Fervo Energy, a US geothermal startup, has raised $462 million in a Series E funding round led by B Capital. Google, Tesla co-founder JB Straubel and Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures participated in the investment. The company is developing enhanced geothermal systems using fracking techniques to extract heat from deep underground for power generation. Fervo operates a commercial pilot facility in Nevada and is planning a 500-megawatt facility in Utah. The funding reflects growing investor interest in geothermal energy, driven by increasing power demands from data centres supporting artificial intelligence applications. Fervo's technology aims to provide reliable, carbon-free baseload power by tapping into the earth's heat.

Knox Systems, a federal AI-managed cloud provider, has raised $25 million in a Series A round led by B Capital, with participation from M12, Okta Ventures, MongoDB Ventures and Hearst Ventures. The funding comes nine months after a $6.5 million seed round led by Felicis. Knox enables SaaS companies to achieve FedRAMP authorisation in 90 days at 90% lower cost than traditional methods, which typically cost $2-5 million upfront. The company operates the largest multi-cloud federal boundary across AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, holding authorisations to operate across 15 federal agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Homeland Security. The funding will help Knox expand federal authorisation capacity whilst positioning itself for commercial adoption, serving clients including Adobe, Celonis and OutSystems.