Fintech PR
National Grid Partners Introduces New Leadership Structure and Sharpened Investment Focus to Accelerate Net Zero Progress
New framework deepens relationship between the utility industry’s most active corporate venture investor and parent company National Grid to scale energy innovations faster.
LOS GATOS, Calif., Feb. 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — National Grid Partners (NGP), the corporate venture capital and innovation arm of one of the world’s largest utilities, today announced a streamlined leadership structure and refreshed investment focus to accelerate progress toward net zero and scale innovation across global energy networks.
Led by Steve Smith, recently appointed president of NGP, these efforts bring National Grid’s strategy, innovation and startup investing together under one umbrella. The new structure is designed to maximize impact and further build on the parent company’s transformational work to provide a clean, fair and affordable energy transition.
“Utilities must move faster to scale innovations that can slash emissions, support soaring energy demand and create the utility of the future,” said Smith, a veteran utility regulator and financial industry innovator who joined the British energy giant in late 2021 as group head of Strategy, Innovation and Market Analytics. “National Grid Partners already offers critical financial resources and expert advice to some of the most exciting companies in climate tech and beyond. Our new structure connects entrepreneurs even more closely with our world-class innovation teams to bring essential technologies to market at industry leading speed.”
The new structure will draw on the NGP team’s combined 225 years of venture investing and utility operations experience to help startups scale new technologies in months, not years. Smith has made the following appointments and promotions to lead this charge:
- Vice President, Investments – Pradeep Tagare: With a decade-long track record in venture and startups – including 13 years at Intel Capital – Pradeep will run the investing function of National Grid Partners, identifying technologies poised to make the greatest impact on the energy transition. He previously had been Vice President, Corporate Venture Capital and will now lead NGP’s full investment team.
- Vice President, Business Development – Brett Chandler: Brett has more than 14 years of experience bridging utility and startup cultures to embed innovation into utilities. His team engages startups with National Grid’s core business units to generate mutual strategic and financial value. Brett has served in this role in an acting capacity since early 2023.
- Vice President, Innovation and Venture Acceleration – Gerard Kelly: A former startup founder and CEO, Gerard has helped design and oversee innovation projects across National Grid with the potential to generate more than $1 billion in impact over the next 10 years. He will now manage innovation and venture acceleration efforts across the U.S. and U.K., which includes overseeing the NextGrid Alliance, a first-of-its-kind network of more than 100 electric utilities around the world.
NGP also has sharpened its investment strategy to focus on four pillars. Derived from conversations with startup founders, utilities and other innovation leaders to identify the most pressing challenges in the clean energy transition, the pillars include:
- Future Electric Networks: Upgrading and rebuilding the grid to boost renewable energy, increase reliability and meet new electric demand while reaching net-zero.
- Customer First: Delivering solutions to help customers manage a fair and affordable energy transition.
- Efficiency Through Innovation: Deploying artificial intelligence, cloud and edge computing, and other emerging technologies to improve operational performance.
- Decarbonizing Gas: Delivering innovative technologies to reduce leakage and decarbonize our networks.
To integrate more closely with Silicon Valley, NGP is moving to Menlo Park’s celebrated Sand Hill Road, the global epicenter of the venture capital industry.
National Grid Partners has invested more than $400 million in 43 companies since its 2018 launch, with seven successful exits and an industry leading percentage of portfolio “unicorns” valued at more than $1 billion. The organization has been named the utility industry’s most active corporate venture investor by Bloomberg NEF, and it recently unveiled a unique evaluation framework for measuring the impact of its portfolio companies on carbon emissions.
In addition, NGP has delivered a step change to National Grid’s innovation strategy by introducing hundreds of startup technologies, identifying future challenges, and developing prototypes and business models to meet those challenges.
About National Grid Partners
National Grid Partners (NGP) is the venture investment and innovation arm of National Grid plc., one of the world’s largest investor-owned energy companies. NGP invests for strategic and financial impact across four pillars: Future Electric Networks; Decarbonizing Gas; Customer First; and Efficiency Through Innovation. By providing corporate venture capital, business development counsel and direct integration with National Grid’s innovation team, NGP is accelerating the energy transition and helping innovators reach critical scale faster. We also convene the NextGrid Alliance (www.ngalliance.energy), an innovation network of senior executives from more than 100 worldwide utility companies. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, NGP has offices in Boston, London, and New York. Visit ngpartners.com or follow us on Twitter (@ngpartners_) and LinkedIn.
