Nuclear startup Bluecore Energy raises $50M seed round, just two months after launch; plus, Poseidon Aerospace eyes first pilotless test flight, and Stoke Space raises another billion

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On Tuesday, BlueCore Energy announced an oversubscribed $50 million seed round just months after raising a $10 million pre-seed and coming out of stealth. As TechCrunch previously reported, the company, founded earlier this year by Kofi Asante, It builds small nuclear reactors on floating barges rather than fixed locations to generate clean energy for ports and nearby infrastructure. Now, this means that energy can be transported to wherever it is needed, an idea Asante hopes can bring clean power to those who need it most. He said, "...the Navy is doing this as we speak for the last 70 years and has never had an accident." We just made it smaller so you could actually move things around in a way that doesn't take years or a new set of infrastructure, just days. Asante wasn't planning on fundraising this year. But calls kept coming in after their pre-seed launch, and many of their pre-seed investors, including Slauson & Co., Harlem Capital, and Ripple co-founder Chris Larson, doubled down on this new round, with new capital coming in from investors like Colab Capital, Kevin Hart's Heartbeat Ventures, and Angel Investors from Tesla, Uber, Amazon, and Google. Silverton Partners led this new seed round, and it took eight weeks to close it. Asante said, I kept having to figure out a way to make more room on the cap table. I wasn't anticipating us raising that level of capital in that period of time, but really fortunate that we have so many investors and partners who were so excited. When it did emerge from stealth back in July, it became the first nuclear company headquartered at a major port, the Port of Long Beach. It has since launched two floating barges and has struck a partnership with the Department of Transportation Maritime Division, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the U.S. Coast Guard. Blue Corps Energy is now undergoing review with the NRC and the Coast Guard on its product design, which, if successful, will lead to certification of its floating nuclear power plant. Asante said, we've been talking to them both since the inception of the company and design, but officially started the formal engagement back in August. the fresh capital will fund continued product development, regulatory work, nuclear fuel purchases, and hiring. Asante anticipates the biggest challenge to be the supply chain, securing hardware to build the right portable electricity infrastructure at a pace that can match consumer demand. He said that BlueCore Energy has seen inbound interest from multiple ports and AI data centers, and communities that