Jaclyn “Jaci” Sager is venture capital portfolio manager at Caterpillar Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of US-based construction equipment maker Caterpillar. She has been with the parent firm for 23 years, having held various treasury and finance roles since 1999 before joining the unit in 2019.
Caterpillar Ventures makes strategic investments in early-stage companies with a cheque size between $500,000 to $5m to support entrepreneurs globally to foster and grow their businesses with Caterpillar’s industry knowledge, resources and dealer network.
Parent firm Caterpillar’s areas of focus include three areas: construction industries, resource industries, and energy and transportation. Caterpillar Ventures targets startups in distributed power, analytics, robotics, additive manufacturing and business models to seek out synergies.
The unit’s deals in recent months have included participation in rounds raised by ultra-thin film battery producer BrightVolt, air-core motor developer Infinitum Electric and SeekOps, creator of a sensor for the detection of methane leaks.
In April 2021, Caterpillar Venture Capital was among the investors that backed a $220m private investment in public equity financing for the reverse takeover conducted by its portfolio company Sarcos Robotics, an industrial robotics technology manufacturer.
Caterpillar Ventures has about 10 active portfolio companies including microgrid developer Powerhive and Busybusy, the creator of a software platform that enables labour costs on construction jobsites to be tracked in real time.
Its portfolio also includes electric vehicle and battery technology provider Fisker, smart hardhat manufacturer Guardhat, mining data platform MineSense Technologies, robotic technology developer Clearpath Robotics and business planning software developer Riivos (formerly Alight).
