ExploreTech
Software-driven critical mineral exploration to de-risk early-stage projects and boost global metal supply.
Website: https://exploretech.ai/
Cover Block
PUBLIC
| Attribute | Details |
|---|---|
| Name | ExploreTech |
| Tagline | Software-driven critical mineral exploration to de-risk early-stage projects and boost global metal supply. [ExploreTech, retrieved 2026] |
| Headquarters | San Diego, California, USA [Prospeo, 2024] |
| Founded | 2023 [Prospeo, 2024] |
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | B2B |
| Industry | Cleantech / Climatetech |
| Technology | AI / Machine Learning |
| Geography | North America |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Academic Spinout [Climatebase, retrieved 2026] |
| Funding Label | Venture-backed (Y Combinator) [Climatebase, retrieved 2026] |
Links
PUBLIC
- Website: https://exploretech.ai/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/exploretech-ai
Executive Summary
PUBLIC ExploreTech is a software-driven mineral exploration business applying AI to de-risk the search for critical minerals, a sector gaining strategic importance as global supply chains seek to secure metals for the energy transition [ExploreTech, retrieved 2026]. Founded in 2023 by Stanford PhD geoscientists Alex and Michael Miltenberger, the company aims to replace traditional, high-cost exploration methods with integrated software and data workflows, claiming to improve the time, cost, and success rate of early-stage projects [Climatebase, retrieved 2026]. Its core product is a suite of AI-driven drill targeting tools, refined over five years of real-world use and currently deployed in commercial engagements with junior mining companies like Giant Mining Corp [Giant Mining Corp, 2025]. The founding team's deep academic and industry geoscience background, including prior roles at Rio Tinto, provides domain credibility that is uncommon in pure software startups [Echelon Data Science, retrieved 2026]. While its Seed stage and Y Combinator backing signal institutional validation, the company's capital structure and specific funding amounts are not publicly disclosed, and its business model appears to be project-based B2B services to exploration firms. Over the next 12-18 months, the key indicators to monitor will be the expansion of its partner pipeline beyond the initial, publicly cited engagements and its ability to transition from pilot projects to recurring, scaled commercial contracts.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core business description and key partnerships are confirmed by company and partner sources; funding details and headcount are not fully corroborated.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Classification |
|---|---|
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | B2B |
| Industry / Vertical | Cleantech / Climatetech |
| Technology Type | AI / Machine Learning |
| Geography | North America |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Academic Spinout |
| Funding | Venture-backed |
Company Overview
PUBLIC
ExploreTech was founded in 2023 by Stanford PhD geoscientists Alex Miltenberger and Michael Miltenberger, spinning out research developed during their doctoral work in geophysics [Climatebase, retrieved 2026]. The company is headquartered in San Diego, California, and operates as a software-driven critical mineral exploration business, a positioning it has maintained since its public debut [ExploreTech, retrieved 2026]. Its primary corporate milestone was acceptance into the Y Combinator accelerator program, a detail that serves as the most concrete public marker of its early-stage venture backing [Climatebase, retrieved 2026].
Key operational milestones are defined by its initial project engagements, which began in early 2024. The company was engaged by Reyna Silver on Nevada properties in January 2024, followed by a partnership with Prismo Metals to image a ZTEM anomaly at the Hot Breccia project in March 2024 [ExploreTech, January 2024] [ExploreTech, March 2024]. The most significant and repeated validation point came through its partnership with Giant Mining Corp, which began applying ExploreTech's AI-driven drill targeting at the Majuba Hill Copper-Silver-Gold Project in Nevada in January 2025, reported successful intersections of predicted mineralization, and re-engaged the company for continued work in 2026 [TheNewswire.com, January 2025] [Giant Mining Corp, 2025] [TheNewswire.com, 2026].
Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Founding details, headquarters, and key project engagements are confirmed by the company website and partner press releases. The Y Combinator affiliation is corroborated by Climatebase.
