Turtle & Hughes Invests in Cadenza

Manufacturers and distributors talk about “partnership” and “supporting” each other. Turtle & Hughes has taken it the next level by investing in an up and coming manufacturer, Cadenza Innovation.

Who is Cadenza?

Founded in 2012 by lithium-ion battery experts with more than 125 patents, Cadenza Innovation is capitalizing on its intellectual property, field-proven operational and mass production expertise and partner network to establish itself as a leader in safe, low-cost and energy-dense storage solutions. The founding team has held key roles at lithium-ion battery cell, pack and system provider Boston-Power, investment firm Bridgewater Associates, consulting firm Arthur D. Little and other globally respected organizations. Cadenza Innovation is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Golden Seeds, the states of New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, Rockwell Automation and private investors. The company’s Partners page also lists ABB and highlights some other large budget projects it has been involved in.

Turtle & Hughes Makes Investment

According to a Turtle & Hughes press release:

“Turtle & Hughes, one of the nation’s leading electrical and industrial distributors, (ranked #18 in the Electrical Wholesaling Top 150 with 2021 sales of $572 million) today announced a strategic investment in Cadenza Innovation, a growth-stage company that has developed a patented technology platform – the ‘superCell’ – which is enabling a new generation of safe, high-performing, low-cost lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries and energy storage solutions. Turtle’s investment builds on its existing supplier partnership with Cadenza Innovation and reinforces the company’s commitment to delivering greener business solutions that empower customers to achieve their sustainability goals. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

With the recent signing into law of the historic Inflation Reduction Act (H.R. 5376), there is an increased level of urgency to develop the U.S. battery manufacturing base and supply chain infrastructure to enable grid modernization, expand EV charging infrastructure and support renewable energy growth. Aligning with that mission, Turtle’s investment will help facilitate Cadenza Innovation’s future plans to significantly expand its domestic and international manufacturing capacity for Li-ion batteries.

“Strategic partnerships show their value when they advance as ours has with Cadenza Innovation, both in market opportunities and financial growth,” commented Kathleen Shanahan, Turtle & Hughes CEO. “Like Turtle, Cadenza Innovation has proven to be an industry leader by developing groundbreaking technology that will help solve our critical environmental challenges. As a woman-owned diversity business ourselves, we are proud to partner with Cadenza Innovation, which was founded and is operated by CEO Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud, one of the world’s pre-eminent battery experts.”

Among her industry roles, Dr. Lampe-Onnerud serves as the chair of the DOE-appointed Li-Bridge Commercialization and Competitiveness committee, a U.S. Department of Energy initiative committed to accelerating the development of a robust, secure domestic supply chain for lithium-based batteries. A two-time World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and former co-chair of its Global Future Councils, she is a board director with the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology (NY-BEST™) Consortium, a coalition working to build a vibrant, world-class, advanced battery and energy storage sector in New York State.

“Together, we will penetrate the urban market for safe and cost-effective lithium-ion energy storage batteries,” said Dr. Lampe-Onnerud. “When combining Turtle’s deep customer relationships with Cadenza Innovation’s cutting-edge battery systems, we will enable U.S. leadership and also solutions to climate change.”

Eliminating risk of fires and explosions, Cadenza Innovation’s award-winning, U.S. Department of Defense-tested and UL registered superCell technology platform fuels urban deployments due to its safe, flexible and space-efficient design, bolsters utility grid resilience and powers a range of uses in the transportation and commercial and industrial sectors. Later this year, Cadenza Innovation will unveil its cloud solution that enables customers to manage deployed distributed energy resources, an end-to-end battery manufacturing execution system and equipment automation to support the expansion of its battery manufacturing in the U.S. and abroad.

Turtle & Hughes entered the energy storage market in 2019 under the leadership of Ken McCauley, Executive Vice President (C: 732-540-5710). It was a natural extension of Turtle’s expertise in building sustainable resilient redundancy in the delivery of energy services. It also aligned with the company’s focus on expanding its sustainable solutions to customers, which include: microgrids, EV charging, lighting upgrades, and solar and wind balance of systems.”

Observation and Thoughts

• Cadenza’s relationships / partnership list is impressive, especially with government funding, Rockwell and ABB. Given the Rockwell and ABB involvement, the technology “due diligence” has been done.
• Turtle getting involved highlights a few things:
  • It infers that there are probably multiple projects that the companies have, or are, working on.
  • Probably gives Turtle some implied preference, at least in the NY / NJ marketplace, or, at worst case, more training for its salespeople.
  • Highlights Turtle’s commitment to the energy / green / renewables market and bringing offerings to end-users / supporting their customers.
  • Creates some interesting, long-term, upside for the company
  • With the Rockwell, and now Turtle, involvement, it wouldn’t be a surprise if this creates opportunities for other AD members.
• It could create some interesting marketplace / distribution conflicts down the line for Cadenza, however, the bigger upside potential for Turtle hopefully will enable Cadenza to make “the right decisions” for its business regarding sales and distribution strategies. Hopefully Turtle can also guide Cadenza regarding channel strategy as companies that start off going direct typically have challenges in pivoting to support channel strategies.
• It highlights that all elements of the channel (manufacturers, distributors and reps) are looking at different opportunities to be involved in the “greenification” / renewable segments. Consider:
  • JD Martin, a manufacturer rep, hires a VP Renewables. Other representatives are now representing a myriad of other EV charging systems and some battery storage providers.
  • Lighting manufacturers such as Light Efficient Design, ESPEN Technologies, Keystone Technologies and others have introduced electric vehicle charging systems to their portfolio (and their reps now represent these offerings.)
  • Distributors are exploring, and representing, lines in these areas. And the country’s largest “renewables” distributor, Greentech Renewables, a division of CED, has expanded beyond the solar segment into energy storage solutions.