Energy Capital Ventures

VC Chicago, United States · Founded 2021

Energy Capital Ventures invests in seed and Series A stage startups that are developing innovative solutions for the energy and utilities sector, focusing on technologies that enhance efficiency, sustainability, and customer experience. They specifically target companies that can partner with their limited partners, which include leading utility companies.

About Energy Capital Ventures

Energy Capital Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on the energy sector, particularly natural gas, hydrogen, and adjacent energy infrastructure technologies, with website, LinkedIn, and Crunchbase footprint. The firm’s thesis is sharply scoped to energy technology and innovation, with limited or no public evidence of healthcare specialization in the source data. For healthcare AI founders, this is almost always the wrong door. The narrow exception is for companies building healthcare technology with clear energy or climate adjacency, for example, AI for hospital energy optimization, healthcare facility carbon management, medical device sustainability, or healthcare supply chain decarbonization, where the primary investor pitch is energy and climate rather than clinical or care delivery. Even in those edge cases, Energy Capital Ventures is unlikely to be the lead capital partner and would need to be paired with a specialist healthcare investor for the round to assemble credibly. Check sizes for energy-focused VCs at this profile typically range from $1M to $10M at Series A and B, with strategic value through energy industry relationships often being central to the thesis. Founders without an energy or climate angle should not pursue Energy Capital Ventures and should allocate this outreach time to disclosed-thesis healthcare investors instead. Be honest with yourself about category fit before applying: a healthcare AI company that frames itself as an energy company to access this capital will face misaligned investor relationships and reputational risk. For genuine healthcare AI founders, this is firmly outside scope, and a generic healthcare pitch will be filtered quickly by the firm’s energy-thesis intake.

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Team

Michael J. Smith
Managing Partner
LinkedIn
John W. Butler
Managing Partner
LinkedIn
Amy Francetic
Managing Partner
LinkedIn
Dan G. Smith
Partner
LinkedIn
Ben Tarbell
Partner
LinkedIn

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Last updated 2026-05-06. Sourced from this fund's published materials.
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