cathode precursor (pCAM) and cathode active material (CAM) manufacturing facility. CAM and pCAM are engineered materials made to precise microstructure specifications for use in electric vehicle batteries. While most of the world’s pCAM and CAM are made in China from primary (mined) metals, U.S.-based Ascend Elements is commercializing an ultra-efficient method to make sustainable pCAM and CAM from black mass, the traditional output of lithium-ion battery recycling facilities.