Riverstone Holdings LLC has acquired a minority interest and entered into a strategic partnership with Blackhorn Ventures. Each firm is prominent in the world of private fund support for decarbonizing and recycling technologies.
Together, Riverstone and Blackhorn will work to deploy capital into high-growth opportunities across the investment cycle. Each is a thesis driven investment specialist. In both cases, the meta-thesis is that there are massive market commercialization opportunities in the use of science and engineering-based innovation toward a low-emissions world. The financial specifics of the deal have not been disclosed.
Riverstone, a New York based private equity firm founded in 2000 by two former Goldman Sachs executives, David Leuschen and Pierre Lapayre, has raised $43 billion since inception. It focuses on opportunities within energy, power, and infrastructure, with a special interest in low-carbon investments.
Blackhorn is a Denver based early-stage VC firm founded in 2017, with an AUM of approximately $200 million. It looks to advance resource efficiency and decarbonization. The two firms will share industry insights, relationships, and existing platforms.
“We have already realized industrial platform benefits between our two franchises and see this investment in and partnership with Blackhorn as a significant differentiator for both of us going forward,” said Riverstone co-founder Lapayre in a statement. “We look forward to working closely with Phil, [Philip O’Connor], Melissa [Cheong], and the Blackhorn team to generate uniquely attractive investment opportunities that contribute to a healthier but profitable environmental solution.”
Riverstone has invested more than $6 billion in the renewable infrastructure and decarbonization categories since it was established. Just since the outbreak of the pandemic, it has invested $3 billion on over one dozen transactions with companies across its priority decarbonization investment families and continues to expand its team and footprint.
Philip O’Connor co-founded Blackhorn with Trevor Zimmerman and Jack Fuchs. Cheong is managing partner. In the statement, Cheong said, “All of us at Blackhorn have great appreciation for Riverstone’s long and successful history of advancing technologies targeting the hardest to decarbonize industrial sectors. While we target investments at different stages, our two organizations have complementary areas of expertise and are very much aligned in our broader market objectives.”
