Latest news with #Aetherflux
TechCrunch
a day ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Why Robinhood's co-founder is betting on solar power from space
As the co-founder of Robinhood, Baiju Bhatt helped redefine how millions of people interact with trading and investing. Now he's setting his sights even higher — literally — with Aetherflux, a new venture aiming to harness solar power in space. In this chat, Bhatt talks about what drew him to one of the most audacious bets in tech, how building in hard science compares to fintech, and why big risks still matter. Bhatt joined TechCrunch at our StrictlyVC Menlo Park event in June 2025, among several other speakers whose discussions you can find here.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Robinhood co-founder's big bet on solar energy
Most investors would know Baiju Bhatt as the co-founder of Robinhood. He still sits on the company's board. But now, he has a new venture called Aetherflux. The startup aims to transmit solar energy through satellites. Bhatt he explains how it works to Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Catalysts here. Robinhood's co-founder, Biju Bhat, stepped down from his executive role at the Fintech giant last year to pursue a new endeavor, a space-based solar energy company called Etherflux. Our very own Brian Sozzy got a chance to sit down with him to discuss the company's mission as well as his role on Robinhood's board. Take a listen. The mission is to deliver energy to planet Earth. So, what does that mean? So we're taking this idea of space solar power, which an old NASA idea, Department of Energy from the '70s, of collecting solar power in space, beaming it down to the ground as an alternative energy source. Wild idea. Very wild. So if you pull off what you're trying to pull off, and I hope this doesn't sound really simple and borderline dumb, would we need solar panels anymore on people's roofs? Is that what you're trying to get rid of? I mean, I think it's a technology that kind of both is very complementary to that, and also is in many ways like a direct competitor to that. So when I think about, I think solar panels on roof, like those are useful in some capacity to people. Um, but I think the idea of having these really large solar farms on the ground that take up a tremendous amount of land that have adverse effects on the ecosystem underneath where the solar farms are, right? We can actually take that infrastructure and put it in space. This is kind of what our idea is. And instead project down a beam of power that uses way less real estate on the ground. So maybe this is a good time to just kind of broadly explain what the idea is. Yeah, far, yeah, please. Far out intended, far away. Far out actually. So you have solar panels in space, you have the sunlight from the sun that hits them in space. And the cool thing is, is that if you put it in the right orbit in space, you can have your satellite either continuously illuminated or illuminated a really large percentage of the time. And you get a constant amount of sunlight energy. So that sunlight energy is then converted to electricity on the satellite. And it's either stores the electricity in batteries or directly transmits that electrical power to the thing that transmits the power down to the ground, which is an infrared laser. So you have I'll put it in there far away. You're still on the Robinhood board. Now we, the past few years, I I've marveled at what Robinhood has done. Um, culturally, the company seems different. The top and bottom line results are different. They actually won our comeback of the year award last year. Um, has visions of potentially being a future JP Morgan, acquisitions. Like, what was a turning point inside of Robinhood that can help explain why the stock now near at a record high? Like, did something happen? I think we've been pretty focused on the mission from the beginning, right? And I think that's kind of been the sort of North Star, kind of coming back to the the parallel to Etherflux, right? The mission of democratizing finance for all. I think it's one of the things that motivates the company and motivates a lot of the decisions that we make there. And it's just been like really hard work and execution year and year out. I think, from my perspective, having, you know, co-founded the company with Vlad, I kind of see like all the little steps along the way and kind of the hard work it take took to get to every one of the different steps. And, yeah, I'm I'm proud of the execution. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The Robinhood founder who might just revolutionize energy, if he succeeds
Baiju Bhatt is building something the space industry has largely dismissed, and it might be more groundbreaking than anyone realizes. When Baiju Bhatt stepped away from his role as Chief Creative Officer at Robinhood last year, only those close to him could have predicted his next move: launching a space company built around tech that much of the aerospace industry has written off as impractical. That's just fine with Bhatt, co-founder of the trading app that democratized investing for millions – it means less competition for his new company, Aetherflux, which has raised $60 million on its quest to prove that beaming solar power from space isn't science fiction but a new chapter for both renewable energy and national defense. 'Until you do stuff in space, if you happen to be an aerospace company, you're actually an aspiring space company,' Bhatt said on Wednesday night at a TechCrunch StrictlyVC event held in a glass-lined structure on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park. 'I would like to transition from 'aspiring space company' to 'space company' sooner.' Bhatt's space ambitions date back to his childhood. He says that his dad, who worked as an optometrist in India, spent a decade applying to graduate physics programs in the United States, eventually taking a hard left turn and landing at NASA as a research scientist. He then proceeded to use the powers of reverse psychology on his son, says Bhatt. 