≈ 0 GW
added globally in 2024.
Solar is now the largest source of new electricity capacity ever added in a single year by humans. The cost curve has not stopped falling.
Energy infrastructure investor
We invest where new energy becomes physical.
Solar, storage, hydrogen, and grid systems with real industrial deployment paths. We lead or co-lead early rounds and stay through the hard middle.
Hardware-first diligence · Europe, Asia, Africa, Gulf region · Seed to Series B
MandateEnergy transitionOne sector, all four domains.
StageSeed — Series BLead or co-lead.
Cheque€1 – 6M initialReserved for follow-on.
GeographyEurope · Asia · Africa · Gulf regionClose to the plant.
≈ 0 GWh
new battery storage delivered in 2024.
Grid-scale batteries are doubling annually. Long-duration chemistries targeting 8–24 hours are moving from pilot to bankable.
≈ 0 GW
electrolyser capacity in FID by 2030.
Green hydrogen is crossing the line from demonstration projects to bankable industrial offtake — steel, ammonia, refining, shipping.
Why energy
The argument for the next decade.
Not marketing lines — the firm's own read on why this stack deserves dedicated capital and technical patience.
The infrastructure is being rebuilt.
Global electricity capacity will double between 2020 and 2040. Grids, storage, and the molecule layer (hydrogen, ammonia, e-fuels) are all being built new, at industrial scale, and under new economics. Most of the companies that will matter...
Technical differentiation matters more here than in software.
Energy is hardware-first. A one-percentage-point improvement in electrolyser efficiency, a chemistry that survives one thousand more cycles, a drilling tool that reaches depth for less — these are defensible, slow-moving advantages. They re...
Long horizons reward patient capital.
The best energy companies take a decade to become obviously valuable. Our capital is structured so that we can wait; our board posture is that we are not the forcing function. Founders choose us when they need a decade of discipline, not a...
Climate math runs through energy before anywhere else.
Three quarters of global emissions come from producing and using energy. Any credible path to net-zero runs through the energy system first. We believe this will remain the largest and most technically interesting investment opportunity of...
Field atlas
Four sectors we keep underwriting.
Built as a scan-first atlas, not a reading wall. Each card points to active sub-themes and why they matter right now.
Electrons
Generation
How clean electrons and molecules are produced. The capital-intensive base of the transition — where physics, siting, and supply chains meet.
- Solar photovoltaic
- Wind — onshore, offshore, floating
Molecules
Hydrogen & green molecules
Electrolysis, green hydrogen, and the derivative molecules — ammonia, methanol, sustainable aviation fuel — that carry energy across time and distance...
- Electrolysers
- Green hydrogen production
Time
Storage
Shifting energy across time. Batteries, long-duration chemistries, and thermal storage that make intermittent generation firm.
- Long-duration batteries (8–24 h)
- Thermal & mechanical storage
Space
Grid & flexibility
Moving energy across space and matching supply to demand. High-voltage hardware, distribution software, and the flexibility markets that price it all.
- HVDC & long-distance transmission
- Distribution flexibility & DSO software
How we work
From first email to partnership.
Five stages. Each one has a named owner inside the firm, a predictable timeline, and a written output. Founders should be able to tell from week two whether a conversation is moving.
01
First read
≤ 5 business daysOne of the investment team reads the deck personally and replies. A technical pass gets a technical objection, not a template decline.
02
Technical diligence
3 – 6 weeksStack tests, cycling data, reactor models, grid-code reading. Diligence is led in-house by the investment team — no outsourced advisors, no reference-call theatre.
03
Conviction memo
1 weekA written investment memo is drafted by the sponsoring partner, reviewed against the standing thesis for the field, and dissented against in writing where relevant.
04
Commit
Term sheet ≤ 10 daysWe lead or co-lead. Term sheets are short, negotiated directly, and reflect a decade-long board posture rather than an exit-optimised cap table.
05
Stay close, stay quiet
IndefiniteWe expect to remain on the register through subsequent rounds. Our posture on the board is that we are not the forcing function — founders run their companies, we help when asked.
Investment thesis
Hardware-first diligence.
Technical diligence is led in-house by the investment team. We have run stack tests, read cycling curves, and sat at drill sites. We do not outsource the physics.
A decade, not a sprint.
Energy companies take ten years to become obviously valuable. Our capital is structured to wait; our board posture is that we are not the forcing function.
Industrial offtake, not subsidy arithmetic.
We back projects whose economics work without a subsidy that can be withdrawn. Offtake is industrial — ammonia, steel, fertiliser, refining — and contractual.
A narrow geography we actually cover.
Europe, Asia, Africa, Gulf region. Close enough to visit the plant, to meet the regulator, to understand the grid code. Not a global fund pretending to have feet in every market.
Counter-thesis
What we do not underwrite.
Stated publicly so that nobody spends a week on a conversation that ends in a template decline. The list below is a hard filter, not a negotiating position.
- Offset-led climate business models.
- Residential / consumer-software-only energy products.
- Subsidy-farming projects with no path to unsubsidised economics.
- Companies whose 'platform' is a dashboard on someone else's hardware.
- Fusion companies whose differentiation is marketing rather than physics.
- Mobility-led hydrogen (cars, fuel-cell trucks as flagship use cases).
Before you write
The questions founders ask us first.
Eight answers that settle most of the first-meeting agenda in advance, so the conversation can begin where it matters — on the technology.
Do you lead?
Yes. We lead or co-lead at Seed through Series B. We do not take small passive positions to keep an option open.
What does a first email need to contain?
What the company does in one paragraph, the stage and size of the round, and — if the technology is the product — one or two sentences on the defensibility. A deck is welcome but not required for a first reply.
How long does a decision take?
First reply within five business days. A full diligence cycle runs three to six weeks from first call to signed term sheet, with almost all of the time in technical work rather than process.
Do you invest outside Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Gulf region?
Rarely, and only where the technology was developed in one of those regions. We do not underwrite markets whose regulators and utilities we do not know personally.
Do you write follow-on cheques?
Yes. Reserves are meaningful — we expect to defend our ownership through subsequent rounds where the company is performing.
What about confidentiality?
We do not sign NDAs to take a first meeting. Sensitive technical detail can wait until diligence is under way; at that point we sign a customary mutual NDA.
What do you never invest in?
Offset-led climate business models, residential-only energy products, subsidy-farming projects, and 'platforms' that are dashboards on somebody else's hardware. The full declined list is on the approach page.
What do you ask of the founders on your register?
Honesty about what is not working, early. Time in the plant, not the pitch. And a monthly written update — one page is enough — that we actually read and reply to.
Dispatch notes.
All writing →Note on hydrogen
Stack economics will decide whether green hydrogen wins.
Electrolyser capital cost and durability — not electricity price — are the two variables that actually settle the green-hydrogen question. A short argument from the cost curve.
Note on storageThe 8-to-24-hour bracket is the next storage problem.
Short-duration lithium is solved. Seasonal storage runs through hydrogen. The interesting commercial window sits in between — and almost none of it is lithium.
Note on nuclearA second opinion on small modular reactors.
SMRs are not a silver bullet. Regulatory pace, supply chain depth, and first-of-a-kind cost overruns are the three variables that will decide the sector.