Not every new startup is building software. Some of the more intriguing young companies are taking on hard, capital-intensive problems in energy, shipping, and medicine. Here are five founded between 2019 and 2024, each pursuing a very different kind of infrastructure.
1. Aetherflux — collecting solar power in space
Founded in 2024, Aetherflux is developing a space-based solar power system. Its long-term concept is to collect sunlight with satellites and transmit energy to Earth. That is a bold proposition: the technology has to work, but so do the economics of launching and maintaining a satellite network. For now, it is an early-stage bet on a future energy supply rather than a power source ready for customers.
2. Koloma — exploring for natural hydrogen
Koloma is looking for naturally occurring hydrogen underground. If it can identify deposits that are practical to extract, this could offer another way to supply hydrogen without making it through conventional industrial processes. The central uncertainty is geological: finding a resource that is both accessible and commercially useful is not guaranteed.
3. Mantel — carbon capture for high-temperature industry
Founded in 2022, Mantel is developing a carbon-capture approach using molten salts designed to work at high temperatures. That focus matters for industrial facilities where emissions come from hot processes, not just from generating electricity. The company’s challenge is to show that its process can operate reliably and affordably at industrial scale.
4. Saronic — autonomous vessels for maritime operations
Saronic, founded in 2022, builds autonomous surface vessels, with an emphasis on defense and maritime use. Small uncrewed boats could help with missions that are risky, repetitive, or expensive to carry out with crewed ships. In this field, a convincing demonstration has to address more than navigation: reliability, communications, and safe operation all matter.
5. Cellares — scaling cell therapy manufacturing
Cellares was founded in 2019 to automate the manufacturing of cell therapies. These treatments can involve complicated, patient-specific production, which makes consistent manufacturing capacity a major bottleneck. Cellares is working on automated systems and larger-scale production facilities; the test will be whether they can meet the quality and regulatory demands of real clinical and commercial supply.
These companies are at different stages, and their goals are not proof that their technologies will succeed. What they share is a focus on difficult physical systems: the kind that need engineering, testing, and substantial investment before an idea becomes useful infrastructure.
