Updated:
National Grid
National Grid, led by CEO John Pettigrew, is the FTSE 100 utility rewiring the UK and US Northeast grids in a £60 billion, five-year capex cycle.
National Grid
National Grid was formed in 1990 from the breakup of the UK's Central Electricity Generating Board, inheriting the transmission assets that keep lights on for 68 million people across its UK and US service territories. John Pettigrew, a career insider who joined the company in 1991, became CEO in 2016. The company's core business is regulated electricity and gas transmission, but it also operates a venture arm — National Grid Partners — based in Silicon Valley to scout and back startups shaping the future energy system. The strategy rests on four legs: UK Electricity Transmission, UK Gas Transmission (recently sold, with the deal completing in 2024), US Regulated utilities in New York and Massachusetts, and National Grid Ventures, which houses unregulated businesses including subsea interconnectors, LNG storage, and the corporate venture group. Deployment is vastly weighted toward regulated wires — the five-year capex plan to March 2029 sits at £60 billion, roughly £12 billion per year, directed at grid modernization and new connections. National Grid Partners has deployed over $400 million across a portfolio of roughly 40 startups since launching in 2018, with confirmed positions in Dragos (industrial cybersecurity), Ryvit (construction tech), and Urbint (AI for infrastructure risk). The colossus is the UK electricity transmission network: roughly 7,200 kilometres of overhead line and 2,300 kilometres of underground cable. In the US, National Grid serves approximately 7 million gas and electric customers. The corporate structure is a pure-play utility — no family office, no endowment style. In December 2023, the company completed the sale of a 60% stake in its UK gas transmission and metering business to a Macquarie-led consortium, crystallizing £3.5 billion of proceeds to fund its pivot to electricity-only networks. The National Grid Partners unit operates like a conventional corporate VC, writing checks from $1 million to $40 million per deal across seed to growth stages. What differentiates National Grid structurally is its blend of regulated asset base and corporate venture capital. Unlike most utilities, it runs a full-stack innovation arm physically located in San Francisco, deliberately separated from the mothership, giving it proprietary deal-flow access to startups that need a path into highly regulated infrastructure markets. The Macquarie gas deal is a harder structural move — it transformed National Grid into a predominantly electric transmission company, solving for a sentiment shift among institutional allocators and regulators focused on decarbonized growth.
General information
Firm type
other
Year founded
1990
AUM
Not applicable — publicly listed utility (Altss estimate)
Location
Region
Europe
Country
United Kingdom
City
London
Corporate office
London, United Kingdom
Additional offices
Warwick, UK · Waltham, MA, United States
Principals
John Pettigrew
Chief Executive Officer
Andy Agg
Chief Financial Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Is National Grid a family office or an operating utility?
It is a publicly traded operating utility, not a family office or investment firm. The company manages physical electricity and gas networks across the UK and US under regulated-return models. Its investor-relations team serves institutional shareholders, not a single-family mandate. The venture capital arm, National Grid Partners, functions as a corporate VC but reports into the public-company structure.
What does National Grid Partners actually invest in?
National Grid Partners runs a corporate venture capital vehicle focused on startups that can improve or disrupt traditional utility operations. The group targets artificial intelligence, industrial cybersecurity, construction automation, and grid-edge technologies. Confirmed portfolio companies include Dragos, Urbint, and Ryvit. The fund has deployed over $400 million since 2018 and typically invests checks between $1 million and $40 million across seed to Series C rounds.
How is the company funded — does it raise outside capital like a fund?
The parent company is funded through a combination of regulated revenue, debt issuance, and equity capital markets as a FTSE 100 constituent. It does not operate as a closed-end fund, nor does it charge management fees to LPs. National Grid Partners draws its capital from the corporate balance sheet, not third-party limited partners, which gives it permanent, patient funding without redemption pressure.
Why did National Grid sell its UK gas transmission business?
The sale to a Macquarie-led consortium, completed in stages through 2024, allowed National Grid to raise £3.5 billion in proceeds and concentrate its balance sheet on electricity-only infrastructure. The strategic rationale was to align the corporate portfolio more closely with the energy transition thesis, reducing gas exposure and funding the £60 billion capex plan for electric transmission.
Does the firm maintain structures for institutional co-investors alongside the utility?
Not in the traditional family-office or GP-LP sense. National Grid occasionally brings in financial partners for large, discrete projects — the Macquarie gas deal is the largest example — but it does not operate a partnership structure open to third-party co-investors for its core regulated operations. The corporate ventures group occasionally syndicates rounds with other strategic and financial VCs, but the cadence is standard corporate VC practice rather than a dedicated co-investment platform.
Who makes the final investment call on venture allocations at National Grid Partners?
Investment decisions are made by the National Grid Partners team in Silicon Valley under the leadership of its president, who reports to the chief financial officer at the group level. The unit operates with delegated authority up to specific check sizes. Larger commitments or strategic acquisitions require approval through the executive committee structure chaired by CEO John Pettigrew.
What is the geographic split of the regulated asset base?
The asset base splits roughly half between the UK and the US, with the United States contributing a growing share following the gas sale and the Biden-era infrastructure stimulus. In the UK, the focus is high-voltage transmission; in the US, it includes distribution utilities in New York and Massachusetts. The UK business is the more transparent proxy for energy transition capex, while the US operations offer inflation-linked rate-base growth.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
Need institutional-grade insight on investors?
Altss delivers:
Prefer a guided tour?
We’ll walk you through: