Centrica Innovations is the venture arm of Centrica, an energy services holding company for major energy supply companies in the UK, the US, and other countries. Centrica, which owns British Gas and US company Direct Energy, has acquired In 2015 Israeli company Panoramic Power for $60 million. Panoramic Power became Centrica's development center in Israel.
Centrica Innovations invests in three different models: In the first model, it invests money in a company from the Series A stage onward, and if it becomes strategic for Centrica, it is likely to offer to acquire it. In the second model, it invests smaller amounts in a seed round for companies in early stages through the Centrica's Labs fund. In the third model, Centrica directly acquires a company of interest to it through its mergers and acquisitions arm, which is also looking for attractive deals through the company's Israeli office.
Centrica Innovations is a 100 million fund aimed at investing in developing new energy technologies in 3 technology hubs: Israel, US, and London. The fund invests in the fields of Distributed Energy & Power, Connected Home, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Electric Vehicle, Big Data, and Analytics.