Energy Transition Ventures Launches New Fund Eyeing Trends in Cleantech

Houston-based Energy Transition Ventures has officially launched its first fund — the first in Texas dedicated to investing in energy transition technologies.

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The new fund is expected to close at $75 million, with the firm already having raised a “substantial amount” of that money, said firm co-founder and partner Craig Lawrence.

ETV is looking to take advantage of a changing energy market, where prices for new energy sources have dropped and even large corporations are eying cheaper, greener alternatives.

“This is a unique opportunity — renewable energy is cheaper than traditional energy,” said Neal Dikeman, also co-founder and partner at ETV.

“This was the opposite 10 years ago,” Lawrence said.

Money

ETV just received its first capital in February in the form of an anchor investment from GS Futures and GS Energy, both part of the GS Group of Korea.

The firm made its first investment last month, though it’s still unannounced, and will look at new opportunities in a variety of areas, including electrification, mobility, distributed energy grid and even AI/ML tech for cleantech.

The new firm will be stage agnostic, looking to write checks anywhere from $250,000 in a pre-seed or seed round to some at around $3 million for later-stage companies, Lawrence said. ETV expects to make about 15 to 25 investments from the fund — mainly in North America companies — through the next two or three years, he added.

While ETV will be based in Houston, the firm will have a Bay Area presence as it works closely with the GS Futures office on the West Coast. Both Lawrence and Dikeman have spent more than a decade in the industries of energy and technology in Texas and California, helping launch and manage cleantech investing at Accel Partners, Jane Capital and Shell Technology Ventures.

They both believe that experience will serve them well.

“We understand how to play the game both on the West Coast and here,” Dikeman said.

Illustration: Dom Guzman