EDP to invest 100 million euros in energy transition startups
The company is doubling the amount it is investing in innovative startups until 2025. EDP wants to invest in growth-stage startups and is looking for opportunities globally.
EDP Ventures, the venture capital arm of the EDP group, is today committing to doubling its investments in startups developing solutions to accelerate the energy transition to 100 million euros, up from 45 million euros already invested in the last decade.
The company is actively investing globally for startups in the scale-up phase with proven track records and with plans to accelerate their growth. EDP Ventures will now participate in Series B investment rounds - when a startup already has a successfully implemented business model and expressive revenues. EDP will also be able to invest in Series C and will maintain its traditional approach of investing in Seed stage startups and Series A. EDP plans to invest up to €10 million per company.
"At EDP, we are focused on finding solutions and technologies that will make a difference in a decarbonized and more sustainable future. As the electricity sector moves at unprecedented speed, we want to work with the most promising startups, with a clear focus on projects that represent growth opportunities. The coming years will be challenging for the energy transition, and we want to face them with the best ideas on a global level," says Ana Paula Marques, EDP Executive Board Member.
This commitment is aligned with the company's Strategic Plan 2021-2025, which plans for the doubling of EDP's capacity in wind and solar energy but also the development of increasingly efficient networks and the creation of more sustainability solutions for families and companies. To achieve these goals, the requirement for investment in innovation is clear.
Over the next few years, EDP wants to invest in companies with innovative solutions capable of impacting positively on various areas of the business. This commitment by EDP Ventures is global, mirroring the global footprint of EDP, which is now in 28 markets.
With an active investment team based in São Paulo, Madrid, and Lisbon, one of the objectives in this new phase is to strengthen investment activity in major global innovation centers such as the United States, Europe, Israel, and the Far East, supported in the latter case by EDP's recent investment in Singapore.
In the coming years, investment in innovation will be decisive to develop the technologies needed to meet the challenges of the coming decades. EDP's focus is on new renewable energy technologies, storage and flexibility solutions, modernization and optimization of generation and distribution assets, as well as distributed generation, electric mobility, green hydrogen and decarbonization.
About EDP Ventures
EDP Ventures is the venture capital company of EDP group. Since it made its first investment in 2011, it has invested €45 million in 35 startups with solutions applicable to the electricity sector. EDP Ventures was one of the first companies to invest in startups that later became global success stories, such as Feedzai, Principle Power and Net2Grid.
In 2021, EDP Ventures invested in startups with energy transition solutions, such as Yotta Energy, Relectrify and Voltbras.
