Collide, the GenAI Platform for the energy sector, today announced the closing of its $5 million seed round, led by Mercury Fund, with participation from Bryan Sheffield, Billy Quinn, and David Albin, as well as a number of other oil and gas leaders. The new funding will enable Collide to further enhance and accelerate the development of its GenAI-powered platform and strategically expand its engineering and technical teams.

Founded by oil and gas industry veterans, Collide was built to be the knowledge hub for the next generation of energy professionals. Initially designed as a professional network and digital community for technical discussions and knowledge sharing, Collide has now shifted its focus to the rollout of its enterprise-level AI-enabled solution. By integrating retrieval augmented generation (RAG) and advanced large language models (LLMs) with a specialized knowledge base, Collide's AI-native platform retrieves and synthesizes data from authoritative sources to deliver accurate, cited, and energy-focused insights to oil and gas professionals.

"The world’s greatest challenge today is an energy crisis, and we’re excited to have a partner in Mercury Fund that understands our vision and supports us as we work to empower energy professionals with the community and technology needed to power the world,” said Collin McLelland, Co-Founder and CEO of Collide.

“Co-founders Collin McLelland and Chuck Yates bring a unique understanding of the oil and gas industry. Their backgrounds, combined with Collide's proprietary knowledge base, create a significant and strategic moat for the platform," said Blair Garrou, Managing Partner at Mercury. “Collide’s vertical AI approach is uniquely designed to tackle the complex challenges of the energy sector, delivering solutions that are more precise and impactful than those offered by general-purpose GenAI tools. This is exactly the kind of company Mercury seeks to partner with to drive transformative, industry-specific change."

Collide also counts a leading slate of oil and gas executives and firms as investors including Embry Canterbury, Gene Shepherd, Dan Pickering, Steven Cobb, Trey Yates, and Arbo Ventures.

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