Leading Breakthrough Science Entrepreneurs Support Prime Movers Lab as Venture Partners

Prime Movers Lab is excited to announce Bill Gross (Idealab, Energy Vault, CarbonCapture Inc., Heliogen), Kam Ghaffarian (IBX, Axiom Space, X-Energy, Intuitive Machines, Quantum Space), Greg Wyler (OneWeb, Tarana, E-Space), Blake Scholl (Boom Supersonic), Aaron Mandell (Quaise Energy, Quidnet, Wacomet), and Andrei Iancu (Halo Industries) are supporting the firm in due diligence as venture partners. Since starting Prime Movers Lab, we have always relied on our top founders to refer fantastic new companies to us and to help evaluate potential investments in their areas of expertise. Today, we are simply making official what has already been happening in practice for years with these incredible entrepreneurs.

“Bill and Aaron’s expertise in climate technology, Greg and Kam’s expertise in space, Blake’s expertise in aviation, and Andrei’s expertise in manufacturing further support our team and advisors to evaluate and win the most attractive deals across our target areas of investment,” Prime Movers Lab Founder and General Partner Dakin Sloss said. “Combined, they have founded some of the most impactful breakthrough science startups of the last 30 years so we’re excited to officially share our relationship with each of them.”

The six entrepreneurs help Prime Movers Lab to be the leading choice for startup founders who are on a mission to commercialize breakthrough science and serve humanity. These venture partners bring a wealth of experience; including:

• Bill Gross is the founder and chairman of Idealab. Bill started Idealab, the longest-running technology incubator, in 1996. At Idealab, he has started more than 175 companies, with more than 50 successful IPOs and acquisitions, and created more than 10,000 jobs. Companies started by Idealab have raised more than $4 billion. Bill is a pioneer in inventing companies to mitigate climate change, starting numerous companies built on innovative breakthroughs, with multiple companies winning the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer Award. In addition to founding Energy Vault, Carbon Capture Inc., Heliogen, and other Idealab companies, Bill also is a member of the board of the Art Center College of Design and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) where he graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
• Kam Ghaffarian is the visionary space and energy entrepreneur behind several companies dedicated to furthering human civilization, including Axiom Space. Driven by his mission to advance the state of humanity and human knowledge, Kam has created organizations transforming the space and energy sectors. In addition to co-founding Axiom Space, his other companies include Intuitive Machines, a leader in delivering science technology to NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program; X-energy, which is developing nuclear power solutions for both terrestrial energy and space propulsion use; and IBX, an innovation and investment firm. Kam is also an active philanthropist and founder of a non-profit focused on scientific research and enabling interstellar travel.
• Greg Wyler is the Founder, CEO, and Chief Architect at E-Space. In this role, Greg has re-imagined low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite system design, manufacturing, economics, and service delivery to overcome the limitations associated with legacy LEO systems. Greg also serves as Chairman of the E-Space Board of Directors. Greg is a recognized technology entrepreneur, engineer, and visionary, with a proven track record of creating and growing innovative space companies. In 2007, he founded O3b Networks, followed by OneWeb in 2012.
• Blake Scholl is the founder and Chief Executive Officer at Boom Supersonic, which he founded in September 2014, with the goal of making the world more accessible with high-speed travel. Prior to starting Boom, Blake held leadership roles at Amazon and Groupon, and co-founded the mobile technology startup, Kima Labs. He started his career at Amazon.com as a software engineer in 2001, where he later owned a $300M P&L in online marketing. Then, Blake was the first employee and director of product development at mobile startup Pelago. In 2010, he co-founded mobile technology startup Kima Labs, which was acquired by Groupon in 2012.
• Aaron Mandell is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wacomet Water, where his vision is to make desalination our primary source of fresh water. Aaron is a technologist and entrepreneur who has led the ideation and formation of several leading companies at the nexus of energy and water. He is the co-founder and founding CEO of Quaise and Quidnet. Prior to that, he co-founded and led Oasys Water and Altarock Energy, both incubated under GreatPoint Ventures, a technology incubator originally established in Cambridge MA. Aaron’s academic background is in numerical simulation and hydrology of groundwater systems.
• Andrei Iancu is the founder and CEO of Halo Industries, Inc. Halo Industries creates novel laser-based systems for advanced materials and device fabrication that drastically reduce waste, improve quality, and enable next-generation technologies. The company is rapidly scaling its production capacity as it is bringing its first high-volume solution to market in the advanced power electronics space for diverse applications such as electric vehicles, associated charging infrastructure, wind/solar, electrified rail, industrial motor drives, and the electrical grid. Andrei earned BS degrees in electrical engineering and aerospace engineering at Iowa State University and then MS and Ph.D. degrees in aeronautics/astronautics, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering at Stanford University.

Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in seed-stage companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation, and agriculture.