Following one of the largest oil crashes in modern history, developers, operators, and producers cut costs and halted investments in the volatile industry. In many ways, lower commodity prices jump started the digital transformation of the energy industry. Numerous energy firms were forced to begin leveraging technology and asset data for efficiency gains. At Mercury Fund, our network and proximity to the energy markets in Houston provide a unique lens into the oil and gas industry. We believe that the key differentiation for producers over the next several years will be how well they exploit their data to increase productivity and reduce costs in their existing oilfield production.
Enter Alex and Chris Robart, oil and gas tech entrepreneurs (with two successful exits) and founders of Unconventional Capital. Over the years, Mercury and the Robarts built a relationship in the Houston market. When the Robart brothers launched Unconventional Capital, they set out to find the next great tech company to lead the digitization of the oilfield. After a year of discovery work their search led them to Calgary. A technology company, Ambyint, had begun to transform the Canadian oil and gas industry with AI and next-gen edge computing. What started as an oilfield services company managing producing oil and gas wells, led to the premier well optimization platform bringing artificial intelligence and insights to the edge in oil and gas production. After initial discussions with Ambyint, the Robarts asked Mercury to partner in evaluation and diligence of the opportunity and it was evident that Ambyint held an unfair advantage in the world of big data oilfield optimization. Through a combination of data science and physics-based modeling, oilfield production economics could be optimized and changed forever.
Mercury Fund led the Series A investment in Ambyint and syndicated the deal with a strong group of financial and strategic co-investors. This group of investors brought perspectives from automation (GE Ventures), E&P (Statoil Ventures), and operations (Cottonwood Ventures). By investing in Ambyint, we are partnered with a team of industry veterans and unmatched technologists to provide efficiency savings and previously unavailable visibility to operators across North America.
We believe Ambyint is perfectly positioned for the industry’s adoption of next-gen optimization technologies for high and low producing wells. Ambyint epitomizes Mercury’s Intelligent Manufacturing investment theme through its deeply experienced personnel and unique technology stack in the oil and gas manufacturing sector. With a unique product offering and the current industry outlook, Ambyint is well positioned to solidify its place as the market’s well optimization leader. We are excited to be partnering with such a great company and group of investment partners.