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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/national-grid-partners-introduces-new-leadership-structure-and-sharpened-investment-focus-to-accelerate-net-zero-progress-302050243.html
SHANGHAI, Nov. 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — A news report from russian.shanghai.gov.cn:
Shanghai presented its annual Magnolia Silver Award to 50 outstanding expats from 18 countries on Nov 23, recognizing their significant contributions to the city’s development and international exchanges.
The ceremony took place at the Grand Halls on the northern end of the Bund, with Kong Fu‘an, director-general of the Foreign Affairs Office of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, conferring the medals and certificates to the recipients.
In his address, Kong emphasized Shanghai’s status as an international, innovative, and inclusive city that has taken the lead in achieving Chinese-style modernization. He highlighted the vital roles that expats, foreign-invested enterprises, and foreign institutions play in the city, noting that they have been “not only witnesses, but also active participants and contributors.”
This year’s award recipients come from diverse fields such as trade, finance, technology, shipping, healthcare, education, culture, sports, and agriculture. Among those honored was Pietro Brambilla from Italy, North Asia chief financial officer at L’Oreal China. Brambilla has spearheaded L’Oreal’s investment and development in Shanghai, helping the Chinese market become the company’s largest globally. He has also contributed to creating a market-oriented, law-based, and international business environment in the city.
Professor Marc Delpech from France, a representative of the awardees, shared his experiences contributing to Sino-French medical cooperation over three decades. As the coordinator of the French-language training program for medical students at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and currently vice-dean of the Sino-French School of Medicine at the university, Delpech emphasized the enduring and expanding friendship between China and France. He noted that his predecessor, Professor Guy Vincendon, received the Shanghai Magnolia Silver Award in 2003, highlighting the continuity and strength of their bilateral medical and educational relationship.
Another awardee, Carlo D’Andrea, chief representative of Studio Legale DAndrea, has helped many foreign companies settle in China, particularly in Shanghai. The Italian lawyer praised Shanghai as “the best location to do business in China“, especially in the fields of new technology and high tech. He highlighted Shanghai’s commitment to deepening reform and opening-up, which gives the city “a lot of potentials to be unleashed”.
D’Andrea valued the direct access to the city’s leadership, noting that each year, the Shanghai mayor meets with international business leaders to seek advice, feedback, and ideas for better development of the city. “I had the opportunity to meet many times with the mayor and the vice-mayor to discuss how we can attract more European investment into Shanghai,” he said. “I like this kind of opportunities where you have direct access to the leadership, because the exchange of ideas and exchange of opinion is the best way in order to have a better future together.”
Shanghai began awarding the Magnolia Silver Award to expats in 1989, later introducing the Magnolia Gold Award and Honorary Citizenship in 1992 and 1997, respectively. Over the past 35 years, 1,877 expats have received these honors, underscoring the city’s appreciation for their contributions.
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/shanghai-honors-50-expats-with-magnolia-silver-awards-302318026.html
HONG KONG, Nov. 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Fintica AI Ltd, a leading innovator in next-generation AI solutions for capital markets, and Legend Arb Trading Limited, a Hong Kong-based proprietary trading firm with a global footprint across major financial hubs such as Shanghai, Taiwan, and Singapore, have announced a strategic investment and partnership.
Through this collaboration, Legend Arb has made a strategic investment in Fintica AI, strengthening the partnership between the two companies. This alliance will empower Legend Arb to advance its quantitative trading capabilities by harnessing Fintica AI’s unique unsupervised artificial intelligence technology. The partnership also aims to launch innovative new products and solutions. Simultaneously, Fintica AI will expand its business development efforts and market presence in Hong Kong and the Greater China region.
Kace Lam, Chief Executive Officer of Legend Arb, stated:
“Legend Arb is excited to collaborate with Fintica AI and its world-class AI technology team, known for pioneering advancements in quantitative modeling for financial markets. By combining Fintica AI’s deep academic and R&D expertise with our robust trading experience, we are poised to unlock significant value and drive innovation in quantitative trading strategies.”
Philippe Metoudi, Chief Executive Officer of Fintica AI, remarked:
“This partnership with Legend Arb represents a significant step forward in our mission to revolutionize the financial markets with advanced AI solutions. By joining forces, we can harness our respective strengths, explore the untapped potential of Hong Kong and Greater China’s financial sector, and deliver transformative innovations that shape the future of quantitative investment.”
