Participated · Equity · Mar 2025

SkySpecs offers autonomous drone inspections, blade and drivetrain software, and integrated asset-health analytics for the renewable energy industry. The company operates a fleet of autonomous drones and claims the largest blade data repository, having inspected over 270,000 turbines and serving 125 global customers. In 2024 SkySpecs reported its highest-ever number of onshore and offshore drone inspections and launched new autonomous blade-inspection technology for both internal and external inspections. The company has expanded through strategic acquisitions in performance monitoring, condition monitoring, and financial analytics, and is integrating diverse data streams including inspection, SCADA, CMS and financial data. SkySpecs says it will scale further in 2025, accelerating development of cutting-edge technologies and expanding its global impact. The business emphasizes driving predictive maintenance, operational streamlining, and cost savings for owner-operators. SkySpecs offers autonomous drone inspections, AI-based fault detection, and software solutions to help owners monitor and optimize renewable energy assets across the asset lifecycle. The company expanded from blade-inspection services to broader diagnostics and analytics for multiple wind asset components to enable earlier fault detection and prioritized maintenance. SkySpecs said the new funding will accelerate expansion of its software offerings and grow its geographic footprint to increase renewable performance and displace fossil fuel generation. The company closed an $80 million strategic capital raise led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management with participation from a NextEra Energy Resources subsidiary and existing investors. SkySpecs manages approximately 118 gigawatts of renewable assets across more than 30 countries, monitors about 45% of North American wind turbine blades, and has inspected over 300,000 blades. The company employs more than 200 people globally and positions its solutions to extend asset useful life, reduce operating costs, and simplify asset ownership. SkySpecs builds operations and maintenance solutions for the wind energy sector, using AI, machine learning, robotics and software to optimize repair decision-making and proactive planning. Its Horizon asset-management solution enables smart repair planning and supports autonomous wind-turbine inspections. The company offers autonomous inspection services and asset-management functionality intended to improve O&M efficiency. SkySpecs operates in 19 countries across five continents and maintains offices in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Amsterdam, Netherlands. Led by CEO Danny Ellis and CTO Tom Brady, the company plans to expand its team in the United States and Europe and continue developing Horizon’s functionality. SkySpecs is an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based automated infrastructure inspection company that provides a platform to enable customers to make more information-rich decisions about the condition of their energy assets and infrastructure. Co-founded by Danny Ellis and Tom Brady, the company combines robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine-based analytics to advance renewable infrastructure inspection. Its solution enables wind farm owners, ISPs, and OEMs to monitor and track the health of their wind turbines with a 15-minute automated robotic inspection. SkySpecs will use the Series B proceeds to scale international operations and develop inspection software. The company raised $8m in Series B financing led by Statkraft Ventures, with participation from UL Ventures and Capital Midwest and follow-on investments from Venture Investors, Huron River Ventures and other existing investors.

Participated · Series C · Sep 2021

Open Mineral operates an online platform for trading physical metal commodities, using pricing algorithms and a curated marketplace model to connect buyers and sellers. The company reports its platform has registered more than 900 metals and mining companies worldwide and deploys automated blending/smelter material optimization to improve trade efficiency and margins. OM is working with third-party providers to incorporate "green" ESG metrics across sell-side and buy-side activity and says these tools can help lower carbon footprints in the supply chain. The startup positions itself as a digitization force in a largely paper-based $200 billion commodity trading market. Management also emphasizes data and analytics to enable faster, more data-driven trading decisions and greater market transparency. The company plans to use new capital to solidify its physical supply chain merchant activities and further develop its platform capabilities. Open Mineral operates a cloud-based exchange platform that connects buyers and sellers to trade physical commodities, focused on metal concentrates. The platform provides transparent trading and offers services integral to smooth trade execution such as freight, surveying, financing and insurance. The company was founded in 2017 by Boris Eykher (CEO) and Ilya Chernilovskiy (COO) and is based in Zug, Switzerland. In November 2018 Open Mineral raised €4.8m in a Series B funding round. The company intends to use the capital to expand the reach of its platform. Open Mineral operates the Open Mineral Exchange, a digital platform that uses blockchain to bring together sellers and buyers of physical commodities and reduce reliance on intermediaries. The platform digitizes and streamlines the traditionally paper-heavy trading process for base and precious metal raw materials. It currently focuses on zinc, lead, copper, gold and silver concentrate markets and could expand into other concentrates in the future. The company charges a success-based fee that depends on the value/chemical composition of the material and the volume transacted. Open Mineral closed a $2.25 million investment round to support its development and became the first startup to join the Thomson Reuters Incubator in Zug. The company was founded by Boris Eykher and Ilya Chernilovskiy, both formerly at Glencore, and is headquartered in Baar, Switzerland with operations in Beijing, Lima and Moscow.