Baruch Future Ventures joins CorePower Magnetics' $10.6m round

Baruch Future Ventures, the San Francisco firm Tom Baruch describes as his family office, joined Engine Ventures and Material Impact in a $10.6 million round for CorePower Magnetics, the Pittsburgh maker of inductors, transformers and motors, Family Office Hub reported on Sept. 22. Evergreen Climate Innovations and the Carnegie Mellon Catalyst Fund also participated. CorePower's total equity raised now stands at $13.6 million, against roughly $27 million in non-dilutive awards from ARPA-E, the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense since the company's 2020 founding.

What that private capital buys sits low in the electrical stack: CorePower forms proprietary nanocrystalline magnetic materials into components placed at a binding point in the power chain for AI data centers, grid modernization, EV charging and industrial electrification. The company is vertically integrated from raw alloy to finished part, holds ISO 9001 certification and produces in the United States, a point that matters as magnetics supply has concentrated offshore. CorePower reports paid engagements with several Fortune 500 firms and multiple product lines moving toward volume production. Sam Kernion is chief executive, and Paul Ohodnicki, a co-founder, is chief technology officer; the new capital is designated for manufacturing capacity, hiring and commercial scaling from the Energy Innovation Center in the Pittsburgh region.

The check fits a mandate Baruch has run since 2012 across climate restoration, resource scarcity and sustainability; the office's published portfolio runs to 58 companies, including Fervo Energy, KoBold Metals, Relativity Space, Ohmium and Veir. Baruch's earlier record at CMEA Capital, set up in 1989 with New Enterprise Associates and 3M and described by him as the first venture fund to integrate corporate limited partners, spanned $1.2 billion across seven funds.

The structure of the CorePower round may matter as much as the amount. A single-family office took a position in a syndicate led by two institutional venture firms, a familiar shape for family capital in hardware, where long development cycles and capital intensity tend to leave offices as minority participants in rounds someone else prices and leads. Baruch Future Ventures says it backs people first, then business models, then technology, an ordering that sits oddly against a sector where the alloy and the factory usually settle the outcome.

The report does not give the round's valuation, the split among investors, or Baruch Future Ventures' individual commitment. For a company whose stated next tasks are factory capacity and commercial scale-up, those are the numbers to watch.