Co=Creation=Capital’re all in this to build cool technologies and services that are spectacularly financially successful.   And they are all fighting common enemies — namely mediocrity and failure. In this fight, do you want colleagues sweating with you in the trenches? Because they aren't just a monthly board member or a mentor.   Traditional VCs provide people connections and monthly board advice, but are time prohibited from providing more.   Incubators provide classes, mentors, and infrastructure, but play a numbers game, making many bets to find a winner at long odds.   They change the odds. They invest, they join the team, and they work together. They work with only 1 to 2 companies per person. And their experience has been that they transform a 20% chance of success into a 75% chance.

Co=Creation=Capital

Sinovation Ventures is a full-service venture capital firm that actively invests in the Chinese technology market.

Sinovation Ventures

State Farm Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in companies that disrupt conventional modes of operation to help each of individual live smarter and safer lives.

State Farm Ventures

Whisker Labs

Whisker Labs develops cutting-edge sensor technology to protect families, homes, and communities by predicting and preventing electrical fires in homes while monitoring the resiliency and safety of the U.S. electrical grid. Its flagship solution, Ting, draws on decades of electromagnetic and atmospheric sensor expertise combined with AI to detect electrical faults in the home and across the grid. Through a single DIY sensor plugged into a wall outlet inside the home, Ting enables intelligent detection, localization, and mitigation of hazards before they can start a fire. Ting is proven to prevent four out of five home electrical fires, reducing home fire losses and saving lives across the U.S. daily. As one of the fastest-growing grid IoT networks - with 3/4 million homes protected today and 50k homes joining the service monthly - the Ting Sensor Network has evolved into a vital data source supporting grid resiliency. For more information, visit www.whiskerlabs.com and www.tingfire.com.

Whisker Labs is a company focused on electrical fire prevention through its flagship product, Ting. Ting is a smart plug-in sensor that monitors a home's entire electrical system for electrical fire hazards. It uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze high-frequency signals and detect micro-arcing, loose connections, and faulty wiring or devices that could lead to electrical fires.

Whisker Labs Releases and Analyzes Exclusive Electrical Fire Data

IN² at 10 Years: Cohort 1 Participant Turns Up Heat on Fire Prevention

This Device Saved My House From an Electrical Fire. And You Might Be Able to Get It for Free.

How Whisker Lab Gen 2 Ting Sensors Help Prevent Electrical Fires

Leading the next generation in fire prevention

State Farm to Provide Customers Free Electrical Fire Technology That Detects Electrical Hazards before They Spark

Ting Home Protection Service

State Farm® offers customers more than one million free Ting sensors to help prevent electrical fires

New Data: Home Electrical Fire Prevention

2023 Data Analysis Update: Internet of Things (IoT) System Preventing 4 of 5 Home Electrical Fires

Smart & Secure Fire Prevention

Smart Homes: Energy & Water Solutions

vipHomeLink Partners with Whisker Labs to Offer Ting Fire Prevention Program and Power Outage Alerts

State Farm

State Farm is providing eligible clients with free Whisker Labs Ting sensors to assist detect and stop potential electrical fires.

Companies that develop real-time energy usage and efficiency monitoring solutions and generate energy reports. Includes companies that offer demand management solutions to monetize excess capacity.

Whisker Labs is a company focused on electrical fire prevention through its flagship product, Ting. Ting is a smart plug-in sensor that monitors a home's entire electrical system for electrical fire hazards. It uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze high-frequency signals and detect micro-arcing, loose connections, and faulty wiring or devices that could lead to electrical fires.
Ting takes 30 million measurements per second to identify anomalies and arcing signatures that indicate potential fire risks. If a hazard is detected, the homeowner receives notifications through the Ting app with guidance on addressing the issue. Ting can differentiate between normal arcing and hazardous situations, reducing false alarms.
The technology combines proprietary hardware, digital signal processing capabilities, and a growing signal library correlated with verified electrical fire hazards. Whisker Labs' data shows that Ting prevents approximately 80% of electrical fires across hundreds of thousands of monitored homes.
In addition to detecting internal electrical hazards within the home, Ting identifies utility-related fire hazards originating from the local electrical grid infrastructure, such as loose neutrals, high/low voltage issues, and failing transformers. This unique capability helps improve grid resilience and situational awareness for utilities.
Beyond fire prevention, Ting often identifies faulty home systems or appliances essential for safe living conditions, enabling proactive repairs or replacements before failures occur. The company is leveraging its growing dataset to develop AI/ML models for predicting home fire risk based on various factors.

