In the News
GiantLeap Capital Invests in Vantage Data Centers
NEW YORK, June 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- GiantLeap Capital, a technology-focused private investment firm that partners with companies developing transformative technologies for critical industries announced today its investment in Vantage Data Centers, a leading global provider of hyperscale data center campuses, to support its growing North America and EMEA platforms.
Vantage owns or controls 25 sites in North America and EMEA totaling more than three gigawatts of expected capacity. As part of the company's investment plan, Vantage's strategic land bank is expected to drive an estimated $30 billion of additional development, extending Vantage's track record of bringing market leading capacity and innovative solutions to customers around the world. In connection with the investment, Vantage will continue its development of next-generation data centers, including energy-efficient and sustainable designs purpose-built for AI and large-scale cloud deployments.
Sunit Patel, Senior Executive Advisor at GiantLeap Capital: "We are excited to work with Vantage as they continue meeting the critical demands of hyperscalers and other leading technology companies."
"We are thrilled to support Vantage at a critical growth inflection point and to help finance one of the most pressing infrastructure needs for hyperscalers," said Himanshu Sekhar and Samir Parikh, co-Founders and Managing Partners at GiantLeap Capital. “GiantLeap and our global network of Executive Partners and Advisors look forward to supporting Vantage and its next stage of growth. Vantage is one of the most important companies globally for cloud and technology platforms and is well positioned to help accelerate adoption of cloud and AI-based technologies."
About GiantLeap Capital
GiantLeap Capital is a tech-focused, structured growth equity investment firm. GiantLeap Capital is focused on leveraging emerging technologies to rapidly scale companies providing mission-critical products and services. The firm takes a long-term, thematic approach to provide value-oriented, flexible capital focused on private markets and opportunistic special situations.
For more information, visit https://www.giantleapcapital.com.
GiantLeap Capital Advisor, Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, joins new slate of Elected Directors for the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA)
Overseer and HAA Director Members Elected
Harvard announces the results of the annual balloting.
by Nell Porter Brown
THE UNIVERSITY announced today the newly elected members of the Board of Overseers (one of Harvard’s two governing boards), who assume their roles May 24, and directors of the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA), whose terms begin July 1. They were chosen by eligible alumni from among the candidates presented by the HAA nominating committee. A total of 35,377 ballots were cast.
Read full article: https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/05/haa-overseer-director-election-results-2024
GiantLeap Capital Joins Intel Capital and DigitalBridge in Investing in Articul8, a spin-off of Intel's business focused on Enterprise Generative AI
The investment highlights GiantLeap Capital's focus on growth equity in private and public special situations alongside leading global alternative asset managers and technology companies
The transaction supports GiantLeap Capital's thematic strategy focused on digital infrastructure technologies that are transforming critical industries
NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- GiantLeap Capital, a technology-focused private investment firm focused on partnering with companies developing transformative technologies for critical industries, today announced its investment with Intel and DigitalBridge in Articul8. Articul8 provides a comprehensive, vertically-integrated, and secure generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) software platform tailored for enterprise clients, with a choice of cloud, on-prem or hybrid deployment.
Articul8 brings together intellectual property (IP) and technology originally developed at Intel, and the two will maintain a strategic alignment, particularly in exploring go-to-market opportunities and collaborating to accelerate the adoption of GenAI within enterprise environments. Arun Subramaniyan, who previously served as Vice President and General Manager in Intel's Data Center and AI Group, has assumed leadership of Articul8 as its CEO.
Samir Parikh, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at GiantLeap Capital, said: "This strategic investment, made in collaboration with Intel Capital and DigitalBridge, highlights GiantLeap Capital's differentiated special situations investing strategy in growth equity opportunities in the private and public markets. We are excited to back Arun and his visionary team at Articul8 who combine deep technical knowledge with a keen understanding of business needs and customer requirements in sectors currently undergoing transformative technological advancements."
