SpaceX Alumni Raises $54M for Ocean Geothermal Energy

After helping build rockets at SpaceX, Andrew Redd set his sights on solving an even bigger problem: powering the world with clean energy that works around the clock.

Redd founded Endurance Energy, which just raised $54 million to harness geothermal power from deep ocean floors. The startup plans to tap into heat from volcanic activity along the Pacific Ring of Fire, potentially generating enough electricity to power major coastal cities from San Francisco to Tokyo.

Traditional geothermal plants only provide 0.4% of U.S. energy because the best drilling spots on land are already taken or far from cities. Redd realized the answer was sitting untapped in the ocean, where Earth's tectonic plates spread apart and allow hot magma to flow close to the surface.

The concept solves a critical puzzle in renewable energy. Solar and wind need batteries for nighttime and calm days. Nuclear takes years to build through regulatory hurdles. Hydropower sites are limited and claimed. Ocean geothermal could provide constant, clean power near the population centers that need it most.

Endurance has already grown to 25 employees, including 12 SpaceX alumni who bring experience tackling seemingly impossible engineering challenges. The team will use robots to handle the deep ocean work, building on decades of offshore drilling technology from the oil and gas industry.

The startup plans to place power plants a few dozen to a few hundred miles offshore, running submarine cables back to land. They'll avoid sensitive ocean habitats while tapping into what Redd estimates could be 6 terawatts of potential energy around the Ring of Fire over the next decade.

The Ripple Effect

To understand the scale, the entire world currently uses about 20 terawatts across all energy sources. If Endurance taps even a fraction of the ocean's geothermal potential, it could transform how coastal regions power themselves without fossil fuels.

The timing couldn't be better, with energy demand surging from AI data centers, electric vehicles, and industry. Redd's experience with catastrophic wildfires and heat waves in his Pacific Northwest home drove him to think bigger than incremental solutions.

Founders Fund led the $54 million Series A, joined by eight other venture firms betting that the ocean holds the key to renewable baseload power. The investment will fund development of the first power plants, turning volcanic heat into electricity that flows as constantly as the tides.

What started as one engineer's refusal to accept incremental change could reshape the energy landscape for billions of people living near coastlines. Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs come from looking where no one else thought to search.