'My dad worked at NASA through my whole childhood,' Bhatt said. 'He was very adamant: 'When you grow up, I'm not going to tell you you should study physics.' Which is a very effective way of convincing somebody to do exactly that.' Now, at roughly the same age his father was when he joined NASA, Bhatt is making his own move into space, seemingly with an eye toward creating even more impact than at Robinhood. He's certainly taking a big swing with the effort. Traditional space solar power concepts have focused on massive geostationary satellites the size of small cities, using microwave transmission to beam energy to Earth. The scale and complexity made these projects perpetually '20 years away,' Bhatt said Wednesday night. 'Everything was too big,' Bhatt continued. 'The size of the array, the size of the spacecraft was the size of a small city. That's real science fiction stuff.' His solution is both far smaller and more nimble, he suggested. Most notably, instead of massive microwave antennas that require precise phase coordination, Aetherflux's satellites will use fiber lasers, essentially converting solar power back into focused light that can be precisely targeted at receivers on the ground. 'We take the solar power that we collect from the sun with solar panels, and we take that energy and put it into a set of diodes that turn it back into light,' Bhatt said. 'That light goes into a fiber where there's a laser, which then lets us point that down to the ground.' The idea is to launch a demonstration satellite in June of next year. National security, first While Bhatt envisions eventually building 'a true industrial-scale energy company,' he's starting with national defense – a strategic decision that could give America a significant advantage. The Department of Defense has approved funding for Aetherflux's program, recognizing the military value of beaming power to forward bases without the logistical nightmare of transporting fuel. 'It allows the U.S. to have energy out in the battlefield for deployed bases, and it doesn't have the limitation of needing to transport fuel,' Bhatt explained. The precision Bhatt is promising is pretty remarkable. Aetherflux's initial target is a laser spot 'bigger than 10 meters diameter' on the ground, but Bhatt believes they can shrink it to 'five to 10 meters, potentially even smaller than that.' These compact, lightweight receivers would be 'of little to no strategic value if captured by an adversary' and 'small enough and portable enough that you can literally bring them out into the battlefield.' While much remains to be seen, success for Aetherflux could potentially change the game for American military operations worldwide. In addition to his own father, Bhatt said that he draws inspiration from another entrepreneur who proved you can master multiple industries: Elon Musk. Importantly, like Musk, who moved from payments to revolutionize electric vehicles and space travel, Bhatt believes his outsider perspective 'is actually an advantage,' he said, echoing how fresh eyes sometimes see what industry veterans miss. Of course, unlike the iterate-fast mentality of companies like Robinhood that can roll out, and also sometimes roll back, software features, space hardware requires a higher-stakes approach. You only get one shot when your satellite launches. 'We build one spacecraft, we bolt it to the fairing inside of the SpaceX rocket, we put it in space, and it detaches, and then the thing better work,' Bhatt said. 'You can't go up there and tighten the bolt.' Asked during the sit-down how he pressure-tests that spacecraft, Bhatt said that Aetherflux is pursuing a 'hardware-rich' approach, which means building and testing components while refining designs. 'The right balance is not waiting five years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, as is the case with many important space programs,' he said. 'People's careers are oftentimes shorter than that.' He also noted that if Aetherflux succeeds, the implications extend far beyond military applications. Space-based solar power could provide baseload renewable energy, or solar power that works day and night, anywhere on Earth. That might mean turning upside down the ways we currently think about energy distribution, offering power to remote locations without massive infrastructure investments, and providing emergency power during disasters. Aetherflux has already hired a mix of physicists, mathematicians, and engineers from Lawrence Livermore Labs, Rivian, Cruise, and SpaceX, among other places, and Bhatt said the 25-person organization is still hiring. 'If you are the kind of person that wants to work on stuff that's super, super difficult, please come and contact us,' he told attendees. He has more than his reputation riding on what happens from here. Bhatt self-funded Aetherflux's first $10 million, and he also contributed to a more recent $50 million round that was led by Index Ventures and Interlagos, and included Bill Gates's Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and NEA, among others. Its timeline is aggressive, too. The plan is to launch a demonstration satellite precisely one year from now. But there's a prototype for Bhatt's approach. GPS started as a DARPA project before becoming ubiquitous civilian infrastructure. Similarly, Aetherflux is working closely with DARPA's beaming expert, Dr. Paul Jaffe, who Bhatt called 'a pretty good friend to our company.' Jaffe also works with other companies developing similar technology, positioning DARPA as a bridge between military applications and commercial potential. 'There's this precedent of doing stuff in space where there's a really important part of working with the government,' Bhatt said. 'But we actually think, over time, as the technology matures and things like [SpaceX's reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle] Starship really open up commercial access to space, this is not going to be just a Department of Defense thing.' 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TechCrunch
