EnBW New Ventures

Future Energy Ventures is a unique venture capital platform that brings together corporate partners and world-class start-ups to shape the future energy landscape. Future Energy Ventures is the venture capital investment and collaboration platform of E.ON, one of Europe’s largest operators of energy networks and energy-related infrastructure and a provider of innovative customer solutions for about 50 million customers. Our Vision We believe the future of energy will see multiple sectors converging to deliver decarbonized, digitalized and democratized access to energy. This needs us to all think differently; everything will be interconnected and play a role within a larger energy infrastructure. Electric cars are not just vehicles, they are also mobile batteries; buildings can also be energy generators; homes and businesses can be smart and connected, regulating the energy they use and when. Frontier technologies such as AI and blockchain have a role to play in connecting these producers and consumers of energy together. Creating this new energy future requires bold thinking and will see new players disrupt traditional energy supply chains. Future Energy Ventures exists to drive that transition by investing in the innovative companies that are creating the digital and digitally enabled technologies that have the potential to redefine the future energy landscape, helping these pioneers to build their business and make the connections to accelerate their growth. Future Energy Ventures is born from the energy industry, but it understands energy must converge with other sectors to create a sustainable and prosperous future. This is why we go beyond energy to invest in companies solving problems in cities or building frontier technology. The realization of our ambition relies on collaboration and partnerships; between people and companies from many different industries. Our focus Pioneering the transition to a new energy future built on digital technologies relies on expanding our scope to encompass a wider definition of the future of energy. Energy infrastructure will converge with other infrastructure. Buildings will have photovoltaic panels and turbines to generate energy and store it for times of peak use. Battery technology and other forms of energy storage will be integrated into homes, cities, vehicles and streets, allowing energy to be stored and drawn down from multiple points with the entire city acting as a smart grid and smart energy storage network. We will also see opportunities for existing infrastructure, petrol stations for example, to be reimagined and reused as energy generation, charging and storage hubs for fleets of smart electric vehicles, which in time will be autonomous and driverless. The future will also demand far more energy to power a connected world but that energy will be cheap and abundant as a result of localized, renewable energy production and microgeneration. It will also be smart and controllable, enabling consumers to regulate what they use and when and to sell excess energy back to the grid from the home, office and municipal generation facilities. We condense this extended network of the future of energy into three Focus Areas. Future Energy The energy system will shift to a decarbonized, decentralized and digitally-interconnected system. Digital technologies are the key enabler for this transition and are set to make energy systems around the world more connected, intelligent, efficient, reliable and sustainable. One aspect of this transformation that presents great potential is the ability to break down boundaries between energy and adjacent sectors, increasing flexibility and enabling integration across entire systems. As a result, we believe now is an unprecedented time for attractive investment opportunities, and a call for action for today’s energy industry. Future Cities While cities transform, various kinds of technologies have emerged as a means to improve the quality of life of their citizens. Rapid urbanization however has led mankind to face a number of challenges that must be overcome in mega urban areas. The consequences are far-ranging and incising: freshwater scarcity, mountains of refuse, permanent traffic gridlock and air pollution. How can municipalities master these challenges with their tight budgets? One key solution is smart cities. Smart cities are intelligent and connected cities, contributing to a better quality of life and reduced resource consumption. Future Technologies We believe that the future of cities and energy will be shaped by advances in technology. We will tap into the frontier and deep technologies that promise to shape the future of cities and energy in the years to come, including the fields of AI and Machine Learning, Blockchain and Cyber Security. Who we’re looking for? We focus on investing in start-ups that are transforming the energy ecosystem and pioneering the future of energy. Our sweet spot is digital, scalable and asset-light companies seeking Series A and beyond funding that have shown evidence of a product-market-fit.

