The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · Mar 2023

Geothermal Engineering Ltd operates the United Downs geothermal site in Cornwall and has developed commercial‑scale lithium extraction from geothermal brine, marking the UK's first such operation. The company's initial lithium production capacity began at 100 tonnes per annum, and GEL plans to scale output to over 18,000 tonnes per annum within the next decade. That target production is projected to supply roughly 250,000 EV batteries annually, or about 65% of the UK's 2024 BEV registrations. United Downs is also notable as the UK's first deep geothermal power plant. GEL has secured UK government DRIVE35 grant funding to accelerate expansion of its lithium extraction operations at United Downs. The articles do not disclose GEL's revenues, prior funding rounds, or the monetary value of the grant.

Led · Series B · Apr 2022

Enervee combines data science, behavioral science, and digital marketing to drive energy-related buying decisions across dozens of consumer product categories. Its Commerce platform, featuring Choice Engine technology and Eco Financing, powers marketplaces for energy-efficient products and simplifies purchases by deducting incentives and offering online financing. The company has partnered with utilities, retailers and governments, bringing its platform to over 40 million households in North America and working with retail partners like Best Buy. Enervee is tapping into the $50 billion U.S. appliances market and is focused on expanding its e-commerce and data platform offerings. The company plans to use new capital to accelerate hiring and build out its shopping experience and team. Enervee positions its product set as a lever to reduce energy consumption and support decarbonization. Enervee operates an energy-smart data and commerce platform that generates an "Enervee Score" by analyzing hundreds of thousands of product offers and regulatory data to compare operating costs and environmental impact. The platform is available on mobile and desktop, integrates with retailers (including Sears, Home Depot and Amazon), and also operates as a white-label marketplace for utilities to scale rebate programs and drive efficient purchases. Enervee is live with PG&E, Eversource and United Illuminating and is launching with another large California utility covering over one million households on July 1st. The company was bootstrapped for its first three and a half years while building its data infrastructure and currently has 14 employees, planning to grow to 30–40 by year end. Planned product expansion includes additional appliance categories such as water heaters, and the company plans trials to begin initial expansion into Europe. Funding will be used to expand the team (especially in its Santa Monica office), broaden product categories and support early European efforts.

Participated · Series B · Jun 2020

Element offers Element AssetHub, a no-code industrial data hub that connects and transforms hundreds of diverse IT/OT sources (including the OSIsoft PI System) to make industrial metadata and data easy to consume in modern analytical applications. Its platform automates data preparation burdens, enabling faster use of industrial data for analytics that improve efficiency, operational performance and workplace safety. Element serves customers across chemical, power, agriculture and oil & gas markets and is expanding enterprise-wide deployments. The company says its industrial customers collectively represent over $500 billion in revenue, $300 billion in fixed assets and 350,000 employees. Element positions AssetHub as a critical link to unlock unusable industrial data and drive intelligent operations in digital plants. The company plans to use the new funding to accelerate performance and broader deployment of its platform for enterprise customers. Element Analytics develops analytics data management and integration software for industrial companies. Its Element Platform creates and maintains dynamic digital twins that integrate data from sensors and engineering and operational systems to enable trustworthy analysis. The platform is used to surface insights such as predicting equipment failure and optimizing operations across oil & gas, chemicals, utilities, mining and manufacturing. Investors in the company include major industrial and industrial-focused venture firms, reflecting strategic interest from the sector. Element plans to use the new funding to invest in software development, market development and operations. Financially, the company announced a $19.5M Series A that brings total equity funding to $22M. Element Analytics builds the Element Platform, a next-generation industrial software analytics platform that automates data readiness for asset-intensive industries. The platform automates mapping of equipment sensor time-series data into asset models and blends it with other operational data to make data explorable and easy to model. That data readiness enables diagnostic and predictive analytics to forecast equipment failures, reduce unscheduled downtime, and improve operational efficiency, safety, and sustainability. Element has strategic partnerships with OSIsoft (leveraging the PI System) and Microsoft (Azure and Cortana Intelligence) to support cloud-based big data and analytics. The company received $7M in seed funding, with the majority from Kleiner Perkins' Green Growth Fund, to commercialize the platform. Element has begun deployments in oil & gas, chemical, transportation and diversified industrial segments and plans to ramp customer engagements and grow in 2017.

Participated · Series C · Oct 2019

SparkCognition develops patented AI, machine-learning, and natural-language technologies that help organizations prevent unexpected downtime, maximize asset performance, set optimal pricing, and guard IT and OT infrastructure from zero-day cyber threats. Its platform is used across oil and gas, renewables, manufacturing, financial services, transportation, and government sectors to analyze data, augment human intelligence, and drive profitable growth. The company partners with large industrial and commercial clients to deliver these capabilities as turnkey solutions. SparkCognition intends to expand both organically and through acquisitions while intensifying sales, marketing, and R&D. Following its latest financing, the company surpassed a $1.4 billion valuation, achieving unicorn status. To date, it has raised approximately $300 million in total capital.

Led · Equity · Aug 2015

Zennor Petroleum is a private E&P company focused on the UK North Sea, headquartered in Guildford. Founded in 2006 and led by Martin Rowe, Rod Crawford and James Henry, the company holds licences including a 100% interest in the Finlaggan gas‑condensate discovery in the Central North Sea. Zennor received an initial $100 million investment from Kerogen Capital to support its activities. Kerogen, via Kerogen Energy Fund II, L.P., and its limited partners may commit up to $400 million over the course of the investment, and will become the majority shareholder alongside Zennor management. The company intends to use proceeds to develop existing assets and to expand its portfolio through new acquisitions, farm‑ins and licensing rounds. The funding materially changes Zennor’s capital position to pursue near‑term development and portfolio growth.