About Fintica AI Ltd:
Fintica AI is a leading fintech company specializing in advanced AI solutions for capital markets. Its flagship platform, Spectrum MRI, delivers state-of-the-art tools for identifying market regimes across asset classes, including equities, fixed income, and commodities. By offering predictive analytics and robust risk-management capabilities, Fintica AI empowers investment managers, quantitative analysts, and strategic allocation teams with cutting-edge decision support tools. Headquartered in Tel Aviv, the company maintains a strong presence in major global financial hubs, driving innovation and excellence in the financial industry.
About Legend Arb Trading Limited:
Legend Arb is a Hong Kong-based proprietary trading company with a global presence in major financial centers like Shanghai, Taiwan, and Singapore. Specialized in pricing of Chinese-related products, equity index futures, and commodities futures, Legend Arb acts as a committed market maker to provide liquidity for HKEX and SGX.
For further information:
Visit www.fintica-ai.com
email [email protected].
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/fintica-ai-and-legend-arb-of-hong-kong-announce-strategic-investment-and-partnership-302317533.html
Fintech PR
24 Exchange Receives SEC Approval of its New National Securities Exchange, “24X National Exchange”
24X National Exchange Plans to be the First Exchange to Offer U.S. Equities Trading 23 Hours-Per-Day on Weekdays
STAMFORD, Conn., Nov. 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — 24 Exchange announced today that it has received approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to operate 24X National Exchange as the first national securities exchange in the U.S. that allows trading of U.S. securities 23 hours each workday. The extended hour trading is subject to Equity Data Plans making changes that would facilitate overnight trading hours and 24X National Exchange making an additional rule filing with the SEC confirming the changes and the Exchange’s ability to comply with the Securities Exchange Act.
24X National Exchange will be subject to the SEC’s ongoing regulatory oversight and full range of investor protections. The new Exchange will enable retail and institutional customers anywhere in the world to trade in U.S. equities via broker-dealers who are approved members of 24X National Exchange.
24X National Exchange will be launched in two stages. A first stage will open in the second half of 2025, with the Exchange operating from 4:00AM ET to 7:00PM ET on weekdays. The second stage, which will launch once the conditions noted above are met, will offer trading in U.S. equities from 8:00PM ET on Sunday through 7:00PM ET on Friday. A one-hour operational pause will occur during each trading day to accommodate routine software upgrades and functionality testing.
24 Exchange CEO and Founder Dmitri Galinov said: “The SEC’s approval of our new exchange is a thrilling development that the 24X Team has been working toward for many years. Traders are most at-risk when the market is closed in their geographic location. 24X National Exchange will seek to alleviate this problem by facilitating around-the-clock U.S. equities trading for broker-dealers and their institutional and retail customers.”
As the first national securities exchange approved by the SEC to operate 23 hours each weekday, subject to the conditions noted above, 24X National Exchange will initially focus on capturing the expanding demand in the APAC region for overnight liquidity in U.S. equities.
The 24X National Exchange will run on a proven, state-of-the-art technology platform provided by MEMX Technologies. The new Exchange’s executive team will place a high priority on enhancing client experience through continuous technology innovations and improvements.
“With this historic SEC approval in place, we will build and operate a customer-driven Exchange that can rapidly align with market demands and adapt quickly to client feedback,” Galinov added. “We look forward to bringing a superior trading experience to global customers. 24X National Exchange will deliver the cost efficiency, speed, resilience, and adaptability that the company’s financial institutional customers have long come to expect.”
24X National Exchange will close on U.S. market holidays, similar to the schedules maintained by the NYSE and Nasdaq.
24 Exchange through 24X Bermuda Limited, an affiliate of 24X National Exchange, will continue to offer FX NDFs, Swaps and Spot trading to institutional clients. Since its launch in 2019, 24 Exchange’s multi-asset offering through a single trading interface has enabled clients to access increased liquidity at lower cost.
About 24 Exchange
24 Exchange allows market participants to seamlessly exchange their exposures at the lowest possible cost. 24 Exchange’s mission is to enable members to initiate the most cost-effective trades across a growing range of asset classes, 24 hours a day. 24 Exchange lowers the cost of exchanging assets in the global markets while delivering creative and unique workflows catered to each asset class. More information is available at https://24exchange.com/.
Media Contact:
Eric Andrus, KARV
[email protected]
Phone: +1 (212) 333-0275
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/24-exchange-receives-sec-approval-of-its-new-national-securities-exchange-24x-national-exchange-302317888.html
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