Veriten Closes Inaugural Energy Investment Fund
$85 Million NexTen Energy Solutions Fund Targets Trends Driving Energy over the Next Decade
HOUSTON, October 18, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Veriten, the energy research, investing, and strategy firm, announced today the closing of its debut fund, NexTen LP ("NexTen"), with $85 million in committed capital. The NexTen fund is highly complementary to Veriten’s mission of identifying and advancing reliable, sustainable, scalable, and economically viable solutions with minimal environmental impact in a constantly evolving and volatile energy landscape.
The fund has made five investments to date, partnering with high-quality businesses that align with Veriten’s views on the direction of energy over the next decade. Participants in the NexTen fund include select energy companies and financial institutions, current and former energy operations and finance professionals, family offices, and Veriten team members. The NexTen Advisory Board includes Jason Cansler, CEO of Birch Resources, Bob Gwin, former President and CFO of Anadarko Petroleum, and Marty Phillips, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Encap Investments.
"All of us at Veriten have a passion for energy broadly and recognize the complexity and importance of getting the world’s energy systems right in a very critical time. Our work at Veriten is in constant pursuit of understanding where the energy world is headed, with a practical and commercial focus on the next ten years. This work includes identifying the opportunities and challenges associated with societal ambitions, government policies, engineering and physical realities, and geopolitics, as well as the impact of new technologies, capital flows, and, importantly, financial returns," offered Veriten Founder & CEO Maynard Holt.
Founded in January 2022, Veriten partners with corporate and financial customers drawn from a full spectrum of energy, power, mining, industrial, and technology companies and provides custom research and strategic advice for management teams and boards. The NexTen fund is the latest addition to the Veriten platform and leverages the firm’s broad network and expertise to invest in private companies with the potential to capitalize on long-term energy solutions for consumers globally.
The firm’s leadership is comprised of its founder, Maynard Holt, Co-Founder and former CEO of the energy investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH), along with Jeff Tillery, former head of TPH Research, Arjun Murti, former head of Goldman Sachs Research, Mike Bradley, former head of TPH Capital Markets, and Todd Scruggs, former Treasurer and Vice President of Corporate Development at WPX Energy. Beyond the commercial efforts of the firm, two of the firm’s more well-known energy education efforts include its weekly "Close of Business Tuesday" ("COBT") podcast and "Super-Spiked" energy editorial. COBT has recorded over 215 episodes since March 2020, and Super-Spiked has been published weekly since November 2021.
"We have intentionally built a community of diverse perspectives that includes great friends, great energy thinkers, experienced energy leaders, and leading energy companies to create a powerful network and collaborative environment that we can call on," added Holt. "Sorting out where energy is headed will require thinking about all the angles. We are really excited about the team, the investors, and the partners we are bringing together to try and crack the code to the next ten years in energy," he added.
Todd Scruggs, Veriten’s Partner leading the NexTen fund, commented, "We look for companies that have strong leadership and partners, have developed products or services with existing customers that have broad applicability on trend with where we believe the energy world is going, and where Veriten and its partners can add value to the company."
The NexTen fund’s current investments include:
Amperon, the leader in AI-powered electricity analytics, provides mission-critical forecasts for businesses to navigate the energy complex and accelerate grid decarbonization.
Emrgy, a provider of baseload, carbon-free power utilizing small scale hydro generation technology in water infrastructure assets across the globe.
Mesa Natural Gas Solutions, a natural gas-powered distributed generation company focused on oil and gas as well as commercial and industrial remote power and power backup applications.
Orbital Sidekick, a satellite-based asset monitoring provider utilizing hyperspectral technology to help energy, government, and mining customers meet their sustainability and other goals.
Orennia, the leading data and analytics platform for energy transition investors and developers, with insights across solar, wind, carbon capture, storage, hydrogen, and renewable fuels projects.
"At Veriten, in addition to our commitment to providing public thought leadership through COBT, Super-Spiked, and Gener8, a podcast by Veriten’s Nuclear and Power Director Brett Rampal, we are focused on building a powerful commercial business partnering with companies across the energy spectrum and becoming an extension of their executive team to explore tactical questions, offer our perspectives, and compare notes on the energy outlook. As part of that work, we also frequently get pulled into longer-term strategic planning as energy-related and energy-influenced companies are wrestling with the complexity, opportunity, volatility, and hazards of this energy environment. Importantly, we are also investors, and with the addition of the NexTen fund to our platform, we find that nothing sharpens our views of where the energy world may be headed more than evaluating long-term commercial opportunities and investing our own capital," offered Jeff Tillery, a Veriten Partner and the firm’s COO.
"My own decision to un-retire and join Veriten as a full-time partner was an easy one. I have known and liked the team for a very long time, I am passionate about the mission of improving the global energy policy debate, I greatly enjoy the commercial debates around investing our own capital, and I personally thrive on visiting with boards and management teams regarding their go-forward strategic choices. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy in the future energy world," added Arjun Murti, Veriten Partner for Energy Macro and Policy.
"I love what the team is building at Veriten and think it has the chance to not only be highly successful but to provide intellectually honest information that helps companies, the country, and the world make better energy choices," added Greg Armstrong, co-founder and former CEO of Plains All American and a Veriten Senior Advisor.
Armstrong is joined on Veriten’s Senior Advisory Board by Naomi Boness of Stanford University, Leslie Beyer formerly of the Energy Workforce and Technology Council, Deborah Byers, formerly of Ernst & Young, and former U.S. Congressman Bill Flores.
Baker Botts L.L.P. served as legal counsel for NexTen.
For more information about Veriten, please visit their web page at www.veriten.com.
About Veriten
Veriten is a research, investing, and strategy firm that draws from its energy-focused network and knowledge platform to bring diverse perspectives to the long-term energy discussion, helping our industry partners and investors improve strategic decision-making. Additionally, we leverage our research and strategy work and apply that analysis to NexTen fund’s investment strategy. Independent and employee-owned, we are committed to truth in energy, strength through partnership, rigorous analysis and research, and intellectual honesty. Through public content, Veriten aims to educate, inform and collaborate with energy producers, energy consumers, academics, politicians, policymakers, and other open-minded individuals and organizations. Veriten distributes a videocast/podcast series called "Close of Business Tuesday" (or "COBT") which has been distributed since March 2020 to more than 25,000 subscribers weekly.
NexTen GP LLC and NexTen Management Company, affiliates of Veriten, serve as the general partner and investment adviser, respectively, to NexTen.
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