On Wednesday, Canadian institutional investment giant Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) announced a new co-investment partnership with bp ventures, the venture capital arm of energy major bp. The partnership will target sustainable energy ventures, and their first joint investment has been made in BTR Energy, a clean energy company whose technology enables electric vehicles to interact with electricity markets (a fast-developing sector known as “EV-to-grid”).
As part of the three-year investment collaboration, CDPQ and bp ventures will share investment opportunities and industry knowledge, focusing on innovations that can accelerate the energy transition. Potential areas of interest will include mobility electrification, deployment and adoption of renewable energy, batteries, biofuels and more.
The first CDPQ-bp ventures co-investment, which included additional co-investors Clean Energy Fuels, Innovatus Capital Partners, and SineWave Ventures, will support BTR Energy in growing its platform to help support the decarbonization of the transportation sector by using data to enable interactions between electric vehicles and electricity markets.
BTR Energy’s “Bridge” platform currently automates participation in low carbon fuels programs, like California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, by connecting EV manufacturers, fleet operators, and charging station networks to renewable electricity generators. BTR Energy will use the new capital to scale its existing operations and expand into new markets, including emerging clean fuels markets in Canada, the UK and Europe.
“Now more than ever, investors are directing capital toward innovations that will allow us to fight and adapt to climate change. CDPQ is delighted to collaborate with a world-class player such as bp ventures to invest in energy technologies and companies that are accelerating the transition toward a low-carbon economy,” said Geneviève Bouthillier, Managing Director, Private Mid-Market Companies and Stewardship Investing at CDPQ. “Our co-investment in BTR Energy is a good example of what we aim to do with bp ventures: invest in promising companies that have demonstrated their capability to have a concrete impact, in order to propel their growth.”
“BTR Energy is exactly the type of game-changing business we look to invest in at bp ventures,” said bp ventures Managing Partner Nacho Gimenez. “They identified a value chain that could increase the clean electricity used in EV charging, developed an innovative solution to make it work and successfully deployed it. We welcome BTR Energy to our portfolio and look forward to working with the team, exploring ways to expand the company outside of its Californian base. It’s also our first investment with CDPQ, and an exciting first step for a collaboration that through shared knowledge and opportunities will help us continue to accelerate innovation across the entire energy spectrum.”
“Our partnership with bp ventures and CDPQ will enable us to strengthen our core capabilities, expand into new low-carbon fuels markets in North America and Europe, and launch new, proprietary products designed to further reduce emissions by directly engaging EV drivers,” BTR Energy CEO Jack Barrow said. “Nearly a dozen EV manufacturers participate in programs like California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard through the BTR Energy platform because we have a unique, expert understanding of the regulations and requirements, and because we provide a single, automated point of access to multiple programs. With this investment, we will continue to outperform in these markets while also committing resources to support new electrification initiatives led by our clients.”
This collaboration with bp ventures is part of CDPQ’s Innovation in Stewardship Investing (ISI) platform, created in 2020 to pursue opportunities related to the transition toward a low-carbon economy and to develop expertise in areas related to the sustainable economy. The ISI platform currently comprises partnerships with S2G Ventures and Energize Ventures and is part of a larger climate strategy at CDPQ, as well as a commitment to achieving a 60 percent reduction in the carbon intensity of the total portfolio by 2030.