Swell Energy is a provider of virtual power plant (VPP) programs that aggregate and optimize distributed energy resources (DERs) such as rooftop solar and battery storage systems. The company's GridAmp software platform utilizes AI and machine learning to coordinate these DERs across the grid, intelligently meeting fluctuating energy demand. This helps utilities deliver cleaner and more reliable energy to customers while reducing dependence on fossil fuel peaker plants.
Swell partners with utilities, customers, and third-party service providers to create VPPs. Through these programs, customers receive bill savings, compensation (GridRevenue), and enhanced energy security. In return, their solar-powered batteries are integrated into a network that supports grid reliability, stability, and potential cost reductions for utilities.
As of November 2022, Swell had contracted 600 MWh of VPPs across 26,000 energy storage systems in homes and businesses throughout the US. These VPPs provide grid services in utility territories like Hawaii, California, and New York. In Hawaii, Swell's 80 MW VPP helps the utility maximize wind energy utilization by storing excess wind power in customer batteries.
In December 2022, Swell partnered with Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) to launch a residential VPP program aiming for 20 MWh and 10 MW of renewable capacity initially, with potential to scale up to 54 MWh and 27 MW.
In February 2024, Swell acquired residential and commercial solar installer Renu Energy Solutions, expanding its footprint across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic markets. The combined company aims to drive innovation and provide tailored clean energy solutions through Renu's project development capabilities and Swell's financing and VPP technology.

Swell Energy

ZOLA Electric is a leading emerging market energy technology company that aims to eradicate energy inequality globally. The company's roots trace back to Tanzania, where its founders observed communities lacking access to reliable and affordable energy sources, relying instead on dirty, expensive, and difficult-to-manage forms of energy like diesel, kerosene, and lead-acid batteries.Over a decade ago, ZOLA began by installing smart, connected lithium-ion batteries and solar systems to power basic energy needs such as lighting for rural communities. This approach of deploying networked, connected devices has driven the energy transition in emerging markets. Today, ZOLA has developed the world's first enterprise technology platform, purpose-built for energy access markets, combining a family of products controlled by a single operating system, ZOLA Vision.ZOLA's technology platform enables community-level electrification by facilitating localized solar energy production and providing smart technology with remote management tools. The platform is designed to deliver reliable, affordable, and clean power to the 3 billion people and hundreds of millions of businesses globally that lack access to it.Since its inception in Tanzania, ZOLA has expanded its operations to 10 countries across four continents, delivering affordable, reliable, and clean energy to over 2 million people, along with numerous schools, clinics, and businesses. In December 2022, the company launched its platform in Haiti, partnering with local renewable energy pioneer Haiti Green Solutions to address the country's energy crisis. This marked ZOLA's first market entry into North America.In November 2022, ZOLA commissioned a 120 kWp distributed solar mini-grid system in the Nyagatare district of Rwanda, providing power to over 1,000 homes, businesses, and institutions in the villages of Gakagati I and II. The project, developed using ZOLA's modular INFINITY technology, received support from organizations like Facebook (now Meta), the Shell Foundation, USID, and Endev.

