National Grid Partners (NGP), the corporate venturing and innovation unit of London and New York-listed electricity provider National Grid, has made three new deals.
NGP is investing in CNIGuard, an internet-of-things (IoT) cloud sensor provider for utility-critical infrastructure, SparkCognition, an artificial intelligence (AI) systems platform, and Uniphore, an AI-enabled conversational service automation.
Earlier in the month, US-based SparkCognition closed a $100m series C round with backing from aerospace and defence company Boeing and media group Hearst, while India-based Uniphore received $51m in August in a series C round backed by Sistema Asia Fund.
NGP has now backed 18 companies and invested $102m and Lisa Lambert, president of NGP and National Grid’s chief technology and innovation officer, said: “From modernizing our assets, to providing advanced safeguarding and security measures, National Grid is delivering a safer and more seamless energy experience for its customers.”
NGP previously announced its backing of Aporeto, Audio Analytic, AutoGrid, Carbon Lighthouse, ClimaCell, Copperleaf, Dragos, GoCardless, Leap, Omnidian, Pixeom, and Sitetracker as well as limited partnership investments in IQ Capital and Jerusalem Venture Partners. NGP is also a limited partner in the strategic utility technology fund, Energy Impact Fund.
