German startup developing electric impulse drilling for geothermal begins market entry

Telura founders Andrew Welling and Philipp Engelkamp (source: Telura)

Carlo Cariaga 9 Mar 2026

Telura, a Munich, Germany-based startup, has exited stealth with the announcement of the closing of a $5 million pre-seed round in Autumn 2025 from Nucleus Capital, Possible Ventures, and First Momentum. With this, the company aims to move forward with the development of an electric impulse drilling technology that could make geothermal deployment faster, more affordable, and scalable.

With the growing demand for reliable baseload power drive by AI, electrification, and geopolitical shocks, Telura aims to develop a technology that helps access deep and high-temperature geothermal resources economically at scale.

“Drilling accounts for up to 70% of the project costs. Many projects are dead before they are even started,” said Telura Co-Founder and CEO Philipp Engelkamp.

The technology being proposed by Telura applies high-voltage electrical pulses to break the rock from within, or as Engelkamp describes it, “destroying rock with lightning.” This fundamentally changes the physics of deep drilling, with claims of enabling up to 10x faster and cheaper access to deep geothermal resources.

“Our technology integrates with existing drilling systems, which sets us up to move fast, with the first market entry in 2026. With close access to world-class technical talent and partners, we’re in a strong position to drive this collaborative innovation forward,” added Engelkamp.

Telura’s Co-Founder and CTO, Andrew Welling, emphasizes that the technology is built on over two decades of research from Germany’s top technical universities and has already demonstrated efficient granite rock breakage. What remains, he adds, is turning that scientific foundation into a system that runs reliably and economically on the field. With the technology having been already demonstrated in lab tests, the company is validating the technology under conditions that closely resemble real-world deployment. This phase is being done in partnership with SPRIND.

With combined experience in sustainable e-fuels and engineering leadership from Rolls Royce and Lilium, this is a challenge that the founders of Telura are uniquely equipped to solve.

“Philipp and Andrew bring the rare combination of relentless execution and technical depth needed to solve deep geothermal’s core engineering challenge at unprecedented speed. Their approach to drilling without mechanical wear will unlock unlimited baseload green energy almost anywhere on Earth, finally taking geothermal from a niche resource to a scalable solution,” said Dr. Maximilian Ochs, Investment Manager at First Momentum.

Source: Email correspondence