Zola Electric

1KOMMA5° is a carbon-neutral energy systems provider based in Hamburg, Germany. The company offers proprietary energy IoT systems, including "Heartbeat," an intelligent energy management solution that optimizes home energy usage in response to fluctuations in energy prices. This technology allows users to achieve significant cost savings by automatically utilizing renewable energy sources like solar power when electricity prices are lowest.
1KOMMA5° operates a virtual power plant that networks and pools customers' photovoltaic systems, electricity storage, heat pumps, and charging columns, enhancing the profitability and efficiency of these interconnected systems. The company's business model involves investing in electrical sector companies focused on photovoltaic systems, charging infrastructure, and heat pumps, providing them with software solutions, centralized services, bundled purchasing, growth capital, and equity stakes in 1KOMMA5° Holding.
In June 2023, the company acquired the Danish solar company Viasol A/S. As of October 2023, 1KOMMA5° had the capacity to convert 500,000 buildings per year to climate-neutral power generation, heat, and mobility solutions. It operated over 65 sites with around 1,500 employees across Germany, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Denmark, Spain, and Australia.
1KOMMA5° offers a dynamic electricity tariff called "Dynamic Pulse," which guarantees customers the lowest and cleanest electricity at a maximum of 15 cents/kWh for two years. The company's solar modules, produced sustainably in Germany, generate electricity at approximately five cents/kWh, ensuring cost savings and inflation-free energy for over 30 years.

1Komma5°

Bboxx is a UK-founded data-driven platform that provides African consumers with access to innovative products and services, including plug-and-play solar home systems (SHS), solar-powered water pumps, clean cooking solutions, smartphones, and e-mobility solutions. The company utilizes its proprietary fully integrated operating system, Bboxx Pulse, combined with an extensive on-the-ground network to connect customers with these life-changing offerings.Bboxx's core products are solar-powered battery boxes designed for households, enabling users to power small appliances like lights, mobile phones, refrigerators, and computers. The company follows a pay-as-you-go business model, allowing customers to pay for what they use through mobile money, making it affordable for low-income individuals. As of 2020, Bboxx had positively impacted over 3.6 million lives across Africa by providing access to clean energy and other essential products.In September 2022, Bboxx acquired solar home system provider PEG Africa, consolidating its leading position in the market and expanding its geographical footprint to Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Mali, bringing its total operating markets to 10 countries. As of 2023, Bboxx's products were actively used by over 643,000 people, resulting in better lighting, improved connectivity, and the mitigation of more than 65,000 tCO2e emissions through the replacement of kerosene lanterns and other fuels.In March 2022, Bboxx launched the Flexx product line, consisting of a portable solar lantern and a multi-light system with charging ports, aimed at serving rural customers at the bottom of the energy pyramid in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Bboxx

Aquion Energy was a Pennsylvania-Washington D.C. based company that manufactured proprietary Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHI) batteries and energy storage systems. These saltwater batteries used sodium ions and employed widely available materials like carbon, cotton, saltwater, and manganese oxide as the primary inputs. Aquion's technology was optimized for stationary and long-duration daily cycling applications such as off-grid systems, microgrids, energy management, and grid-scale energy storage. The non-toxic and safe nature of the batteries, combined with their ability to be fully discharged without harm, made them suitable for renewable energy integration and reduced reliance on fossil fuels. Aquion aimed to provide low-cost and sustainable energy storage solutions.
In March 2017, after facing financial difficulties, Aquion Energy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and ceased operations, sales, and manufacturing. The company was subsequently acquired by a Chinese-affiliated entity, Juline-Titans LLC, for USD 9 million in June 2017. Following the acquisition, Aquion closed its Pennsylvania plant in September 2017 and reportedly moved operations to China with the new owners intending to scale up by targeting larger commercial clients.

Aquion Energy

Companies that develop advanced energy generation technologies for houses (mostly solar).

Companies that develop battery storage solutions for home use.

Companies that offer water leak detection sensor systems and smart sprinkler systems.

Companies that assist home improvements (related to energy optimization) by bearing the upfront cost and charging users monthly fees based on energy usage.

Uses AI/ML to monitor and provide recommendations on energy and water usage

Focuses on achieving sustainability through renewable energy, saving and storing excess energy, etc.

Whisker Labs

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