Energy

For corporate venturers, is it better to invest directly from a corporation’s balance sheet or from a stand-alone fund?

Innovation seems threatening to legacy thinking in the region, preventing corporates from going into high-performance mode.

Deutsche Telekom and Salesforce-backed PerimeterX is joining forces with Human Security while M12 and Alexandria Venture Investments took part in Ozette’s $26m series A round.

GCV Rising Star Tyler Durham, previously a venture principal at Schlumberger, will continue to work on carbon capture as chief development officer for Navigator CO2 Ventures.

360 Security and CATL helped Hozon Auto close a $1.5bn series D while Origin Energy and Tokyo Gas backed a $550m round for Octopus Energy.

Amid a general downturn, spinouts have been faring much better than the startup world at large.

Novartis and Cigna Ventures were part of Cleerly’s $192m series C round while Aptos Labs secured $150m from investors including FTX, Circle and Jump Trading.

Corporations have been behind many of the largest and most interesting deals in the energy and industrials transition.

The dollar valuation of corporate-backed deals in the energy sector dropped sharply in Q2. Cleantech deals are the only exception.

There has never been a better time for corporates to invest in this sector, says Meghan Sharp, Global head of Decarbonization Partners.