Paper Title
Study on Partnership between Energy Companies & Blockchain Start-Ups: Based on Corporate Investment Model

Abstract
The aim of this study is to categorize the partnership types between legacy energy companies and blockchain energy start-ups in the period from 2011 to 2017 by investigating partnership deals. Before the investigation, the author reviews previous academic references dealing with blockchain energy business models and discusses the corporate investment model initiated by Chesbrough in 2002. As results, among 20 start-ups, five partnership deals have been found. The enabling and passive partnership is related to fundamental technology of blockchain application and the cases are ‘electrical vehicle charging’ (slock.it and RWE) and ‘customer switching’ (Electron and TEPCO). Driving partnership is related to viable for sustaining business and the cases are ‘Microgrid’ (Sun Exchange and Poerhive) and ‘IPP settlement’ (BTL and Wien Energie). The emergent partnership is clearly related to robust & scalable for business and the cases are ‘local energy market & P2P energy network’ (LO3 Energy and Siemens, Power Ledger and Vector, Innogy Innovation Hub and TEPCO), ‘decentralized exchange’ (Grid Singularity and Rocky Mountain Institute), and ‘retail trading & settlement’ (Ponton and energy companies). Keywords - Energy Company, Start-up, Corporate Investment, Blockchain.