I still receive, and read, the daily paper for the Wall Street Journal. While the news can move quickly, the paper version tells you what is more noteworthy on any given day because an editor is making a decision to determine headlines and understand how other stories may relate. The “front page” left runner with the top summaries is an important stream for the big news of the day.

There is also the added benefit of the print/tangible version that annotates notable events. As I wrote two days ago, Nozomi Networks was acquired by Mitsubishi Electric for ~$1BN.

Yesterday’s WSJ had the Nozomi acquisition on the front page highlights, and a big article in the paper itself. A “front page highlight” is a first for me and Energize. The article captures the powerful moment for the ICS industry and shows how industrial controls, visibility and cybersecurity is now a critical technology for the energy and industrial landscape. And now that the article is in a printed version, I can get the article framed- good to enjoy and reward the great outcomes!

M&A marks a milestone, signaling the close of one chapter and the transfer of success from one shareholder base to another with new expectations. It is both an ending and a beginning, reshaping what growth and value mean for the company. Some deals unfold quietly, absorbed without much notice, while others reverberate across industries, forcing competitors and markets to respond. The best deals send thunderous shock waves across industry and create a new standard of excellence for the market.

For many reasons for the industry, for Energize Capital, and for me personally – the Nozomi Networks acquisition announced today by Mitsubishi Electric Co. is a lightning bolt of excitement. This transaction will send positive reverberations for years to come as an example of extreme success at the intersection of software and climate/industrials. While the personal excitement is more a subjective milestone, here are some objective details:

• this is the largest acquisition of an OT/IoT company in history
• this is the largest cybersecurity acquisition by an industrial OEM company
• this is the largest disclosed acquisition by Mitsubishi Electric

Big numbers today… but this team will continue to aim higher within the Mitsubishi Electric framework.

How did we get here?

Juan Muldoon and I first evaluated the OT cybersecurity space back in 2017 and uncovered a rare gem of a team based out of Mendrisio Switzerland that had a product and customer obsession. We led a $15M investment, joined by our friends at Notable Capital, Lux Capital, and Planven. Nozomi Networks and the team are especially personal to me because this was my first investment/ portfolio company at Energize; I’ve been on the board since the investment and have witnessed the highs and lows of company building. Today marks the outcome of hard work and that journey. The best part of the story is the people: the cofounders are some of the kindest in the world. At Energize we say “family first” is our most important ethos. Andrea Carcano and Moreno Carrullo are the cofounders of Nozomi Networks and their quality as people has set a standard that makes it hard for other cofounders to match. The cofounders are 2 parts of a 3-part “three amigos” narrative with the 3rd member being CEO and very early employee, Edgard Capdevielle. Edgard describes himself as teflon- but that is only part of the story. Yes, he was a ruthlessly efficient operator, but he also is a visionary. He saw the opportunity to define a category and use his experience and management skills to create a world-class organization. And, he did just that.

We invested in Nozomi at ~10 employees and around $1M in revenue. Next year the revenue figure will cruise through $100M and the company will be a/the top OT cybersecurity company on the planet.  The industrial technology landscape is not an easy customer base to win over- these are engineers testing the software product at every step… marketing is not enough; product leadership wins. Nozomi’s commercial scale in a tough market is proof that leadership and strong product can crack even the toughest market. And, at the other side of that battle is an amazing outcome.

When Energize joined the investment I quickly gained two friends and mentors in Glenn Solomon from Notable Capital, and Bilal Zuberi from Lux Capital. Both men are legends of the technology landscape and my learnings from them were immeasurable. It’s been a real treat being involved with them here.

I am also posting two important photos: 1 from when I first visited Mendrisio in 2017 and spoke with the (small) Nozomi team- back in 2017. And a second photo from a month ago where the cofounders and I assembled for an identical layout. We look great, just a bit older. The only sad part of this story is that the Energize-Nozomi chapter now ends. But I hope and expect the relationships to find new avenues over the years to come.

 

A few weeks ago, in Mendrisio, we recreated my photo with the first 10 Nozomi employees that I took in 2017. We aged a bit, but it was a great journey. A link to the WSJ article on the transaction is here.

