(Bloomberg) -- A Silicon Valley startup run by the billionaire co-founder of brokerage firm Robinhood Markets Inc. is receiving new funding for a plan to build a solar power grid in orbit.
Baiju Bhatt’s Aetherflux Inc. announced on Wednesday a $50 million fundraising round co-led by Index Ventures and Interlagos.
Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a firm with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates as chairman, are also investing. Index Ventures, New Enterprise Associates and Andreessen Horowitz were early investors in Robinhood, according to Bhatt.
Others taking part in the new investment round for Aetherflux include Robinhood Chief Executive Officer Vlad Tenev and Chief Legal Officer Dan Gallagher, as well as venture capitalist Tim Draper and actor Jared Leto, according to Aetherflux.
Aetherflux, founded by Bhatt, is developing technology that will use lasers to transmit solar power from low-Earth orbit satellites to ground stations.
“For the better part of 50 years, this idea has been relegated to science fiction,” Bhatt said in an interview before the announcement, adding that Aetherflux wants to turn the concept into “science reality.”
The startup, from San Carlos, California, had received $10 million from Bhatt, who was Robinhood’s chief creative officer until March last year and continues to sit on the company’s board.
Aetherflux’s chief executive officer, Bhatt, 40, has a net worth of $2.6 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The additional money should help with the goal of launching a satellite aboard a SpaceX rocket next year, said Bhatt, who declined to disclose the valuation that investors gave Aetherflux.
The company — which has about 20 people — will need to overcome “immense technical hurdles” before it can deliver power to customers, said Achal Upadhyaya, founder and general partner of technology investment firm Interlagos.
“This is a very high-power laser going from low orbit down to Earth,” he said. “It has not been done in a consistent, useful way before.”
Bhatt’s background at Robinhood is an advantage, said Upadhyaya, a 10-year SpaceX veteran.
“The fact that he broke into a heavily regulated market and was able to innovate it in the face of immense regulatory challenges is what gives me confidence,” he said.
Aetherflux isn’t disclosing a timetable for construction of a full network of satellites, Bhatt added, focusing now on getting one into space.
“If you can cross that hurdle first, then it’s going to put us in a position where we can zero in on the technologies that will let us scale,” Bhatt said.
(Adds investor information in the fourth paragraph. A previous version corrected the name of Index Ventures in the third paragraph.)
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