Blue Bear Capital, a venture capital firm bridging the gap between AI and the energy, infrastructure and climate industries, closed a $160 million fund – the largest in the firm’s eight-year history.

Funded by executives from private equity and infrastructure funds, as well as institutional investors including Rockefeller Brothers Fund, this fund is Blue Bear’s third to date. The Century City-based growth equity firm was founded in 2016 by a group of finance and tech executives specializing in fields such as energy transition, deep tech and industrial investing.

After spending some time investing in Silicon Valley startups, Ernst Sack, a founding partner, saw an opportunity to bring AI, cloud computing and SaaS (Software as a Service) to the energy industry.

“It looked like a disconnect to me that the most critical industries in the world were doing things in an analog, manual way, while less critical industries were having all of their workflows digitized on smartphones,” Sack said.

Blue Bear seeks out digital technology companies who are looking to innovate sectors such as sustainable energy production, electric grid infrastructure and climate protection. As a venture firm, Blue Bear invests in businesses that are in the early revenue stages with an initial check size of between $2 million and $6 million, Sack said, adding that the firm employs a “strong reserve ratio philosophy.”

“If we’re investing $1, we typically earmark another $2 for follow on, which is the reverse of most venture funds,” Sack said. “The energy and industrial markets can be a little bit slower, and customers are very big but slow. So having a little bit more time, a little bit more dry powder, a little bit more reserved to support growth through that cycle can be really helpful for our companies.”

Funding a local enterprise

Through its third fund, Blue Bear has already made investments in several companies including one local to L.A.: ChargerHelp! which is based in Jefferson Park.

ChargerHelp! works to improve the reliability and efficiency of electric vehicle charging stations and infrastructure.

Sack said the company strives to answer the question, “What are the software solutions that can de-bottleneck some of the operational, real world, physical world challenges of getting energy infrastructure modernized and made more sustainable?”

By coordinating with a network of technicians to stay up to date on the issues EV infrastructure is facing using remote asset management software, ChargerHelp! develops standards for charging system maintenance.

“AI is taking a lot of jobs in the near future, but it’s probably not taking the jobs of the skilled trades like electricians and plumbers and mechanical engineers,” Sack said. “ChargerHelp! is the connective tissue between what’s actually happening in the world and how to fix it for EV infrastructure.”

Sack finds that Blue Bear’s team is advantageous to the companies it invests in as they have spent their careers gaining knowledge and experience in these markets, as well as building out strong, personal networks.

“Operating in and investing in those verticals lets us understand the problem that founders are solving and who to bring it to or who to help sell it to,” Sack said. “It’s not necessarily the most famous brand logos … but it’s maybe somebody in operations or digital solutions.”

This network also comes in handy with assisting companies in industry specialist recruiting and finding additional investors, Sack said.