‘It’s too early to talk about an IPO,’ says Redwood Materials’ incoming CFO

Redwood Materials has finally found a new chief financial officer, about a year and a half after the last one left. He is a familiar face to former Tesla executives who run battery recycling and energy storage companies.

Redwood Materials announced Monday that it has hired former Tesla finance chief Deepak Ahuja as its new CFO. Mr. Ahuja joins a management team that includes a number of Tesla expatriates, including former Tesla CTO (J.B. Straubel, founder and CEO of Redwood) and former Tesla Vice President of Powertrain Colin Campbell (CTO of Redwood). Mr. Ahuja most recently served as chief financial officer and business director for drone company Zipline.

But despite Ahuja’s years of running Tesla’s finances and the hot IPO market for anything remotely related to AI data centers, he told TechCrunch that it’s “too early” to talk about going public.

“Obviously, an IPO is a possible outcome for any private company, and we will discuss it when the time is right,” he said. He said part of the caution was that Redwood Materials had previously had no problems raising capital from blue-chip investors. The company closed a $425 million Series E funding round in January, bringing its total raised to more than $2 billion and valuation to more than $6 billion. It also added the venture arms of Google and Nvidia to its cap table.

“Redwood already has top-tier investors, and I would say they have deep pockets,” Ahuja said. “If they’re excited, they’ll provide the money. But I think new investors will see what Redwood is doing and be just as excited and want to come in and invest and maybe offer just as good terms.”

Mr. Ahuja’s appointment comes at a pivotal time for Redwood Materials. The company recently lost at least three other vice presidents with the departure of its chief operating officer (another former Tesla executive). As TechCrunch first reported last month, those executives are leaving amid a restructuring affecting 10% of the company’s workforce (about 135 employees) as the company shifts resources to its fast-growing energy storage business.

Ahuja told TechCrunch that he’s “excited about these highly innovative technology solutions that have an impact on the climate.” [and] In fact, Ahuja told TechCrunch that he is a “small investor” in Redwood Materials.

“It felt like a natural fit in many ways, including the energy storage business and the recycling business. These are all very important needs for our country and society, and we felt this was the perfect place,” he said.

With SpaceX on the verge of going public, OpenAI and Anthropic rumored to be considering IPOs, and billions of dollars raised to build data centers, the hype around AI is undeniable. Redwood’s energy storage business is initially aimed at helping AI data centers manage power loads, but Ahuja said he’s not worried about getting caught up in the hype.

“I think both JB and I have seen cycles of hype and disillusionment many times in our lives, so we’re going to be very careful and conscious about how we send our messages, how we manage, and how we grow the company,” he said. “We’re dealing with hardware here, which by definition brings some sanity compared to what’s happening in software-focused AI companies,” he added.