 

 

 

Energize has become a central firm at the intersection of climate (energy, industrials, etc.) and capital light business models (software, services). We now host an annual event in Chicago to bring together stakeholders in each of these verticals and it has grown to a massive success with 250+ attendees across a full day.

2025’s event is this September 17th in Chicago. I will be kicking it off with a keynote and then an interview with Michael Polsky in a fireside chat.   Then we have a mix of panels and free time to enable the group to connect!.

 

The event is invite-only, but you can apply here. Link

I haven’t posted here in a while but we have a bunch going on in Q3/Q4 so I anticipate more notes to share with you all over the coming months. The first one to share is that the Energize Endurance strategy (our growth buyout strategy) is hiring. The strategy is focused on profitable climate companies and we are  looking for at least one Senior Associate to join us. This role will be based in Chicago with a target start date of Q4 2025.

Here are some notes from the team
The opportunity: As part of the Endurance team, you’ll source and evaluate investments, create theses, conduct diligence, and work closely with management teams to drive growth and value creation. This is a chance to work alongside a small, entrepreneurial team investing in the companies shaping the energy transition.

🔗 Apply here: https://lnkd.in/dQM5fzR8

About Endurance: At Energize, we’ve always believed climate solutions deserve specialist investors. Our Endurance strategy is designed to provide that specialist support to climate companies that are achieving their next phase of scale—profitable or nearing profitability, capital-light, and critical to a modernized economy. We back these businesses with flexible capital, operational support, and our Energize EDGE platform to help unlock their next phase of growth.

Learn more about our Endurance strategy: https://lnkd.in/dXg72XgA

In 2020 the entire Energize team fit comfortably in a (maybe) 2,000 square foot space on the 11th floor of One South Wacker Drive. At Energize we have a phrase “we choose to grow, together” and this represents our desire to growth with the climate market opportunity. Alongside this phrase you will usually hear me say “why not us?” At that time we saw the climate market growing and knew that to serve the space with the intention it deserves, we would need to create and build our portfolio services team (EDGE), expand our strategies (adding Growth), and continue to build out the operations team.

Well, almost exactly 3 years after we moved into our 5,000 square foot space on the 11th floor of the same building we just signed an agreement to move to the 23rd floor and take over nearly 11,000 square feet. The expansion was picked up by Chicago Business Journal and through a CBRE press release, found here.

I was surprised at the press’ interest in the expansion, and I thought the questions from the reporters and our network highlighted why this was more than a normal expansion in their eyes.

1- Why grow a climate and industrial technology investment firm in Chicago? I suspect the Energize team will get this into perpetuity- but the market seems to be incredulous to the concept. Chicago is an amazing place to grow a firm, and the city offers a huge talent pool.

2- Commercial real estate is in flux, as is WFH culture. Why commit to an office? The investing business is a people and decisions business. The ability to train shoulder-to-shoulder and learn from the varying experiences of our diverse team is a major competitive advantage you just can’t get over a ZOOM or Teams meeting. We are better together and we’ve committed to 4 days a week in the office. We are also hosting far more people in our office and believe there is power in being a convener.

We have a 2030 plan and a 10-year plan at Energize. We believe the climate & industrial technology market is big enough to deserve and rewards specialists and we will continue to grow to serve this market. I think we will be in the same office by 2030, though!

In September Energize held our 2-day marathon of events: the Energize NEXT Climate Software conference, and our Annual General Meeting. Before the day started at our conference we were able to sneak away for a quick team photo. That photo of the current team is below – and we have another 3 starting before year-end.

Finance firms have many stakeholders: teammates, entrepreneurs/portfolio executives, Limited Partners, co-investors and industry stakeholders. I’ve studied successful and failed finance firms. That research revealed to me the key differentiations between the high performing and enduring firms from those firms that fail. The simple answer is that the performant and enduring firms never stop placing the internal team as the priority. A performing and respectful team naturally identifies and supports investments and entrepreneurs. And ultimately those portfolio companies (with the support of the investors) create shareholder value that accrues to the Limited Partners/investors.

