Welcome to Founder Spotlight — Meet the founders behind our portfolio. You are receiving this because you have subscribed to our Substack. Upgrade to CC+ for insider access & community or manage your subscription here.
But first: CC Network Fund, CC Syndicate, Climate Angels
→ Back CC Network Fund. Large fund access with micro-fund minimums. In Q2, the fund invested in 18 companies, including Alta & LGND.
→ Back CC Syndicate. SPVs with investment minimums starting at $1k.
→ Join Climate Angels. Sessions w/ top investors, discounted CC Syndicate carry, community & more.
Invest in startups like Magnefy alongside Climate Capital here.
Founders: Joseph Kao, Yutong Zhu
Motto/Mission: Safeguarding tomorrow's power with AI & magnetic sensing
Year Founded: 2024
Stage: Pre-Seed
Location: San Mateo, California, USA
_
Climate Capital: What made you want to solve this problem?
Joseph: My passion for climate and resource efficiency started with my grandmother, who survived the Chinese Civil War by finding ways to reuse every scrap of material to stay alive. Inspired by her resilience, I began volunteering in recycling programs and ultimately pursued materials science to learn how to maximize the potential of every material — both during its lifetime and at end of life.
Throughout my career at Dow, Apple, Facebook, and Carbon 3D, I focused on creating innovative solutions to extend material life and create societal and environmental impact. A turning point came at Apple, where I worked on battery recycling programs. That experience deeply aligned with my mission as a materials scientist and inspired me to attend Stanford GSB to explore how to better utilize existing resources in power infrastructure to build a more resilient, sustainable energy future.
Through extensive market research at Stanford, we were drawn to the critical challenge of improving the resiliency and reliability of our aging transformer fleet — infrastructure that powers daily life, supports AI growth, and drives America’s reindustrialization. We became obsessed with this problem, which perfectly combines my mission-driven focus on materials with cutting-edge technology.
This led us to translate Stanford’s breakthrough high-frequency magnetic sensing and edge AIoT technology into Magnefy, a company dedicated to building a more reliable, sustainable, and impactful power infrastructure for generations to come.
Climate Capital: What are you building?
Joseph and Yutong: We are an edge AI-powered high-frequency magnetic sensing platform enabling predictive monitoring of critical power infrastructure — starting with aging transformers. Our system provides accurate, months-to-years-ahead detection of all major electrical failures, helping utilities and operators avoid costly outages, reduce downtime, improve grid resilience, and extend asset life.
Our solution empowers a more reliable and sustainable energy future by preventing costly power outages and reducing reliance on fossil fuel and diesel backup generators, which operate up to 2% of the time during failures. By extending the life of aging transformers and eventually monitoring switchgear, generators, and inverters, we can help avoid up to 1.3 gigatons of CO₂ emissions by 2040. Our technology not only enhances grid resilience and energy security but also supports the growth of AI data centers and America’s reindustrialization while accelerating the transition to clean energy.
Climate Capital: What is next?
Joseph and Yutong: We have signed 7 LOIs and 2 MOUs/SOWs, and we’re now translating our lab IoT prototype into a commercial edge AIoT prototype for non-invasive predictive monitoring of low- and medium-voltage transformers. Our goal is to roll out the first commercial prototype in September 2025, validate it with transformer OEMs, data center, and IPP partners by the end of the year, complete certifications, and achieve first sales in 2026.
Climate Capital: What are the core elements of the culture you are building at your company?
Joseph and Yutong: Because of our unique combination of engineering, business, and diverse cultural, educational, and professional backgrounds, we have an innovation- and impact-driven mission. We foster a collaborative, communicative, execution-focused, creative, respectful, and inclusive work environment. Most importantly, we believe in having fun and supporting each other so we can truly enjoy the startup journey together.
Climate Capital: What are the key challenges as you scale your company?
Joseph and Yutong: One of our main challenges is the long sales cycle with utilities. To overcome this, we are focused on creatively shaping our go-to-market strategy to validate and advance our product early. We aim to build strong partnerships in the C&I and transformer manufacturing space to establish our sales pipeline, credibility, and reputation. Finding the right channel partners will also be critical to winning our first utility contracts within the next five years.
Climate Capital: What have you learned that you want to share with other founders?
Joseph and Yutong: We’ve learned that being resourceful and deeply listening to customers, experienced mentors, and thought leaders is critical to defining early pre-product market fit and pivoting courageously — a key to success for any high-impact climate startup. In today’s political and economic climate, it’s essential to craft storytelling that aligns with macroeconomic trends, geopolitical dynamics, and your mission to secure the resources needed to jumpstart your venture. Most importantly, finding a supportive community and tapping into both your intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are vital to shaping your vision, staying true to your north star, and driving forward with resilience.
Climate Capital: How can the broader climate community help you on your mission?
Joseph and Yutong: Connections to founders/mentors with experience building high-impact ventures in the grid space and overcoming long sales cycles.
Introductions to like-minded professionals — we’re actively hiring for two key positions.
If you want to learn more, visit https://magnefy.com/!
Did you know? ✨ We featured Magnefy back in June in our premium investor newsletter, CC+. Upgrade to get more insider insights and an early look at promising companies like Magnefy.