Emmanuel Lagarrigue has been with France-based energy management and automation technology producer Schneider Electric (SE) for nearly three decades, currently serving as chief innovation officer and a member of the executive committee where he oversees activities including the corporate venture capital (CVC) unit, Schneider Electric Ventures, open innovation, incubation, new businesses and joint ventures, as well as electromobility and solar power.
Lagarrigue also manages SE’s involvement in AlphaStruxure, a joint venture with private equity firm Carlyle Group, and China Energy Transition Innovation Hub. He said: “We look to partner companies – entrepreneurs bring disruptive ideas and agility and we bring deep customer knowledge, resources and channels to test and scale ideas.”
As a member of the executive committee, Lagarrigue reports to the group CEO. He has the direct responsibility of SE’s energy transition businesses, including microgrids, e-mobility, solar power and the Energy Transition Hub. He leads Schneider Electric’s venture activities, investing in or collaborating with hundreds of startups across the world, having also helped create new ventures in energy and infrastructures.
As founder and managing partner of SE Ventures, Heriberto Diarte is responsible for external innovation and CVC activities since he joined SE in November 2017. In addition to corporate venturing, Diarte oversees open innovation for the group, including its incubation programmes to launch new companies, and investing in startups and later-stage growth companies.
Formed in November 2018, SE Ventures has a capital of €500m (roughly $565m) and focuses on energy efficiency and sustainability, in areas such as energy use and industrial management, and will deploy the capital for direct investments in startups, dedicated strategic funds, incubation initiatives and partnerships with entrepreneurs.
The unit’s team includes two general partners: Grant Allen, who had been head of ventures at ABB Technology Ventures, the CVC arm of power and automation technology producer ABB; Varun Jain, who had led the global early-stage practice at mobile chipmaker Qualcomm’s corporate venturing unit, Qualcomm Ventures; as well as principal Kevin Deneen.
SE Ventures has made 20 direct investments and participated in six global funds to date. “We have successfully built an incubations and partnership practice that builds new companies and partners companies with our lines of businesses,” Diarte said.
SE Ventures has teamed up with all of its portfolio companies, including energy management device producer Sense with which it built the Wiser Energy Monitor for electrical distributors and builders. “Through this new product, consumers can achieve significant energy savings of up to 20% simply by tracking down ‘energy hogs’ in their homes. We are working together to make energy intelligence a core part of the smart home, including for control and automation,” Diarte added.
SE Ventures also inked a strategic pact with energy management software provider Autogrid to create a fully integrated ADMS (advanced distribution management system) and DERMS (distributed energy resource management system) to digitise electric grids.
