Apr 26, 2021   SOURCE: BusinessWire

Crusoe Achieves Operational Milestones and Closes $128 Million Series B Financing to Expand Patented Digital Flare Mitigation® Technology

Crusoe Energy Systems Inc. (the “Company”) has closed a $128 million Series B equity financing led by Valor Equity Partners with participation from Lowercarbon Capital, DRW Venture Capital, Founders Fund, Bain Capital Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, KCK Group, Upper90, Winklevoss Capital, Exor, Zigg Capital and JB Straubel, the co-founder and former CTO of Tesla and founder and CEO of Redwood Materials. Crusoe also secured a non-dilutive $40m project financing facility from Upper90 in addition to the new equity capital. The combined funding will expand Crusoe’s operations as the Company pursues its mission to eliminate the routine flaring of natural gas and associated methane emissions while delivering low cost computing infrastructure. Crusoe deploys mobile, modular data centers that generate electrical power from otherwise wasted and flared natural gas (Digital Flare Mitigation® or DFM).

Highlights:

  • Crusoe raised $128 million from leading technology and climate-focused investors
  • Fundraising follows Crusoe’s successful deployment and operation of 40 flare-powered data centers with oil producers in four states
  • Existing energy clients include leading operators with ambitious environmental targets such as Devon Energy, Kraken Oil & Gas, Enerplus and others; Crusoe has also previously operated DFM technology for Equinor, Norway’s state energy company and a leader in environmental excellence
  • Early cloud computing users include Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (MIT-CSAIL), Folding@Home (a COVID-19 therapy research consortium) and OpenCV (a leader in computer vision technology)
  • Crusoe aims to expand to more than 100 units over the coming year
  • Each Crusoe Digital Flare Mitigation® system reduces CO2-equivalent emissions by up to 8,000 tons per year, equivalent to taking about 1,700 cars off the road
  • Natural gas flaring and methane emissions are increasingly targeted by investors, activists and regulators as a low-hanging opportunity to achieve climate goals

Crusoe currently operates 40 modular data centers powered by otherwise wasted and flared natural gas. Crusoe’s patented Digital Flare Mitigation® technology has been deployed in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. The Company plans to grow to more than 100 units over the next year as it expands within new and existing flaring-intensive markets as well as locations with oversupplied wind or solar power. Since launching in 2018, Crusoe has emerged as a scalable solution to reduce flaring through energy intensive computing such as bitcoin mining, graphical rendering, artificial intelligence model training and even protein folding simulations for COVID-19 therapeutic research.

“We welcome Valor as our new lead investor along with climate-focused investors like Lowercarbon Capital that align with Crusoe’s mission to eliminate routine flaring in the oilfield,” said Chase Lochmiller, the CEO and co-founder of Crusoe. “Valor brings tremendous expertise in scaling technically and operationally complex businesses as illustrated by their success partnering with the management teams at Tesla, SpaceX and others.”

“Crusoe provides the type of cross-cutting solution that solves multiple technological, energy, and climate challenges simultaneously,” said Antonio Gracias, Valor founder, CEO and CIO. “The financing announced today will help to scale Crusoe by orders of magnitude, meaning we can unlock vast and economic computing resources for technology users while eliminating significant climate-harming emissions.” Valor has been focused on sustainability and climate change for well over a decade with investments like Tesla, SolarCity, Misfits Market, AMP Robotics and more. In addition, Valor has been an early investor in crypto infrastructure technology through businesses like BitGo and others. “Our investment in Crusoe builds on our track record of supporting world-class entrepreneurs in building great companies using cutting-edge technology to improve the world.”

Crusoe’s solution arrives amid escalating efforts by industry, regulators and financiers to rapidly reduce flaring and methane emissions:

  • New Mexico recently passed new laws limiting flaring and venting to no more than 2% of an operator’s production by April of 2022.
  • North Dakota’s legislature has voted in favor of new incentives aimed at supporting on-site flare capture systems including Digital Flare Mitigation®, a measure that has attracted bipartisan support in the state.
  • Wyoming’s governor recently signed House Bill 189 into law, which creates incentives for the reduction of gas flaring through cryptocurrency mining
  • BlackRock’s management called for a complete end to routine flaring by 2025 in a recent letter to investors.
  • The World Bank has launched a “Zero Routine Flaring by 2030” initiative with endorsement from 34 governments and 44 oil companies.
  • The Environmental Defense Fund recently published a broad survey of flaring, which indicates that 3.5 times more methane escapes from flares than previously estimated by the EPA.
  • Numerous leading oil companies have published environmental goals aimed at steep reductions in both flaring and methane emissions.

By displacing loads from the grid and preventing the methane leakage associated with natural gas flaring, each Crusoe modular datacenter reduces CO2-equivalent emissions by up to 8,000 tons per year, equivalent to taking about 1,700 cars off the road. Methane is approximately 84 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, so by preventing methane leakage from flaring, Crusoe’s technology reduces CO2-equivalent emissions by up to 63% relative to continued flaring.

“Crusoe is a mission-driven company,” said Cully Cavness, Crusoe’s co-founder, president and chief operating officer. “Our team is unified around the goal of solving the environmental challenges of stranded energy, especially flare gas. This means working with industries that have a large environmental impact to help clean them up. At Crusoe we understand that environmental solutions scale best when they are economic. Digital Flare Mitigation® offers exactly that - a scalable economic solution to a major environmental problem.”

About Crusoe Energy Systems Inc.

Crusoe Energy Systems provides innovative solutions for the energy industry. By converting natural gas to energy-intensive computing, Crusoe’s Digital Flare Mitigation® service delivers an environmentally sound way to create a beneficial use for otherwise wasted natural gas. Crusoe has deployed flare mitigation projects in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin oilfield, Colorado’s Denver-Julesburg oilfield and North Dakota and Montana’s Bakken oilfield. Systems are scalable up to millions of cubic feet per day and can be deployed rapidly to even the most remote locations.

Please reach out to info@crusoeenergy.com or visit www.crusoeenergy.com to learn more, and follow Crusoe on Linkedin and Twitter.