At Energize we have a truly amazing team, purpose built for the market opportunity we are serving in the climate market. We have a driven, respectful investment team that has repeatedly identified market leaders. We have an EDGE team strengthening our investment process and creating and preserving value for our portfolio. We have an operations team that knows our trajectory and is both precise in today’s operations while planning for the future.

Given the pace of change it is hard to stop and acknowledge the changes we’ve faced and overcome as a firm. I’m very excited for our current state, and more excited for what is coming next.

One of the first investments Energize made as a firm was in a European leader, Nozomi Networks. Since then we have deployed nearly 20% of our invested capital into the European ecosystem. While others shy from the market we believe there is tremendous climate and industrial technology innovation emerging. Our persistence – and willingness to take the redeye- has helped us become a staple in the Eurpean market and resulted in such investments as TWAICE (Germany), Monta (Denmark), PVcase (Lithuania), Beekeeper, (Switzerland), and Nozomi Networks(Switzerland). We also have an unannounced deal on the continent.

Today I am excited to announce another addition to the Energize portfolio – and to our leading European investment footprint: Energize is leading a $13M Series B investment in Elum Energy, a cutting-edge energy management solution helping to control, monitor, and analyze renewable energy systems around the globe.

We’ve been investing behind the solar theme for close to a decade and believe the space is still in the early innings. We have leadership positions in solar design and sales (PVcase and Aurora Solar) and are making our first investment into the control systems and monitoring side of the solar business model. Solar is the largest for of new energy generation on our planet and the entire technology stack is being developed today to help grow from GigaWatts to TerraWatts.

I believe Energize is the best partner for any capital light business enabling the energy and climate transition. We only make 4-6 new investments per year so it takes a rare founding team and operating plan to get our attention. I met the Elum team in Paris earlier this year and the product and customer obsession quickly made it clear that we had aligned technology visions. The Energize team is very motivated to grow with the Elum team over the coming years and build the best control system for the largest new energy infrastructure asset class. Eileen Waris and Ana Hugener are representing Energize on this investment; and press and the formal “Why We Invested” for Energize can be found here.

On September 18th Energize is hosting our second annual climate software conference, Energize NEXT. The panelists/ fireside chat speakers as well as the list of now ~200 attendees is an absolutely incredible representation of key stakeholders from our industry. We have leading operators, entrepreneurs, capital providers, capital markets leaders, and industry customers all in attendance. Excitingly, an executive (and likely a/the founder & CEO) from most of Energize’s portfolio will be there, too.

Here is a snap shot of the AM agenda and speaker list. While the content should be great, I tend to find even more value is found from the hallway conversations that occur.

 

A link to the event and application for attendance can be found here. If you are going to be in Chicago and want to attend and read this post, let me know and I will get you put onto the attendance list.

 

I’ve gained a lot of value from posting to this blog over the years. But the story below probably is my favorite example of creativity, content, and the long-term relationship mindset we have at our firm.

On August 30, 2022 I wrote a post here about how a portfolio company was looking to hire a GM for their energy business. An ambitious software entrepreneur with experience in data analytics that was intrigued by the energy landscape cold emailed me in response to my post and came by Energize’s Chicago HQ a few days later. While that specific GM role was not the right fit for him, the visit led to a multi-year engagement with the entrepreneur whereby the Energize team was able to ideate on energy software opportunities and subsequently monitor a stream of innovation and execution.

That entrepreneur was Max Kanter and today Energize is announcing the first institutional investment, an $8M round, into Max’s new company, GridStatus.io. Max is one of those rare entrepreneurs where I have been able to witness the raw combination of talent, curiosity, and execution. Through that combination GridStatus has immediately gained coverage across most major publications (WSJ, NY Times) and quickly become the data team for the energy transition. The Energize blog post “Why We Invested” can be found here and an article about the company & raise on Canary Media. The press release is posted below:

 

Grid Status Raises $8M to Democratize Access to Real-Time Grid Data to Meet Demands of Rapidly Changing Energy Grid 

– Round led by climate investment firm Energize Capital underscores critical need for real-time, accessible data and analytics to accelerate the energy transition 

– Company launches first and only publicly available national real-time wholesale electricity price map; will use funding to scale its rapidly growing teams across engineering, sales and marketing 

CHICAGO, August 21, 2024 — Grid Status, the modern data and analytics platform for the electric grid, today announced an $8M funding round led by Energize Capital. Investors joining the round include Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross (NFDG Ventures), Rayburn Electric Cooperative, Evergreen Climate Innovations and other individual investors. This first round of outside funding will enable Grid Status to scale its team and product to meet the data demands of the rapidly changing energy industry. 

