Industrial Tech M&A: Rockwell acquires Plex for $2.2bn

Industrial Tech M&A: Rockwell acquires Plex for $2.2bn

Last winter I covered the industrial firms that best use M&A to infuse digital applications within their growth framework. One of those companies I highlighted was Rockwell. That original deep dive can be found here: Rockwell Automation: Ready, Set, Go. In that post I wrote the following: “Very few firms provide such context on their …

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Consultancy partnerships & Startups

Consultancy partnerships & Startups

Earlier this week one of our portfolio companies, Jupiter Intelligence, announced a strategic relationship with Guidehouse. Guidehouse and Jupiter created a strategic alliance to help utilities quantify climate risk and build resilience. As the energy transition intensifies, energy providers must create and implement integrated plans to address climate resilience. Guidehouse (formerly PWC’s public sector consultancy) …

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Hiring at Energize- Principal, Growth Equity

Hiring at Energize- Principal, Growth Equity

Earlier this year, Energize announced the hiring of Kevin Stevens. Kevin joined us to get our Growth Fund efforts off the ground. To say he has been busy is an understatement. Today we announce the first of a number of hires dedicated to the effort. The job post can be found here. Also, Kevin wrote …

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Electronics as a % of Total Car Cost

Electronics as a % of Total Car Cost

Kevin Stevens tweeted the below about how cars are going digital – and posits how a more digital mean of transport requires investment into more traditional IT themes: data analytics, cybersecurity, etc. Check out the graph below. It will surprise you.

NextGen is Already Here: Team and Acquirors

NextGen is Already Here: Team and Acquirors

Everything about the current state of the energy transition is better. We have better people working on the companies, and making investments. We have better market conditions. We have better acquirors. I am seeing this “better” / next level improvement in our people and market conditions on a weekly basis now. Here are a few …

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My first pre-seed investment

My first pre-seed investment

A few years ago someone wrote a post along these lines: “every VC thinks the investors investing earlier than them is a gambler, and everyone after them is a quant, sleepy investor” The statement gained attention as early stage investors claimed rigor and the later stage investors claimed excitement. I know my sweetspot- investing post …

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The Limiting Reagent

The Limiting Reagent

I got my undergraduate degree from Duke in biology and chemistry. While I occasionally use those lessons in my present day role, many of the concepts show up in new forms. One chemistry term that finds a way into my investing framework is the limiting reagent. In a chemical reaction, the limiting reagent is the …

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Over 550 daily subscribers (+ analytics!)

Over 550 daily subscribers (+ analytics!)

I started writing here more frequently about 9 months ago with the intent to provide insights about the current operating and investing environment in the early stage energy and sustainability markets. As indicated on the front page of the site, I suspected the audience would be “Entrepreneurs, Capital Providers, and Corporates Accelerating the Energy & …

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Why NASDAQ acquired a carbon removal marketplace

Why NASDAQ acquired a carbon removal marketplace

With net zero emissions targets now the topic du jour across the corporate landscape, there is suddenly a ticking time bomb for these same corporates to neutralize their emissions at the specified 2030-2040 time frames. Most firms now realize that they won’t be able to fully eliminate hydrocarbons from their supply chain or materials. So, …

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$7B deal shows how industrials are going to re-bundle… but this time with software

$7B deal shows how industrials are going to re-bundle… but this time with software

This deal wasn’t announced in late April so it isn’t exactly breaking news. But I have had more time to work through all of the ongoing dynamics in the supply chain for the energy and industrial transition. There seem to be 3 key trends converging here: Rapid consumer / corporate interest in transparent supply chains …

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