Stefan Zlatev

Deep-tech investor and engineer.

Energy, power and industrial infrastructure.

2014 – 2017

Engineer.

Rolls-Royce. Gas turbines and nuclear propulsion. Chartered engineer.

2019 – 2026

Investor.

Seven years at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the last as Partner. Supporting more than 20 founders, early and late stage.

Power · deep tech is the core

1939

Gas turbines The first utility gas turbine runs in Neuchâtel. Still the densest power machine we have, and where I started. 1939
Nuclear fission Obninsk puts the first reactor on a grid. Back on the build schedule seventy years later. 1954
Industrial automation Unimate joins a GM line. Automation is how industry gets rebuilt where people are scarce. 1961
Materials and magnets Neodymium magnets are invented. Critical minerals and magnets now decide who can build motors at all. 1983
Battery storage Lithium-ion goes commercial. Storage is what makes every other source dispatchable. 1991
Compute The cloud arrives. More compute per watt, and the power and cooling it needs, is now an energy problem. 2006
Space An orbital booster lands and flies again. Launch becomes industrial infrastructure. 2015
Generative AI A language model reaches everyone. Compute becomes the largest new load on the grid, and the way industry will be run. 2022
Physical AI Robots start to learn rather than be programmed. Factories and field operations follow. 2024
Nuclear fusion Now an engineering problem, not a physics one. The end of the energy story, and the start of the next. 2030s

Scroll to move through time

2026 → New York City

Builder.

Invest: Growth-stage deep tech, North America and Europe.
Build: Ideas of my own where AI meets industrial services and manufacturing.

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Education

Harvard Business SchoolMBA, 2019
University of CambridgeMPhil Energy Technologies, 2013
University of EdinburghBEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering with Renewable Energy, 2012. First Class, Class Medal