Closing Bell - Manifest Space: Zeno Power’s $50 Million Series B Raise with Zeno Power CEO Tyler Bernstein 5/16/25

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

Zeno Power, a nuclear battery startup, has just raised $50 million in a Series B funding round to bring its nuclear battery to market. The startup has secured more than $60 million in contracts from the Pentagon and NASA to develop these batteries for maritime and space applications. Co-founder & CEO Tyler Bernstein joins Morgan Brennan to discuss delivering nuclear energy to remote locations.

Zeno Power just raised $50 million in a Series B funding round to bring its nuclear battery to market. CEO and co-founder Tyler Bernstein says the cash will enable the startup to demonstrate full-scale systems next year and begin delivering the first commercially built nuclear batteries by 2027. With this funding, we need to deliver. In this year and next year, start building our nuclear heat sources, assembling them into our full-scale nuclear batteries, demonstrating them for space and maritime environments,

and after that, start fulfilling on the pipeline that we have, working with the U.S. government to power undersea infrastructure, working with commercial entities to power deep sea mining and telecom equipment, and space powering maneuverable satellites on orbit and enabling long endurance resilient operations on the lunar surface and beyond. Zeno power makes batteries the size of microwave ovens using a nuclear waste product called Strontium-90. The technical term for the tech radioisotope power systems or RPS's. Zeno has secured more than 60 million dollars in contracts from the Pentagon and NASA to develop these batteries

for maritime and space applications. Think seabed infrastructure, satellites, lunar landers. RPSs can provide steady power in places where traditional sources can't hack it. On the seabed, it is extremely challenging to operate reliably. Batteries die quickly. Fuel cells need refueling.

There aren't general supply chains. So whether it is government operations for distributed sensing or commercial operations, these are large markets today that need this power more than ever. Having said that, again, we're very excited about the space opportunity. And one that is very fun and exciting is the surface of the moon. Generally, when you're on the surface of the moon, you're in lightness for 14 days followed by darkness for 14 days what's called the lunar night. And it's very challenging to survive those 14 days of darkness if you only have solar power. And if we can provide with nuclear batteries heat and power independent of the Sun,

we can enable assets on the surface of the moon to operate for years instead of days, and we're seeing the growing importance. On this episode, delivering nuclear power to remote locations from deep sea to deep space. I'm Morgan Brennan, and this is Manifest Space. Joining me now, Tyler Bernstein, the CEO and co-founder of Xeno Power. Tyler, it's great to speak with you again. Thanks for joining me.

Yeah, great to speak with you as well, Morgan. So we're sitting down to have this conversation because you have some news to share, and that is that you have raised $50 million in a Series B funding round. I guess give me the details, break it down, and what this money is going to go towards. Absolutely. So an exciting round as we continue the pursuit of our development of nuclear batteries or radioisotope power systems, small boxes roughly the size of a microwave oven to take radioisotopes,

hot rocks that are passively decaying and producing heat for decades. We convert this heat into electricity and we get small boxes to generate electricity for years at a time in frontier environments from the seabed to the surface of the moon. And with this funding, we're on track to now next year in 2026 build and demonstrate our first full-scale nuclear batteries. And after that in 2027, start delivering these to customers. You're moving quickly.

The company is only a couple of years old and you've already demonstrated some of the early tech capabilities. So how do you get there from here to 2027? Yep. So we sit here today at an exciting point with the company where we have $60 million of anchor contracts with the Department of Defense and NASA to build systems for use in maritime and space environments. As you mentioned, we've built and demonstrated our first nuclear prototype at a Department

of Energy National Laboratory, and we've secured our nuclear supply chain that is fuel and facilities to begin building these nuclear batteries. And now with this funding, we need to deliver. In this year and next year, start building our nuclear heat sources, assembling them into our full-scale nuclear batteries, demonstrating them for space and maritime environments, and after that, start fulfilling on the pipeline that we have, working with the U.S. government to power undersea infrastructure, working with commercial entities to power deep sea mining and telecom equipment,

and space powering maneuverable satellites on orbit and enabling long endurance resilient operations on the lunar surface and beyond. You just touched on it, but how big is that pipeline and what does that customer base look like when it comes to government versus commercial? So right now we are focusing largely on the government marketplace and this is working with the Department of Defense and NASA with these 60 million dollars of anchor contracts. And with these contracts we get to build and demonstrate these first maritime and space nuclear batteries and after that start selling them at scale to the government working with the Navy and the Space Force and NASA to provide energy in these energy-barren yet strategic frontiers in the seabed in

