The Lumi Team
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FUND BUILDER
John has been instrumental in founding three venture capital investment firms over the past 25 years, two of which went on to manage over $1.25B in AUM each. The first, BRV, was arguably the first scale institutional venture investor focused on the rise of the mobile internet, and the firm was an early lead investor into such iconic companies as Paypal and Waze. After leaving to start NGP, John stood up that firm’s first office in Silicon Valley, led the firm’s thematic investment strategy into digital advertising and digital health, and launched NGP’s fund of fund investment program. Both BRV and NGP built out global investment footprints, co-invested with many of the most reputable firms on three continents, and delivered multiple top performing venture funds.
John has successfully co-managed fund operations, done direct investing, and led investments into other venture funds through multiple business cycles and venture capital and technology transformations. His experience in the sector provides him with pattern-matching recognition capabilities about markets, timing, and people that allow him to develop contrarian investment conviction amidst market disruptions and times of overly positive or negative investor group-think.
NGP | Vesta Ventures | BlueRun Ventures | 1809 Capital
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TECHNOLOGY + IP
Talal has led the disruptive charge on several of Silicon Valley’s major movements over the last 30 years. Starting in digital media, and helping to lead the music and film industries to a new life on the Internet, he mastered the art of bridging new world tech and old world industry transitions via a blend of aggressive product development, mastery of IP, and deal making.
Under his leadership, Intertrust moved from media to mobile, and eventually to energy in 2010 on the thesis that if you can harness electrons digitally, you end up in all verticals. He’s been on both sides of the table, driving an ecosystem approach to strategic venture capital, with exits like Nest (which started life in a conference room at Intertrust) to over the horizon innovators like InnerPlant. Talal is a company builder, as an investor or an entrepreneur.
Talal brings technology vision, decades of experience in entrepreneurship and R&D, and billions of dollars of deal success to Lumi. His successful scientific research background and training in Electrical Engineering also give him the ability to see around the corner in evaluating the bedrock inventions that will drive the energy transition to altitude.
Intertrust | Nest | NEC
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ENERGY INNOVATOR
Florian is a driving force in the global energy transition, uniquely blending Silicon Valley tech expertise with leadership experience from energy giants RWE and E.ON. He moved to California in 2015 and personally led over $50 million in strategic US tech & fund investments in digital energy transition, built a global innovation network, and directed innovation initiatives.
Florian’s expertise as a strategic investor comes from a deep understanding of the energy value chain, past, present and future. He also mastered wedding his portfolio companies to corporate parents, driving growth through partnership in addition to deploying capital. In 2020, Florian left Big Energy to join Intertrust, where he partnered with Talal to drive the company’s digital energy transformation activities at lightspeed.
Florian carries over two decades of experience, stemming from over 10 billion dollar M&A transactions in the European energy theater, expertise in leading large-scale restructuring and efficiency efforts, and seasoned deal making. He’s also an expert in global energy markets and the energy transition, riding the wave since 2005 when Germany lit the energy industry on fire.
RWE | Intertrust | E-ON | Free Electrons
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FOUNDER
Walter combines scientific rigor with entrepreneurial vision. After his first startup, he joined Nokia and then NGP Capital, helping build global growth stage investment platform in Europe as an investor. He also developed Q, NGP’s proprietary intelligence software, and was involved in Nokia’s Fund of Funds program, gaining exposure to top-tier fund managers. After a decade at NGP, he founded Cronvall, a B2B marketplace transforming industrial procurement with data and AI agents. Driven by a strong thesis on the energy transition, he’s also a Partner at Lumi, applying an entrepreneur-operator mindset to venture investing. Additionally, he is a private angel investor in several high-potential technology companies, including Avalanche Energy, Capalo AI, and Polar Night Energy.
NGP | Cronvall | Capalo | Polar Night Energy
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CLEAN ENERGY EXEC
Robin combines more than 30 years of industrial experience in executive roles in telecoms, mining technologies, financial sector, renewable energy and electrical infrastructure. In his industrial roles he has been instrumental in scaling up businesses and driving growth.
He has also been working both as executive and board members in PE and Asset management and is currently CEO of Aurora Infrastructure a Nordic pioneer in the green transition and electrification of hard to abate industries.
Robin has also been an active angel investor for more than 20 years, have invested also in many clean tech and climate tech companies over the recent years.
As a venture partner at Lumi he brings a wealth of experience from combining his strong financial and technology background.
Aurora | Taaleri
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FOUNDER + OPERATOR
John combines analytical rigor with an enduring passion for mission-driven startups. He brings 15 years of progressive experience across deep tech and energy-related startups, strategy consulting, and data science.
Recently, he scaled Noya (USV-backed, water-positive carbon removal) to over $200M in pipeline and Everactive (NEA-backed, industrial monitoring and renewable energy) to a team of more than 120. He’s deeply committed to accelerating the energy transition as both an operator and an investor – as a venture partner at Lumi, he takes a balanced and long-term view – identifying, building trust with, and partnering with exceptional people and teams.
John is also a trusted advisor to a variety of high-potential early-stage deep tech and energy startups, through Nordpark, Plug and Play Tech Center, and ClimateHack, among others..
Noya | everactive | University of Virginia | Darden School of Business | NEA | USV | ABB | iqt
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CLIMATE CHAMPION
Caroline is passionate about nature and climate and has used her considerable skills in entrepreneurship, marketing, & branding to drive an impact agenda via multiple business and investment platforms, prior to and now at Lumi Partners. A cum laude graduate of Scripps College, Caroline obtained both an MBA and Master Environmental Mgt. at Yale, which have collectively provided her with the analytical rigor and “systems thinking” lens required to create the bespoke impact assessment framework that Lumi Partners relies on.
Caroline also lends her expertise to the Lumi investment due diligence processes, as well as content and thought leadership initiatives.
Yale School of Management | Yale School of the Environment | Transform Capital | Mesa Foods