Critical Loop, a California-based power company that deploys modular microgrids for industrial sites, has closed a $26 million Series A round. The company, led by CEO Bala Ramamurthy, employs a team of engineers and operators who previously worked at SpaceX, Tesla, Palantir, and Rivian.
Getting connected to the US power grid takes a long time. As of the end of 2024, around 10,300 projects were waiting for grid interconnection across the country, representing 1,400 GW of generation capacity and roughly 890 GW of storage, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The median wait time from an initial connection request to commercial operation has more than doubled over the past two decades, from under two years for projects completed between 2000 and 2007, to over four years for those completed between 2018 and 2024. For a factory or data center that needs power now, that timeline is not a planning inconvenience. It is a direct constraint on whether a business can open, expand, or stay competitive.
The Series A was led by Conifer Infrastructure Partners and Hanover, with Better Ventures, Climate Capital, Adapt Nation Capital, and Cyrus Ventures also participating. Total committed equity and debt funding now stands at $49 million.
Electricity demand in the United States is rising faster than the grid can accommodate. Data centers for artificial intelligence have drawn a lot of attention, but they represent one part of a broader problem. EV charging networks, manufacturing plants, logistics hubs, and other industrial facilities are all competing for grid connections that take years to materialize. When a utility cannot deliver power on the schedule a business needs, that business either waits or moves on.
Critical Loop approaches the problem differently. Rather than waiting for permanent grid upgrades, the company deploys a platform that combines battery storage, on-site generation, and a software-defined controller called Cygnus. The system can supply power to an industrial site while utility infrastructure work proceeds in parallel. When the permanent connection is ready, or when grid constraints emerge elsewhere, the hardware can be physically relocated to another site.
"Grid interconnection queues are limiting industrial growth, and the current solutions are mostly slow to deploy and inflexible, which does not meet current need. Critical Loop is working on a timeline that actually matches what customers are dealing with. Critical Loop is delivering a real and immediate solution while also offering customers long-term value beyond solving for today's need for power, and this team has shown they can deliver on that." — Nick Stork, Founder and Managing Partner, Conifer Infrastructure Partners.
The new capital will go toward expanding Critical Loop's work with current partners and moving into new markets beyond California, where it currently operates. States with similar grid constraints are the likely next targets, though no specific locations were named.
On the supply side, Critical Loop has signed an agreement with LG Energy Solution Vertech for domestically manufactured batteries. The company also holds a California Clean Off-Road Equipment voucher and was named directly in a February 2026 California Public Utilities Commission rulemaking, which instructed Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric to develop new tariff options for customers facing grid connection delays.
"In just a couple of years, we've built a software and hardware stack that has the potential to accelerate time to power from years to days, and with this team, we believe we can keep doing things that were previously considered impossible," said Balachandar Ramamurthy, Co-Founder and CEO of Critical Loop.
The company's main product is the CLB-5100, a scalable, integrated 1 MW battery system. It connects to on-site generation, existing grid infrastructure, and distributed energy sources. One feature that sets it apart from conventional fixed installations is mobility. The system is built to be moved. If grid capacity frees up at one location or becomes constrained at another, the hardware can be redeployed. The CLB-5100 is managed through Cygnus, Critical Loop's software controller, which handles the coordination of different power sources automatically.
The company has a growing list of real deployments. It won a competitive bid to optimize solar generation and battery storage for an 11 MW load at San Diego International Airport. It kept a manufacturing facility running without interruption for eight months during a utility outage. Two hybrid microgrids were deployed at Mojave test sites within days of receiving notice. Critical Loop has also helped an EV charging operator gain flexible grid connections for more than 4 MW of capacity across two sites, a process that took months rather than years.
Critical Loop's total committed funding now reaches $49 million when equity and debt are combined. Conifer Infrastructure Partners and Hanover led the Series A. Better Ventures, Climate Capital, Adapt Nation Capital, and Cyrus Ventures, all of which were involved in earlier funding, joined again for this round.
Joseph Malchow, Founder and General Partner at Hanover, cited progress in power conversion technology as part of his rationale for the investment. "Critical Loop's CLB-5100 speeds time-to-power and buys down net power cost, adding resilience to the grid while unlocking predictable costs for companies whose growth is at stake," he said.
