MENLO PARK — Venture capital firm The Westly Group has raised an oversubscribed $100 million seed fund to invest in entrepreneurs transforming the energy, mobility, building, and industrial sectors that make up more than 50 percent of the world’s GDP.
The seed fund is an extension of the firm’s four core funds, which includes a $312 million Fund IV focusing on A, B & C Round investments.
Since its founding in 2007, The Westly Group has backed exceptional entrepreneurs. The firm has nine IPOs with four multi-billion dollar exits including Tesla, SentinelOne, Luminar, and Procore.
“Our new seed fund will enable us to support visionary entrepreneurs, providing the capital and strategic guidance to reshape the world’s biggest industries,” said Jason Kalira, Partner at The Westly Group, who helps lead the seed fund.
Building Partnerships for Commercial Success
“Our core differentiator is that we provide our portfolio companies with unparalleled access to our global network of 32 leading energy, mobility, and industrial companies,” said Steve Westly, Managing Partner at The Westly Group.
Limited partners in the seed fund include existing investors Alaska Airlines, Duke Energy, Origin Energy, American Electric Power, and Trane Technologies. New investors include PPL, Pinnacle West Corporation, ONEOK, OGE Energy Corp., Vontier, Avista, and Evergy. They join a group of financial institutions and prominent family offices to close out the seed fund.
Investing in Global Impact
The Westly Group seeks to invest in technological innovation that impacts global climate change and the digitization and automation across industrial sectors.
The firm now has a family of funds investing from seed through Series C, has expanded its team, and opened new offices in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. in addition to the Silicon Valley office.
First Seed Fund Investments Focus on Digitization, Data
The Westly Group’s seed fund has led three investments to date:
- Condoit, an all-in-one data platform designed for electrical engineers and commercial electricians in the field, with a mission to transform electrical infrastructure
- Diagon, a supply chain software company focused on next-generation, automated capital expenditure (CapEx) procurement for manufacturers
- Sightline, a market intelligence company that provides investors, corporations, and governments with insights into climate sectors and technologies
