Colorado-Based American Supercritical Raises $8M in Pre-Seed Funding

The round also saw participation from Riot Ventures, Harpoon, Reveille VC, Hillwood, Mana Ventures, Climate Capital, Alumni Ventures, and other angel investors.

The company plans to use the funding to expand its operations and continue developing its technology.

What is American Supercritical?

American Supercritical develops sCO2 power systems that convert waste heat into electricity. Its technology is designed to recover power from heat produced by small gas turbines and other energy sources.

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The company's system can be installed at the exhaust of existing turbines. According to the company, it can provide up to 50% more power without additional fuel or turbine modifications and is significantly smaller than conventional steam systems.

The same technology can also be used with small modular reactors, geothermal power, concentrated solar energy, and industrial waste heat.

How Much Funding Has American Supercritical Raised?

American Supercritical has raised $8 million in its latest Pre-Seed funding round.

No previous funding rounds were provided in the source.

Who Invested in American Supercritical’s Pre-Seed Round?

The round was led by Silent Ventures.

Other investors included:

• Riot Ventures
• Harpoon
• Reveille VC
• Hillwood
• Mana Ventures
• Climate Capital
• Alumni Ventures
• Other angel investors

Why the Funding Matters

American Supercritical will use the new funding to expand operations and continue development of its sCO2 power technology.

The company is developing systems that can recover additional electricity from existing heat sources, including gas turbines, while also exploring applications across other energy technologies.

Who founded American Supercritical?

American Supercritical was founded by Simon Shuham and Matthew Carlson.

The company is based in Denver, Colorado, and is starting operations at a 25,000-square-foot facility for testing and low-volume production.

Its team includes professionals with experience at Sandia, Echogen, Hanwha, Blue Origin, Southwest Research Institute, and Google X.

Leadership Comments

"Our first goal is to make wasteful simple cycle gas turbine installations obsolete," said Simon Shuham, co-founder and CEO. "Our sCO2 power block converts any gas turbine into a combined cycle plant. We upgrade turbines running today instead of replacing them."

"Compressed timelines pushed operators toward simple cycle turbines. Wasting fuel was never the goal," said Matt Carlson, co-founder and CTO, a decade-long sCO2 veteran of Sandia, Heliogen and Kairos Power.

Market and Business Growth

The company says the U.S. has about 140 gigawatts of small gas turbine capacity, creating an opportunity to recover additional power from existing systems.

American Supercritical estimates that converting the U.S. fleet could avoid about 20 million tons of CO2 emissions annually while adding gigawatts of power.

The company is also developing technology for applications in small modular reactors, geothermal, concentrated solar, and industrial waste heat.

What Happens Next?

American Supercritical plans to expand its Denver operations, continue technology development, and build its engineering team.

The company is hiring engineers in areas including turbomachinery and power electronics as it works toward testing and low-volume production.

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