Technology is evolving faster than ever before. It creates the opportunity for new products, business models, and bringing products more quickly to market. But what does it mean for industries such as mobility and energy? I spoke to Girish Nadkarni, the CEO of TotalEnergies Ventures, to find out. TotalEnergies Ventures focuses on finding, funding, and fostering high-potential startups that will create a low carbon future. This encompasses areas such as renewables, distributed energy, new mobility, energy access, energy storage, bio-plastics and recycling, AI, and IoT.
The challenges for B2B startups in the Venture Capital space
According to Nadkarni, success in the B2B space is markedly different from B2C. Industrial B2B startups disrupt large established companies, and traditional industries like utilities and manufacturing. They often focus on internal transformation or introducing new products to mission-critical functions and tasks. Therefore, startups need experience in the industries they aim to disrupt and support from a solid network to open doors. TotalEnergies Ventures focuses on later-stage investments. Nadkarni explains: Over the last couple of years, TotalEnergies Ventures have negotiated 25 different pilot projects and agreements and has another 55 under negotiation. According to Nadkarni:
Failure and barriers to innovation
Nadkarni sees failure as part of progress for startups as it provides a learning opportunity. He notes that: His favorite example is when desktop computers first came to people’s homes: “People said, ‘Oh, now I can store my recipes conveniently.’ Well, yes, you can, but that’s not leveraging the power of the computer.” In technology, being too early is sometimes the same thing as being wrong. Nadkarni explains:
The future of venture capital is green energy
Total Energies is a founding member of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, a CEO-led initiative that aims to accelerate the industry response to climate change. Nadkarni has a significant interest in hydrogen infrastructure and is leading an initiative with Air Liquide to raise a 1.5 BEUR clean hydrogen infrastructure fund. He notes: Nadkarni assets that large companies are recognizing the need to get lower their carbon emissions: Then you need the weekly SHIFT newsletter in your life. Click here to sign up.
