Ventures

Investing in innovative energy ventures

Our Investment Strategy

Target countries

We focus our scouting efforts on EEA countries and Israel, though if we find a specific project particularly appealing we are happy to expand our scope.

Investment Policies

Our preferred outcome is a Joint Venture to enter the Japanese market, we can consider direct equity co-investments or a combination of these two options. We do not seek to be lead-investor.

Company Size

We look for commercialised scale-ups, ready for international expansion. Typically, annual revenue will be over £1M and funding will have reached series B (£10M+)

Target Deal Size

Between $100-300K

Our Sources

Held annually in London, Japan Energy Challenge is an opportunity for innovative companies operating in the energy sector, to meet and connect with large Japanese corporates, our sponsors. The goal is to build relationships that result in collaborations, sales, investment, and other forms of support for helping grow the invited companies in Japan.

This competition is unique in that all invited companies will have at least one sponsor interested in meeting them specifically. The JEC team works with the invited companies in the months leading up to the event to fully understand their business and products.

The event itself will represent the culmination of months of research and back and forth communication, making the actual meetings very meaningful to exploring future relationships.

Find out more about the program and how to apply to Japan Energy Challenge here.

Stage I- Scouting

By looking at current investment trends within the Global energy market we identify the most promising sectors and perform detailed research on the best companies therein.

Stage II- JEC Participation

The companies we select are carefully vetted by an experienced team of energy professionals, until a suitable list of participants to JEC is agreed upon with the program’s sponsors.

Stage III- Investment

Of these finalists, only a select few will be considered for the fund, based on product fit with the japanese market and success of JEC participation we throw our weight in behind top-tier projects.

2019 Japan Energy Challenge Sponsors

Tokyo Gas is Japan‘s largest provider of natural gas, serving more than 11 million customers. In FY2016, TOKYO GAS made a start by entering the electricity retail business and has since reached 1.6M customers (Nov 2018). TOKYO GAS is shifting from the in-house R&D focused on natural gas energy to an open innovation style R&D to focus on a broad range of innovative energy solutions.

ENECHANGE LTD. provides one of the most popular energy switching website in Japan, having 3 million monthly unique visitors and working with over 100 energy suppliers. ENECHANGE is also recognised as one of the most innovative energy ventures in Japan, providing vertically integrated tech solutions – such as data-driven CRM solutions, smart meter data management (SMAP), AI-driven load curve simulation etc. – for energy suppliers.

SUMMIT ENERGY is a subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation, one of the major integrated trading firms in Japan. They supply electricity to both commercial and residential customers. In 2016, they supplied 2,800GWh, making them the 6th largest retail electricity supplier in Japan. They have its own generating capacity from a variety of sources, including biomass power generation.

HOKURIKU ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY is a vertically integrated electricity supplier serving about 2.1M customers. Their generation mix is characterised by a higher ratio of hydroelectric power – which is less carbon intensive than other forms of generation – thanks to plentiful water resources in their area. Their Transmission/Distribution Division will be reformed as a separate entity in 2020 and plans to install smart meters to all household by 2024.

IDEMITSU KOSAN is the Shell brand licensee and one of the major oil companies in Japan. They also provide energy solutions for businesses with operating power plants and deliver renewable-sourced electricity. Solar Frontier, the world’s largest CIS solar energy solution provider, is their 100% subsidiary company and operates as independent solar power producer in Japan and worldwide.

LOOOP is one of the largest renewable energy EPC/IPP companies in Japan with more than 300MW track record of developing power plants worldwide. It also offers a broad array of energy services in its retail business “Looop Denki” since 2015. It now has gained over 200,000 low-voltage plan customers as of the end of March 2020, and that makes it the largest independent new power retailer in Japan. Looop plays a pivotal role in a smart city project in cooperation with the local government in Saitama, Japan.

JXTG NIPPON OIL & ENERGY is the largest oil company and 3rd largest new electric power supplier in Japan, and is known by its brand ENEOS. They have crude refining capacity of around 2 million barrels per day – which is comparable to BP – and a nationwide supply chain enabling stable supply of products and services associated with energy. They have also been supplying low-carbon energy, such as solar, wind, biofuel, and hydrogen.

CHUBU ELECTRIC POWER is Japan‘s third largest energy utility provider. They are transforming by separating their organization into three division, Power generation, Transmission/distribution, and Sales division. Even in a rapidly changing business environment, they aim to become a corporate group with consolidated ordinary profit of 250 billion yen or more, by building a balanced business portfolio through.

TOHO GAS is the third largest city gas supplier in Japan with 2.46 million customers. They also have a growing electricity supply business, aiming to grow customer acquisition by 60% in 2018. Furthermore, Toho Gas also provide services related to connected homes, business energy support, and energy resource aggregation & balancing.

