Mojave raises $19M to scale its humidity-first HVAC systems

Why it matters

Mojave is using its Series B to test whether a specialized HVAC design can scale beyond engineering and into repeatable factory output. The Form D's nearly $25M sold figure includes converted securities, so it should not be mistaken for $25M of new cash.

Phil Farese built Mojave Energy Systems around a problem conventional air conditioning tends to treat as an afterthought: humidity. On September 23rd, the Sunnyvale climate-hardware company announced a $19 million Series B to expand sales and manufacturing of its commercial HVAC systems. A same-day SEC filing records nearly $25 million sold in a securities offering, but Mojave says that figure includes previously issued convertible securities that converted into preferred stock. The filing does not establish that Mojave raised $25 million in new cash.

Farese's path to the company runs through physics, energy analysis and HVAC engineering. He earned degrees in physics and mathematics at Cornell and a physics doctorate at UC Santa Barbara, then worked at Princeton, McKinsey, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Advantix Systems, Enphase Energy and Point72, according to Mojave's leadership page. The company grew out of his view that buildings have become harder to dehumidify as ventilation requirements and more efficient appliances reduce heat loads while leaving moisture to be managed. Mojave's bet is that treating temperature and humidity as separate controls can cut the energy penalty.

That thesis has moved from a product announcement to a manufacturing test. Mojave says it will use the Series B to grow its sales organization, expand production capacity at its Anderson, South Carolina facility and develop more products for its ArctiDry platform. The round was led by new investor Fairtree Elevant Ventures, with a significant investment from River Bay Investments. Returning investors At One Ventures, Fifth Wall, Myriad Venture Partners and Starshot Capital also participated, alongside new investors Cleo Capital and MetaTrail, Mojave said in its funding announcement.

What the filing does - and does not - show

The Form D filed with the SEC lists a $27,271,728 offering amount, $24,976,722 sold and $2,295,006 remaining. The filing reports 12 investors; Mojave's announcement names eight participants. The filing gives May 8th, 2026 as the first-sale date. Its clarification says both the offering amount and amount sold include the value of previously issued convertible securities converted into preferred stock.

That accounting detail changes how the headline figure should be read. Mojave announced a $19 million Series B; the Form D reports a larger amount sold under the offering, but it does not break out the dollars of new cash from converted securities. The $27.27 million figure is the offering amount, not a statement that Mojave received that sum. Treating the nearly $25 million sold as fresh Series B proceeds would overstate what the filing proves.

The financing also arrives against a longer funding history. Mojave announced a $12.5 million seed round in September 2023, co-led by At One Ventures and Fifth Wall, with Xerox Ventures participating. In December 2024, it announced a $9.5 million Series A led by Fifth Wall and At One Ventures, and said total funding had reached $25.6 million at the time. Those public announcements help explain the company's prior financing, but they cannot be added mechanically to the 2026 Form D: the SEC filing expressly includes converted securities, and its totals are not a clean measure of cumulative cash raised.

From humidity thesis to factory output

Mojave's ArctiDry systems use liquid desiccant to remove moisture from air, alongside cooling equipment that controls temperature. The company's newer ArctiDry Hydro product is designed to work with existing chilled-water systems and, according to Mojave, can deliver supply air at dew points as low as 25 degrees Fahrenheit. That configuration gives the company another route into buildings that already have central chilled-water equipment. Mojave says its systems have logged more than 300,000 field hours.

Mojave says its products use 25% to 50% less energy than conventional HVAC systems and that typical customer payback is under 18 months. Those remain company-reported performance claims; the funding announcement gives a higher range of 30% to 60%, also attributed to customers. The comparison depends on the equipment and operating conditions used as the baseline, so the percentages should not be read as an independently verified result across all installations.

Farese's original commercial challenge was to make a less familiar dehumidification technology work as equipment building operators can install and maintain. The company now has to prove it can turn that engineering distinction into repeatable production and sales. Its manufacturing base in South Carolina makes factory capacity part of the funding story, while the expanding product line is meant to reach buildings with different existing systems and moisture-control needs.

Mojave's filing provides a precise snapshot of securities sold, not a valuation, revenue figure or customer count. The company did not disclose a valuation in its funding announcement. For Farese, the $19 million Series B is the stated growth capital for building sales and production; the larger Form D totals show how the securities offering is structured, with converted instruments included in the count.