LOS GATOS, Calif., April 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Since its launch
less than three years ago, National Grid Partners (NGP) has
put $227 million to work in dozens of
startups at the intersection of energy and information
technology.
Now the utility industry's first Silicon Valley-based corporate
venture and innovation group is poised to continue disrupting the
future of energy with a new investment allocation of $150 million.
"Earth Week is a perfect time to announce this vote of
confidence from our senior leadership," said Lisa Lambert, Chief Technology and Innovation
Officer of National Grid (LSE: NG; NYSE: NGG) and the Founder and
President of National Grid Partners.
She noted that National Grid this week kicks off its sponsorship
of the United Nations' COP26 climate conference – the biggest
convening of global environmental policy and industry leaders since
the 2015 Paris Agreement.
As part of its COP26 activities in
the United Kingdom this fall, NGP
plans to hold its first annual summit of the Next Grid Alliance.
This consortium of more than 60 worldwide utility companies
provides senior level executives a platform to share industry best
practices and to solve some of the biggest challenges facing the
energy sector.
Lambert also announced today that NGP has invested $7.5M in two Silicon Valley companies that help
enterprise customers protect physical and cyber infrastructure.
They are:
- Mountain View, Calif.- based
Pathr, which uncovers human behavior and interaction in physical
spaces like office buildings and factories. Pathr's cutting edge
Spatial Intelligence platform uses existing hardware infrastructure
to generate anonymous location data in real time. Better
understanding of movement patterns can help Pathr customers
increase revenue, optimize operations, improve energy efficiency,
and strengthen physical security at their facilities.
- AccuKnox, a Cloud Security innovator headquartered in
Menlo Park, Calif. Formed in
partnership with Stanford Research Institute, AccuKnox provides a
Zero-Trust run-time Kubernetes platform for comprehensive security,
compliance and governance in public and private clouds. The
company's KubeArmor technology is built on seminal innovations in
container security, unsupervised learning, and data
provenance.
"We're backing companies that can help National Grid serve its
customers more safely and securely, so adding Pathr and AccuKnox to
our portfolio is a significant step toward fulfilling that
objective," said Lambert.
While more than 70 percent of NGP's portfolio companies have
strategic engagements with National Grid – such as LineVision,
which also joined the portfolio this month – seed-stage startups
like AccuKnox and Pathr reflect NGP's commitment to invest in every
stage of the innovation ecosystem. That stage-agnostic approach
also includes NGP's Incubation office in San Francisco, and an Innovation team who
turns ideas into prototypes that can be deployed in National Grid's
business units or spun out as stand-alone companies.
NGP has led more than 60 percent of its startup investment
rounds, with two M&A exits.
"We are investing in and deploying technologies across National
Grid's networks to enhance resilience and reliability, while more
easily integrating renewable energy," said Lambert. "Our company's
ambition is to become the most intelligent, cleanest transmission
and distribution network in the world."
About National Grid Partners
National Grid Partners
(NGP) is the venture investment and innovation arm of National Grid
plc., one of the world's largest investor-owned energy
companies. NGP invests for strategic and financial impact and
leads companywide disruptive innovation efforts. The organization
provides a multi-functional approach to building startups,
including innovation (new business creation), incubation, corporate
venture capital, business development and venture acceleration. NGP
is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has offices in Boston, London, and New
York. Visit ngpartners.com or follow us on
Twitter (@ngpartners_) and LinkedIn.
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SOURCE National Grid