Since retiring from the NFL three years ago, Houston Texans legend J.J. Watt has been exploring a new field—investing.

In 2023, the former defensive end and current CBS Sports football analyst bought a stake in English soccer team Burnley FC. A year later, he invested in the PopUp Bagels chain.

This summer, Watt made what may be his highest-profile investment yet. He contributed to a $1 billion Series D round for Austin-based energy startup Base Power, which has an office in Houston. It’s Watts’ first investment in the energy sector.

“I like companies that solve real problems, and Base is lowering power bills, protecting families, and building the whole thing themselves right here in Texas,” Watt said in a company news release.

“What impressed me wasn’t just how fast they’ve grown,” he adds. “It’s that they’ve already saved Texans millions on their power bills and kept thousands of homes running when the lights went out. That’s why I invested.”

Base Power is building a distributed network of residential batteries that’s designed to strengthen the grid and lower electrical bills. The startup now powers more than 30,000 homes in Texas, including the Houston area, and recently expanded to Illinois.

Base Power’s $1 billion round lifted its valuation to $13 billion. Since being founded in 2023, the startup has raised more than $2.5 billion.

“JJ is a legend in this state, and he earned that as much for how he shows up off the field as for what he did on it,” says Zach Dell, co-founder and CEO of Base Power. "He spent a full day with us asking every hard question he could think of, and then he switched to Base himself. We’re glad to have him partnering with us.”

Zach Dell is the only son of Austin billionaire Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Round Rock-based Dell Technologies. Michael Dell grew up in Bellaire.