We are all entrepreneurs who have started successful companies to change the world for the better - in one case from zero to over a billion in revenues in less than a decade. We have a true long term view - our fund is an independent evergreen fund, with no end of fund life date, thereby avoiding many of the conflicts typical in the venture industry. Finally, we strive to have a life-long relationship with all our entrepreneurs. Focus First and foremost, our primary goal is to help entrepreneurs achieve their goals in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. While we can invest at any stage, from early to expansion to late stage growth, we’d prefer to get to know you and your vision - and how we can help - early. We can invest as little as one million dollars to as much as ten million in a single company. Currently, we are interested in software companies that can apply innovations in IoT, Big Data, and Security technology, to drive meaningful disruptions in energy and infrastructure sustainability, and establish clear category dominance and leadership. Ecosystem We have a diverse ecosystem of people and partners that can help. This might include partnering opportunities, customer opportunities, company scaling and team building advice, and strategy development. Please talk to us about how we can help you and your business grow. Unconcerns With an independent, evergreen fund, we're unconcerned with structural issues that lead to entrepreneur-unfriendly activity at most venture firms today. Our "unconcerns" include timing out, the next fundraise, and arbitrary investment constraints, enabling us to be structurally aligned with our entrepreneurs' best interests. Timing out Venture Today. Most funds operate on a 10-year timeframe, after which holdings in portfolio companies are liquidated and distributed to LPs. This means that when a fund is close to timing out, investors can push for a premature exit - even if that goes against an entrepreneurs' long-term vision. How We’re Different. Our fund is an independent, evergreen fund with no end-of-fund-life. The next fundraise Venture Today. Once an investment is made, the capital deployed is gone for good. This means that investors are under constant pressure to raise the next fund, which often leads to entrepreneur-unfriendly behavior that optimizes fundraising. How We’re Different. We recycle most of our proceeds back into the fund, thereby eliminating the need to fundraise. Arbitrary investment constraints Venture Today. Constraints on fund strategy are usually set when VCs market their funds to LPs. These typically include limitations on stage (Seed / Series A only), arbitrary ownership targets (at least 20% ownership), and control (board seat required). How We're Different. We're flexible as to investment stage, ownership targets, and board representation. We only care about partnering with category leaders.

Hitachi Ventures is the global venture capital arm of Hitachi Group, a global industrial player active in a broad range of technology sectors. Hitachi Ventures invests in innovative companies that address society’s key technological challenges in areas like IT, industrial automation (robotics, sensor technology and IoT), cloud services (data management, cybersecurity), mobility (autonomous driving, mobility services, smart infrastructure and security services), energy, smart medicine (AI for digital imaging, smart diagnostics, remote care), smart city, smart infrastructure and more. Hitachi intends to leverage its strong position in multiple global technology markets, its expertise and network to support and promote Hitachi Ventures portfolio companies. With our first fund of USD 150M, we invest in Series A/B/C rounds in globally leading startups. From our offices in Munich, Germany, and Boston, USA, we work tirelessly to develop close ties and effective collaboration with leading innovative technology hubs and like-minded co-investors.

Paladin Capital Group is a leading global investor that supports and grows the world’s most innovative companies through venture investment, expansion, and growth capital. We are headquartered in Washington, DC, with offices in New York City, Silicon Valley, and London. We seek out diverse investment opportunities across the US and worldwide. Paladin is a leader in investing in technologies, products, and services focused on dual use in both commercial and governmental markets with a strong value-add culture. Paladin recognizes that successful investments begin with attracting and collaborating with top-tier entrepreneurs and management teams. Adding value to our portfolio companies is a cornerstone of Paladin’s investment culture and philosophy. In addition to subject matter expertise, entrepreneurs in today’s dynamic markets are focused on investors’ ability to add value through a variety of avenues, including helping to build strategic partnerships, accessing key customers or new markets, navigating non-dilutive financing options, or recruiting high-quality management talent and independent board members. Our ‘dual use’ investment approach, with deep knowledge of both commercial and government markets, provides our companies with unique insights and opportunities. We Are Active Investors The Paladin team merges financial expertise with national security and technical competence to add value across a wide array of market sectors and company stages. Paladin is focused on being an active investor - bringing decades of experience, advice, access, and relationships to its portfolio companies. Our Funds Since Paladin’s inception, more than $1 billion have been committed across multiple funds and investment vehicles. Paladin Cyber Fund II Our most recent fund is a $372 million multi-stage fund that invests in cybersecurity startups bringing innovative technologies to market. Cyber Fund II will look to deploy capital across a number of high-priority cybersecurity and online safety sectors, including innovative technologies that protect critical infrastructure from cyberattacks and networks from ransomware. Paladin Cyber Fund The Fund focuses on Digital Infrastructure Resilience, investing globally in advanced technologies and solutions which enable, monitor, manage, and defend critical infrastructure that is dependent on cyber space. Paladin III The Fund has completed 34 investments and continues to deploy follow-on capital to its portfolio companies and offer value-add services. The Fund invested primarily in disruptive cyber and advanced technologies and, to a lesser extent, alternative energy.

