‘Too early’ to speak IPO, Redwood Supplies’ incoming CFO says

Redwood Supplies has lastly discovered a brand new chief monetary officer roughly a year-and-a-half after its last one departed, and he’s a well-known face to the former Tesla executives operating the battery recycling and power storage firm.

On Monday, Redwood Supplies stated it has employed former Tesla finance chief Deepak Ahuja as its new CFO. Ahuja joins an government crew that features Tesla’s former CTO (JB Straubel, Redwood’s founder and CEO), and former Tesla powertrain vp Colin Campbell (Redwood’s CTO), amongst plenty of different Tesla expats all through the ranks. Most lately, Ahuja was chief finance and enterprise officer at drone firm Zipline.

However regardless of Ahuja’s a few years operating Tesla’s funds, and a sizzling IPO marketplace for something remotely associated to AI knowledge facilities, he tells TechCrunch that it’s “too early” to discuss going public.

“Naturally, an IPO is a possible end result for any non-public firm, and we’ll discuss it when the time is proper,” he stated. A part of his warning, he stated, was as a result of Redwood Supplies has up to now had no hassle elevating cash from blue-chip traders. The corporate in January closed a $425 million Sequence E funding spherical that introduced its whole capital raised to greater than $2 billion, and its valuation to over $6 billion. It additionally added Google 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 stated. “In the event that they’re excited, they’ll fund. However I additionally count on 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 effectively.”

Ahuja’s appointment comes a pivotal second for Redwood Supplies. The corporate lately 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 workers), as TechCrunch first reported final month, whereas the firm shifts sources towards its rapidly-growing power storage enterprise.

Ahuja instructed TechCrunch he is “excited by very modern expertise options that impression our local weather [and] that deal with our power wants,” and that he’s stayed shut with Straubel since the pair left Tesla in 2019. The truth is, Ahuja instructed 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 essential wants for our nation and our society that it felt like the proper place to be,” he stated.

There is an simple 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 knowledge facilities. Redwood’s power storage enterprise is initially focused at serving to AI knowledge facilities handle their energy hundreds, although Ahuja stated he’s not anxious about getting swept up in the exuberance.

“I feel JB and I each have seen so many cycles of hype and disillusion in our lives that we’re going to be very aware and aware of how we message, how we handle, and the way we develop the firm,” he stated. “We’re coping with {hardware} right here, which, by definition, brings a sure diploma of sanity” in contrast to what’s taking place at the software-focused AI firms, he added.