CSL Ventures: Partner to Early-Stage Energy and Industrial Technology Startups
The Energy and Industrial sectors are entering an era where digital technological innovation has become essential to facilitate cost reduction, efficiency improvement and meet new ESG goals. In this article, CSL Ventures highlights how there is a growing need to provide long-term sustainable capital, operational knowledge and guidance to emerging Energy and Industrial venture technology companies.
CSL Ventures was launched in August 2019 with the objective to enable leading entrepreneurs build successful enterprises by providing capital, deep industry connections and technology development and operational expertise.
CSL Ventures was launched in August 2019 with the objective to enable leading entrepreneurs build successful enterprises by providing capital, deep industry connections and technology development and operational expertise.
About Us
The energy industry is entering an era where technological innovation has become essential to facilitate cost reduction, efficiency improvement, and meet new environmental and social goals. In this environment, there is a growing need to provide long-term sustainable capital, operational knowledge and guidance to emerging energy technology companies.
CSL Ventures was launched with the objective of addressing the rapidly evolving technical needs of the energy industry and becoming the partner of choice for leading entrepreneurs and executives whether pursuing first capital for a start-up or later stage business development.
CSL Ventures was launched with the objective of addressing the rapidly evolving technical needs of the energy industry and becoming the partner of choice for leading entrepreneurs and executives whether pursuing first capital for a start-up or later stage business development.
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DEAL SOURCING: Leveraging CSL’s extensive partners’ network to tap into opportunities from all over the world
ACCESS TO CSL'S PORTFOLIO COMPANIES: Testing technologies and facilitating trials with CSL’s portfolio companies STRONG RELATIONSHIPS: Close ties with the energy investment community and several E&P companies (super-majors, IOCs, NOCs, mid and small-sized operators) OPERATIONALLY FOCUSED AND FINANCIALLY DRIVEN: Investment team’s extensive digital, operations and finance experience SUCCESSFUL TRACK RECORD OF BUILDING, SCALING AND EXITING DE NOVO COMPANIES: Incubated 18 de novos across the entire Oil and Gas value chain, providing CSL with experience with early stage ventures that is second-to-none vis-a-vis its peers |
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INVESTMENT APPROACH
The CSL Ventures team is leveraging CSL’s deep domain expertise in OFS along with a network of potential customers and advisors. This collaboration allows us to focus on already proven technologies and helps produce a quicker ‘time-to-market’ than typical energy technology investments. We are interested in capital efficient sub-sectors that can be proven and deployed in a modular way without a large footprint of people, equipment and inventory and the ability to avoid commoditized heavy iron segments in the following focus areas:
INVESTMENT CRITERIA
Industry Focus: CSL Ventures targets investments in innovative businesses creating technological advancements which can increase efficiency, reduce costs and meet rapidly changing environmental and social goals. We identify opportunities early and focus on Series A/B investments.
Investment Size: Our typical check size ranges from $500K-$5MM, although we are opportunistically flexible in our approach.
The CSL Ventures team is leveraging CSL’s deep domain expertise in OFS along with a network of potential customers and advisors. This collaboration allows us to focus on already proven technologies and helps produce a quicker ‘time-to-market’ than typical energy technology investments. We are interested in capital efficient sub-sectors that can be proven and deployed in a modular way without a large footprint of people, equipment and inventory and the ability to avoid commoditized heavy iron segments in the following focus areas:
- Software and Big Data
- IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things)
- Data Analytics
- Field Hardware Technologies
- Applied Material Science and Chemical Sciences
- Applied Grid Power and Energy Storage
INVESTMENT CRITERIA
Industry Focus: CSL Ventures targets investments in innovative businesses creating technological advancements which can increase efficiency, reduce costs and meet rapidly changing environmental and social goals. We identify opportunities early and focus on Series A/B investments.
Investment Size: Our typical check size ranges from $500K-$5MM, although we are opportunistically flexible in our approach.
- We collaborate with management teams to identify opportunities that may require a smaller check size but show a path for future growth.
- The expected holding period for our investments is 5 to 7 years.
Key Principals
IMRAN KIZILBASH
Managing Director |
ABHINAV JAIN
Managing Director |
Advisory Board
KEN ARNOLD
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STEVEN EMMERICH
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DR. RAM SHENOY
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ARIC ZUREK
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Venture Partners / Advisors
OMAR ABOU-SAYED
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VASU GURUSWAMY
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JEFF KAVANAUGH
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ABHISHEK KUMAR
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SANJAYA SOOD
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Portfolio
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Connectus Global is a leading solutions provider for process automation, worker safety and real-time location monitoring applications across industrial and energy sectors. With an integrated suite of digital workforce management and business continuity systems, the company’s domestically and internationally deployed solutions work to enhance industrial safety, operational efficiency and crisis recovery planning. |
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DeepIQ is a provider of a software application called DataStudio (with a very simple drag and drop interface) that easily extracts and ingests large volumes of data (time series, geospatial, relational, structured etc.) from various IT and OT sources, moves it to the cloud, helps with data engineering / preparation / management and supports with detailed data analytics.
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GoExpedi combines an e-commerce platform with an innovative supply chain model and is re-inventing rig servicing for the North American oilfields. It has created a fully on-line, rapid-delivery means of supplying critical parts to keep rigs up-and-running 24/7 and provides over 200,000 critical parts and supplies, with complete transparency on price, supplier choice, and availability through their online website.
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Machfu grew out of a simple idea that developing and maintaining applications in the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) world should be as easy as it is in the desktop or the smartphone world. Machfu brings edge-to-enterprise connectivity to existing industrial infrastructure that can be deployed and scaled quickly. Rapid and highly secure application development increases productivity and improves operations as customers can easily build applications that integrate their existing technology and equipment with the cloud.
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MGB Oilfield Solutions is an engineering and manufacturing company providing surface equipment design, refurbishing and manufacturing services for more cost effective, more efficient and safer hydraulic fracturing operations. Company’s equipment technology, engineering, and refurbishment programs help to improve E&P operators & service providers margins by reducing frac-spreads’ CAPEX and OPEX, mitigating HSE risks while improving crew efficiency, and reducing the carbon emissions from the fracking operations with ergonomic designs and proven new technologies that improve the overall efficiency of the fracking operations.
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RedList provides field service management software through a cloud-based mobile ready application to streamline workflows and optimize the performance of heavy equipment and crews. The features include real-time communication and reporting, location mapping, planning and dispatch, work order management, preventive maintenance scheduling, digital inspections, and route optimization. It also helps digital enablement of small-to-medium sized enterprises operating in the energy, industrial, and construction verticals.
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Tourmaline Labs is an AI mobility company that enables enterprises to drive better business outcomes and more safely and efficiently manage their transportation workforce, vehicles, and networks of fleets. The AI-powered solution provides automated, self-managed programs with little to no human intervention, giving the kind of insights that the customers need in order to make better business decisions to reduce costs, improve safety and compliance, and run operations more efficiently.
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WorldData.AI is a provider of one of the world's largest data repository of trends and statistics (3.3+ billion data sets) that correlates internal enterprise data with external factors such as weather, traffic, consumer purchasing patterns, GDP etc. to enable better business decisions.
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Zdaly is a provider of a proprietary data intelligence platform that integrates information from disparate internal and external data sources to deliver real-time insights for project planning, demand forecasting, pricing optimization, etc.
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