News

A new investment fund powered by PGE Ventures is being established

Energy Research Capital (ERC) is a pre-seed fund which will be established within the BRIdge Alfa program. Financial resources to set up this fund, will come from the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBiR) and PGE Ventures Ltd. The ERC’s budget is planned to be PLN 40 million. PGE Ventures provides ERC with financial support, but also with a know-how transfer in terms of PGE Group’s operations.

The fund will focus on technologies connected with energy sector, such as: e-mobility, renewable energy sources, methods of optimizing energy network management and ICT solutions supporting mining sector. The fund will also search for startups offering solutions based on Big Data and IoT, which fit into the conception of Smart Cities, Smart Transport and Smart Industry. The fund intends to verify and evaluate pre-seed R&D projects. In addition, projects which are in the fund’s area of interest, fit also into the Strategy for Responsible Development and are innovative on a global scale.

The ERC fund will be managed by the experienced team, supported by specialists with many years of experience in R&D projects commercialization, technology transfer and capital markets. Tomasz Ferenz will be a head of the fund’s management team.

PGE Ventures actively benefits from a financial leverage available in the BRIdge Alfa program. Let me remind, that one of the objectives set in the PGE Ventures investment strategy, was to establish external investment fund within the available programs of the Polish Development Fund and the National Centre for Research and Development. Now, we set up our first of this type fund together with NCBiR and the ERC’s management team. Thanks to the projects that the ERC fund is focused on, we are also present at the earliest stage of startups’ development. Our goal is to achieve a synergy between investments conducted through the ERC fund and PGE Ventures. – said Piotr Czak, CEO of PGE Ventures

PGE Ventures’ new investments

As a result of the first edition of a scouting program, PGE Ventures has invested in PiMerge and Scanway in January 2018. These companies were the first that joined the PGE Ventures’ investment portfolio. Another three startups that were at that time in the evaluation process, have just been positively recommended to sign investment agreements. Lerta, Altlight and Abyss Glass are new portfolio companies of the dynamically developing PGE Ventures fund.

All three startups fit into PGE Ventures’ investment areas and meet a majority of the fund’s investment criteria. Startups’ areas of operation are corresponding to the broad value chain of the PGE Capital Group. Solutions provided by startups can help to develop energy storage and Demand Side Response systems, as well as improve PGE’s customers’ life, while extending an offer of sales companies.

New startups in our investment portfolio prove, that we are implementing the investment strategy of our fund with a great success. The development of PGE Ventures’ investment portfolio after the year of the fund’s operation also shows, that we are reaching ambitious goals we have set for ourselves. We are pleased that next startups will be provided with our financial support. We are building our investment portfolio in the way that enables startups to learn from each other and take advantages of emerging synergies – said Piotr Czak, CEO of PGE Ventures

Lerta Ltd. develops a platform that enables digital transformation of power utilities. Basing on own hardware, software and AI solutions, Lerta’s platform enables to measure and analyze electricity consumption profile of households and business customers. The goal of the Lerta’s platform is to make the entire energy value chain more effective and to implement new business models based on Smart Home, Virtual Power Plants (VPP) and Demand Side Response systems.

I am pleased to welcome new shareholders of Lerta: PGE Ventures and Valuetech Seed. These funds convinced us with their attitude to support Lerta’s development. I have a strong conviction, that the link between our product and PGE’s position on the polish energy market, will allow further and even more dynamic development of Lerta, especially on foreign markets. – said Borys Tomala, CEO of Lerta

Altlight Ltd. wants to put on the market high quality Smart Home products based on the cutting-edge technology with a possibility of modular connection. Thanks to these products, potential user can receive information about the electricity consumption of particular devices. As a result, this will allow users to control their electricity bills. In addition, mobile application will make possible to remotely control of electric devices and lighting, so the user can set different scenarios of electricity consumption.

We designed a system which have many convenient functionalities and is easy to use. People who want to use smart devices at their homes or offices, not always want to be experts in terms of its service. Home automation should be intuitive and bring savings, not costs. We hope, that Altlight will positively influence the way people perceive Smart Home solutions. – added Kamil Sumera, CEO of Altlight.

Abyss Glass Group Ltd. is a producer and distributor of interactive mirrors that can be used as an innovative and effective marketing and information medium. Interactive mirrors help to increase an involvement of clients in a natural and non-invasive way, basing on the surprise effect. As a part of the cooperation with PGE Ventures, Abyss Glass will have a possibility to extend its products’ portfolio within the area of Smart Home and Customer Service. These are one of PGE’s areas of interest as well.

The cooperation undertaken with PGE Ventures will accelerate a development of our company. Thanks to the PGE Ventures’ financial support and the experience of its team, Abyss Glass will certainly reach another level of its development. First of all, we are focused  on investments connected with human resources and R&D. We want our mirrors to have additional and even more advanced functionalities. As a result, they will be interesting for the customers from the Smart Home, construction and retail sectors. We are proud that after two years of operation, we got positive feedback from the one of the largest polish power utilities. As a polish startup, we have ambitions to sale our product on global markets. We believe this goal is achievable in a short term with PGE Ventures’ support. – said Arkadiusz Adamek, CEO of Abyss Glass