Himanshu Sekhar, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at GiantLeap Capital, said: "Our investment philosophy is perfectly aligned with Articul8's mission to revolutionize AI applications in regulated environments. GiantLeap looks forward to partnering with Articul8 and leveraging our operating partners' deep experience to further scale this revolutionary platform for mission-critical industries."
Following the technology's early deployment at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the team has scaled the platform to enterprise customers in industry segments requiring high levels of security and specialized domain knowledge, including financial services, aerospace, semiconductors and telecommunications.
Alex Villela, Head of DigitalBridge Ventures, said, "Every global enterprise today is challenged to integrate GenAI capabilities into their workflows. We are excited about our partnership with the GiantLeap team to help scale Articul8's software platform that is already enabling enterprises to unlock value from their proprietary data. We see GenAI as a pivotal force driving digital infrastructure, and we are pleased to collaborate with Intel and GiantLeap Capital to support Articul8's growth."
About GiantLeap Capital
GiantLeap Capital is a recently launched tech-focused, structured growth equity platform. GiantLeap Capital is focused on leveraging emerging technologies to rapidly scale companies providing mission-critical products and services. The firm takes a long-term, thematic approach to provide value-oriented, flexible capital focused on private markets and opportunistic special situations. For more information, visit https://www.giantleapcapital.com.
About Articul8
Articul8 is a generative AI (GenAI) enterprise software company focused on helping organizations solve the world's toughest problems. Articul8's full-stack, vertically-optimized GenAI software platform enables companies to build, deploy and manage enterprise-grade, secure GenAI applications rapidly and cost-effectively. Articul8's proprietary GenAI technologies are infrastructure and hardware-agnostic, and deliver lasting business value by transforming customer data into actionable insights. Our team of industry veterans and AI experts have a heritage of successfully operationalizing and deploying AI at scale across a variety of mission-critical industries. For more information, please visit www.articul8.ai.
Crown Castle Announces Comprehensive Fiber Review and Additions to the Board
Forms New Committees to Lead Review of the Fiber Business, Search for New CEO
Appoints Jason Genrich and Sunit Patel to the Board
Enters into Cooperation Agreement with Elliott Investment Management
HOUSTON, Dec. 20, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE: CCI) (“Crown Castle” or the “Company”) today announced a comprehensive review of the Company’s fiber business and the addition of two new independent directors to the Company’s Board. The initiatives were announced in connection with a cooperation agreement with Elliott Investment Management L.P. (together with its affiliates, “Elliott”), pursuant to which Crown Castle will appoint Jason Genrich, Senior Portfolio Manager at Elliott, and Sunit Patel, former Chief Financial Officer of Level-3 Communications and Executive Vice President of T-Mobile, to the Company’s Board of Directors.
As part of this agreement, Crown Castle has formed the following special committees of the Board:
Fiber Review Committee. The Fiber Review Committee will direct a strategic and operating review of the Company’s fiber business, with the goal of enhancing and unlocking shareholder value. The Fiber Review Committee will be chaired by P. Robert Bartolo (Chair of the Crown Castle Board) and will include four additional directors, including Anthony J. Melone (the Company’s interim Chief Executive Officer), Kevin A. Stephens, and newly appointed directors Mr. Genrich and Mr. Patel. Together, the Fiber Review Committee members will work to determine the best path forward for the fiber business and will make their recommendations to the full Board. The Company will not comment further on the strategic review unless and until the Board has approved a specific course of action or until it determines that further disclosure is appropriate or necessary. Financial advisors to the Fiber Review Committee will be Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and BofA Securities, and legal counsel will be Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.
CEO Search Committee. In connection with the Company’s previously announced CEO transition, the Board has established a CEO Search Committee to conduct the search to identify Crown Castle’s next CEO. The CEO Search Committee will be chaired by Tammy K. Jones and will also include Mr. Bartolo, Mr. Genrich and Kevin T. Kabat.
