Company name: Petra Power
Company hometown: Solon, Ohio.
Leadership team: Aaron Goodman, co-founder and CEO; Phillip Clift, co-founder and CTO; Mark Kontos, CFO; Punkaj Ahuja, fractional CCO.
What is your company's overall focus and mission?
Phillip Clift: Petra Power is a precision manufacturer of hyper-efficient, fuel-flexible power systems capable of converting fossil fuels such as diesel and natural gas into electricity with up to 90% better efficiency than combustion and hydrogen to electricity with better efficiency than leading technologies.
The company is focused on delivering high-performance power systems to our customers that reduce fuel costs and help companies mitigate fuel risks in a dynamic energy environment. The mission of Petra Power is to drive gigaton level reductions of carbon emissions by leveraging existing fossil fuel infrastructure to save customers up to 90% on fuel costs.
What inspired you to start this company? How do you want to contribute to the future of energy and tech?
Clift: Petra Power was started from the belief that massive opportunities to improve efficiency and reduce carbon emissions today are being overlooked for idealistic solutions such as hydrogen and fusion that remain decades away from widespread adoption. It was through this lens that Dr. Goodman and I identified a NASA-developed technology capable of electrochemically converting fossil fuels and hydrogen to electricity without the need for combustion. This fuel flexibility provides an opportunity to immediately reduce customers' fuel costs and emissions without requiring new fuel adoption or infrastructure while helping lower barriers of entry into a future clean-fuel economy.
Petra Power sees itself as a critical component in the push towards reliable, low-emission electricity. Our power systems create immediate cost and emissions savings for customers while helping them seamlessly transition into future fuels when they become economically viable. This base use case, in conjunction with high-performance electrolysis and novel applications of reversible (electricity and hydrogen production in the same unit) put Petra Power's technology at the center of hyper-efficient electricity production from fossil fuels, increased hydrogen production, elimination of renewable intermittency and co-generation with existing fossil fuel generators.
What attracted you to the Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator?
Clift: The opportunity to learn from a leader in the utility space such as Alabama Power was the primary driver of Petra Power's interest in Techstars Alabama. The long-term objective of Petra Power is to service utility markets with behind the meter power systems, baseload electricity generation, co-generation with existing turbine systems, and integration into renewable fields to resolve intermittency. The opportunity to work directly with, and learn from, Alabama Power to help build these use cases and understand customer pain points will help accelerate the company's growth and improve the quality of Petra Power's products.
The Techstars network was the other driving factor in Petra Power's participation. The wealth of knowledge, advisors, mentors and customers within Techstars' network will help the company mature more rapidly and continue adding to its sales funnel.
What is the No. 1 thing you'd like potential investors to understand about your company?
Clift: The most important thing for Investors to understand about Petra Power is the scale of opportunity available to the company. Our beachhead market (auxiliary power for freight and logistics) is extensive ($23 billion TAM) and provides a high-value, low-barrier opportunity to demonstrate the value of the company's technology. It is, however, only the first step. Petra Power has a real opportunity to leverage success in its beachhead market to expand into larger markets such as utility, commercial and residential power. In these markets the company has a unique opportunity to first integrate with, and later completely replace, existing turbines and generators representing multiple trillions of dollars in market value.
What takeaways do you hope to gain for your company by taking part in the Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator?
Clift: Petra Power hopes to expand its customer pipeline, advance its existing fundraising round, refine its messaging and build its value proposition and go-to-market plan for the utility market during its participation in Techstars Alabama.
What is your opinion of Alabama/Birmingham so far?
Clift: My first impression of Birmingham was amazing. The opening retreat was in beautiful country with views and landscapes that weren't expected. The downtown area is a great size: big enough to host a number of great restaurants (tried Zaza and Salud so far!) and amenities such as the Depot, but small enough to be walkable and not be overwhelmed by people. I'm very much looking forward to spending more time in Birmingham.
We are profiling the cohort companies of the 2025 Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator.
