Look up any historical investments book and pretty early on there is are definitions of cyclical, defensive, and counter-cyclical businesses. A cyclical business is inherently discretionary and peak and bust at an economic cadence. Within my focus, this is oil & gas, airplanes, jewelry, construction, etc. A defensive business is easier to define: a staple …
Below is a press release that Energize wrote about today’s Volta Charging Series D. While today’s announcement is a mini celebration along Volta’s EV journey… I have two items to elevate: The line of success is never up and to the right. Rather, the story arc is a chaotic, meandering menace. To survive and thrive …
I prefer writing, but occasionally share some of my market sentiment through audio channels! And so, today I am pleased to share that I spoke with my “Industrial Exit Tracker” partner in crime on his podcast… Ty Findlay @ IRONSPRING Ventures is the host of the “Heavy Hitters” podcast. The podcast speaks with investors and …
I first learned about venture in 2009 and quickly became consumed with the idea of integrating my interests between innovation and finance. I would start my day back then like many still do… by opening up avc.com and reading Fred Wilson’s daily post. His candid and “bring-along’ approach to investing ran counter to my early …
I am trying a slightly different format for this announcement. Because this is a slightly different type of M&A event I usually cover. The industrial environment is now rife with cameras, sensors and lasers. Yes, the same infrared and LIDAR technology on your new iPhone is now present across manufacturing, energy and critical infrastructure sites …
Lots of predictions out there these days. At Energize we get to see potential future outcomes… and I have to admit that it is hard to make a high-probability prediction. I’ve read predictions about a COVID resurgence, cloud’s continued dominance, hyper-inflation, remote work, Miami, accelerated industrial and workplace transformation, digital healthcare, digital currency… the list …
About a decade ago scientists, entrepreneurs, government and capitalists unified to focus on decarbonizing energy generation. As a result, the cost curve for new power solutions plummeted. As Michael Polsky says “nobody built renewables because they needed electricity”… the fact is that the cumulative we had to come together for the long term benefit of …
A green bond is when a company raises debt and promises to use the proceeds to fund for climate, environmental, or resilience projects. These financing vehicles have been around for a while…. but the issuers and banks are just starting to get creative. 2020 saw the first hints of this creativity… and two of these …
I am going to be writing a few 2020 summary notes / awards. Today is “the winning themes!” Theme 1: Infrastructure Development Hard assets get a bad reputation in VC. This negative reputation is self-inflicted by the early stage venture community: investing in infrastructure and expecting venture returns. The fact is that there are better …
An important industrial tech M&A event happened earlier this month: PTC acquired Arena Solutions for $715M… marrying PTC’s CAD software with Arena’s Product Lifecycle Management solutions. The Acquirer PTC is a pillar of the industrial technology scene. the company has nearly $1.5 billion in software and related services revenue. The company received a $1 billion …