Nevada’s mining, gambling and nascent electric vehicle industries helped start-ups in the state’s north pocket a record US$1.4 billion of new funding in 2021, according to a local news report.
The Reno Gazette Journal reported northern Nevada start-ups raised 15-times more capital in 2021 than in the previous 12 months. EV battery-recycler Redwood Materials dominated funding activity last year with its $750 million Series C raise. The Carson City-based company is building a new battery-materials plant in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Centre.
Nanotech Energy, a graphene energy-storage tech developer also planning to build a facility at the Tahoe-Reno centre, was another that raised a big lick of cash last year.
But overall, 28 companies reportedly got in on the action, an Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada State of the Economy event heard. Advanced manufacturing, biotech and medicine, e-commerce and software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies were others on the EDAWN list.
The Reno Gazette Journal said it was only in 2013 that “a small collection of start-ups in downtown Reno’s start-up row corridor” were heralded by then-governor, Brian Sandoval. According to the Gazette, Sandoval said last week: “In 2015 we reported $3.9 million [in start-up funding] as a huge success for us. It still feels surreal to think about it.”
