Orca Sciences is a pioneering research and development organization based in Seattle, Washington, focused on advancing breakthroughs in energy and materials to address pressing climate challenges. Founded in 2021 as a climate tech incubator, it brings together top technologists, scientists, and entrepreneurs to explore “around-the-corner” ideas that could reshape industries.

By incubating innovative projects and spinning them out into independent companies, Orca Sciences aims to accelerate the transition to sustainable technologies, with a portfolio that includes solutions for clean energy production, eco-friendly food alternatives, and aviation emissions reduction.

Quick Pointers About Orca Sciences

• Founding and Mission: Established in 2021 in Seattle, Washington, by Ian McKay, Orca Sciences is a climate tech incubator dedicated to advancing breakthroughs in energy and materials to combat climate change through innovative R&D and spinouts.
• Backing and Leadership: Supported by influential investors like Bill Gates, it convenes top scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs to develop “around-the-corner” technologies for sustainable industries.
• Key Focus Areas: Emphasizes transforming energy into advanced materials, clean fuels, food alternatives, and emissions reductions, with a goal of making eco-friendly solutions cost-competitive and scalable.
• Spinouts Portfolio: Has launched six major companies: Lydian (2021, e-fuels from CO2), Contrails (2021, aviation contrail avoidance software), Savor (2022, synthetic fats from CO2), Peregrine Hydrogen (2023, clean hydrogen co-production), and upcoming two others in 2025 i.e. Light Materials (precision parts from hard materials) and Standard Thermal (geothermal process heat).
• Team and Growth: Employs 11-50 people, fostering a collaborative environment for high-impact projects, with ongoing research in areas like diode lasers, radiation tech, and direct energy-to-food conversions.
• Impact and Vision: Aims to decarbonize sectors like aviation, agriculture, and manufacturing, envisioning a future where innovations outcompete fossil fuels and minimize resource use globally.

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History with Timeline

Orca Sciences has a relatively short but impactful history, emerging as a key player in climate technology incubation. Below is a timeline of its major developments:

• 2021: Orca Sciences is founded in Seattle, WA, by Ian McKay, a Stanford-educated energy expert, with a focus on convening technologists for R&D in energy and materials. The company is backed by initiatives like those from Bill Gates, positioning it as part of broader efforts in sustainable innovation.
• 2022: Launches its first major spinout, Savor, targeting chemical production of fats without traditional agriculture.
• 2023: Spins out Peregrine Hydrogen in June, a startup developing co-production technology for clean hydrogen and chemicals, which quickly raises $7.8 million in seed funding. Around this time, Contrails.org was also launched to address aviation’s climate impact through contrail management.
• 2024–2025: Continues publishing insights on topics like food without agriculture, clean energy scaling, and advanced radiation applications, while growing its team to 11-50 employees and exploring new project ideas.

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Innovative Products and Technologies

Orca Sciences doesn’t produce traditional consumer products but instead develops cutting-edge technologies through its R&D efforts, often spinning them out as independent entities. These spinouts represent the tangible outcomes of its work, each addressing critical sustainability challenges.

Light Materials

Light Materials, launched in 2025, focuses on fabricating precision parts from the world’s hardest materials using innovative, energy-efficient methods. This project embodies Orca Sciences’ vision of transforming energy into advanced materials, enabling quick and cost-effective production of ultra-performant components. By leveraging techniques like beam-based fabrication, Light Materials aims to revolutionize manufacturing in sectors requiring high-strength, lightweight parts, such as aerospace and electronics, while minimizing environmental impact through reduced material waste and energy use.

Standard Thermal

Standard Thermal, also launched in 2025, provides reliable geothermal solutions for process heat in industrial applications. Led by CEO Austin Vernon, the company utilizes an inexpensive heat battery made from dirt combined with on-site solar PV arrays to deliver low-cost, emissions-free heat. This approach addresses the need for consistent, high-temperature heat in manufacturing and other sectors, offering a scalable alternative to fossil fuel-based systems. By harnessing geothermal energy and thermal storage, Standard Thermal aims to decarbonize industrial processes, reducing operational costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

Peregrine Hydrogen

Peregrine Hydrogen, spun out from Orca Sciences in June 2023, is revolutionizing clean hydrogen production with a novel electrolyzer technology that co-produces zero-carbon hydrogen alongside valuable commodity chemicals, such as fertilizers. This dual-output approach eliminates the “green premium” typically associated with sustainable hydrogen, making it cost-competitive with fossil fuel-based alternatives. By leveraging electrolysis to generate hydrogen without additional carbon emissions, Peregrine aims to decarbonize industries like energy and agriculture. The startup, now based in Santa Cruz, California, secured $7.8 million in seed funding shortly after launch, highlighting strong investor confidence in its potential to scale globally.

Savor

Savor, launched in 2022, represents Orca Sciences’ foray into sustainable food technology by creating real fats and oils chemically from carbon sources like CO2, without relying on animals, farmland, or traditional agriculture. This process produces triglycerides from alkanes, enabling products like butter or palm oil equivalents with near-zero land and water use, hormones, or antibiotics. Co-founded by Ian McKay and led by CEO Kathleen Alexander, Savor’s innovations promise to reduce the environmental footprint of food production, addressing issues like deforestation and methane emissions from livestock. The technology draws from energy-to-matter conversion principles, positioning Savor as a leader in “food without agriculture” and appealing to eco-conscious consumers and industries. Read more about it here.

Contrails

Contrails, launched in 2021, focuses on mitigating aviation’s climate impact by developing systems to predict and avoid contrail formation, which are those high-altitude ice clouds from jet exhaust that contribute significantly to global warming. Formed under Ian McKay’s leadership, the initiative advances scientific research and builds management tools for airlines to reroute flights and reduce contrail-induced warming, which accounts for about half of aviation’s total climate effects. By integrating data on weather, flight paths, and emissions, Contrails offers practical solutions that could cut aviation-related warming by over 65% with minimal operational changes, making it a surprisingly effective and low-cost climate intervention.

Lydian

Lydian, another early spinout from 2021, develops an electrified reverse water-gas shift (RWGS) reactor to produce critical fuels and chemicals from CO2. This simple yet innovative scheme enables low-cost conversion of carbon dioxide into syngas (CO and H2), which can be used to create e-fuels like sustainable aviation fuel. Backed by investors such as Congruent Ventures and Galvanize Climate Solutions, Lydian aims to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors like aviation and chemicals by making e-fuels economically viable. Founded by Branko Zugic, who served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Orca Sciences, the technology leverages cheap renewable electricity to drive the RWGS process, potentially transforming CO2 from a waste product into a valuable resource.

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Future Aspects and Goals

Looking ahead, Orca Sciences is poised to expand its influence in the energy and materials sectors by continuing to incubate high-impact projects. The organization aims to launch additional spinouts, leveraging recent advancements in areas like diode laser applications for chemical industries, scalable clean energy technologies, direct energy-to-food conversions, and materials fabrication from energy. With a focus on reducing complexity and costs in sustainability solutions, future goals include fostering innovations that “delete everything” in terms of expensive materials and achieve massive scale to outcompete fossil fuels.

Backed by visionary investors, Orca Sciences envisions a world where energy powers advanced materials and food systems, ultimately driving down global emissions and resource use while inviting more scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs to join its mission.

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