Just a year ago, Moxion Power closed its doors, adding its name to a list of high profile bankruptcies that restricted the climate technology world in 2024. Moxion was fired more than 400 employees and its Assets were cleared.
Now, the co -founder of the start, Paul Huelskamp and several former Moxion employees are back with another start, Ascendhoping to achieve the same goal – ideally without repeating the same mistakes.
“We started the rise with this goal of finishing what we started,” Huelskamp, now Aode’s CEO, told TechCrunch.
The rise works quietly, but now emerges with a $ 9 million funding. The round was driven by Eclipse, and his associate Jiten Behl, who pioneered the deal, was previously Rivian’s head.
Behl’s interest in the area triggered his experience in Rivian, who once had an agreement to sell 100,000 electric trucks to Amazon. But companies soon realized that the problem was not the cost of trucks, but the charging infrastructure.
“You need a mini power plant to charge 150 trucks and that the infrastructure does not exist in warehouses,” Behl said.
In a sting, many fleets will turn to diesel generators. Waymo, for example, was found to use them in his warehouse In San Francisco. “What businesses are really looking for are some of the network independent solutions that can offer them flexibility,” Behl added.
TechCrunch event
Francisco
|
27-29 October 2025
Other companies, such as SparkCharch and Power Sonic, provide EV charging using mobile batteries, but Huelskamp claims that the built -in Aode should stand out. The company has designed a converter that will work for the target markets, including EV charging, construction sites and live events.
Aode’s mobile battery is also slightly smaller than Moxion’s 600 kilowatt unit, he said, facilitating loading on flat trucks.
“We optimize the lowest cost of delivered energy. Things that drive the cost are, how much energy can you put on the back of a truck? Huelskamp said.” A smaller footprint, less energy, can mean more energy on the back of a flat -surface truck. It’s a little opposite. ”
“There are many of these types of requirements that, sincerely, we just didn’t appreciate in Moxion.”
The new boot will use contract manufacturers to make its batteries, a major difference from Moxion, who tried to do it all at home. “One of the main lessons drawn is that it is really difficult as boot to take over this part of [the manufacturing]“Huelskamp said.
For Behl, these courses served a role in pulling him in the investment. “I get the benefit, as an investor, so that these lessons have already been secured without having to pay for it,” he said.
While EV charging warehouses can be an emerging market, construction and live events are more established industries. Currently, many generators supplied with fossil fuels, which are expensive and not as effective as a large power plant. This ineffectiveness, Huelskamp thinks, gives up an opening. “We wear our batteries in three, four, five cents per kilowatt hour, and the industry is used to pay several dollars per kilowatt hour,” he said.
Huelskamp said Adode would use AI to optimize its functions, including charging and delivery. After all, this should reduce the costs close to the electricity of the grid from the grid, though not as low as off -top pricing, he said.
“Over time, as we increase our activities, we create all these yields, reduce the cost of delivered energy and utilize continuous battery cost reductions, I think it approaches the cost of power we get from the network,” Huelskamp said.