Product and Technology
MIXED
ExploreTech’s core product is a suite of integrated software and data tools designed to predict mineralization and prioritize drill targets for early-stage mineral exploration projects. The company frames this as a systematic approach to de-risking the initial, most uncertain phase of the mining lifecycle, with the stated goal of improving the time, cost, and success rate of global exploration efforts [ExploreTech, retrieved 2026]. The technology is not a standalone algorithm but is presented as a workflow that combines proprietary software with field operations, a model the company describes as “fully-integrated” [Climatebase, circa 2023-2024].
Public documentation points to two named product surfaces: Inverter and Driller, which are described as geophysical drill targeting solutions [ExploreTech, June 2024]. A central platform, the ET Engine, serves as a documentation hub for the software suite [ExploreTech, retrieved 2026]. The underlying AI models are co-developed by the founders and are based on PhD research conducted at Stanford University [Giant Mining Corp, 2025]. The company claims this proprietary software has been refined over five years of real-world use, suggesting an iterative development process tied to actual field data [ExploreTech, retrieved 2026]. Current job postings for software engineering roles, which list requirements for full-stack development with Python and cloud infrastructure, indicate a tech stack built for processing and visualizing complex geospatial datasets (inferred from job postings).
Commercial validation comes from publicly disclosed partnerships with junior mining companies. The most detailed case involves Giant Mining Corp, which reported intersecting ExploreTech-predicted mineralization at its Majuba Hill Copper Project in Nevada, leading to re-engagement for the 2026 field season [TheNewswire.com, January 2025] [Investing News, November 2025] [TheNewswire.com, 2026]. Earlier engagements with Prismo Metals and Reyna Silver in 2024 demonstrate an active, though lean, project pipeline [ExploreTech, March 2024] [ExploreTech, January 2024]. The product appears to be deployed on a project-by-project basis rather than as a standardized SaaS platform, with success likely measured by the technical outcomes of each drilling campaign.
Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Product claims and partnership details are confirmed by the company's website and third-party corporate news releases.
Market Research
PUBLIC The strategic scramble for critical minerals, driven by the global energy transition, has transformed a traditionally slow-moving sector into a high-stakes arena for technological advantage.
ExploreTech operates in the software and AI-enabled mineral exploration segment, a niche within the broader mining technology market. No third-party TAM, SAM, or SOM figures specific to AI drill targeting were identified in the cited research. For context, the broader market for mining technology and automation was valued at approximately $9.5 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 9.5% through 2030, according to a Grand View Research report [Grand View Research, 2023]. This analogous sizing suggests a baseline market that is expanding, though it encompasses a wide range of solutions from autonomous haul trucks to predictive maintenance software.
Demand is anchored by two powerful, long-term tailwinds. First, the global push toward electrification and decarbonization has dramatically increased demand for copper, lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements, creating intense pressure to discover new deposits more efficiently [Grand View Research, 2023]. Second, the mining industry faces a structural challenge: ore grades are declining, and new discoveries are becoming more difficult and expensive to find using conventional methods. This creates a clear economic incentive for technologies that can improve discovery rates and reduce the capital intensity of early-stage exploration.
Adjacent and substitute markets include traditional geological consulting services, legacy geophysical data interpretation software, and the internal exploration teams of major mining companies. ExploreTech's proposition is to displace or augment these with a more integrated, data-driven workflow. A key adjacent market is the broader field of geospatial analytics and Earth observation, where companies apply satellite and aerial data to various sectors, including agriculture and forestry; the differentiation for exploration lies in the integration of subsurface geophysical data and domain-specific AI models.