19-06-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
The Robinhood founder who might just revolutionize energy, if he succeeds
Baiju Bhatt is building something the space industry has largely dismissed, and it might be more groundbreaking than anyone realizes. When Baiju Bhatt stepped away from his role as Chief Creative Officer at Robinhood last year, only those close to him could have predicted his next move: launching a space company built around tech that much of the aerospace industry has written off as impractical. That's just fine with Bhatt, co-founder of the trading app that democratized investing for millions – it means less competition for his new company, Aetherflux, which has raised $60 million on its quest to prove that beaming solar power from space isn't science fiction but the next frontier of both renewable energy and national defense. 'Until you do stuff in space, if you happen to be an aerospace company, you're actually an aspiring space company,' Bhatt said on Wednesday night at a TechCrunch StrictlyVC event held in a glass-lined structure on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park. 'I would like to transition from 'aspiring space company' to 'space company' sooner.' Bhatt's space ambitions date back to his childhood. He says that his dad, who worked as an optometrist in India, spent a decade applying to graduate physics programs in the United States, eventually taking a hard left turn and landing at NASA as a research scientist. He then proceeded to use the powers of reverse psychology on his son, says Bhatt. 'My dad worked at NASA through my whole childhood,' Bhatt said. 'He was very adamant: 'When you grow up, I'm not going to tell you you should study physics.' Which is a very effective way of convincing somebody to do exactly that.' Image Credits:Slava Blazer Photography / TechCrunch Now, at roughly the same age his father was when he joined NASA, Bhatt is making his own move into space, seemingly with an eye toward creating even more impact than at Robinhood. Techcrunch event Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW He's certainly taking a big swing with the effort. Traditional space solar power concepts have focused on massive geostationary satellites the size of small cities, using microwave transmission to beam energy to Earth. The scale and complexity made these projects perpetually '20 years away,' Bhatt said Wednesday night. 'Everything was too big,' Bhatt continued. 'The size of the array, the size of the spacecraft was the size of a small city. That's real science fiction stuff.' His solution is both far smaller and more nimble, he suggested. Most notably, instead of massive microwave antennas that require precise phase coordination, Aetherflux's satellites will use fiber lasers, essentially converting solar power back into focused light that can be precisely targeted at receivers on the ground. 'We take the solar power that we collect from the sun with solar panels, and we take that energy and put it into a set of diodes that turn it back into light,' Bhatt said. 'That light goes into a fiber where there's a laser, which then lets us point that down to the ground.' The idea is to launch a demonstration satellite in June of next year. National security, first While Bhatt envisions eventually building 'a true industrial-scale energy company,' he's starting with national defense – a strategic decision that could give America a significant advantage. The Department of Defense has approved funding for Aetherflux's program, recognizing the military value of beaming power to forward bases without the logistical nightmare of transporting fuel. 'It allows the U.S. to have energy out in the battlefield for deployed bases, and it doesn't have the limitation of needing to transport fuel,' Bhatt explained. The precision Bhatt is promising is pretty remarkable. Aetherflux's initial target is a laser spot 'bigger than 10 meters diameter' on the ground, but Bhatt believes they can shrink it to 'five to 10 meters, potentially even smaller than that.' These compact, lightweight receivers would be 'of little to no strategic value if captured by an adversary' and 'small enough and portable enough that you can literally bring them out into the battlefield.' While much remains to be seen, success for Aetherflux could potentially change the game for American military operations worldwide. In addition to his own father, Bhatt said that he draws inspiration from another entrepreneur who proved you can master multiple industries: Elon Musk. Importantly, like Musk, who moved from payments to revolutionize electric vehicles and space travel, Bhatt believes his outsider perspective 'is actually an advantage,' he said, echoing how fresh eyes sometimes see what industry veterans miss. Of course, unlike the iterate-fast mentality of companies like Robinhood that can roll out, and also sometimes roll back, software features, space hardware requires a higher-stakes approach. You only get one shot when your satellite launches. 'We build one spacecraft, we bolt it to the fairing inside of the SpaceX rocket, we put it in space, and it detaches, and then the thing better work,' Bhatt said. 'You can't go up there and tighten the bolt.' Asked during the sit-down how he pressure-tests that spacecraft, Bhatt said that Aetherflux is pursuing a 'hardware-rich' approach, which means building and testing components while refining designs. 'The right balance is not waiting five years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, as is the case with many important space programs,' he said. 