A look to the future with National Grid Partners' $450m project portfolio

On the heels of a key funding announcement from National Grid Partners (NGP), Yusuf Latief looks into the company's project portfolio in this edition of Smart Energy’s Power Playbook.

Two weeks ago, an announcement caught my eye from Silicon Valley’s National Grid Partners.

The corporate venture capital arm of one of the world’s largest utilities listed three new project investments totalling $17 million for climate tech and net zero innovation.

The sum brought NGP investments since launching in 2018 to 50, spread across a wide range of sectors, from AI-powered software and hardware solutions to EV charging systems and clean hydrogen technology.

When announced six years ago, National Grid Group said the purpose of their venture arm was to ‘disrupt itself’ and advance the energy systems of tomorrow. To do so, the company was charged with the duties of incubating and investing in startups at the intersection of energy and emerging tech, launching new businesses from scratch and ‘infusing an entrepreneurial culture into National Grid’.

So, where is NGP putting its money and how has their portfolio developed?

Let’s start with the latest.

NGP’s investments in Q1 2024 saw $17 million in investments spread across three accounts. These new projects include:

• Captura

Based in Pasadena, California, and born out of the California Institute of Technology, Captura is developing large-scale direct ocean carbon capture technology, running off of two ingredients: seawater and renewable energy.

• Luminance

Based in London, UK, Luminance develops legal AI systems that streamline negotiation and analysis of contracts and other legal documents that they state are critical to swiftly developing clean energy and smart grid assets.

• Transcend

Transcend, based in Princeton, New Jersey, is developing a generative design SaaS platform that fully automates the preliminary engineering of innovative and sustainable critical infrastructure, including water and wastewater assets, electrical substations and more.

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Investments with an energy sector focus

With their successful investments, Captura, Luminance and Transcend join a portfolio of 50 companies across industries.

Other notable recent funding announcements have included Exodigo, an AI-powered underground mapping startup with offices in California and Tel Aviv, that recently closed a $105 million Series A, as well as AiDash, which recently raised $50 million to make critical infrastructure more climate resistant.

Additionally, in the energy sector specifically, NGP has poured financing into a variety of companies that are directly working to enhance energy systems.

The following 12 companies are of particular interest:

• AutoGrid, which was acquitted by Schneider Electric, making use of AI, machine learning, big data and high-performance network optimisation algorithms to predict and optimise supply and demand patterns across large networks of connected DERs in real time.
• Copper Labs, which has developed wireless energy management solution, helping utilities take control of energy demand by engaging consumers with real-time meter data.
• CopperLeaf, a next generation asset management planning and decision analytics system designed for utilities and other asset-intensive companies.
• ev.energy, which incentivises EV drivers to charge at optimal times based on energy price and emissions.
• Energy Impact Partners, a strategic utility technology fund formed by industry players with more than 100 years’ experience.
• Leap, a marketplace for distributed energy resources that enables a more effective monetization of grid services.
• LineVision, a leading provider of non-contact overhead power line sensor solutions to monitor, optimise and protect critical energy delivery infrastructure.
• Modern Hydrogen, which has developed a system to decarbonise natural gas and biogas to produce clean hydrogen onsite, removing the carbon before it can be become CO2.
• TS Conductor, whose technology replaces legacy materials in high-voltage electricity transmission lines with a next-generation conductor that doubles the lines’ capacity without the need to retrofit towers or other infrastructure.
• Tomorrow, a weather forecasting company, aiming to provide by-the-minute demand response for the smart grid for business optimization as well as asset-specific outage forecasts for storm response
• Urbint, which empowers utilities and infrastructure operators to make communities safer and more resilient with AI, helping to quantify the tradeoffs between safety, reliability, and affordability.
• Viridi, an energy storage company that touts their design as the only one in the market that can be safely installed and operated in nearly any environment or location and is rugged enough to withstand the harshest elements.

A long list and more to come

Six years since launching, NGP has grown into a major tech incubator, funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into innovation focused on hitting our net-zero targets.

"NGP goes beyond investment to help innovators navigate the complicated, highly regulated world of utilities to decarbonize our society at the scale and speed we need," said Steve Smith, president of NGP in a release, commenting on their $450 million milestone.

"Climate change is the challenge of our generation, and these milestones mark notable progress advancing the innovators who can help National Grid (and other utilities through our NextGrid Alliance) meet critical environmental and financial goals." 

The above list of investments is not exhaustive. The full list of hitters in their portfolio includes a number working on the periphery, from enhancing cybersecurity systems to developing tools for insurers.

Which projects have caught your eye and what has been your experience in cleantech financing.

Reach out and let me know.

Cheers,
Yusuf Latief
Content Producer
Smart Energy International

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