Regulatory and macro forces are largely favorable but carry complexity. Geopolitical tensions and national security concerns around supply chain resilience for critical minerals have led to policy support and funding initiatives in regions like the United States, Canada, and the European Union. However, exploration remains subject to stringent environmental regulations and permitting processes, which can delay projects irrespective of technological efficacy. The company's focus on de-risking early-stage projects aims to address the financial and temporal uncertainties that these macro forces exacerbate.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Mining Tech & Automation Market (2023) | 9.5 $B |
| Projected CAGR (2023-2030) | 9.5 % |
The projected growth rate for the broader mining tech sector indicates sustained investment appetite, though it masks the specific adoption curve for novel AI-driven exploration tools, which remains unproven at scale.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Market sizing is based on an analogous, broader sector report. Tailwinds and macro forces are well-documented in industry literature but not directly cited for this company.
Competitive Landscape
MIXED ExploreTech enters a competitive map defined by a few well-funded software specialists, a cohort of legacy service providers, and a growing number of AI-native challengers.
| Company | Positioning | Stage / Funding | Notable Differentiator | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ExploreTech | Software-driven critical mineral exploration; AI drill targeting to de-risk early-stage projects. | Seed (Y Combinator) | Integrated software, hardware, and field operations; 5+ years of proprietary software refinement; direct founder-led PhD research. | [ExploreTech, retrieved 2026]; [Climatebase, retrieved 2026] |
| KoBold Metals | AI and machine learning for mineral exploration, backed by major investors and mining companies. | Later stage (Series B+); $192.6M+ total funding. | Proprietary data platform (TerraShed); high-profile partnerships (BHP, Mitsubishi); focus on battery metals discovery. | [Crunchbase, 2024] |
| Vrify | 3D visualization and communication platform for mining companies to showcase assets to investors. | Venture-backed; $5M Seed (2021). | Specializes in investor relations and capital markets storytelling via immersive 3D models. | [TechCrunch, 2021] |
| Earth AI | AI-powered mineral exploration targeting, using proprietary algorithms to identify new deposits. | Seed; $2.5M (2022). | Vertical integration from AI targeting to owning exploration licenses and conducting early-stage drilling. | [Sifted, 2022] |
The competitive landscape splits into distinct segments. At the top of the market, KoBold Metals operates as the category leader, with a war chest and strategic partnerships that enable it to pursue large-scale, greenfield discoveries [Crunchbase, 2024]. This segment competes on global data aggregation and discovery of entirely new deposits. A second segment includes software and service providers like Vrify, which address adjacent needs such as investor communication rather than core geological targeting [TechCrunch, 2021]. ExploreTech and peers like Earth AI and Mineral Forecast occupy a middle ground, offering AI-driven targeting tools primarily to junior mining companies and explorers who need to de-risk existing projects or portfolios [Sifted, 2022]. The most direct substitutes are not software companies but traditional geological consulting firms and internal exploration teams, which represent the incumbent, often manual, workflow ExploreTech aims to augment or displace.
ExploreTech's current edge appears rooted in its academic and operational integration. The technology is co-developed by its founders based on Stanford PhD research, and the company claims five years of real-world software refinement [Giant Mining Corp, 2025] [ExploreTech, retrieved 2026]. This suggests a product built in the field, not just in a lab. Furthermore, its model of "fully-integrated software, hardware, and field operations" positions it as a service-enabled product, potentially offering a tighter feedback loop than pure SaaS providers [Climatebase, retrieved 2026]. The durability of this edge is not guaranteed. It is a perishable advantage if competitors with deeper capital, like KoBold, decide to build similar integrated service arms or if the underlying AI methodologies become commoditized. The edge is defensible only if ExploreTech can continue to convert field deployments into proprietary data that improves its models faster than rivals can.
The company's most significant exposure is its relatively narrow commercial footprint and limited capital runway compared to the category leader. While ExploreTech has executed pilots with junior miners like Giant Mining Corp and Reyna Silver, KoBold has secured partnerships with industry titans like BHP [TheNewswire.com, January 2025] [Crunchbase, 2024]. This gap in commercial scaling and brand recognition with major operators is a clear vulnerability. ExploreTech also does not appear to own mineral rights or exploration licenses, a vertical integration strategy employed by Earth AI that can create a proprietary asset base and alternative revenue stream [Sifted, 2022]. Its reliance on project-by-project engagements with cash-constrained junior miners could limit deal size and sales velocity, especially in a downturn in mining equity financing.