In the past 15 years, Canada’s innovation ecosystem has taken off. Startups, accelerators, incubators, investors, and forward-thinking policies have created a true hotbed of entrepreneurship. Bold ideas are flourishing, transformative ventures are thriving, and Canadian technology is reshaping industries, driving growth at home and societal impact worldwide. We could look back and self-applause our progress, but let’s be radically transparent: major challenges remain and there is still a lot left to be done. A majority of our technology companies are not achieving the global scale they legitimately could attain. They do not achieve their full potential; frequently selling prematurely instead of being the market consolidator and building for the long term. ​ A central cause of this problem is the lack of early-stage venture leadership and risk-taking at the true “inflection point” - when startups have early revenue, signs of product-market fit, and are ready to scale. Canada has no shortage of funds willing to follow on, but far too few are prepared to lead Seed and Series A rounds: to structure financings, set valuations, negotiate terms, and define the conditions for success. The “Death Valley” is real. Canadian venture capital lacks leadership, and needs to contribute more expertise. The “Death Valley” is the critical scaling stage that most companies fail to overcome. It happens as a company attempts to bridge the gap between early commercial success and achieving significant revenue scale. In 2024, roughly six in ten Canadian seed rounds included foreign investors, a dynamic that intensifies by Series A and beyond. Half of that was led by US Too often, the most promising Canadian startups saw their early rounds led by U.S. VCs. While we welcome foreign investors, global connections strengthen our ecosystem, Canada simply lacks enough lead investors to keep ownership at home. For early-stage and scale-up companies, the shortage of funding alternatives is a major barrier. Many of our best founders head south in search of stronger capital partners. The gap is readily filled by international investors, and who can blame them? Canadian founders are known to outperform and to be more capital efficient than their U.S. peers. The best founders will always attract global capital and seek out the strongest partners. But this comes at a cost. Every time leadership is ceded abroad, Canada loses ownership of its most successful businesses. An ecosystem of “follower investors” produces an economy of subsidiaries, when what we need are global leaders. The problem is twofold: not enough Canadian capital to lead at the inflection point, and not enough seasoned expertise to scale our champions. If you believe, as we do, that local technology champions will be the cornerstone of our future economic prosperity, then our ecosystem must level up. We need more early-stage capital that doesn’t just follow, but leads. Equity financing must evolve to deliver not only dollars, but expertise, resources, and technology to nurture local champions. Understandably so, when they lead funding rounds, most Canadian VC firms will either focus on the pre-seed stage, where the power-law is magnified and placing many small bets is more important than bringing expertise, or the growth stages (Series B+) where significant risk is already behind and larger checks drive the outcomes. A paradigm shift is required. New organizations must emerge that add real value and aren’t afraid to take the lead at the Seed stage. This is why we are launching Amiral Ventures. Amiral Ventures is a new venture capital firm on a mission to empower Canada’s most ambitious founders with dynamic capital and scaling expertise, building the next generation of technology flagships with lasting societal impact. Vaisseau Amiral (French for Flagship): A ship or building that is recognized for its size and strength, making it the pride of a fleet or an organization As entrepreneurs ourselves, we have utmost respect for the founder journey. We don’t just invest, we aim to deserve the right to partner with them along the way. Amiral creates the ecosystem where visionary founders thrive, with capital, expertise, global networks, and technology to fuel their growth. We’ve built scale-ups, felt the entrepreneurial highs and lows, and now channel that experience into backing the founders solving the world’s toughest problems. Prosperity Decoded Backing Canadian founders at seed to series-a to drive