UK-headquartered energy utility National Grid officially launched corporate venturing unit National Grid Partners (NGP) yesterday with $250m under the leadership of Lisa Lambert, an alumnus of corporate venturing unit Intel Capital.
NGP will operate as National Grid’s investment and innovation subsidiary, combining corporate venturing with innovation and business development activities. It is based in Silicon Valley, California, with offices elsewhere in the US as well as the UK.
The fund will target investments in companies developing technologies that can support the transformation to an energy distribution network more heavily based on renewable energy.
Lambert, also chief technology and innovation officer for National Grid, is heading the unit as senior vice-president. She said: “Whether it is investing in new technologies or getting smarter about how we work every day, we need to think more than one step ahead.
“That is the role of NGP. We are the eyes and ears of the business, searching for the new ideas and breakthrough innovations that will keep us at the forefront of the energy industry.”
Lambert was at semiconductor technology producer Intel for 19 years and was a managing director at Intel Capital by the time she left in 2016 for a managing partner role at venture capital firm Westly Group. She joined NGP in January this year.
NGP’s founding team includes National Grid vice-president of business development Kareem Fahmy, who joined in April after four years as senior director of global business development for Intel Capital, and Pradeep Tagare, formerly an investment director at Intel Capital India, who is heading the corporate VC fund.
The team is filled out by VP of incubation Dillon McDonald, who was previously managing partner at roadside assistance provider AAA’s A3 Ventures unit, and VP of innovation Brian Ryan, who was general manager of emerging technologies for data infrastructure technology producer Vector.
The unit has so far funded weather forecasting service ClimaCell, infrastructure asset management platform Sitetracker, energy management software provider AutoGrid, distributed energy marketplace Leap and solar energy asset servicing company Omnidian.
