Company
We handle the contracts, permits, and sourcing behind large-load energy projects, so developers, utilities, and data centers can move at the speed the grid actually needs. We’re backed by a16z Speedrun and Z Fellows.
We came at this problem from opposite directions.
Tony spent his teenage years getting as close to energy hardware as a student can get: one of six core engineers on the Vanderbilt Fusion Project, the first undergraduate team to build and operate a nuclear fusion reactor, then publishing research with the U.S. Department of Energy, supporting multi-million-dollar storage projects with quasar energy group for the Department of Defense, and now the youngest intern on Tesla’s Battery Thermal Engineering team, working on the Megapack platform.
Tarun’s path started at 12, with a carbon-capture project that earned an Arrow Electronics sponsorship and got pitched to ExxonMobil. It continued through years on the policy and community side of energy: a UN Global Goals Ambassador, a national co-lead for Citizens’ Climate Lobby, and community energy-efficiency work backed by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
We’d each spent years standing in a different part of the same broken system, one inside the hardware and the DOE research, one inside the policy and the community organizing, before we ever met. Vela is what happens when those two views compare notes. We closed a $1.3 million pre-seed round led by a16z Speedrun and Z Fellows to go build it.
We’re backed by a16z Speedrun and Z Fellows. Thank you to Jonathan, Seeam, Fareed, and the entire Speedrun team for believing in us and putting together one of the fastest offers of the year. And thank you to Grace and the Z Fellows team for the advice, support, and conviction that got us here.
Energy and startups alike reward those who move first. Now they’re backing us to build the intelligence layer for the next generation of energy infrastructure.
We exist to unlock the queue.
Every stalled interconnection, permit, and sourcing order is a project that could already be online. We build for the teams moving those projects forward.
Silicon Valley speed, deployed where the grid actually lives.
Utility offices, permitting desks, and equipment yards, not just dashboards. We build alongside the teams who work there.
The developer always decides.
We draft the research and paperwork; your team makes the call. Every output is cited back to its source and built to be overridden.
Move fast. Cut zero corners.
The grid rewards whoever gets there first. We ship at that pace without cutting the diligence a live energy project demands.
Founders
Tarun Batchu
Co-Founder & CEO
Incoming UC Berkeley M.E.T. student studying EECS and Business. His interest in energy began at 12 with a carbon-capture project that earned an Arrow Electronics sponsorship and was pitched to ExxonMobil. Since then he's worked across environmental innovation and youth civic leadership as a UN Global Goals Ambassador, a former national co-lead with Citizens' Climate Lobby, and an organizer of community energy-efficiency efforts backed by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Tony Li
Co-Founder & COO
Rising sophomore at Vanderbilt University and an Ingram Scholar, one of ten students selected annually for the program's full-ride scholarship. One of six core engineers on the Vanderbilt Fusion Project, the first undergraduate team to build and operate a nuclear fusion reactor. He has published research with the U.S. Department of Energy, supported multi-million-dollar energy storage projects with quasar energy group for the Department of Defense, and is currently the youngest intern on Tesla's Battery Thermal Engineering team, working on the Megapack platform.