This Virginia startup is developing tech to make data centers more energy efficient

Founders out of Fairfax County are building tech for data centers that acts as a “switchblade knife” for energy use. 

Claros, a hardware and software company, emerged from stealth earlier this year with $9.75 million in initial investment as data centers continue to guzzle power. The startup focuses on two main products: tech changing the way power is distributed to data centers to allow for multiple energy sources, and  “integrated voltage regulators” to funnel power directly to chips in servers. 

That’s normally a complex process that eats up energy, and the second of these two products provides a more efficient way to send power, cofounder and CEO Dan Kultran explained. 

“AI is going through a very fast design cycle,” Kultran, who is based near Los Angeles, told Technical.ly. “There’s a gap between the infrastructure to support these chips, and we’re the people that bridge that divide.”

Virginia is home to what’s dubbed Data Center Alley, where the demand for power is growing as more structures get built. This need increases in the summer months, when the hotter temperatures call for more energy to cool the centers. Loudoun County, the epicenter of that region, has 200 data centers and 117 to be built, per a white paper.

Claros is headquartered in Virginia in part because of its data center concentration, per Kultran. 

He and his cofounder Grant Verstandig met at the defense technology startup Epirus in Redondo Beach, California, which Verstandig also founded. Kultran wanted to take what he learned at Epirus and go into AI infrastructure. 

“We found that was another great purpose and great mission, to try to help, because we love solving hard problems,” Kultran said. 

Tech to use more renewable energy

While Kultran sees a lot of discourse about generating power for data centers, he wanted to try and leverage the energy that’s already available.  

Claros’ integrated voltage regulator sits right under or next to the chips in data centers to be able to deliver power. 

Chips use very little voltage, but a lot of power, Kultran explained. 

“Think of these as little circuits … that are helping the translation of energy from the grid,” he said, adding: “It needs a different kind of conversion mechanism, and that’s what we provide.”

The startup’s other product changes how power is routed to the racks inside data centers, per Kultran. Most designs for data center power operate using alternating current, while Claros’ tech employs direct current power. 

That way, developers can better connect to multiple forms of energy, including renewables and the grid — essentially, “whatever form of energy that’s available,” per Kultran. 

“Think of it like a switchblade knife, where you can now switch between wind, solar, grid — very easily into a single output that now the data center can use,” he said. 

The startup’s customers are chip makers and data center operators and builders, Kultran noted, though he declined to name specific buyers.  

Manufacturing is underway, thanks to investment.

Red Cell Partners, an incubation and investment firm also based in McLean, launched Claros. Verstandig, Claros’ cofounder, is also the founder of the incubator.

Claros additionally nabbed funding from Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation’s Virginia Venture Partners, General Catalyst and Composite Capital Partners. The startup is using the cash to start the manufacturing process. Designs were sent off about three months ago, Kultran said. 

The staff headcount is 20 people, and that’s expected to grow to 30 people by the end of 2025. 

Kultran credits landing the investments to opportune timing, and data center energy consumption being an “evident” problem. 

“We just happen to be at the right place, at the right time in history,” Kultran said, “where AI is now the talk of the town.”