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Eric Gravengaard

CFO @ Escalon Services | Data Center Developer | Corporate Finance Expert

Eric Gravengaard is a seasoned consulting CFO at Early Growth, specializing in helping venture-backed startups in the crypto, Web3, NFT, DeFi, and protocol sectors with finance, fundraising, mergers and acquisitions, and growth strategies.

With over 10 years of experience, Eric is known for his role as the founder and board member of Athena Bitcoin Global ($ABIT), a publicly traded company with a $2B market cap, where he honed his expertise in the financial and cryptocurrency industries.

Passionate about bridging the gap between traditional and digital currencies, Eric Gravengaard has led initiatives to provide easy access to converting between sovereign and crypto-currencies.

Notable achievements include spearheading the Chivo system that distributed Bitcoin wallets to all citizens of El Salvador, the first country to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender, as well as placing the first Bitcoin ATM in El Salvador.

Eric is well-versed in raising capital, having secured over $20M in funding, guiding clients through Series A rounds ($20M raised), and facilitating two significant acquisition transactions ($200M).

His academic background includes an MBA in Analytic Finance and Economics from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, as well as a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Economics, and Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Throughout his career, Eric Gravengaard has held various roles in reputable organizations such as Escalon Services, Inc., Athena Bitcoin, Zen Trading FX, RII Trading/Rock Capital Markets, Chicago Trading Company, Spot Trading, LLC, Matlock Capital, Reactivity, Inc., and P2P Commerce, displaying a diverse skill set and extensive experience in the financial and technology sectors.

Highlights

Aug 26 · linkedin

Who is funding small and mid market data centers?

I've seen a dozen projects that we can't match supply (project developers) with demand (PE, family office, or HNWI).

We hear a lot of "agree with your thesis, but not a match for our fund." The thesis continues to be backed up by research from big names. I've written previously about Goldman Sachs banging the table, and today I would add Sequoia to that list.

We've seen the headlines, big data centers are hot. Prices are expensive in this range. The odd lots are not, value is still available and cap rates a wide. Except we all know that won't be true in 18 months. Sequoia says, "Models are getting so big, they may eventually need to be trained on distributed clusters across multiple data centers." Why would you not want to own 15 MW of power delivered to a property? Sure the client of today is a Bitcoin miner, but the client of tomorrow could be an AI company that wants to pay double. That's the option embedded in the middle market (5 to 25 MW). And it's cheap right now.

Buy cheap and under priced options. Skate to where the puck is going. Invest with conviction, but stay nimble.

May 31 · linkedin

Goldman is pounding the table on AI, data centers, and electricity. Is this the right place to invest capital?

In case you aren't reading every Briefings by GS, you may not have noticed that their research department wants you to invest in electricity for data centers. This week's email contained a link to a report titled "AI is poised to drive a 160% increase in data center power demand." That's a lot of power demand.

Here are the key points: AI’s Power Demand: AI technologies, like ChatGPT, are expected to significantly increase data center power consumption, with a projected growth of 160% by 2030.

Stable to Surge: Data center power demand remained stable for years but is now surging due to slowing efficiency gains and the rise of AI.

Carbon Footprint: The carbon emissions from data centers could more than double between 2022 and 2030, raising concerns about their environmental impact.

Investment in Energy: There will likely be substantial investments in renewable energy and emerging nuclear generation to meet the rising power demand from data centers

What are your thoughts on this sector? Is playing electricity and data centers the right move to allocate capital related to AI? Are public or private deals better opportunities for total returns?

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Eric Gravengaard
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Location

Winnetka, Illinois, United States