Jon Hennessy, senior associate, SE Ventures, is one of our top 50 Rising Stars in corporate venturing in 2024.

Jon Hennessy joined SE Ventures, the investment arm of French energy management and industrial automation firm Schneider Electric, as a senior associate in December 2022. He first encountered venture capital when he was pursuing his MBA at University of Michigan, when he made some investments with Wolverine Venture Fund, which is run by the students at the university.

Investment firm Princeville Capital hired Hennessy in 2021 as an associate, where he managed climate technology investments. He invested out of the firm’s Princeville Climate fund, a growth-stage scheme that targets impact and financial returns.

During his first year at SE Ventures, Hennessy formulated the unit’s prosumer (a portmanteau of the words producer and consumer of energy) strategy in Europe, covering consumer electrification areas such as EV charging, transportation electrification and grid management. Additionally, he focuses on discrete automation to enhance manufacturing processes.

“We can leverage our limited partner, Schneider Electric, to create value for both parties and help drive financial returns.”

Hennessy’s investment deals include two US companies: renewable project origination and tracking tool provider Banyan Infrastructure and factory quality inspection robotics system supplier UnitX. He also led investments for Plotlogic, an Australian mining automation technology developer, and Ostrom, a German energy savings platform.

“Over the next five to 10 years, there will be an additional ecosystem of data connectivity, software, infrastructure and optimisation layers around the install base of energy assets,” says Hennessy.

SE Ventures is set up like a financial VC firm from legal and compensation incentives and can match the speed of startup founders. “At the same time, we can leverage our limited partner, Schneider Electric, to create value for both parties and help drive financial returns,” says Hennessy.

See the full list of GCV Rising Stars for 2024 here.