Redwood Supplies has lastly discovered a brand new chief monetary officer roughly a yr and a half after its last one departed. He’s a well-known face to the previous Tesla executives working the battery recycling and power storage firm.
On Monday, Redwood Supplies mentioned it has employed former Tesla finance chief Deepak Ahuja as its new CFO. Ahuja joins an government staff that features Tesla’s former CTO (JB Straubel, Redwood’s founder and CEO) and former Tesla powertrain vp Colin Campbell (Redwood’s CTO), amongst quite a few different Tesla expats all through the ranks. Most not too long ago, Ahuja was chief finance and enterprise officer at drone firm Zipline.
However regardless of Ahuja’s a few years working Tesla’s funds, and a sizzling IPO marketplace for something remotely associated to AI information facilities, he tells TechCrunch that it’s “too early” to speak about going public.
“Naturally, an IPO is a possible end result for any non-public firm, and we’ll speak about it when the time is correct,” he mentioned. A part of his warning, he mentioned, was as a result of Redwood Supplies has to this point had no hassle elevating cash from blue-chip traders. The corporate in January closed a $425 million Collection E funding spherical that introduced its complete capital raised to greater than $2 billion and its valuation to over $6 billion. It additionally added Google’s and Nvidia’s enterprise arm to its cap desk.
“Redwood has, I’d say, the crème de la crème of traders already, who do have deep pockets,” Ahuja mentioned. “In the event that they’re excited, they’ll fund. However I additionally anticipate that new traders will see what Redwood is doing, they usually’ll get equally excited, and can need to are available in and make investments and supply us, maybe, good phrases as properly.”
Ahuja’s appointment comes at a pivotal second for Redwood Supplies. The corporate not too long ago misplaced its chief working officer (one other former Tesla exec) to retirement, together with at least three other vice presidents. These executives left amidst a restructuring that affected 10% of its workforce (or round 135 staff), as TechCrunch first reported final month, whereas the corporate shifts assets towards its quickly rising power storage enterprise.
Ahuja advised TechCrunch he’s “excited by very revolutionary expertise options that affect our local weather [and] that handle our power wants,” and he’s stayed shut with Straubel because the pair left Tesla in 2019. In truth, Ahuja advised TechCrunch that he’s a “small investor” in Redwood Supplies.
“In so some ways, it felt like a pure match, when it comes to the power storage enterprise, the recycling enterprise — all of those are such vital wants for our nation and our society that it felt like the suitable place to be,” he mentioned.
There’s an plain quantity of hype round AI, with SpaceX about to go public, OpenAI and Anthropic rumored to be contemplating IPOs, and billions of {dollars} being raised to construct information facilities. Redwood’s power storage enterprise is initially focused at serving to AI information facilities handle their energy hundreds, although Ahuja mentioned he isn’t nervous about getting swept up within the exuberance.
“I believe JB and I each have seen so many cycles of hype and disillusion in our lives that we will be very aware and acutely aware of how we message, how we handle, and the way we develop the corporate,” he mentioned. “We’re coping with {hardware} right here, which, by definition, brings a sure diploma of sanity” in comparison with what’s occurring on the software-focused AI corporations, he added.
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