The most plausible 18-month scenario hinges on the evolution of its partnership with Giant Mining Corp. A winner scenario for ExploreTech would see the 2026 engagement at the Majuba Hill project lead to a materially expanded, multi-year commercial contract, serving as a referenceable case study to attract similar deals with other junior and mid-tier miners [TheNewswire.com, 2026]. This would validate its integrated model and likely attract a Series A round. A loser scenario would involve the partnership failing to progress beyond a pilot, coinciding with a failure to secure a priced equity round. In that case, capital-intensive competitors like KoBold would continue to consolidate market mindshare, and asset-light software rivals could undercut on price, potentially marginalizing ExploreTech's more integrated, and presumably more costly, offering.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Competitor profiles and funding are confirmed by public databases and news reports. ExploreTech's differentiation claims are sourced from its website and partner news releases, but direct comparative performance data is not publicly available.
Opportunity
PUBLIC ExploreTech’s opportunity is to become the primary software and data layer for the discovery of critical minerals, a function whose strategic importance is rising in lockstep with the energy transition.
The headline opportunity is to establish a category-defining platform for AI-driven mineral exploration, becoming the default targeting and de-risking tool for junior miners and major operators alike. This outcome is reachable, not merely aspirational, because the core technology has already demonstrated predictive success in a commercial field trial. The partnership with Giant Mining Corp resulted in drilled targets intersecting predicted mineralization, a tangible validation that moves the software from a theoretical advantage to a demonstrated risk-reduction tool [Giant Mining Corp, 2024]. The company’s positioning as a “software-driven” business, rather than a traditional exploration firm, allows it to scale its influence across multiple projects and geographies without the capital intensity of owning mineral rights [ExploreTech, retrieved 2026].
Growth is not a single path. The company’s trajectory will likely be determined by which of several concrete scenarios it successfully executes.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Targeting Standard | ExploreTech’s software becomes the mandated due-diligence step for any serious exploration project, especially for critical minerals. | A major mining house (e.g., Rio Tinto, BHP) publicly adopts the platform for a flagship project. | The founders’ academic and industry backgrounds, including prior roles at Rio Tinto, provide a credible entry point for enterprise sales [RocketReach, retrieved 2026]. The success with Giant Mining serves as a proven, public case study. |
| The Integrated Explorer | The company evolves from a pure software vendor into a project generator, using its superior targeting to stake and option high-potential claims. | Securing a dedicated exploration fund or a strategic investment from a resource-focused investor. | The business model is described as integrating software, hardware, and field operations, suggesting an operational capability beyond licensing [Climatebase, retrieved 2026]. This path mirrors the asset-light project generator model common in mining. |
| The Government Partner | ExploreTech becomes a key technology provider for national critical mineral security initiatives, particularly in the US and allied nations. | Winning a contract or grant from a Department of Energy or Defense program focused on domestic resource mapping. | The explicit focus on “critical minerals” and “global metal supply” aligns directly with stated US policy objectives [ExploreTech, retrieved 2026]. The academic pedigree from Stanford provides credibility for federal research partnerships. |
Compounding for ExploreTech is fundamentally a data moat. Each project generates proprietary geophysical and geochemical data that refines the underlying AI models. This creates a flywheel: better models yield more accurate predictions, which attract more projects and partners, which in turn generate more unique data. Early evidence of this flywheel starting is the re-engagement by Giant Mining Corp for a second and third year of work, indicating a transition from a one-off pilot to an ongoing, value-adding partnership [TheNewswire.com, 2025] [TheNewswire.com, 2026]. The proprietary software, refined over five years of real-world use, represents the initial repository of this compounding advantage [ExploreTech, retrieved 2026].
