Our Team
Dennis Odell
Dennis is one of the founders of Evergy Ventures and leads the team. He helped found Evergy Ventures under the premise that the energy industry is in a state of transformation and electric utilities like Evergy have an important role to play in that transformation. Dennis enjoys working with entrepreneurs who are undertaking that transformation, and currently sits on the boards of Axiom Exergy, Blue Pillar, and Spear Power Systems. He has over 25 years of experience in the energy industry in a wide range of roles, including strategic planning, risk management, business development and regulatory. Dennis has a BS in finance and an MBA from the University of Nebraska - Omaha.
Ashwin Shashindranath
Ashwin is looking for and works with entrepreneurs and companies who are genuinely excited about being agents of change in the energy landscape. Since joining Evergy Ventures in 2017, he's led investments in ecobee, Redaptive, Claroty, ClimaCell and Omnidian. His focus areas include Energy Storage, Digital Utility, Energy Efficiency and Cybersecurity. He previously served on the investment team at OpenAir Equity Partners where his areas of interest included Internet Of Things; Aging in Place technologies as well as AdTech. He actively supported OpenAir investments in Commerce Signals, Pepper, Farmlink, Zubie and Hyla. Ashwin has over 10 years of startup operational experience spanning both business development and product management roles and earned his BS, with honors, in Electrical Engineering from Missouri Institute of Science and Technology.
Brock Smith
Brock is looking to partner with diverse founding teams solving real issues across the energy value chain. Since joining Evergy Ventures in 2017, he's led investments in Pepper IoT, LiveSafe and Innowatts. His focus areas include Electric Vehicles & Infrastructure, Home Automation, Building Controls, Microgrids, and Smart City technologies. He previously served on the investment team at Invest Nebraska Corporation where he invested in 47 deals, leading 16 of the deals, across a broad array of industries. He has over 10 years of startup operational experience in management, finance, and business development. He earned a BS, with honors, in Economics, an MBA, and a JD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.