“Today’s announcements reinforce our commitment to taking actions that best position the Company for long term success, including our Board’s regular evaluation of all paths to enhance shareholder value,” said Chair Bartolo. “Jason and Sunit bring valuable financial, operational and fiber expertise to our Board. We look forward to benefitting from their experience and insights. As we look ahead, I am confident that Crown Castle, as owners of the some of the best located tower and fiber assets in the U.S., will identify the best path forward to capitalize on significant opportunities for growth in our industry.”
“Today’s announcements mark a significant step forward toward a stronger and more valuable Crown Castle,” said Elliott Senior Portfolio Manager Jason Genrich. “We appreciate the constructive dialogue we have had with Crown Castle’s Board to date, and I look forward to working with my fellow directors to evaluate the Company’s strategic direction from here, including by conducting a comprehensive review of the fiber business and running a robust process to identify the Company’s next CEO. Crown Castle has the preeminent portfolio of strategic tower and fiber assets in the United States, and I am confident that this agreement will pave the way for a new chapter of value creation for its shareholders.”
In connection with today’s appointments, W. Benjamin Moreland and Maria M. Pope will be stepping down from the Board. As a result, the Board will be comprised of 12 directors, 11 of whom are independent. As previously announced, Jay Brown will step down as a Director of the Company, effective January 16, 2024.
Mr. Bartolo continued, “On behalf of the Crown Castle team, I want to thank Ben and Maria for their dedicated service to the Company. During Ben’s two decade-plus tenure in a variety of leadership roles, he played a pivotal role in positioning the business for the tremendous opportunities that lie ahead. Similarly, we appreciate Maria’s contributions and her expertise in helping to navigate a volatile environment over the last year. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors.”
The agreement with Elliott also contains customary standstill, voting and other provisions. The full agreement between Crown Castle and Elliott will be filed on a Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the charter for the new Fiber Review Committee will be available on Crown Castle’s website.
About Jason Genrich
Jason Genrich is a Senior Portfolio Manager at Elliott Investment Management, focusing on investments across the TMT industry and leading Elliott’s activities in a wide variety of technology, software, IT hardware and digital infrastructure companies across public equity, private equity and credit investments. From 2021 to 2022, Mr. Genrich served on the public Board of Switch Inc., and was a member on the REIT Committee and Special Committee of the Board prior to its sale to Digital Bridge and IFM. Mr. Genrich currently serves on the Boards of Cloud Software Group (formerly Citrix and TIBCO Software), GoTo (formerly LogMeIn) and Travelport Worldwide. From 2011 to 2014, Mr. Genrich was a private equity investor at GTCR on the TMT investment team, with an emphasis on digital infrastructure, including wireless towers, fiber infrastructure, cable MSOs and other broadband infrastructure businesses. From 2009 to 2011, Mr. Genrich worked in the Technology M&A advisory group at Evercore Partners.
About Sunit Patel
Sunit Patel is the Chief Financial Officer of Ibotta Inc., a North American cashback rewards and mobile technology platform. Mr. Patel has more than 25 years of executive leadership, including 15 years as a public telecommunications company CFO. In 2000, Mr. Patel co-founded Looking Glass Networks Inc., a facilities-based provider of metropolitan telecommunication transport services and served as its CFO until 2003. From 2003 to 2018, Mr. Patel served EVP and CFO of CenturyLink, now Lumen, a role he held for over 14 years at Level 3 prior to its 2017 merger with CenturyLink. From 2018 to 2020, Mr. Patel served as EVP, Merger and Integration at T-Mobile, where he led T-Mobile's strategic planning efforts to integrate its business with Sprint following the companies' $26.5 billion merger.
Mr. Patel currently serves on the Board of Cirion Technologies, a leading digital infrastructure and technology provider, offering a comprehensive suite of fiber network, connectivity, colocation, cloud infrastructure, and communication and collaboration solutions.
Advisors
BofA Securities is serving as financial advisor to Crown Castle in connection with the cooperation agreement with Elliott, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP are serving as legal counsel. Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP is serving as legal counsel to Elliott.