enterprise productivity, sustainability & resilience The challenges we face, low productivity, climate urgency, and fragile infrastructure, are systemic. But they also represent one of the greatest investment junctures of our time. New enterprise technologies, powered by AI and software, can equip leaders with transformative, mission-critical solutions. Productivity. Canada’s productivity gap is real—our workers produce only ~70% of what their U.S. peers achieve. The answer isn’t more talk, it’s action: applied AI, automation, robotics, and digital platforms. We back Canadian founders building these solutions at home and scaling them worldwide. Sustainability. Profitability and environmental impact can no longer be at odds. The transition to renewables and the optimization of energy use are urgent. Software and AI will be the linchpins of this shift, from clean energy production to efficient consumption. Resilience. Supply chains, industries, and critical infrastructure are under strain. Building resilience means more autonomy, security, and sovereignty, enabled by smart industry, robotics, digital twins, cybersecurity and intelligent manufacturing. More than just capital. Founders-led and founders-backed. Amiral Ventures will focus on leading early-stage rounds between theSeed and Series A and will actively support companies to achieve a strong global position. Capital is a commodity, expertise is not. An integral part of our investment thesis is having a dedicated impact team that will create value post-investment. Our initial focus is helping portfolio companies expand globally and seize international opportunities to scale. Over time, Amiral’s impact team will operate like a service organization, combining internal expertise, external networks, and proprietary technology to empower founders. Our goal is clear: every dollar invested by Amiral should deliver a measurable impact on a founder’s trajectory. Beyond the Amiral team’s expertise, we are surrounding ourselves by an unprecedented group of investors who are themselves founders, CEOs, CTOs, CROs, and not only share our vision but are eager to roll up their sleeves to help our flagship companies. ​Building an enduring franchise We are proudly Québécois but our market is much wider. We believe that for Québec & Canada to succeed, we must expand beyond our borders just like the Admiral butterfly. Papillon Amiral (French for Admiral Butterfly): Emblem of Québec, it is known for its rapid flight, its impressive migration, resilience and its noble appearance. Building a dynamic, resilient, and cleaner economy means securing local ownership while scaling globally. Amiral is an investment firm with an entrepreneurial mindset, built to create value for the next generation of innovators. We stand on the shoulders of the Canadian venture pioneers who came before us. History will mark the early 2020s as an inflection point. Technologies once magical are now everyday tools. The means to create prosperity are in our hands. But good is no longer good enough. High-paying jobs, economic development, and new technologies are necessary but we must also increase Canadian ownership in our champion companies, deploy smarter capital, and elevate our ecosystem. The “Death Valley” for Canadian startups must be crossed. Ambitious founders are ready to take flight on the global stage. Let’s build the next generation of Canadian flagships.

WEX Venture Capital invests in early-stage companies focused on electric mobility, including fleet electrification, EV charging solutions, and energy management.WEX Venture Capital invests in early-stage companies focused on electric mobility, including fleet electrification, EV charging solutions, and energy management. Already a trusted advisor to fleet mobility customers, including more than 18 million vehicles serviced globally as of Q2 2023, WEX Venture Capital is focused on leading the commercial EV transition, and helping WEX customers move toward a mixed fleet future. Why partner with WEXAccess to our community of customers and partners WEX’s expertise in fleet mobility and payments Capital investment Why now is the time to engage in the energy transition Facing climate change and fluctuating oil prices, WEX has engaged in the transition toward sustainable energy. A March 2023 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report counsels that it is still possible to hold global warming to relatively safe levels, but accomplishing this will require: