London December 17th, 2019
Global Corporate Venturing (GCV), the research and publishing business servicing the corporate venture capital industry, is delighted to announce the winners of its four energy awards.
Low Carbon CVC Investment of the Year
Digital Energy CVC Investment of the Year
Advanced Mobility CVC Investment of the Year
Advanced Manufacturing CVC Investment of the Year
These awards celebrate the role of corporate venture capital in:
Widening the group of industries participating in the transformation of energy
Extending the geographic reach of new energy-relevant technologies
Accelerating the uptake of new energy technology by large corporations
The winners all raised capital from corporate VCs between July 1st, 2018 and June 30th, 2019. Announcing the awards, GCV’s Founder and Editor-in-Chief James Mawson, said:
“All the winners and nominees are testament to the determination of the world’s largest corporations to participate in the most exciting and, from an environmental point of view, the most important, changes underway in energy. The corporate venture capital investments celebrated by these awards show energy and its adjacent industries getting out of their traditional silos to back the world’s most promising startups.”
GCV’s Energy Awards were curated by Leif Capital, the London-based investment bank that specialises in early and growth stage energy technology. Leif Capital’s CEO and Founder Tom Whitehouse said:
“Never has the energy industry been more vulnerable to disruption but as open to change. The companies winning these awards provide their corporate VC investors with huge potential benefits, including new markets, business models and fundamental insights into how the energy future is rapidly unfolding. Ultimately, the award-winners may even help ensure that the world’s largest energy companies survive and prosper in their own creative destruction.”
The winners are:
1. Low Carbon CVC Investment of the Year
Winner: Calysta
Manufacturing new protein resources by fermenting natural gas will allow Calysta to feed a growing population while minimising environmental damage. As of June 2019, BP joined Cargill and Mitsui as investors in Calysta, which uses BP’s natural gas as its feedstock.
2. Digital Energy CVC Investment of the Year
Winner: LO3 Energy
Decentralised business models are being tested in different industries – so why should energy be any different? LO3 Energy is developing a permissioned blockchain-based data platform to create localised energy marketplaces. With Shell, Sumitomo, Siemens and Centrica backing the company, LO3 is drawing on the right CVC expertise and experience.
3. Advanced Mobility CVC Investment of the Year
Winner: Metawave
In securing CVC backing from Denso, Toyota, Hyundai, Infineon and SAIC, Metawave’s CEO Maha Achour has found capital and expertise from a leading automotive supplier, three top OEMs, and world leader in 5G, from Japan, South Korea and China – three core markets for the future of AV technology.
4. Advanced Materials / Manufacturing CVC Investment of the Year
Winner: Markforged
For 3D printing technologies to achieve mass market potential they need to embed themselves in cloud-based distributed manufacturing systems that are trusted by end users as reliable and ‘everyday’, not ‘experimental’ and ‘part-time’. In securing backing from the venture units of Microsoft, Siemens and Porsche, Marketforged has assembled an investment team that grasps this reality.
For more detail on the companies and their corporate VC backers, please download GCV’s most recent energy report: Corporate venture capital and the creative destruction of energy.
For further comment, please contact:
GCV’s James Mawson jmawson@globalcorporateventuring.com
Leif Capital’s Tom Whitehouse tom@leifcapital.com