Veriten is a Houston-based employee-owned research, strategy, and investment firm founded in January 2022 by Maynard Holt, former co-founder and CEO of energy investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH). The firm develops an unbiased, economics-based, long-term global outlook for energy, power, and technology, and invests in companies addressing critical challenges and opportunities across the energy value chain. Veriten comprises 20 professionals with backgrounds spanning investing, research, investment banking, public buyside, technology, industrial, and entrepreneurship.
Veriten invests in scalable technology solutions for energy, power, and industrial applications, targeting companies that address real operating challenges or capitalize on long-term growth opportunities across the energy value chain. The fund focuses on companies with broadly applicable solutions, aligned with the firm's long-term view of the energy world, and with logical, multifaceted exit opportunities. Investment themes span traditional energy, electrification, and industrial technology, with AI-driven transformation of energy and industrial sectors identified as a key tailwind. Strategic input and connectivity are considered as important as capital, the firm's 50+ corporate partnerships function as a differentiated value-add network for portfolio companies.
Fund II (formally the successor to the NexTen Fund) completed its initial close at $105 million in May 2026. Confirmed LP partners include Halliburton (represented by Chairman and CEO Jeff Miller), Phillips 66 (represented by Chairman and CEO Mark Lashier), and CIBC (represented by SVP & Group Head of Capital Markets Christian Exshaw). The fund has not yet reached final close and no target size has been publicly disclosed. Baker Botts L.L.P. served as legal counsel.
Leadership
Maynard Holt is Founder and CEO. Prior to founding Veriten, he co-founded and led Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH) as CEO from 2007 to 2022. He holds a master's degree in Public Policy Analysis from Harvard and a bachelor's in Economics from Rice University. Jeff Tillery is Chief Operating Officer and former head of TPH Research. Arjun Murti is Partner, Energy Macro and Policy, and former Co-Director of Goldman Sachs Research, where he personally led global coverage of oil & gas, midstream, refining, and clean energy. John Sommers is Partner, Investments, previously Principal at Cockrell Investments and an investor at Quantum Energy Partners. Michael Bradley is a partner and former head of TPH Capital Markets.
Venture Funds Advisory Board
Jason Cansler, Bob Gwin, and Marty Phillips serve on the Veriten Venture Funds Advisory Board.
Investment Strategy
Veriten leads or participates in early-to-growth-stage rounds in energy and industrial technology companies, leveraging its research platform and corporate partnership network to source and support investments. The firm takes a first-principles, economics-driven approach to investment evaluation, emphasizing connectivity and deep sector expertise over capital alone. Fund II builds on the NexTen Fund platform with a stated focus on multifaceted exit opportunities and companies with broadly applicable solutions.
Maynard Holt — Founder & CEO
m.holt@veriten.com
John Sommers — Partner, Investments
jsommers@veriten.com
Arjun Murti — Partner, Energy Macro & Policy
amurti@veriten.com
United States
