One of the concurrent tracks on the second day featured innovator showcases that spanned across AI and data-driven climate, chemicals and transport transformation. Each of the businesses from those areas was introduced by a current corporate backer. The session was co-moderated by Jacob Heath of law firm Orrick, Tom Whitehouse, contributing editor of Global Corporate Venturing and CEO at Leif Capital, and Laurent Pagnon, vice-president of External Technology Engagement at oil services company Technip FMC.
David Hayes of BP Ventures introduced Tom Schuler, CEO of Solidia Technologies, which had developed a cement and concrete technology that made it easy and profitable to use carbon dioxide to create better building, construction and industrial products. Its corporate backers also included chemical producer BASF and Total Energy Ventures, the venturing unit of oil and gas company Total.
Solidia claimed its product were made with 30% to 40% less CO2 emissions and that it could be a substitute for any concrete application, as concrete manufactured with its sustainable cement cured in one day, in addition to being stronger, more durable, more flexible and more cost effective.
David Hayes also introduced Joe Madden, CEO at Xpansiv CBL Holding Group (XCHG). XCHG was formed through the merger of CBL Markets and Xpansiv and it had developed a distributed ledger-based commodities trading platform for environmental, social and governance products.
The company claimed to be the largest renewable energy spot marketplace, the largest carbon spot marketplace, the largest water exchange and the first differentiated natural gas marketplace. XCHG boasted offices in San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Houston and Sydney, Madden said.
Tony Cannestra of Denso then introduced Dinakar Munagala, CEO of Blaize. Blaize emerged from stealth today in November 2019, having raised $87m over several venture rounds from a host of investors including automotive part manufacturers Denso and Magna, carmaker Daimler, and Samsung Catalyst Fund, one of the venturing subsidiaries of electronics manufacturer Samsung.
The company initially focused on what it dubbed “vision processors” employed to accelerate vision, radar, and sensor fusion tasks but subsequently expanded into data centres, edge infrastructure devices and enterprise client devices. It said its chips allowed for a concurrent execution of multiple AI models and workflows within a single system.
Patrick Suel, president at Diamond Edge Venture, the corporate venture capital arm of chemical producer Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings, welcomed Alex Reed, CEO of Fluence Analytics, to the stage. Spun out of Tulane University in 2013 and rebranded in 2017, the company manufactured industrial and laboratory monitoring solutions that produced continuous data streams.
Fluence Analytics boasted two product lines, Acomp and Argen. Combined with proprietary analytical tools, the data enabled real-time optimisation, leading to improved process control and faster R&D for polymer and biopharmaceutical manufacturers.
Finally, Grant Allen, managing investment director at Schneider Electric Ventures, the venturing unit of energy management technology producer Schneider Electric, brought Matthew Lee, vice-president of finance at Autogrid, to the stage. Founded in 2011, Autogrid provided software that enabled utilities, electricity retailers, renewable energy power providers and energy service providers to manage the resources of a distributed grid to supply cleaner and more cost-effective energy.
Autogrid provided software that enables utilities, electricity retailers, renewable energy power providers and energy service providers to manage the resources of a distributed grid to supply cleaner and more cost-effective energy. Its Energy Data Platform utilised data sourced from smart meters, building sensors and third parties, and combined it with data science and computing algorithms to manage a diverse range of energy assets.