'People's careers are oftentimes shorter than that.' He also noted that if Aetherflux succeeds, the implications extend far beyond military applications. Space-based solar power could provide baseload renewable energy, or solar power that works day and night, anywhere on Earth. That might mean turning upside down the ways we currently think about energy distribution, offering power to remote locations without massive infrastructure investments, and providing emergency power during disasters. Aetherflux has already hired a mix of physicists, mathematicians, and engineers from Lawrence Livermore Labs, Rivian, Cruise, and SpaceX, among other places, and Bhatt said the 25-person organization is still hiring. 'If you are the kind of person that wants to work on stuff that's super, super difficult, please come and contact us,' he told attendees. He has more than his reputation riding on what happens from here. Bhatt self-funded Aetherflux's first $10 million, and he also contributed to a more recent $50 million round that was led by Index Ventures and Interlagos, and included Bill Gates's Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and NEA, among others. Its timeline is aggressive, too. The plan is to launch a demonstration satellite precisely one year from now. But there's a prototype for Bhatt's approach. GPS started as a DARPA project before becoming ubiquitous civilian infrastructure. Similarly, Aetherflux is working closely with DARPA's beaming expert, Dr. Paul Jaffe, who Bhatt called 'a pretty good friend to our company.' Jaffe also works with other companies developing similar technology, positioning DARPA as a bridge between military applications and commercial potential. 'There's this precedent of doing stuff in space where there's a really important part of working with the government,' Bhatt said. 'But we actually think, over time, as the technology matures and things like [SpaceX's reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle] Starship really open up commercial access to space, this is not going to be just a Department of Defense thing.'
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Robinhood Co-Founder Baiju Bhatt Launches $50M Space Solar Bet To Beam Energy From Orbit, Eyes 2026 Demo In Sci-Fi Comeback
Aetherflux, the space-based solar energy startup founded by Robinhood billionaire Baiju Bhatt, has secured $50 million in a Series A funding round to push forward its vision of transmitting power from orbit to Earth, writes TechCrunch. The raise comes as the company prepares to launch its first satellite demonstration mission in 2026. The new funding brings Aetherflux's total capital to $60 million, bolstered by Bhatt's own $10 million contribution. Leading the round are Index Ventures and Interlagos, with notable backing from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and a few high-profile individuals, including actor Jared Leto. Don't Miss: Hasbro, MGM, and Skechers trust this AI marketing firm — .The company, based in San Carlos, California, came out of stealth mode in late 2023 and is working to build satellites that will generate solar power in orbit and beam it back down to ground stations using electricity-powered laser technology. It's a science fiction-inspired futuristic pitch, specifically from Isaac Asimov's 1941 short story Reason, but one Bhatt is determined to make real. Speaking with TechCrunch, Bhatt said they want to 'demonstrate that we have made this transformative progress of going from humans not having power from space to, for the very first time, there being power from space for humans.' The first step is placing an operational satellite into low Earth orbit, which is built on a bus platform based on Apex Space's Aries design. The payload riding on top will harness energy captured by solar panels and convert it to a laser beam that can deliver about one kilowatt of energy back to the surface of the Earth. Trending: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — On the ground, special photovoltaic arrays will receive and store that energy. These so-called "ground stations" are still in development, with Aetherflux determined to consider military sites as possible locations because of the controlled airspace in these areas. Ultimately, the company intends to miniaturize the stations into mobile units that can deliver electricity to remote or energy-insecure areas. Bhatt emphasized the importance of providing "end-to-end power linking" in the upcoming demo, saying the plan is to light up an installation or run simple electronics on the ground using energy transmitted from space. The company's team includes engineers from NASA, SpaceX, Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), Anduril and the U.S. Navy, showcasing the technical strength behind this bold initiative. So far, very few have managed to transfer solar energy from space wirelessly. According to TechCrunch, Caltech's 2023 microwave beaming experiment is still the most famous example but Aetherflux is aiming higher with a scalable new round of funding will help Aetherflux recruit more engineers and deepen its investment in satellite payload, laser systems, and receiving infrastructure. Aetherflux's momentum has also been recognized by the U.S. government. In a post on X, Bhatt said that the Department of Defense awarded the company with funds from its Operational Energy Capability Improvement Fund to aid solar power innovation for military applications. With an ambitious mission, elite support, and a founder with a track record of shaking up established systems, Aetherflux is positioning itself to lead the next frontier in clean energy by harvesting the sun's power where it shines brightest: in space. Read Next:Deloitte's fastest-growing software company partners with Amazon, Walmart & Target – Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? LOCKHEED MARTIN (LMT): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Robinhood Co-Founder Baiju Bhatt Launches $50M Space Solar Bet To Beam Energy From Orbit, Eyes 2026 Demo In Sci-Fi Comeback originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Sign in to access your portfolio
