Page 157 - STRATEGY Magazine

PROFILE: ENERPLATPRO
MAKING THE INNOVATION JOURNEY EASIER
In the technology-reliant energy industry, innovation is not only coming from large tech companies, but also from specialized experts. EnerplatPro locates these specialists to co-found technology startups.
“More than ever, the energy market has a great appetite for technological innovation. We see a historical opportunity for entrepreneurs to contribute to the new energy landscape. As a new strategic partner to empower these entrepreneurs, EnerplatPro intends to launch fifty startups in five years.”
—Geoffroy Paixach, Founder
FACTS
Company: EnerplatPro, LLC
Powered By: GP&SON
Year est.: 2016
Location: Houston, Texas
Business: Co-founding technology startups in energy Current portfolio: Two startups
Portfolio target: 50 startups in five years Website: www.enerplatpro.com
In today’s hypercompetitive energy industry, established producers are perpetually striving to allocate capital expenditures to maximize their return on investment. At the same time, entrepreneurs armed with extensive industry knowledge and technological expertise are forming their own businesses with the goal of providing innovative solutions for issues that plague the energy market.
Facilitating crucial connections
Energy producers must rely heavily on cutting-edge technologies to maximize profit while ensuring sustainability. EnerplatPro is a strategic partner specializing in business development and co-founding technology startups in energy. This portfolio of startups will help governments and operators solve their technological challenges. The firm connects the industry with small, highly specialized technology providers and then works with project teams to optimize the deployment of technology solutions. More than just a technology hunter, EnerplatPro is on a mission to locate the niche-specific domain experts who develop these innovative solutions and help facilitate their progression from the startup phase into self-reliant entities.
EnerplatPro was founded in 2016 by Geoffroy Paixach, a research geophysicist with two decades of oil and gas industry experience. Paixach started the company to “make the innovation journey easier” for enterprises that can transform the energy industry. His goal is to partner with a half-dozen technology providers by the end of 2017 and to develop a diversified portfolio of 50 such startups in five years’ time. EnerplatPro’s network of associates displays an impressive track record of business development to support the startups’ likelihood of stability, growth, and profitability. The company’s reputation depends on successfully bolstering these technology startups. In return, this will prove highly attractive to investors who are looking to minimize the level of investment risk in their energy portfolios.
Growing role of artificial intelligence
Before making the huge capital outlays associated with a particular initiative, energy companies strive to build the most accurate operational model they can. Consequently, there has been a steep rise in demand for virtual technology that can identify and record a vast quantity of data to help make these pivotal decisions. The problem lies with the amount of resources that companies must devote to sifting through this data, interpreting it properly, and taking action accordingly.
Some of today’s most promising energy technology relies upon artificial intelligence (AI) to manage this immense cache of data. By automating and optimizing data-rich processes, AI systems eliminate repeatable procedures, recognize key patterns, and apply their discoveries to real-time data. Energy producers benefit through more efficient allocation of staff resources, lower operational expenses, and reduced costs per barrel of output.
Renowned petroleum geologist Wallace Pratt once said that “oil is found in the minds of men.” While that adage remains true today, discoveries of crude oil, coal, and natural gas are increasingly originating in the “minds” of computers that are backstopped by artificial intelligence. EnerplatPro is poised to play a major role in locating, nurturing, and promoting state-of-the-art industry solutions—and then merging these startups into the global ecosystem.
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