Arinna raises $4M seed round to solve the space power problem | TechCrunch

Last day to exhibit your breakthrough to 10,000+ tech leaders at Disrupt is on Oct 2. Book Exhibit Table Now. Disrupt doors open Oct. 13. Get your pass and bring someone with you at 50% off. REGISTER NOW. The space ambitions of nation states and billionaires alike demand better sources of power, and a new startup founded by two Stanford PhDs may have the answer. Arinna, founded by CEO Koosha Nazif and CTO Alex Shearer, said Wednesday that it had raised a $4 million seed round to build ultrathin solar panels from a brand new material developed during their doctoral research. The capital raise was led by Spacecadet Ventures, with participation from Anorak Ventures and Breakthrough Energy Foundation; the company declined to share its valuation. Arinna, named for the Hittite god of the sun and pronounced like arena, expects to have its first products being tested on orbit before the end of this year. After qualifying their photovoltaics in space, the company hopes to build a facility that can mass produce the stuff at megawatt scale in 2028. “We are building qualification panels to send to our first customers that will demonstrate that these two dimensional photovoltaics have the effic