the Arctic and space, but also begin selling commercially into what overall we see as multi-billion dollar opportunities starting again in space and maritime and Arctic frontier environments, but longer term providing distributed energy anywhere on or off earth where people need reliable electricity or heat. What does at scale look like? We're looking at building dozens to hundreds of these per year as we get to scale and nuclear batteries have a rich history. This is what NASA has used and continues to use to power all of our deep space spacecrafts. Probes that have gone to Pluto, Saturn, and Mars have used this technology to provide heat and electricity in these extremely

extreme environments. We're taking a bit of a different approach using a material called Strontium-90 as our fuel. And the reason that we're using this as our fuel is because it is an abundant waste product that is a liability to the taxpayer and the U.S. Department of Energy. And we're taking this waste product that is available at scale throughout the United States and internationally and recycling it into these nuclear batteries

that will enable us to support national security, space exploration and energy resiliency initiatives. Again, looking to build dozens, the hundreds of these per year that we get to scale. I realize when we're talking about nuclear waste there's probably a lot of regulation tied to that. But given the fact that it is waste and it wasn't being put to use necessarily before, has it been relatively easy to strike deals

and take that from different folks? Well it's been a lot of long work and working closely with the Department of Energy, with congressional stakeholders, great work on our team to again build what is this win-win opportunity for government, for industry, to be able to recycle a waste material and a waste product again to support a broad set of government and commercial missions. So I wouldn't say it's been easy. It's one of the accomplishments that we're most proud of.

And you know, we certainly appreciate the support that we've received from the Department of Energy and other government stakeholders to again present this win-win opportunity for a lot of parties. So not easy, hard. but you've accomplished it. In light of that, just given the fact that this type of technology has been around for a while, why hasn't it been more wide-scale deployed? Why are you really sort of the upstart that's coming in there to make this more accessible to more industries and more companies and more governments? Yeah, well, when we started this company originally

at Vanderbilt University, we had this core thesis that broadly in the wake of a new great power competition, the seabed, the Arctic space, the surface of the moon, were regions of growing geopolitics and competition in regions of strategic value where governments and countries are jockeying for control and influence and resources, yet these are regions that are, are again relatively barren of energy. And today, almost six years later, these hypotheses have started to come true.

And we're seeing the growing importance of the seabed for sensing and commercial operations from mining to telecom operations. In space, the U.S. Space Force is investing heavily in mobility on orbit. And we're in a race back to the moon with over 100 planned missions to the lunar surface in the coming decade. And in each of these domains, whoever can provide reliable power are going to be the ones that rates the rules there.

And working with the US government, working with our allies and working with our commercial companies, we're ensuring that they are the one that lead to ways in those domains. So again, why today? It is because these markets are developing and we're here at Zeno building this technology

at the right time to meet the moment. What do you see as the biggest potential market over the coming years? We're excited about the maritime markets. Space is one that is very exciting, a lot of potential and a lot of opportunity. If we look at the maritime market is one today where on the seabed, it is extremely challenging

to operate reliably. Batteries die quickly, fuel cells need refueling. There aren't general supply chains. So whether it is government operations for distributed sensing or commercial operations, these are large markets today that need this power more than ever. Having said that, again, we're very excited

about the space opportunity. And one that is very fun and exciting is the surface of the Moon. Generally, when you're on the surface of the Moon, you're in lightness for 14 days, followed by darkness for 14 days, what's called the lunar night. And it's very challenging to survive those 14 days of darkness if you only have solar power. And if we can provide with nuclear batteries heat and power independent of the Sun, we can enable assets on the surface of the moon to operate for years instead of days. And we're seeing the growing importance

following the successful landings of companies like Firefly and Intuitive Machines over the past couple months. And you and I have had this conversation about the lunar surface and what this technology enables. You're working with Intuitive Machines. Are you working with the other lunar startups as well? We are. We announced a relationship with iSpace a couple of weeks ago and that we're working with iSpace to target demonstrations on the lunar surface as early as 2027.

And again, it is really important as we look at NASA and the U.S. government and commercial goals over the next few years to ensure that we can operate for years on the lunar surface instead of days. Right now, there is only one country that is operating 24-7-365 on the lunar surface, and that is China using radioisotopes to power their lander and their small rover. In working with intuitive machines, but also iSpace and other companies, we're ensuring that in the coming years, that United States and our companies can have a persistent presence on the lunar surface, which is crucial for national security, for space exploration, and a predecessor to building a broader thriving lunar economy.