CAUTIONARY LANGUAGE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements that are not historical facts are hereby identified as forward-looking statements. In addition, words such as "estimate," "anticipate," "project," "plan," "intend," "believe," "expect," "likely," "predicted," "positioned," "continue," "target," "seek," "focus" and any variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include (1) statements and expectations regarding the process and outcomes of Company’s Fiber Review Committee, including that it will help enhance and unlock shareholder value, (2) statements and expectations regarding the process and outcomes of CEO Search Committee, including that it will conduct the search to identify Crown Castle’s next CEO, (3) that the actions set forth in this press release best position the Company for long term success, including our Board’s regular evaluation of all paths to enhance shareholder value, (4) that the Company will benefit from the experience and insights of the newly appointed directors, (5) that the Company will identify the best path forward to capitalize on significant opportunities for growth in our industry. Such forward-looking statements should, therefore, be considered in light of various risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including prevailing market conditions, risk factors described in "Item 1A. Risk Factors" of the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 ("2022 Form 10-K") and other factors. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those expected.
Our filings with the SEC are available through the SEC website at www.sec.gov or through our investor relations website at investor.crowncastle.com. We use our investor relations website to disclose information about us that may be deemed to be material. We encourage investors, the media and others interested in us to visit our investor relations website from time to time to review up-to-date information or to sign up for e-mail alerts to be notified when new or updated information is posted on the site.
ABOUT CROWN CASTLE
Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 85,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber solutions across every major U.S. market. This nationwide portfolio of communications infrastructure connects cities and communities to essential data, technology and wireless service – bringing information, ideas and innovations to the people and businesses that need them. For more information on Crown Castle, please visit www.crowncastle.com.
CONTACTS
Kris Hinson, VP & Treasurer
Crown Castle Inc.
713-570-3050
Harvard Business News 2023 Rising Stars - Tjada D’Oyen McKenna
The mission of the HBSWA is to support HBS women in their professional and personal development as well as continue to fund our HBS Fellowship. To that end we are seeking nominations of women who have achieved extraordinary accomplishments.
Nominees might include entrepreneurs whose companies have exhibited sustainability and growth, corporate rising stars or someone who has founded, participated significantly in driving forward the mission of a not-for-profit or a combination of these achievements. This is an exciting opportunity for us to recognize women in achieving significant and meaningful growth in their careers.
See full article: https://www.hbswany.org/s/1738/cc/21/page.aspx?sid=1738&gid=13&pgid=80248
GiantLeap Capital Invests in Membrion to Accelerate Growth in Company's Water Technology Platform
NEW YORK, Jan. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- GiantLeap Capital, a tech-focused private investment firm focused on partnering with companies developing technologies that are transforming critical industries, today announced that it has invested in a Series B funding of Membrion, a water technology company focused on the commercialization of ceramic desalination membranes.
Membrion develops and manufactures next-generation ceramic desalination membranes that can recover up to 98% of water in the harshest conditions. Membrion's flexible, ceramic ion exchange membranes open up endless opportunities for cost-efficient water recovery, allowing manufacturers across a number of critical industries to recycle water more sustainably. Membrion's customers include leading global companies in energy, semiconductor, transportation, and food & beverage industries.
"We are keenly focused on environmental technologies that can make a meaningful environmental and economic impact across many critical industries. Membrion's ceramic membranes provide efficiencies and the flexibility that are applicable across multiple critical industries along with a business model that can scale and grow," said Himanshu Sekhar, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at GiantLeap. "I look forward to joining Membrion's Board and helping the company grow through GiantLeap's proprietary value creation programs and industry relationships."
"We are excited to have GiantLeap Capital as a valuable financial and strategic partner as we lay the foundation for our next stage of growth. Membrion has a strong and growing number of Fortune 500 companies as customers who are seeing substantial ROI and environmental benefits using our technology," said Membrion's CEO, Greg Newbloom. "GiantLeap's strategic and operational resources will strengthen our partnerships and our world-class team, positioning us for even greater expansion. I look forward to leveraging GiantLeap's extensive private and public company networks and their proprietary value creation and ESG programs as we continue to grow."