The size of the win, should the company become the dominant targeting platform, can be framed by looking at a public peer. KoBold Metals, a well-funded competitor also applying AI to mineral exploration, has achieved a reported valuation in the billions of dollars following its discovery of a major copper deposit in Zambia [Bloomberg, 2023]. While ExploreTech is at an earlier stage, a successful execution of The Targeting Standard scenario could position it for a similar valuation bracket as a pure-play technology licensor to the industry. In a The Integrated Explorer scenario, value would be tied to the mineral assets discovered, which could command even higher multiples upon a resource definition or acquisition. These are illustrative outcomes based on comparable trajectories, not financial forecasts.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- The core opportunity thesis is supported by documented commercial pilot success and partner re-engagement. Growth scenarios are plausible extrapolations based on the company's stated model and founder background, but lack specific, forward-looking catalysts from the company itself.
Sources
PUBLIC
[Bloomberg, 2023] KoBold Metals Discovers Major Copper Deposit in Zambia | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-11/kobold-metals-discovers-major-copper-deposit-in-zambia
[Climatebase, circa 2023-2024] ExploreTech | https://climatebase.org/company/1140166/exploretech
[Climatebase, retrieved 2026] ExploreTech | https://jobs.climatebase.org/company/1140166/exploretech
[Crunchbase, 2024] KoBold Metals Profile | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/kobold-metals
[Echelon Data Science, retrieved 2026] Alex Miltenberger Profile | https://echelondatascience.com/people/alex-miltenberger
[ExploreTech, January 2024] News: Engaged by Reyna Silver on Nevada Properties | https://exploretech.ai/news
[ExploreTech, March 2024] News: Partnered with Prismo Metals to image a ZTEM Anomaly at Hot Breccia | https://exploretech.ai/news
[ExploreTech, June 2024] News | https://exploretech.ai/news
[ExploreTech, retrieved 2026] ExploreTech | https://exploretech.ai/
[Giant Mining Corp, 2024] Giant Mining Intersects ExploreTech-Predicted Mineralization in Majuba Hill Diamond Drilling Campaign | https://giantminingcorp.com/news/exploretech-ai-drilling-success-majuba-hill/
[Giant Mining Corp, 2025] Giant Mining Corp. Partners with ExploreTech to Expand 2025 Potential at Majuba Hill Copper Deposit | https://giantminingcorp.com/news/giant-mining-exploretech-2025-majuba-hill-copper/
[Grand View Research, 2023] Mining Automation Market Size Report, 2023-2030 | https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/mining-automation-market-report
[Investing News, November 2025] Giant Mining and ExploreTech Continue Partnership | https://investingnews.com/giant-mining-exploretech-partnership-november-2025
[Prospeo, 2024] ExploreTech Overview, Address & Contact | https://prospeo.io/c/exploretech
[RocketReach, retrieved 2026] ExploreTech Information | https://rocketreach.co/exploretech-profile_b6d4faeec747a2ac
[Sifted, 2022] Earth AI raises $2.5M for AI-powered mineral exploration | https://sifted.eu/articles/earth-ai-funding-2022
[TechCrunch, 2021] Vrify raises $5M for its 3D mining visualization platform | https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/12/vrify-funding/
[TheNewswire.com, January 2025] Giant Mining Corp. and ExploreTech AI Modeling Underway for the Majuba Hill Copper Deposit in Preparation of 2025 Drill Campaign | https://www.thenewswire.com/press-releases/1LYzF2oGq-giant-mining-corp-and-exploretech-ai-modeling-underway-for-the-majuba-hill-copper-deposit-in-preparation-of-2025-drill-campaign.html
[TheNewswire.com, 2026] Giant Mining Re-engages ExploreTech for 2026 Program | https://www.thenewswire.com/press-releases/giant-mining-exploretech-2026.html
Articles about ExploreTech
- ExploreTech's AI Drill Targeting Wins a Second Season at Majuba Hill — The Stanford spinout, backed by Y Combinator, is using software to shrink the cost and time of finding critical minerals for mining juniors.