NEW YORK, NY – Steel Atlas makes concentrated investments in novel industrial technologies that enable economic resilience. Through research-based theses, the team identifies large and growing areas of industrial volatility that are existential to national interests. Based on this work, they support early-stage teams (software & hardware) that address these volatilities.
Post-investment, Steel Atlas partners with portfolio companies to commercialize their technologies via an exclusive network of the most advanced industrial conglomerates in the Gulf. Either via a JV or critical customer introductions, we derisk and accelerate outcomes for our portfolio.
At Steel Atlas, we identify opportunities to solve emerging sources of industrial volatility that, if left unaddressed, will become increasingly disruptive to large scale economic activity over time. From vanadium used in steel reinforcing, to rare earth metals critical for global battery supply chains, we look to identify specific bottlenecks that novel technologies can solve economically and at scale while capturing significant value. This proprietary approach is enabled by a non-replicable network in one of the fastest growing (in terms of population) and industrializing markets in the world: Saudi Arabia.
This network provides us with access to two key resources, high-signal information flows and commercialization pathways with innovative industrial conglomerates (Aramco, SABIC, ACWA Power). We meet with industrial operators to identify where they are seeing increased volatility or uncertainty in both their supply chains and operations. What problems are these businesses facing? What mandates are nations committing billions of dollars to (or moving away from)? The insights we gather (which we view as public secrets) directly inform our theses.
Although our strategy starts by sourcing opportunities from industrial operators in select geographies, we look at these trends holistically to understand if there is a pathway to commercialization globally (notably the US). This step is critical for ensuring venture-style returns across our portfolios.
Our systematic approach has allowed us to build a curated portfolio of global industrial technology business with customers pre-identified within a geography (Saudi Arabia) that is rapidly going throw a second-wave of industrialization with the combined support of the public and private sector.
This approach is a form of structural geographic arbitrage. We are identifying best in class technology across US + Europe and accelerating in the market where public support for industrialization is the highest in the world.
Furthermore, we believe in the continuing alliance and strategic partnership between the US, Saudi Arabia, and its allies. While technology talent and IP may exist in the US & Europe, the will and engineering capability to construct, manufacture, and deploy giga-scale industrial projects (in our view) exists in Saudi Arabia today. By sitting at the technological and geopolitical nexus of these two nations, our fund is positioned to benefit from the most significant industrial tailwinds since World War II.