Energy

The Opportunity

The global energy transition requires $4 trillion in annual investment through 2030. Renewable energy is now the cheapest source of new electricity generation in 90% of the world. But the grid infrastructure designed for centralized fossil fuel plants cannot support a distributed renewable future without fundamental redesign.

Over 750 million people worldwide lack access to reliable electricity. In the U.S., energy burden — the percentage of income spent on energy — is three times higher for low-income households than for median-income households. The energy transition isn't just a climate imperative. It's an equity imperative.

The companies that solve grid modernization, energy storage, and distributed access will capture a share of the largest infrastructure buildout in human history.

Our Thesis

The energy transition will be won at the grid edge, not at the power plant. Ivystone targets companies building the distributed infrastructure that makes renewable energy reliable, affordable, and accessible in the communities where it matters most.

We believe the highest returns in energy will come from founders who treat energy access as a market opportunity, not a charity case. Companies that serve underserved communities profitably — because those communities have the highest energy burden, the worst infrastructure, and the most to gain from modern energy technology.

We focus on software-defined energy systems, advanced storage, and grid services that turn distributed energy resources into managed, monetizable assets.

Sub-Sectors We're Watching

• Distributed energy resource management — Software platforms that aggregate rooftop solar, battery storage, and EV chargers into virtual power plants that sell services back to the grid
• Community solar and shared energy — Models that bring renewable energy benefits to renters, apartment dwellers, and households that can't install rooftop solar
• Grid modernization and resilience — Hardware and software that upgrade aging grid infrastructure to handle bidirectional power flows, extreme weather, and distributed generation
• Energy storage systems — Next-generation battery chemistries, long-duration storage, and thermal storage solutions that solve renewable intermittency
• Energy access for emerging markets — Pay-as-you-go solar, micro-grid operators, and clean cooking solutions for the 750 million people without reliable electricity

Requests for Startups

1. Virtual power plant software — Build the operating system for distributed energy resources. Aggregate thousands of residential batteries, solar arrays, and EV chargers into a dispatchable fleet that participates in wholesale energy markets.

2. Community solar marketplace — A platform that makes subscribing to a community solar project as easy as signing up for a streaming service. Handle the billing, credit allocation, and subscriber management so developers can focus on building projects.

3. Grid-edge intelligence — Deploy sensors and AI at the distribution grid level to predict equipment failures, optimize power flows, and prevent outages before they happen. Utilities spend $50B+ annually on grid maintenance — most of it reactive.

4. Long-duration energy storage — Non-lithium storage technologies (iron-air, flow batteries, compressed air, thermal) that can store energy for 8-100+ hours. The grid needs this to reach 80%+ renewable penetration.

5. Energy-as-a-service for commercial buildings — Retrofit commercial buildings with solar, storage, and efficiency upgrades at zero upfront cost, funded by the energy savings. Target the 5.9 million commercial buildings in the U.S., most of which are terribly inefficient.

6. EV charging for multi-family housing — Solve the charging desert in apartment complexes. 44 million U.S. households rent — and most have no access to EV charging. Build the hardware, software, and financing model to change that.

7. Clean energy workforce development — The energy transition needs 10 million new workers globally. Build training and placement platforms that fast-track workers from fossil fuel industries into clean energy roles.