Calectra
Electrifying
heavy industry
We provide zero-carbon, low-cost, up to 1600°C process heat.
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news
Calectra wins the U.S. Bank Foundation Cleantech Inclusion Award
November 21, 2024
Calectra has won the U.S. Bank Foundation Cleantech Inclusion Award. The award includes a $30,000 grant and 12-month mentorship from the U.S. Bank and Evergreen Climate Innovations.
Co-Founder & CEO of Calectra, Pauliina Meskanen, pitching at the XTC's Global Deep Tech Startup Competition Finals at the TNW conference
Contact Us
Let's discuss decarbonizing industrial heat!
Calectra
Oakland, CA
Team
Calectra was founded to electrify industrial heat and to make a dent in tackling the climate crisis. Calectra's co-founders met at the US Department of Energy's Cradle to Commerce program.
Pauliina Meskanen
Co-Founder & CEO
Pauliina Meskanen has extensive experience in technology commercialization and VC. Meskanen built a hard-tech climate innovation consultancy and media company, Survivaltech.club, and has worked as an investor/venture partner in four VC funds. She was the forth employee at Kaiku Health, a VC-backed health tech startup (acquired). Meskanen has degrees in industrial engineering from Aalto University (MSc, BSc).
Nate Weger, PhD
Co-Founder & CTO
Nate Weger specializes in heat transfer, with an emphasis on high-temperature energy systems, and has extensive experience decarbonizing industrial technologies. Calectra's technology is based on his Ph.D. research at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Weger has degrees in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley (PhD) and the University of Iowa (BSE).
Fox Thorpe, PhD
Materials Scientist
Fox Thorpe graduated from the McCormack lab at UC Davis, where he completed his PhD in chemical engineering, studying the thermophysical properties of materials at high temperatures. He also worked in the Materials Science Division in the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, developing materials for extreme environment applications. Thorpe has degrees in chemical engineering from UC Davis (PhD) and the University of Kentucky (BSE).
Prof. Elizabeth Opila
Scientific Advisor
Supported by:
Calectra
Oakland, CA
approach
Problem
Our human societies are dependent on materials like cement, steel, glass, and chemicals. The production of these materials requires heat.Industrial process heat accounts for 25% of the global energy consumption. Today, process heat is fossil-based and produces 10% of the global carbon dioxide emissions.
Our solution - Calectra
Calectra provides zero-carbon, low-cost up to 1600°C process heat for the heavy industry.Our thermal storage technology stores off-peak renewable electricity as heat in our patent-pending bricks. The stored heat is provided to the retrofitted industrial process with up to 1600°C air.We optimize for low-cost, high-temperature heat delivery.Calectra is on a mission to electrify the industry - at low-cost and securely.
Calectra
Oakland, CA
Careers
Read more about how you can make a dent in the climate crisis with Calectra below:
Calectra
Oakland, CA
news
Calectra wins the U.S. Bank Foundation Cleantech Inclusion Award
November 21, 2024
Calectra has won the U.S. Bank Foundation Cleantech Inclusion Award. The award includes a $30,000 grant and 12-month mentorship from the U.S. Bank and Evergreen Climate Innovations.
Press release: Calectra announces $2M of funding
August 26, 2024
Calectra raised a $1.6M pre-seed round led by Lifeline Ventures and has been awarded over $400,000 in grants primarily from the US government and New York State.
Calectra's co-founders selected for the U.S. Department of Energy's LEEP program
July 10, 2024
Dr. Nathaniel Weger and Pauliina Meskanen join Cyclotron Road, the U.S. Department of Energy's Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship (LEEP) program at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Calectra's co-founders join the Activate 2024 Fellowship
July 1, 2024
Activate is a leading US deeptech program that provides founders with the resources, funding, mentoring, and community needed to turn breakthrough research into successful companies.
Berkeley Haas' Cleantech to Market program welcomes Calectra
June 14, 2024
As 2024 Cleantech to Market (C2M) project company, an interdisciplinary student group from UC Berkeley will dedicate 800 hours to support Calectra's commercialization efforts.