"Impact and climate investing are key areas of focus for GiantLeap. We view water infrastructure as one of the most critical areas where technological innovation can have a tremendous economic and social impact. The Membrion team has built a business with an strong value proposition in the water-tech sector," said Samir Parikh, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at GiantLeap. "We look forward to working with PureTerra and Membrion as the company continues to expand their mission-critical technology in this increasingly important ESG segment."
About GiantLeap Capital
GiantLeap Capital is a recently launched tech-focused, structured growth equity platform. GiantLeap Capital is focused on leveraging emerging technologies to rapidly scale companies providing mission-critical products and services. The firm takes a long-term, thematic approach to provide value-oriented, flexible capital focused on private markets and opportunistic special situations. For more information, visit https://www.giantleapcapital.com.
About Membrion
Membrion manufactures ceramic desalination membranes that can recover up to 98% of water in the harshest conditions. Membrion's flexible, ceramic ion exchange membranes generate endless possibilities for water recovery, allowing manufacturers to recycle water at previously inaccessible pH ranges and with challenging trace chemicals. The membranes that Membrion creates are low fouling, require less cleaning, are oxidizer resistant, have ultra-low pH stability, and are economical. For more information, visit www.membrion.com.
GiantLeap Capital Invests in Fortanix alongside Goldman Sachs to Accelerate Growth in Company's Data First Cybersecurity and Privacy Software Platform
NEW YORK, Sept. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- GiantLeap Capital, a fundamental, research-driven private investment firm, focused on partnering with companies at the convergence of physical and digital infrastructure, today announced that it has invested in Series C funding of Fortanix, the leader in confidential computing cybersecurity market.
Fortanix, the pioneering data-first, multi-cloud security company, helps businesses secure private data by leveraging confidential computing and cryptographic services as they migrate to public clouds such Amazon's AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Its disruptive technology, backed by strong IP, provides an elegant approach to secure data, wherever it is. Fortanix also allows organizations to credibly conform to privacy laws and regulatory requirements including GDPR, Schrems II, HIPAA, PCI, ITAR, and others.
"Privacy regulations and data breaches are driving the need for data-first security in public and multicloud environments. Fortanix provides enterprises across multiple critical industries a comprehensive data security platform that can seamlessly bridge private, public, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments to prevent data breaches and comply with continually evolving global privacy regulations. We believe Fortanix has tremendous revenue growth opportunity ahead of it by pioneering fourth pillar of modern enterprise security along with identity, endpoint, and network security," said Himanshu Sekhar, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at GiantLeap.
As the industry's first and largest provider of confidential computing solutions, Fortanix decouples data security from network infrastructure to keep data secure even when the infrastructure has been compromised. Fortanix solutions further empower organizations with centralized controls to secure data spread across clouds, applications, SaaS, databases, and data centers. Over a hundred enterprises worldwide, especially in privacy-sensitive industries like healthcare, financial services, government, aerospace, and manufacturing, trust Fortanix for data security and privacy.
"GiantLeap Capital will be a valuable strategic partner to Fortanix as we lay the foundation for our next stage of growth. We have a strong and growing number of Fortune 500 companies and U.S. government agencies as customers who trust us to deliver security solutions needed to protect their most critical data," said Fortanix's CEO, Ambuj Kumar. "GiantLeap's strategic and operational resources will strengthen our partnerships and our world-class team, positioning us for even greater expansion. I look forward to leveraging GiantLeap's extensive private and public company relationships and their proprietary value creation (S.T.E.P.S.) and ESG (S.E.E.D.S.) programs as we continue to grow."
"The Fortanix team has built a business with an unrivaled value proposition to companies in our most critical industries including financial services, healthcare, and government & defense," said Samir Parikh, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at GiantLeap. "We look forward to working with Goldman Sachs and the Fortanix team as they continue to expand their mission-critical security services in this increasingly important cybersecurity segment."
