Base Power just closed a staggering $1 billion Series C round - one of the largest climate tech raises this year. The Austin-based startup, which built one of Texas's biggest home battery networks in just two years, now has the firepower to expand nationwide and challenge Tesla's dominance in residential energy storage. The round values the company at $3 billion pre-money.
Base Power is moving fast and breaking things in the home energy storage game. The Austin startup just secured a massive $1 billion Series C round that puts it squarely in the big leagues alongside established players like Tesla and Sunrun.
The round was led by Addition with participation from heavy hitters including CapitalG (Google's growth fund), Thrive Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Ribbit Capital, and Valor Equity Partners. Individual investor Elad Gil also joined the round, which values the company at $3 billion pre-money according to the New York Times.
This is a remarkable jump from the company's $200 million Series B in April, showing just how quickly investors are betting on the home battery market. The timing isn't coincidental - extreme weather events and grid instability have made backup power a priority for millions of homeowners.
What sets Base Power apart isn't just the size of its war chest, but its unique business model. Instead of asking customers to shell out $15,000-20,000 upfront for a home battery system, the company leases 25-kilowatt-hour or 50-kilowatt-hour batteries for just $695-995 down. That's a fraction of what competitors charge, and the battery capacity dwarfs Tesla's 13.5-kilowatt-hour Powerwall.
Customers pay a monthly fee of $19-29 and commit to buying electricity from Base Power for three years at 8.5 cents per kilowatt-hour plus delivery fees. In exchange, Base Power gets to tap into those batteries when the grid needs extra juice, creating a distributed energy network that benefits everyone.
The company has already deployed more than 100 megawatt-hours worth of batteries across Texas - an impressive figure considering it was founded just two years ago in 2023. Base Power has smartly leveraged Texas's deregulated utility market, where households can easily switch electricity providers and grid operators pay premium rates for rapid-response power sources.