2019 Japan Energy Challenge Cohort

Connected Energy provide energy storage units comprised of second-life EV batteries for use in commercial, industrial, and utility applications.

Edge Electrons have designed a range of energy efficiency and monitoring technology solutions for grids, businesses and homes.

eMotorWerks offer a complete line of Smart electric vehicle charging stations and custom solutions and allow their customers to control their EV fleet’s charging schedules with the advanced IoT platform, JuiceNet Enterprise

Energisme allows companies and local authorities to take control of their energy expenses. It provides its customers with predictive modeling tools and an ecosystem of partners to anticipate and optimize their energy consumptions.

Through integrations with solar panels, battery storage and smart home devices – EO wants to enable individuals to remove their dependency on the grid. They’re working to create a new energy ecosystem which gives people the power of energy autonomy.

EVBOX build easy-to-use and durable charging solutions (hardware and software) for electric cars.

Ezzing Solar have developed an “all-in-one” software solution that simplifies PV and allows companies to develop and be profitable in distributed generation.

geo focuses on the energy element of the smart home. Their aim is to make energy smarter and help customers save money on their energy bills.

Heliatek make Organic Solar Films, a flexible and light solar panel for the building industry that can be installed on many more surfaces than traditional PV modules.

Hubject provide a digital B2B marketplace for connecting different market players in order to create a digital and cross-border charging network for electric vehicles – the intercharge network.

The Kaluza platform provides connections to a range of IoT enabled assets from our portfolio of world-leading hardware partners. It receives telemetry from these devices, forecasts a future state of the energy system and combines that with customer information to simulate various charging paths that the assets can take. Finally the optimised control decisions are dispatched to the individual asset.

KiWi Power partners with TSOs like National Grid to provide demand response solutions in UK and other countries. Demand response is a method of reducing electricity consumption at times of peak demand on the grid, allowing System Operators such as National Grid to avoid using outdated, expensive and polluting, “peaking” power stations.

Lumenaza’s “utility-in-a-box” software connects producers and consumers of locally produced renewable power so they can “build up a regional, communal and transparent supply with green electricity.”

Next Kraftwerke’s VPP software-as-a-service solution NEMOCS is a control system software, which provides an advanced IT infrastructure for VPP operations. It allows clients to aggregate, monitor and manage thousands of decentralized energy resources in a very performant, reliable and beneficial way.

Open Energi manage distributed energy to radically reduce electricity costs and provide flexible capacity to enable a 100% renewable energy system

Power Ledger have designed a software that can be used to buy and sell electricity in real time as well as measuring, reporting and validating renewable generation certificates.

Solargis provide solar and meteorological data, energy-calculation software and consultancy for developers, investors and operators of solar power plants.

Switchd provides electricity and gas retail customers with a software service to automatically switch their provider to the best energy deal, saving them time and money.

The tiko platform brings retail electricity customers the power of a Virtual Power Plant and an award-winning Smart Home Energy Management system designed to connect Residential and SME assets

Virta provide homes and businesses with a connection to smart charging stations and charging networks for their Electric Vehicles.

First meetings at Imperial College

Kaluza's Pitch to the Sponsors

Startups mingling

EVBox's Pitch

Announcing Winners

2019 Group Photo

2018 Japan Energy Challenge Cohort

Brill Power develops intelligent battery management technology to increase the lifetime and reliability of lithium-ion battery packs for grid-scale energy storage and electric vehicles.

Ecoppia’s cloud-based robotic solar panel cleaning platform keeps panels in large-scale solar energy installations operating at peak performance year-round – optimising production, reducing operational costs, and positively impacting overall return on investment.

Howz helps utilities drive engagement with a growing segment of their customers – older people – by linking their use of energy to their daily activity and their well-being.

Limejump is a technology-driven utility, using big data and the Cloud to create a unique Virtual Power Plant (VPP) that enables generators, energy storage and businesses to access the same market opportunities as large power stations.

Meshcrafts is a tech company developing software for e-mobility and energy management with a perspective on Smart City, Smart Grid and Smart Transportation.

SolarCoin is a blockchain-based commodity like air miles for solar power generation. It is available globally to solar power producers at the rate of 1SLR per MWh of validated solar power produced.

The Piclo Platform is an online marketplace for peer-to-peer energy and flexibility trading.

Powervault develop an intelligent, affordable electricity storage system for the home, which reduces customers’ electricity bills by enabling them to store and use free solar energy or cheap, off-peak electricity.

The Pavegen technology is a multifunctional custom flooring system. As people step on the tiles, their weight causes electromagnetic induction generators to vertically displace, which results in a rotatory motion that generates off-grid electricity.

ubitricity has developed a unique and market leading approach to Electrical Vehicle charging. SimpleSockets enable charging infrastructure to be set up anywhere EVs park. The SmartCable enables the user to bring their own mobile energy tariff to the charging point.