Have you had to stand up your own supply chain? I guess how easy or how hard has it been to do that? And I would imagine when you're talking about something like nuclear capability that has to be domestically sourced. Yep, broadly domestically sourced for our supply chain. Again, the fuel being the primary challenging part of our supply chain. We're also grateful to have a relationship with Westinghouse Electric Company. We're partnering to use their licensed radiological facility to begin building these nuclear heat sources and full-scale nuclear batteries to demonstrate them in 2026.

And again, soon afterwards in 2027, start delivering them to customers. We have a lot of conversations about edge AI, I would imagine, and the intersection of power and power needs when it comes to all of this AI compute. Is that an opportunity for you? What does that look like as well as that ecosystem builds out? It is, we've had some conversations with companies that are focused on exactly that edge computing, AI on the edge. It's an opportunity we're excited about. Today with the power output that we're producing,

we're more focused on platforms, whether it's sensors or autonomy or satellites or landers or rovers, but longer term as we get to scale, diversify our product line, increase our power output, we're excited about opportunities such as that and more broadly powering off-grid communities, disaster relief scenarios, critical infrastructure, which could include AI in these regions where energy resiliency is needed, but supply chains simply don't exist. And I just want to go back to this funding round that you're closing.

And I just want to go back to this funding round that you're closing. Was it easy to raise funds in this environment when it seems like policy is intersecting with investment and there is this push for re-industrialization of the U.S. and new energy needs and again this AI build out and all the geopolitical implications of it and where defense spending is going? Or have you found it challenging given the volatility in the markets? Yeah, well, we raised our series A in 2022, which in those markets, that went quite quickly. This one also was a was a good round. We had to go through good diligence with our investors, and we're very proud

and excited about the investors that we have on board with us this round. But I would say right now, the intersection of a lot of the industries that we're working in, whether it is defense tech, space tech, nuclear tech, energy resiliency, a lot of this being bolstered and the tailwinds from global competition and in some way the chaos of the world we live in today, the investors are recognizing the importance

of what we're building. And again, you asked earlier why now? Sometimes you get a bit lucky with timing. And we got a bit lucky when we started this company almost six years ago, seeing where these markets have developed today, given the tailwinds that I just mentioned, and our investors recognize that. And again, we're excited to have them on board

over this next exciting phase of the company, where we need to deliver Demonstrate this full-scale technology and immediately afterwards deliver it to market in 2027, which is quite a fast timeline Especially for a nuclear technology. Yeah, I gotta go back to one thing you mentioned earlier in this conversation deep sea mining Is that I mean there's been there's been talk about it There's also been debate about whether you know it can happen and what it would take for that to happen Do you see that happening? Yeah, well, President Trump signed an executive order a couple of weeks ago that in many ways

is unleashing the potential for deep sea mining, looking to get critical minerals on the seabed to support a lot of clean energy initiatives, supporting critical minerals for batteries and other infrastructure that is needed. So it is a nascent market, again, one that right now is being bolstered by this executive order

that President Trump signed a couple weeks ago, and one where these operations are occurring in the remote of remote regions in the Pacific Ocean and elsewhere. And getting power to these operations is a massive challenge. And if we can have distributed, reliable power for years at a time in these environments,

it can be a great enabler of this market and this industry as it begins to really develop and flourish in the coming years. How do you think about safety? Sorry, can you repeat that? How do you think about safety? You know, I think there's, it seems like the connotation seems to be shifting, but when you're talking

about a nuclear waste product as your fuel source, what does that mean in terms of keeping that product safe? Yep, well first and foremost, safety is the forefront of everything that we do as a company. It is built into how we build our technology, the designs of our technology, and then our culture, having a strong nuclear safety culture with a questioning attitude to ensure that if problems are there, that they are brought to the top and we solve them. But beyond that, we have very strict regulations

that are set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, NASA, and the folks that we're working with that ensure that our technology is safely handled, deployed, and used. And we've built enough credibility with a lot of these stakeholders, as mentioned, that

we've now received this first source of fuel from the Department of Energy, partnering with Westinghouse at their licensed facility to begin building these. And we're also building on what is a rich history of the safe use of nuclear batteries or radioisotope power systems in the United States. We can look at most recently in 2020, where a radioisotope power system or nuclear battery was used to power a Mars rover and was safely put on a rocket, launched into space, and descended upon Mars. So building on that rich history with a safety first culture in the company and again bounded by the strict regulations with the US government and other entities we work

with to ensure that a material is safely handled and used throughout the entire lifecycle of this technology. Tyler Bernstein of Zeno Power, it's great to speak with you. Thanks so much for the time. Thank you, Morgan, appreciate it. That does it for this episode of Manifest Space. Make sure you never miss a launch

by following us wherever you get your podcasts and by watching our coverage on Closing Bell Overtime. I'm Morgan Brennan.