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    Microsoft Ventures Fund & Natural Gas Transporter ONEOK Invest in $17M Funding for AI-Driven Pipeline Control Technology

    Aug. 16, 2024
    CruxOCM focuses on co-pilot technologies for natural gas pipeline control room operators to improve operational and sustainability efficiencies. Other investors include EIC Rose Rock and Raven Indigenous Capital Partners.
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    A pair of Oklahoma-based entities tied to the oil and gas industry are joining tech giant Microsoft’s Venture Fund to invest in a new artificial intelligence (AI) driven platform to manage oil and gas pipeline flows more sustainably.

    Calgary, Alberta-based CruxOCM has successfully closed its Series A funding round with new investors led by M12 (Microsoft’s Venture Fund), ONEOK, EIC Rose Rock and Raven Indigenous Capital Partners. ONEOK is a Tulsa-based natural gas pipeline holding company, while EIC Rose Rock is a Tulsa-based venture fund for new energy startups.

    The completion of the Series A funding brings CruxOCM’s total capital raised to $27 million. The company focuses on co-pilot technologies for pipeline control room operators to improve operational and sustainability efficiencies.

    “This investment from leading industry VCs (venture capital funds) empowers us to bring co-pilot to even more control rooms across the energy sector,” Vicki Knott, CruxOCM co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “Our mission is to empower control room operators and ensure the streamlined and safe operation of essential energy infrastructure we rely on every day.”

    Knott herself comes from a professional background as a control room operator and manager, including work on robotic industrial process automation technology. CruxOCM’s solutions include pipeBOT, max-OPT and leanOPT focused on automated pipeline control and AI-driven software.

    The investment interest of Microsoft’s Venture Fund M12 is focused around the potential of CruxOCM’s digital ability to utilize automation and AI to make energy industry control room operations more advanced and efficient.

    “Their innovative technology is set to disrupt the energy sector, enhancing efficiency and safety by providing operators with co-pilot capabilities,” Michelle Gonzalez, corporate vice president and global head at M12, said in a statement. “This is crucial for our critical energy infrastructure. We look forward to supporting CruxOCM’s growth and seeing their impact on the energy industry.”

    Pipeline image credit ONEOK Inc.
    oneok_pipeline

    ONEOK owns a multi-subsidiary and interstate pipeline network totaling thousands of miles in systems for natural gas, natural gas liquids and refined petroleum products.

    "CruxOCM's technology would support our core businesses by offering our control room operators enhanced capabilities for their critical jobs,” Greg Lusardi, ONEOK senior vice president of corporate development, said. “We see numerous use cases for the technology and believe it can benefit our assets, operations, customers, employees, and the communities in which we operate."

     EIC (for Energy Innovation Capital) Rose Rock was formed with support of the Tulsa Innovation Lab and the George Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser is a Tulsa billionaire who owns Kaiser Francis Oil Co. and is chairman of the board for the BOK Corp. (Bank of Oklahoma). He has long advocated for cleaner energy strategies working alongside baseload fuels.

    A 2022 report by research firm McKinsey estimated that natural gas consumption contributes close to 20% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) and greenhouse emissions. Furthermore, methane is considered multiple times more damaging to the atmosphere than CO2, and the industry contributes close to 30% of worldwide methane emissions, according to McKinsey and other environmental studies.

    Many energy transition advocates believe that gas utilities can adapt and repurpose their pipeline and processing infrastructure to handle lower carbon fuel resources such as hydrogen and biofuels.

    Natural gas-fueled power generation plants have filled the breach left by retired coal-fired plants in the U.S. electricity mix. And although natural gas is a net emitter of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, its carbon emissions are half of the comparable coal-fired plant, according to reports.

    Many industry leaders see natural gas as a long-term “bridge fuel” until net-zero energy resources can carry the load of customer electricity demand. 

    Other investors in CruxOCM include Angular Ventures, Bullpen Capital, Root Ventures, Cendana Capital, Pipeline Capital Partners and Golden Ventures.

    Track C&I Investment in the Energy Evolution through our free EnergyTech ENL

     

    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

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