SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Linse Capital, a San Juan, Puerto Rico-headquartered growth equity firm, today announced the successful close of $700 million in capital raised. The capital will be allocated across the firm’s flagship fund –– Linse Capital Fund I (LCFI) –– alongside two co-investment vehicles for portfolio companies Skydio and Verkada.
LCFI has a dedicated commitment of $563 million to invest in world-leading industrial technology companies.
Michael Linse, formerly a partner at Kleiner Perkins, founded Linse Capital in 2015. He and Bastiaan Janmaat manage the firm and previously worked together as investors in Goldman Sachs’ Special Situations Group.
Since the firm’s inception, Linse Capital has raised more than $1.1 billion in committed capital. Linse Capital is backed by more than 400 family office investors, in addition to leading investment firms including affiliates of Oppenheimer & Co. and investment arms of publicly traded companies across the transportation, energy, logistics and real estate industries, including Daimler Truck and Taiwan Mobile.
LCFI will embrace Linse Capital’s concentrated strategy of investing in a select handful of new companies per year, investing between $100 million and $400 million in each business over time. Linse Capital aims to become the largest or one of the largest shareholders at exit. Linse Capital was a leading early investor in ChargePoint (CHPT: NYSE), an electric vehicle infrastructure company operating the largest network of independently owned electric vehicle charging stations. ChargePoint went public in 2021, and Linse Capital was the largest shareholder at IPO.
“We are in the early innings of the fourth industrial revolution, where technological trends such as artificial intelligence and software-enabled hardware are bringing unprecedented innovation to industries that have traditionally been slower to innovate,” said Bastiaan Janmaat, Linse Capital managing director. “We are grateful for the support of the large LP network we have assembled. Most of all, it’s exciting to back the founders and change-makers building the companies that are at the forefront of this new paradigm.”
Driving The Fourth Industrial Revolution
Industrial technology was long overlooked by venture capitalists due to its idiosyncratic risks –– it can be capital intensive, can require building supply chains and actual production facilities, typically involves deep engineering, and regulatory factors can become significant tailwinds or headwinds. A company that can traverse those risks finds itself in a position where those same risks become a moat around their business.
These are also companies that tend to be transformational for their industries, leading to more efficient, faster, cheaper, cleaner processes. It takes an exceptional founding and management team to build that kind of business. Linse Capital seeks to identify, invest in and provide strategic support for these types of companies.
McKinsey estimates Industry 4.0 will rapidly expand in the next few years and provide $3.7 trillion in value creation by 2025. Governments are coming to realize that these are some of the world’s most important businesses to nurture. We are seeing growing support, including the recent U.S. Infrastructure and Jobs Act as well as the Inflation Reduction Act, which together mandate in excess of $1 trillion in spending, much of it going toward the products and technologies of leading industrial-technology companies.
Doubling Down Across the Portfolio
Linse Capital believes building a high conviction and concentrated portfolio is the right approach to investing in industrial technology companies. When the firm identifies a world-class industrial technology company, Linse Capital prioritizes deep involvement in the company and outsized follow-on investments over broadening the portfolio. Linse Capital’s current portfolio, spanning LCFI as well as prior funds, includes the following market leaders:
- ChargePoint (NYSE: CHPT), an electric vehicle charging technology provider.
- Redaptive, an energy-as-a-service provider that funds and installs energy-saving and energy-generating equipment.
- Valens (NYSE: VLN), a provider of semiconductor products enabling resilient high-speed connectivity over simple and low-cost infrastructure.
- Skydio, a U.S. drone manufacturer and world leader in autonomous flight leveraging breakthrough AI to create the world’s most intelligent flying machines for use by consumer, enterprise and government customers.
- Verkada, a company that builds physical security solutions that integrate seamlessly behind a single, cloud-based software platform.
About Linse Capital
Linse Capital is a growth equity firm that leverages multi-decade macro trends and deep sector knowledge to partner with a select number of entrepreneurs in the energy, mobility, logistics and real estate sectors, helping their businesses become world leaders in their respective industries. Linse Capital is headquartered in Puerto Rico and has raised $1.1 billion since inception. For more information, please visit www.linsecapital.com.