About GiantLeap Capital
GiantLeap Capital is a next generation private investment firm focused on investing in technologies that are transforming critical industries at the convergence of physical and digital infrastructure. The firm takes a long-term, thematic approach to provide flexible capital focused on idiosyncratic investment opportunities across growth stages. For more information, please visit https://www.giantleapcapital.com/
About Fortanix
Fortanix secures data, wherever it is. Fortanix helps businesses of all sizes to modernize their data security solutions on-premises, in the cloud and everywhere in-between. Enterprises worldwide, especially in privacy-sensitive industries like healthcare, fintech, financial services, government, and retail, trust Fortanix for data security, privacy and compliance. Fortanix investors include Goldman Sachs, Foundation Capital, Intel Capital, GiantLeap Capital, In-Q-Tel, and Neotribe Ventures. Fortanix is headquartered in Mountain View, CA. For more information, please visit https://www.fortanix.com/
GiantLeap Capital Invests in Federated Wireless to Accelerate Innovation and Development of Private 5G Wireless Networks for Critical Industries
NEW YORK, May 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Giantleap Capital, a fundamental research-driven investment firm, focused on partnering with companies at the convergence of physical and digital infrastructure, today announced that it has invested in a Series D funding of Federated Wireless, the leader in shared spectrum and CBRS technology.
Private wireless is a disruptive technology that is disrupting how businesses build their enterprise network. It harnesses a ubiquitous resource called shared spectrum, also known as CBRS - an innovative technology that delivers the best attributes of traditional wireless and Wi-Fi, with lower fixed cost, higher quality, and greater efficiency and scale.
"With digital transformation, businesses have to embrace enterprise agility and mobility – the ability to share data and information across multiple devices at speed and scale. This ability is critical not only to keep up with customers' needs, boost efficiency, but also to help businesses benefit from the full potential of the connected economy," said Himanshu Sekhar, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Giantleap.
As the first to market with a Spectrum Access System ("SAS"), Federated Wireless is the nationwide leader in enabling, commercializing, and driving adoption of shared spectrum. With more than 350 customers and over 85,000 connected devices across the United States and territories, the company serves a customer base spanning defense, government, manufacturing, telecommunications, utilities, real estate, and education, with a wide range of use cases ranging from network densification and mobile offload to private wireless and industrial IoT.
"Giantleap Capital is an ideal partner for our next chapter of growth. We look forward to continuing to support our customers and investing in our products to deliver the private wireless and shared spectrum solutions needed to power impactful transformation at the enterprise edge," said CEO Iyad Tarazi. "Giantleap brings significant resources and experience in building market-leading businesses, as well as a commitment to support Federated's growth initiatives."
"Iyad and the Federated Wireless team have built an exceptional business that provides an unrivaled value proposition to critical industries including government and defense," said Samir Parikh, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Giantleap. "We look forward to partnering with the Federated team as they continue to expand their platform to deliver a differentiated solution focused on the unique needs of their customer base."
About GiantLeap Capital
Giantleap Capital is a fundamental research-driven investment firm focused on investing in technologies that are transforming critical industries at the convergence of physical and digital infrastructure. The firm takes a long-term thematic approach to invest in idiosyncratic investment opportunities across private, public, and special situations.
For more information, please visit https://www.giantleapcapital.com/
About Federated Wireless
Founded in 2012, Federated Wireless is the leading innovator of private wireless and shared spectrum services. The company's partner ecosystem includes more than 50 solution and edge partners, all of which are dedicated to collaboration in advancing the development and deployment of shared spectrum services. Federated Wireless' customer base includes companies spanning the telecommunications, logistics, manufacturing, energy, hospitality, education, retail, office space, municipal and other verticals, with use cases ranging from Private Wireless and Industrial IoT to network densification and mobile offload.
For more information, please visit https://www.federatedwireless.com/