Launches Joint Venture for Energy Industry Decarbonization Platform with BP Energy Partners
CAMBRIDGE, MA, and AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS - 9 February 2022 - Context Labs, an Enterprise Data Fabric technology company in Cambridge, MA, and Amsterdam, announced today the closing of USD $28M million in funding with strategic investors BP Energy Partners (BPEP), Equinor Ventures, KPMG LLP (US), Shamrock Ventures, Neglected Climate Opportunities LLC, and i(x) investments.
Concurrently, Context Labs announced a joint venture (Context Labs Energy) with BPEP to provide a comprehensive trusted-data solution for the energy sector for decarbonization measurement, monitoring, and mitigation. The company’s DaaS™ (Decarbonization as a Service™) platform, based on the Context Labs Immutably™ technology stack, aims to leverage its leading machine learning/AI-driven capabilities with the deep industry relationships developed by BPEP over decades.
“We’re excited about the validation and support of these globally significant firms in our mission to provide transparency and trust in the data that underlies the march toward global decarbonization,” stated Context Labs Founder and CEO, Dan Harple. “Our Immutably™ data fabric platform enables trusted data, digitally provenanced and cryptographically attested, as a bedrock for Climate Tech. This trusted ‘supply chain of data’ will reduce greenwashing, transform ESG into a data-driven quantitative tool, and accelerate the deployment of trillions in capital targeted at addressing climate change.”
This announcement of strategic investors and joint venture partners comes together at an opportune time following COP26 and the increased demand from energy sector stakeholders to apply “asset-grade” guidance to their disclosure and transition to net zero. Context Labs’ data fabric tech stack, leveraging a contextualized distributed ledger, is central to supporting this acceleration. Rendering the provenance and veracity of the data as irrefutably trusted will better inform decisions directed at the net zero transition.
“Energy sector participants want to make practical and rewarding investments that demonstrate a clear commitment to carbon reduction. Those investments must promote transparency and trust with stakeholders to be successful through the energy transition,” says Nathan Brawn, Managing Director of BP Energy Partners. “We are excited to be partnered with the world-class team at Context Labs to deliver a robust solution that meets these growing demands for environmental performance, compliance, and reporting.”
“Equinor Ventures is pleased to invest in Context Labs as they develop digital tools to support decarbonization and certification in energy markets. High-quality, verifiable information about energy systems is essential to driving the energy transition,” says Timothy Krysiek, Managing Director of Equinor Ventures Americas.
“All organizations are on a unique decarbonization journey, and by working with Context Labs technology solutions, KPMG IMPACT will best help leaders move from strategy to implementation and transformation to meet their ESG goals,” said Rob Fisher, KPMG US IMPACT Leader. “Context Labs’ blockchain technology will enhance the sophistication and rigor of ESG reporting, helping organizations actively measure and tell their ESG story to all stakeholders to gain an ESG advantage.”
“The Context Labs mission began with our founder’s research at MIT on innovation ecosystems, advancing a framework for change called Pentalytics™. Context Labs has applied this framework in its Immutably™ enterprise data fabric technology, to show the global interconnection of climate data. This, in effect, is building a ‘climate graph’ of the planet, that interconnects companies and their locations with their climate and environmental impacts. This creation of new context-based knowledge can now be rapidly commercialized with our world-class partners to accelerate global decarbonization,” stated Bruce Hathaway, Partner, Shamrock Ventures.
Ramsay Ravenel, manager of Neglected Climate Opportunities, added: “In a world of increasingly bold claims about climate progress, it will be important to identify and track real progress, not PR. Context Labs will help customers, partners and investors to do precisely that.”
The Right Honourable Nick Hurd, Chairman of i(x) investments, commented: “We are pleased to be an investor in Context Labs. It is at the forefront of environmentally responsible business investment with its rigorous industry-standard benchmarks for carbon reduction activity, something the world direly needs.
“i(x) investments believes in Context Labs’ ability to drive through verifiable change in energy transition and sustainability in the built environment. We look forward to seeing Context Labs continue its impact thanks to this new round of investment from all its strategic partners. We are eager to explore opportunities for i(x) investments and Context Labs to collaborate on scalable businesses.”
About Context Labs
Context Labs provides solutions for customers who demand trusted provenance in their data, tracked veracity through the data’s supply chain of use, and a requirement for trusted insights. Its purpose is to provide the world’s trusted data fabric platform for asset-grade data (AGD), using its ImmutablyTM Data Fabric platform, deploying machine learning, AI-driven asset-grade analytics (AGA), and cryptographic blockchain technologies, for context-driven insights. It is dedicated to sourcing, organizing, and contextualizing the world’s ESG information, enabling data to become trusted, shared, and utilized as AGD to provide insights and solutions through AGA that informs markets. Context Labs was formed out of MIT research and its leadership team has been instrumental in the at-scale growth of the Internet, in prior companies.
Contact: press@contextlabs.com | www.contextlabs.com | @contextlabsbv
Strategic Partnerships and Investors
BP Energy Partners, LLC (BPEP), is a Dallas, Texas-based growth-oriented investment firm. Since inception, BPEP has made investments in companies that provide practical solutions focused on decarbonization and environmental sustainability. BPEP is actively investing in new opportunities that accelerate energy transition and decarbonization efforts within the energy sector and other hard-to-decarbonize sectors including utilities, manufacturing, chemicals, metals & mining, materials, agriculture, transportation, and recycling. BPEP currently manages over $560 million in committed capital. More information can be found at www.bpenergypartners.com.
Equinor Ventures is Equinor’s corporate venture capital arm dedicated to investing in ambitious early phase and growth companies. We believe that the innovation, creativity, and agility of start-ups can drive change, and transition the energy industry towards a low carbon future. Equinor is a broad energy company with more than 21,000 colleagues committed to providing affordable energy for societies worldwide and taking a leading role in the energy transition. For more information, please visit Equinor Ventures.
KPMG LLP is the U.S. member firm of the KPMG global organization of independent professional services firms providing audit, tax, and advisory services. The KPMG global organization operates in 145 countries and territories and has close to 236,000 people working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee. KPMG International Limited and its related entities do not provide services to clients.
KPMG is widely recognized for being a great place to work and build a career. Our people share a sense of purpose in the work we do, and a strong commitment to community service, inclusion and diversity, and eradicating childhood illiteracy. Learn more at www.kpmg.com/us.
Shamrock Ventures is the founding lead investor in Context Labs BV. Operating its own private IP and business model incubator, in Amsterdam and Cambridge, MA, the firm works with leading inventors, entrepreneurs, and technologies to create innovative and sustainable businesses that create global impact.
The Grantham Environmental Trust’s Neglected Climate Opportunities LLC
Neglected Climate Opportunities, LLC is a mission-driven venture capital vehicle that is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust, a U.S. public charity. NCO invests in climate mitigation efforts that redesign energy systems, improve soil health, spare the ocean from acidification, and directly recapture carbon from the atmosphere. The Grantham Environmental Trust and its affiliate, the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, believe that innovation and technology are the best hope for an enduring future. The Grantham Trust and Foundation have, for over 15 years, focused almost exclusively on climate change mitigation and currently support over eighty grantees and forty portfolio companies around the world.
i(x) investments, founded in 2015, is a permanently capitalized holding company for investors who want to create long-term economic growth in combination with positive, measurable social impact. i(x) believes the world’s biggest problems are also the biggest market opportunities and invests in areas of human need. i(x)’s current holdings focus on the Energy Transition and Sustainability in the Built Environment. The company uses a multi-strategy investment approach through the entire capital structure. For more information, please visit i(x) investments.