Industrial

Kaloyan Andonov of GCV spoke to Geert van de Wouw, vice-president at Shell Ventures, the venturing subsidiary of Anglo-Dutch oil and gas major Shell about the future of energy and how the rebranded venturing arm under his command tackles it.

A range of new materials and technologies could yield vastly improved batteries for purposes including electric vehicles and grid storage.

University and government venturing successes fail to attract significant corporate interest

Sector report: Energy

The following is a snapshot of the data we have collected on investment activity over the past three months. To verify reported deals, we contact about 300 corporate investors each quarter – these comprise roughly 18% of the global CVCs we cover, but account for most of the deals that are made public.

Subsidiaries of 3M and Caterpillar have both backed smart industrial hardhat developer Guardhat, boosting its overall funding to $24m.

Université libre de Bruxelles has added a fourth Theodorus fund to its arsenal with an initial close of $23m and a target of up to $33.5m.

The 2016 Purdue spinout has been backed by angel investor Archibald Cox and the Ustar Tap accelerator as it seeks US defence agency-adoption for its missile propellant.

Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.

Industrial robot producer Rethink Robotics had raised $136m from backers including GE Ventures but has ceased trading after failing to close a planned acquisition deal.