SE Ventures, the investment vehicle formed by France-headquartered energy and automation system provider Schneider Electric, has hired two senior partners for its Silicon Valley-based team.
Grant Allen is joining the unit from ABB Technology Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of power and automation technology producer ABB. Allen, a repeat fixture on GCV’s Powerlists, had been head of ventures for ABB since early 2017.
Kurt Kaltenegger, a GCV Rising Star in 2017, has been appointed head of ABB Technology Ventures in Allen’s place. He joined ABB Group in 1991 as a development engineer before moving to ABB Technology Ventures in 2010, and was most recently head of technology at the fund.
SE Ventures’ other new senior partner is Varun Jain, who had previously led the global early-stage practice at mobile chipmaker Qualcomm’s corporate venturing unit.
A GCV Rising Star in 2018, Jain’s most prominent exit involved automotive manufacturer General Motors paying $1bn to acquire portfolio company Cruise Automation in 2016.
Allen said: “We want to see new technologies and business models transforming the way we live and work, how we produce and consume energy, and how we run buildings and factories. Supported by Schneider’s dollars, domain expertise and global customer reach, we can have a dramatic impact on the trajectory of our investments.”
Jain added: “We are going to target companies that not only bear the promise of outsized financial returns, but are also in a position where they can leverage Schneider Electric’s vast technical resources and distribution reach to radically grow their business.”
SE Ventures was launched in November 2018 and Schneider Electric will invest up to $565m through the fund. Kevin Deneen, formerly a senior associate at Schneider Electric-backed investment entity Aster Capital, has been a principal at the unit since January this year.
In addition to previously named portfolio companies Habiteo, KGS Buildings, Sense, Element Analytics, Claroty and Qmerit, SE Ventures revealed it has also Autogrid, the Shell and Total-backed energy management platform developer in the process of raising series D funding.
