Brian Riordan - Avalanche Energy | Fusion Business Landscape 2025

Brian Riordan ↗

Co-Founder & COO · Avalanche Energy

Brian Riordan is the Co-Founder and COO of Avalanche Energy, building micro-fusion reactors (Orbitron) that are free of high-powered magnets or lasers and designed to be manufacturable and transportable. Brian and co-founder Robin Langtry met at Blue Origin, where both worked on rocket propulsion systems. Brian started his career in deep subsea oil and gas, pivoting to aerospace with side hustles along the way. Motivated by climate change and receding glaciers in his home state of Alaska, Avalanche has raised $45M+ and focuses on mobile power for space and underwater applications.

Speaking events

2

DTW editions

2

Published talks

1

Avalanche Energy ↗

Avalanche Energy develops pulsed fusion microreactors for in-space propulsion systems. The company's Avalanche Pulsed Fusion technology employs high-powered pulsed magnets to compress deuterium fuel, generating fusion reactions in reactors measuring 10-20 cm in diameter. These reactors produce thrust via direct conversion of fusion energy to electricity and ions, targeting specific impulses over 10,000 seconds for deep space missions. The primary market is satellite operators, space agencies, and propulsion providers seeking alternatives to chemical and electric propulsion. Avalanche Energy has raised over $10 million in seed funding from investors including Space Capital and Cubit Capital. The founding team includes veterans from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and prior fusion research efforts. Operations are based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Events

3

Talks presented

1

Registrations reached

588

Hyperstition Incorporated ↗

Science Fiction as a Service.

Events

47

Talks hosted

10

Registrations reached

13,413

Gigascale Capital ↗

Gigascale Capital backs early-stage companies rebuilding the physical economy for climate impact. Founded in 2023 by former Meta CTO Mike Schroepfer, Victoria Beasley, and Evaline Tsai, the firm has invested in more than 25 companies across clean energy, advanced manufacturing, grid infrastructure, and physical AI. Some decarbonize directly. Others build the enabling layers that make physical systems faster and cheaper to design, build, and deploy. In both cases, climate impact follows from better performance.

Events

2

Talks supported

10

Registrations reached

832

Lowercarbon Capital ↗

Lowercarbon Capital is a climate-focused venture capital firm founded in 2018 by renowned investor Chris Sacca (formerly of Lowercase Capital, with early bets on Uber and Twitter) and his partners, dedicated to backing companies that drastically reduce CO₂ emissions, remove carbon from the atmosphere, and develop technologies to mitigate climate impacts. With over $2 billion in assets under management, it invests primarily in early-stage and growth-stage startups across sectors like clean energy, carbon removal, sustainable materials, food/agriculture, transportation, and advanced manufacturing. The firm has built a large portfolio of over 200 companies, including unicorns such as Crusoe (sustainable compute infrastructure), Watershed (enterprise carbon management), and Solugen (bio-based chemicals), alongside notable investments in frontier tech like Zap Energy (fusion), Heirloom and Avalanche Energy (carbon removal and fusion), Sublime Systems (low-carbon cement), and Crux (clean energy tax credits marketplace). Lowercarbon stands out for its aggressive, founder-friendly approach—providing hands-on support, hustling for portfolio success, and funding high-risk research—while emphasizing that profitable, superior technologies are key to scaling climate solutions and "unf**king the planet."

Events

5

Talks supported

10

Registrations reached

1,932