innogy Innovation Hub partners with BootstrapLabs to invest in AI and energy

innogy New Ventures LLC, part of the innogy Innovation Hub and an affiliate of innogy SE, a leading German energy company, announced today that it will partner with BootstrapLabs, a leading venture capital firm focused on Applied Artificial Intelligence (AI), for AI and Energy venture investments.

Based in Berlin, Germany, Innogy aims to radically innovate energy to unlock a smart, responsible and people-powered future.  The company’s mission is to drive game-changing ideas that can revolutionize an existing business model or industry permanently. Using a portfolio approach, they invest in startups that have already demonstrated their value in the market and have the potential for exponential growth, with the innogy Innovation Hub as their partner of choice.

Founded in 2008, BootstrapLabs is a leading Venture Capital firm based in Silicon Valley and focused on Applied Artificial Intelligence. BootstrapLabs is uncovering the future by investing in Applied AI. Key sectors of interest include Transportation, Logistic, FinTech, Future of Work (FoW), Security, Internet of Things (IoT), HealthTech, and others.

The Innovation Hub has four geographical centers of gravity in Berlin, London, Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv. These locations enable us to engage with highly relevant innovation ecosystems and be present in areas where business models are being rethought and cutting-edge technologies are being developed and deployed. They focus on ‘Machine Economy’, ‘Smart & Connected’, ‘Disruptive Digital’ and ‘Cyber Ventures’.

“As a venture capital firm focused on Applied AI, we believe that the advances made from deep learning and machine learning algorithms will revolutionize both the demand and supply side of the energy economy. With about 22 million customers and activities in 15 countries, innogy is the perfect partner to help us validate use cases quickly and scale our venture investments globally,” said Nicolai Wadstrom, Founder and Managing Partner of BootstrapLabs.

As part of the strategic collaboration, the innogy Innovation Hub’s Palo Alto outpost has invested an initial sum of $5 million in BootstrapLabs’ Applied AI Funds and will gain access to BootstrapLabs’ decades of AI technology expertise and global community of 40,000 Applied AI experts, entrepreneurs, and developers.

Together the companies bring a unique combination of Applied AI and Energy industry domain expertise to tackle the world’s most difficult energy challenges, such as industrial manufacturing sustainability, the management of autonomous electric vehicle fleets, cybersecurity, and smart / connected homes and cities.

“At the innogy Innovation Hub, we believe that AI will fundamentally change every industry – including energy. Our task is to seek out new business models, form promising partnerships and test new ideas that will shape the energy market of the future. BootstrapLabs is an ideal partner for us due to their focus on Applied Artificial Intelligence, and together we are looking forward to co-creating the future of energy.” Thomas Birr, SVP Innovation & Business Transformation, innogy SE and CEO of the innogy Innovation Hub

BootstrapLabs and the innogy Innovation Hub will coordinate globally to build the largest artificial intelligence community for energy ecosystems, and provide a combination of capital and support to Applied AI startups that reimagine the future of energy production, distribution and management across decentralized and interconnected energy services for consumers, machines, enterprises, and public sector agencies.

innogy SE is a leading German energy company, with revenues of around €43 billion (2017), more than 42,000 employees and activities in 15 countries across Europe. With its three business segments Renewables, Grid & Infrastructure and Retail, innogy addresses the requirements of a modern, decarbonized, decentralized and digital energy world. Its activities focus on its about 22 million customers, and on offering them innovative and sustainable products and services which enable them to use energy more efficiently and improve their quality of life.