Brandon Koone, manager at NRG Ventures, is one of our top 50 Rising Stars in corporate venturing for 2026.
Brandon Koone leads NRG’s venture arm, housed inside a $25bn US energy and home-services group, with an investment remit that spans nuclear reactors, algorithmic trading and the future of smart homes.
Koone was instrumental in setting up NRG’s corporate venture capital function in 2022. The company committed $50m to the fund, completing four investments across a range of technologies in the past year. Those investments include Equilibrium Energy, an algorithmic energy-trading platform, and Aalo Atomics, a startup developing small modular nuclear reactors.
“We are doing core investments, adjacent investments and disruptive investments,” says Koone. The fund invests from seed through series C, targeting technologies linked to the energy transition, smart-home infrastructure and improvements in business efficiency.
“When you can find something that genuinely helps a team deliver on its roadmap, that is incredibly satisfying.”
If the mandate sounds broad, the operating model is deliberately focused. NRG works with Cerity Partners Ventures, a CVC-as-a-service firm, which helps manage the mechanics of the fund. Koone concentrates on the task of connecting startups with NRG’s business units. A large share of his time is devoted to meetings with internal subject-matter experts, understanding technology roadmaps and operational challenges and identifying where young companies might offer solutions.
“When you can find something that genuinely helps a team deliver on its roadmap, that is incredibly satisfying,” he says. Even when NRG decides not to invest, Koone may still broker a commercial relationship. Such partnerships are tracked explicitly as a key performance indicator. “We think of CVC as a learning tool,” he says.
The fund has set aside capital to pay for pilots and proof-of-concept projects, lowering the barrier for business units to engage.
The main lesson Koone draws from the experience is the value of networks. Corporate venturing, he says, is “inherently collaborative” and the fund is turning this openness to a quiet advantage.
The Rising Stars are early-career corporate venture professionals who are making an outstanding contribution to their teams and the industry.
See the full list of Rising Stars 2026 here.
