Energy Impact Partners was founded in 2015 by Hans Kobler, who spent his earlier career at Bain & Company, then GE - where he pioneered the company's strategic investment model - before founding Digital Power Capital and co-founding ICx Technologies, which he led through a Nasdaq IPO and eventual strategic sale. That operator background shaped EIP's most distinctive structural feature: the fund is a collaborative coalition backed by more than 30 global energy and industrial companies, who invest alongside EIP and give portfolio companies direct commercial access to utilities and industrial buyers that might otherwise take years to reach. The firm's 2017 partnership with industrial cybersecurity company Dragos, made when the category was still nascent, became one of its clearest proof points once Accenture acquired a majority stake in the company at a $3.2 billion valuation, and EIP now manages more than $4.5 billion across the energy transition, smart infrastructure, and climate technology.
Accenture's 2025 acquisition of a majority stake in Dragos at a $3.2 billion valuation - EIP partnered with the industrial cybersecurity company in 2017, when the category was still emerging