Startup Crusoe Energy Systems Inc. has secured $4.5 million in a seed funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures and the Pathfinder division of Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. Participants in the round also included Winklevoss Capital Management and Dragonfly Capital Partners.
@CrusoeEnergy announces $4.5m funding round co-led by @BainCapVC and @FoundersFund and investments from @winklevosscap and @DCPCapital https://t.co/AR99tCgHe3
— Crusoe Energy (@CrusoeEnergy) May 3, 2019
Crusoe Energy is developing mobile modular data centers for cryptocurrency mining, powered by electricity from gas flaring. This approach allows oil companies to abandon the current practice of burning excess gas, reducing harmful emissions and freeing up additional energy for mining.
The startup plans to place data centers near oil fields, converting excess gas into electricity to power them.
“Crusoe harnesses energy that might otherwise be lost in innovative sectors requiring intensive computing, such as blockchain and artificial intelligence,” emphasized the startup’s CEO Chase Lochmiller, a former portfolio manager at cryptocurrency hedge fund Polychain Capital.
Earlier, Winklevoss Capital, alongside Coinbase Ventures and Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group, invested $4.5 million in Staked, a startup focused on creating and maintaining infrastructure for institutional investors to earn from PoS cryptocurrencies.
Back in 2017, the Winklevoss brothers participated in a $50 million token sale by blockchain startup Blockstack, alongside Digital Currency Group and Techcrunch founder Michael Arrington.
Follow ForkLog news on Twitter!