Calectra chosen as Top 5 finalist in the XTC's Global Deep Tech Startup competition
June 5, 2024
Calectra is top 5 finalist at the
Extreme Tech Challenge's Global Deep Tech Startup competition. The pitch competition finals are held at the Financial Times-backed TNW Conference in Amsterdam.
Venture for Climate Tech cohort 2024 welcomes Calectra
May 29, 2024
Funded by NYSERDA, Venture for Climate Tech is a leading accelerator program for climate tech startups. Startups receive up to $50,000 in non-dilutive funding.
Calectra wins the V4CT's Global Innovation Challenge "Future of Energy" prize
April 18, 2024
Calectra was chosen as the winner of Venture for Climate Tech's Global Innovation Challenge "Future of Energy" category.
Calectra wins the Berkeley Lab Pitch Competition
December 7, 2023
Calectra wins the Berkeley Lab Pitch Competition organized at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Calectra
Oakland, CA
August 26, 2024
A DOE-backed startup,Calectra, announces $2M funding to electrify high-temperature industrial heat
A combination of private and public funders are backing Calectra’s mission to decarbonize industrial process heat.
[OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA]: Calectra raised a $1.6M pre-seed round led by Lifeline Ventures with participation from Aera VC, Security Trading (the investment company of Antti Herlin’s family), Orca Climate Fund, Wave Ventures, Prodeko Ventures, and Justin Brodie-Kommit.Calectra has been awarded over $400,000 in grant funding from the US government and New York State. The team was selected for the renowned Activate, Cyclotron Road, and Venture for Climate Tech programs. Calectra’s co-founders, Pauliina Meskanen and Dr. Nate Weger, met at the 2023 inaugural cohort of the DOE-backed Cradle to Commerce program.High-temperature heat is required to manufacture essential materials like cement, steel, and glass. Decarbonization solutions for high-temperature heat have been difficult to develop, limiting the current options to green hydrogen or direct electrification, both of which are prohibitively expensive for low-margin manufacturing industries to adopt at scale.Calectra is developing a power-to-heat thermal storage technology to provide manufacturing industries with low-cost, high-temperature (up to 1600°C), emission-free process heat. Calectra’s thermal storage system converts electricity from the grid or on-site renewables into high-temperature heat within its patent-pending bricks. This heat is then stored in the bricks and delivered to industrial manufacturers on demand. Calectra optimizes its technology for high-temperature heat delivery at low cost and at large scale. Dr. Nate Weger, Co-Founder & CTO of Calectra, developed the technology concept during his PhD at UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.By replacing fossil fuels in high-temperature process heat generation, Calectra could slash annual CO2 emissions by 1.8Gt, representing 5% of global CO2 emissions.“Heavy industry is one of the hardest to decarbonize sectors, accounting for a quarter of global carbon dioxide emissions. Manufacturing companies usually produce low-margin commodities and compete in global markets. This means that most companies cannot afford to pay a green premium for their heat decarbonization solution. At the same time, the heat source has to be reliable and safe, as most industrial processes operate continuously, and any downtime is hugely expensive. Calectra’s vision is to help the heavy industry to decarbonize their high-temperature process heat while reducing their costs,” says Pauliina Meskanen, Co-Founder & CEO of Calectra.Juha Lindfors, Partner at Lifeline Ventures, says, “Industrial heat accounts for one-quarter of the global energy consumption and is a massive $450B market. Decarbonizing industrial heat presents a huge opportunity. We are excited to partner with the Calectra team to electrify high-temperature industrial heat at low cost.”Nick Winstone, Managing Partner of Aera VC, says, “At Aera, we love to back outstanding founders developing breakthrough technology that will reverse climate change. Nate, Pauliina, and the team at Calectra are tackling a really hard problem. If they can unlock it, it will be transformational for heat and heavy industry around the world.”To learn more about Calectra’s vision or to join its growing team, visit its website.For media inquiries, contact:
Pauliina Meskanen
Co-Founder & CEO of Calectra
pauliina@calectra.com
Calectra
Oakland, CA