October 18th, 2021 — Today, Powerhouse is thrilled to share the continuation and expansion of our partnership with Marubeni, a global conglomerate headquartered in Japan.
Driven by its credos of Fairness, Innovation, and Harmony, Marubeni has been connecting the world to innovative solutions for 160 years through trading and investment activities across industries. Marubeni’s power business is accelerating the energy transition through its operations as an electric utility, retailer & aggregator, IPP, and importer & exporter of hardware such as EV chargers.
Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Following Marubeni’s landmark commitment to deploy sustainable technologies and expand their renewable energy business, Marubeni became a Corporate Partner of Powerhouse in 2019 to help convert this vision into meaningful outcomes.
“Powerhouse has played a key role in enabling Marubeni to stay ahead of the curve in a quickly changing energy and mobility landscape,” said Daisuke Arai, General Manager of the New Business & Solutions Department at Marubeni. “By providing insights into thousands of startups and connecting our team with those who will drive our business forward, Powerhouse is accelerating Marubeni’s Digital Transformation and decarbonization businesses.”
With an extensive global presence and dedicated innovation team, Marubeni has the expertise to orchestrate multiple stakeholders and deliver decarbonization solutions for complex needs. Below, we’ve included examples of Marubeni partnering with startups to build new business together.
As part of the innovation firm’s Strategic Partnership client offering, Powerhouse is advising Marubeni on opportunities for innovation and executing scouting workshops to address key business goals. For each workshop, Powerhouse identifies and vets over 50 high-potential startups across chosen focus areas (such as energy forecasting, behind-the-meter renewables for C&I customers, and deep decarbonization for utilities) and facilitates engagements with top startups and key Marubeni stakeholders.
“Powerhouse workshops have not only connected Marubeni to startups for pilot projects and partnerships across our business lines,” said Minako Wakayama, President & CEO of Marubeni Power International, “they’ve also played a key role in exposing next-generation leaders at Marubeni to the innovation ecosystem and helped them navigate new fields.”
We look forward to continuing to work with Marubeni to drive their business forward in a rapidly decarbonizing world. If you’re a startup interested in working with Marubeni or a corporation looking to connect to climate tech innovation, let us know.
Marubeni works with startups as a partner to convert technologies into sustainable business models, commercialize solutions, and expand into new industries and geographies. Recent examples include:
Last month, Marubeni announced a partnership in Japan with LineVision, which provides real-time monitoring and predictive analytics for transmission lines. Through a demonstration project with Marubeni’s subsidiaries and connections to regulators, utilities, and on-the-ground engineering partners, Marubeni is helping LineVision to implement a key technology that will help Japan meet its emissions-reduction targets.
Marubeni leveraged its expertise in energy trading and material lifecycle management to partner with second-life EV battery repurposer B2U Storage Solutions, accelerating the development of grid-scale energy storage projects in CAISO.
Marubeni integrated renewable energy predictive analytics solutions from Powerhouse Ventures portfolio company Ensemble Energy (acquired by SparkCognition) into the group’s O&M service menu, improving forecasts and preventing costly repairs.
To read more about our work at Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures, visit our Insights page.