Cloud seeding startup Rainmaker Technology Corporation has raised a $100 million Series B funding round backed by investors like NOA VC and Upfront Ventures to scale its drone based atmospheric research and expand low cost freshwater production across the drought-stricken American West.
Rainmaker Technology Corporation (El Segundo, California) closed a $100 million Series B funding round backed by NOA VC, Upfront Ventures, DCVC, Lowercarbon Capital, and Dream Ventures, among other investors. Founder and CEO Augustus Doricko framed the capital as accelerating the company’s ability to “make Earth more habitable” by mitigating extreme weather impacts, primarily through large scale production of new freshwater via modernized cloud seeding.
What is Rainmaker?
Rainmaker, founded in 2023, develops next generation cloud seeding systems that use weather resistant unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs/drones named Elijah), advanced radar (including proprietary systems and integration with NEXRAD/GOES satellite data), forecasting/nowcasting platforms (Stratus), and validation tools. The core process is glaciogenic seeding: drones release small amounts of silver iodide (or related ice-nucleating particles) into suitable supercooled liquid water clouds, prompting ice crystal formation that grows and falls as rain or snow.
Key differentiators include:
- Proprietary, high altitude, icing resistant drones designed and manufactured in the U.S., capable of operations up to ~15,000 feet with sensor suites and aerosol dispersal systems.
- Quantitative validation via radar “seeding signatures” (distinct patterns linking precipitation directly to flights) and satellite imagery, addressing the historical challenge of proving incremental precipitation beyond natural variability.
- An embedded atmospheric research organization focused on targeting optimal clouds, material dosing, precipitation placement for watershed benefit, and longer term atmospheric science.
Earlier operations (primarily in Oregon, Utah, Idaho, California, Colorado, and a summer R&D campaign near Homer, Alaska) produced more than 145 million verified gallons of precipitation over roughly four months, based on 82 unambiguous seeding signatures, equivalent to the annual water use of nearly 1,800 American households. A single Alaska operation generated approximately 19 million gallons in about three hours. The company also reported cavum (“hole punch”) cloud signatures linked to operations, visible from the ground and space, indicating efficient glaciation.
Rainmaker positions its approach as far more scalable and cost effective than alternatives like desalination or water transfers, claiming internal cost per acre-foot declines rapidly with volume due to economies of scale, higher asset utilization, and improving unit economics. By the November 2026–April 2027 season, it expects costs to undercut most incremental water sources (including desalination and agricultural fallowing) in the Colorado River Basin, with further declines anticipated through autonomy and parallel drone teams.
How will Rainmaker use the funds?
Proceeds will primarily expand the research organization, hiring atmospheric scientists, chemists/aerosol researchers, radar/satellite specialists, meteorologists, and materials scientists, to create a “flywheel” of data collection, modeling, understanding, and intervention. Additional priorities include supporting national laboratory research, funding university weather modification work, scaling commercial operations across the American West (and eventually globally), and driving down per-unit water production costs.
Doricko describes water as the “first wedge” toward broader “terraforming” of Earth, intentionally relieving physical constraints on productive, verdant land. Longer term ambitions extend beyond precipitation enhancement to other biomic limits (e.g., hail mitigation, soil improvement) using advanced sensors, materials, autonomous platforms, and high fidelity atmospheric models. The company aspires to become a leading “Weather Prime” entity capable of continuous, scalable weather understanding and modification.
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Prior rounds include a seed of approximately $6.3 million (around 2023–2024, with investors such as 1517 Fund, Long Journey Ventures, Starship Ventures, and angels including Garry Tan and Balaji Srinivasan) and a Series A of about $25 million in May 2025 (led by Lowercarbon Capital, with participation from Starship Ventures, Long Journey Ventures, 1517 Fund, Naval Ravikant, and others). PitchBook data indicates total capital raised reaching roughly $150 million after the Series B (with some variance across databases on intermediate amounts). The company reports around 120 employees and is generating revenue through contracts with Western states, municipal water authorities, and other entities.
The $100 million Series B ranks in the upper percentile of U.S. energy sector Series B rounds historically, reflecting strong investor interest in climate resilient water solutions amid severe Western drought conditions (notably low 2025–2026 snowpack and critically low Colorado River reservoirs).
Water scarcity is a binding constraint for agriculture, ecosystems, communities, industry, and hydroelectric power across the American West and globally. Projections cited by the company include substantial unmet water demand by 2030 and significant GDP exposure to high water risk areas by 2050. Cloud seeding has decades of operational history but faced persistent skepticism over measurable efficacy; Rainmaker’s radar validated results represent a claimed private sector breakthrough in attribution and quantification.
The capital infusion positions the company to accelerate from validated R&D and early commercial deployments toward higher volume production, research leadership, and cost leadership in incremental freshwater supply. Success would depend on continued scientific validation at larger scales, regulatory acceptance, operational reliability in varied conditions, and realization of the projected cost curves. The round underscores growing venture appetite for hard-tech approaches to climate adaptation focused on abundance rather than solely demand management or conservation.
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