# Astera Institute

> Astera Institute is a VC fund in Berkeley backing Energy and Farming. See 6 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Berkeley, United States
- Total investments: 6
- Last investment: Dec 2025
- Lead investor: 50%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/astera-institute
- Website: https://astera.org

Astera Institute is an investment firm that supports science and technology projects.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Astera Institute. Shizune tracks 1 team members at Astera Institute. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/astera-institute?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Energy | 1 | 17% |
| Farming | 1 | 17% |
| Nuclear | 1 | 17% |
| Aerospace | 1 | 17% |
| CleanTech | 1 | 17% |

15 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series A | 2 | 33% |
| Series B | 1 | 17% |
| Series C | 1 | 17% |
| Series E | 1 | 17% |
| Secondary Market | 1 | 17% |

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Jed McCaleb | Founder | 7 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jed-mccaleb |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Last Energy | Last Energy develops and delivers micro modular nuclear power plants designed to provide decarbonized, reliable energy through a full-service delivery model that spans design, construction, and operations. The company offers factory-produced modular plants, like its 20 MWe PWR-20 units, that can be deployed rapidly to serve energy-intensiveindustrial customers and utilities with baseload electricity and heat. Its services include long-term power purchase agreements that eliminate upfront capital for customers while enabling flexible siting and minimal resource requirements. Last Energy’s solutions support both behind-the-meter applications for industries and grid-scale energy projects for broader power delivery. The company integrates established reactor technology with its delivery process to help clients access consistent, carbon-free energy. | $100M | Series C | Dec 16, 2025 |  |
| Imbue | We want machines that learn the way humans do.Our mission is to build human-like general intelligence and make it safely accessible in order to foster a more abundant, equitable, and unconstrained society.We take a first-principles approach, starting from simple self-supervised architectures and evolving them to tackle human developmentalmilestones of increasing complexity. | $200M | Series B | Sep 07, 2023 |  |
| Imbue | We want machines that learn the way humans do.Our mission is to build human-like general intelligence and make it safely accessible in order to foster a more abundant, equitable, and unconstrained society.We take a first-principles approach, starting from simple self-supervised architectures and evolving them to tackle human developmentalmilestones of increasing complexity. | $20M | Series A | Oct 20, 2022 |  |
| Terviva | Formed in 2010, Terviva is a food and agriculture company that delivers tasty and nourishing plant-based food ingredients from the pongamia tree. We provide patented high-yielding trees and offer proprietary bean processing to create the world's most sustainable oil and protein food ingredients. Pongamia trees restore farmland to productiveuse, helping farmers feed people while taking care of the planet. | $60.8M | Series E | Jul 19, 2021 |  |
| Firefly Aerospace | Firefly was created for one simple reason: provide low-cost, high-performance space launch capability for the under-served small satellite market, where secondary-payload launches are often the only option. The technologies employed in their state-of-the-art rockets provide a clear pathway for future incremental improvements in vehicle capability.Later vehicles will also have reusable elements and employ air-breathing propulsion.Small satellites are playing an increasingly significant role in space. Smaller, lighter, and cheaper satellite technologies have led to functional systems that are a fraction of the size of their predecessors. Meanwhile, constellations of small satellites are showing promise for replacing larger custom-built systems, thus providing redundancy and the ability to regularly refresh system technology. Lastly, many advanced technologies languish at middle TRL levels. Low-cost rides to space will allow these technologies to be proven and advance their collective space-flight capabilities.Firefly Aerospace was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Cedar Park, Texas, United States. | $100M | Secondary Market | May 04, 2021 |  |
| Firefly Aerospace | Firefly was created for one simple reason: provide low-cost, high-performance space launch capability for the under-served small satellite market, where secondary-payload launches are often the only option. The technologies employed in their state-of-the-art rockets provide a clear pathway for future incremental improvements in vehicle capability.Later vehicles will also have reusable elements and employ air-breathing propulsion.Small satellites are playing an increasingly significant role in space. Smaller, lighter, and cheaper satellite technologies have led to functional systems that are a fraction of the size of their predecessors. Meanwhile, constellations of small satellites are showing promise for replacing larger custom-built systems, thus providing redundancy and the ability to regularly refresh system technology. Lastly, many advanced technologies languish at middle TRL levels. Low-cost rides to space will allow these technologies to be proven and advance their collective space-flight capabilities.Firefly Aerospace was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Cedar Park, Texas, United States. | $75M | Series A | May 04, 2021 |  |

6 of 6 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- Canon Ball — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- DADA Holdings — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- Raven Ventures Australia — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- SMS Capital Management — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [XBTO Group](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/xbto-group) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [AE Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ae-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [General Catalyst](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/general-catalyst-partners) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does Astera Institute invest in?

Astera Institute invests primarily in Energy, Farming and Nuclear startups, most often at Series A and Series B stage. Most of the 6 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact Astera Institute?

Public channels for Astera Institute include LinkedIn and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at Astera Institute?

The team at Astera Institute includes Jed McCaleb (Founder). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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