The electric grid is undergoing a major transition as increasing volumes of renewable energy technologies come online and energy demand spikes in key regions. Combined with more challenging operating conditions due to extreme weather events and volatility in wholesale energy markets, the energy industry is in need of a reliable, real-time data platform. Grid Status democratizes access to grid data by offering easy-to-digest insights on current and historical grid activity, including fuel mix, load, locational marginal prices, renewable adoption, and more. With Grid Status, energy professionals can make informed decisions for their business, and everyone can track key energy benchmarks more efficiently. 

“Renewable energy, AI-fueled load growth, electrification, and intensifying weather events are some of the trends making accessible data about the grid more important than ever,” said Max Kanter, CEO of Grid Status. “Our mission is to provide everyone working on a clean and reliable grid convenient access to data they can trust.” 

Since its founding in 2023, Grid Status has rapidly grown to over 10,000 active users across the energy industry who use its data products to understand what’s happening on the electrical grid and in wholesale energy markets.  

“Our energy grid is growing increasingly unstable and complex, and at the same time the volume of data coming from devices with embedded computing has skyrocketed,” said Tyler Lancaster, partner at Energize Capital and a member of the Grid Status board of directors. “As the grid continues to evolve, we’re seeing an increasing number of parties who are interested in grid data – from electric utilities and renewable energy operators to research and cloud computing firms. The convergence of these conditions highlights the need for a modern solution for managing and interpreting data. Grid Status’ open-source, reliable and easy-to-use platform is the data tool for all participants in the next generation of the energy industry.” 

The Grid Status platform collects, standardizes, and analyzes hundreds of energy datasets, enabling users to create dashboards, leverage analytics tools through Grid Status Pro, and gain robust data access via APIs and integration with enterprise data warehouses like Snowflake. Furthering its mission to make critical grid data easily and widely accessible, the company also announced the release of the industry’s first and only publicly available real-time wholesale price map. This map, along with new platform functionalities, will help users understand what’s happening on the grid at a glance. Users can access this map as a standalone app or within various dashboards across the site. 

Grid Status currently has customers across the energy sector, and its users span a majority of renewables developers, energy consulting firms, and ISOs and RTOs in the U.S. It also supports utility operations, demand response aggregators, battery dispatch optimization, trading desks, and innovative startups.   

“Using Grid Status enhances our operational efficiency, enabling us to provide more reliable and responsive energy solutions for our members,” said David A. Naylor, President and CEO of Rayburn Electric Cooperative, a customer of Grid Status. “This innovative platform helps us gain deeper data insights, facilitate seamless data sharing and communication, and improve our ability to analyze and monitor critical information. In addition to being a customer, our investment in Grid Status underscores our commitment to utilizing advanced technology to meet the evolving needs of our members and the broader north Texas community.” 

To learn more about Grid Status, view open positions, and sign up for the Grid Status Pro beta program, please visit gridstatus.io/.  

About Grid Status  

Grid Status is an energy data and analytics company based in Chicago, Il. Founded in 2023, Grid Status provides an open platform to understand what’s happening on the electrical grid. With organized and reliable data, Grid Status empowers the next generation of energy innovators to focus on building new solutions without having to maintain their own complex data pipelines. 

About Energize 

Energize Capital is a leading investor in climate solutions. Founded in 2016 and based in Chicago, Energize seeks to scale sustainable innovation by partnering with the builders and operators shaping the future. To date, Energize has funded 28 companies and deployed more than $500 million through its venture capital and growth equity strategies. Anchored by founding partner Invenergy, the firm is backed by strategic, institutional, and impact LPs including CDPQ, Credit Suisse, GE Vernova, Xcel Energy, Caterpillar, HASI and more. For more information on Energize, please visit www.energizecap.com.