Nucleation announces its investment in Zeno Power’s $50 Million Series B with Fund I

Nucleation is delighted to announce our participation in Zeno Power’s $50 million Series B funding round, 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 other investors.

In an article released today, Axios has first reported on Zeno Power's close of this funding together with news of the company's appointment of Admiral John Richardson, USN (Ret.), former Chief of Naval Operations and Director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, to its Board of Directors. This brings the total raised by Zeno to over $70 million, following the company's Series A, which was led by Tribe Capital.

Zeno Power is working to power strategic frontiers, which include the deep ocean, the Artic and space, regions where there are prospects for commerce, strategic influence and international competition for resources. The company builds nuclear batteries, essentially radioisotope power systems, which convert the heat from nuclear "waste" materials like Strontium-90 (Sr-90) into long-duration energy sources. The demand for such power systems—by groups seeking to operate on the moon, Mars, in the Artic and deep ocean—prove the high value of many of the highly radioactive materials found in nuclear waste. Over the last three years, Zeno has secured over $60M in contracts from the U.S. Department of Defense and NASA, built and demonstrated their first nuclear prototype at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and secured the nuclear fuel and facilities to build their first 10+ nuclear batteries.

The company's Series B funding is expected to unlock the team's plans to:

• Demonstrate full-scale nuclear batteries in 2026 to enable maritime and space deliveries in 2027
• Scale their manufacturing capabilities to meet growing demand from government and commercial customers
• Expand into seabed telecommunications, deep-sea mining for critical minerals, and commercial space markets
• Grow our team from 65 to 100+ team members across Seattle and Washington D.C.

To learn more about Zeno and their business of unlocking the value of nuclear waste, read Zeno Power CEO Tyler Bernstein's blog post, Powering the Frontier: Our $50M Series B Round, with more information about the raise and Zeno's plans for the coming years. 

Also see: GeekWire, Zeno Power raises $50M in funding to fuel development of next-gen nuclear batteries, by Alan Boyle, May 14, 2025.