SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif., Feb. 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Heron Power, an energy infrastructure company, today announced the closing of $140 million in Series B financing co-led by Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) American Dynamism Fund and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, with participation from existing investors Capricorn Investment Group, Energy Impact Partners, Valor Atreides AI Fund, and Gigascale Capital.
With this financing, Heron Power will build a 40-gigawatt, highly automated U.S. manufacturing facility for Heron Link, Heron’s solid state transformer solution for critical energy and AI data center projects. Beyond manufacturing scale, the capital accelerates Heron Power’s mission to make power generation and delivery more affordable, reliable, and responsive.
Purpose-Built Power Electronics at Scale
Heron Link streamlines the connection of low voltage DC technologies like solar, batteries, and AI compute to medium voltage AC grids, without the use of bulky, expensive, and long lead time transformers. Leveraging latest generation power semiconductors and a modular architecture, Heron Link eliminates entire tiers of legacy electrical gear for data center, solar, and energy storage projects, increasing speed, efficiency, reliability, and affordability.
“We need new, more capable solutions to keep pace with accelerating energy demand and the rapid growth of gigascale compute,” said Drew Baglino, Founder and CEO of Heron Power. “Too much of today’s electrical infrastructure is passive, clunky equipment designed decades ago. At Heron we are manifesting an alternative future, where modern power electronics enable projects to come online faster, the grid to operate more reliably, and scale affordably.”
Rebuilding Critical Power Infrastructure in the United States
In 2025, a record $1.2 trillion was invested globally in renewable energy generation, energy storage, and power grid modernization. Project developers and utilities are investing to meet simultaneous electrification-driven demand growth, rapid data center expansion, and necessary upgrades of aging existing infrastructure as over half of existing US grid equipment is over 30 years old and nearing replacement. Demand for legacy transformers has more than doubled since 2019, with lead-time and costs continuing to increase, risking economic growth, energy security, and technology leadership.
Heron Power is addressing this challenge, unleashing the full capability of solid-state transformers to address problem statements across the electricity sector, from generation to transmission and end-use.
“Heron Power isn’t just making a product that’s essential to bring new electricity generation online and support today’s data center buildout,” said Erin Price-Wright, General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz. “They are building the technology that will catapult our aging electric grid into the software-defined, AI native, twenty-first century. And they are manufacturing it at scale here in America.”
“Electricity demand is accelerating at a pace our legacy grid simply wasn’t built to handle,” said Dave Danielson, Partner, Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “Heron is reengineering one of the grid’s most critical bottlenecks with next-generation solid-state transformers, manufactured at scale in the U.S. With deep expertise in power electronics and commercialization, the team is uniquely positioned to redefine how power moves across the grid.”
Growing Market Demand
Heron Power’s customers include leading developers of utility-scale solar, energy storage, and data center projects seeking new solutions to solve for faster deployment timelines, higher lifetime reliability, and domestic supply chains. Through product-led partnerships with lighthouse customers, Heron has identified more than 40 gigawatts of early interest, clearly indicating the market opportunity for a new power infrastructure approach.
“The digital loads of tomorrow require innovative ways to improve flexibility, increase reliability and decrease cost,” said Sheldon Kimber, CEO of Intersect, a leading energy infrastructure developer. “As we build some of the largest data centers on the planet, co-locating with massive new power generation, partners like Heron will provide the innovative solutions we need to tie it all together.”
Heron Power’s mission is to accelerate growth of the electricity sector while keeping power reliable and affordable. Heron invites exceptional engineers, project developers, and utilities to help achieve this vision.
About Heron Power
Heron Power Electronics Company develops industrial power electronics purpose-built for the 21st-century grid, helping the electricity sector to grow faster with scalable, reliable and software-integrated infrastructure. Its modular solid-state transformer Heron Link enables renewable energy, storage, and data center developers to directly connect to medium voltage transmission without the use of a transformer. Led by founder and CEO Drew Baglino, the Scotts Valley, CA-based company combines expertise in power electronics, software, and high-volume manufacturing. For more information, visit www.heronpower.com.
About Andreessen Horowitz
Andreessen Horowitz (aka a16z) is a venture capital firm that backs bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology. The firm is stage agnostic: investing in seed to venture to growth-stage technology companies, across bio + healthcare, consumer and enterprise apps, crypto, fintech, infrastructure, and companies building toward American dynamism. a16z has over $90B under management across multiple funds. Visit https://a16z.com/.
About Breakthrough Energy Ventures
Breakthrough Energy Ventures is a purpose-built investment firm that partners with, launches, and scales global companies that are building an emissions-free global economy. We seek true breakthroughs and are committed to supporting these entrepreneurs and companies by bringing to bear a unique combination of technical, operational, market, and policy expertise. Backed by many of the world’s top business leaders, companies, and investors, Breakthrough Energy Ventures has raised more than $3.5 billion in committed capital and partnered with more than 110 groundbreaking companies. Breakthrough Energy Ventures is the venture capital arm of Breakthrough Energy, a global network of climate leaders committed to accelerating the world’s journey to a clean energy future. The organization funds breakthrough technologies, advocates for climate-smart policies, and mobilizes partners around the world to take effective action, accelerating progress at every stage. Visit Breakthrough Energy Ventures to learn more.
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