Horizon Energy Ventures

Horizon Energy Ventures is a specialist financier that offers product finance and strategic partnerships to businesses looking to invest in sustainable energy infrastructure. It works with business leaders, consultants, and brokers to make sustainable change happen now.

As a portfolio company of Arcus Infrastructure Partners, Horizon Energy Ventures found itself in a position where it felt that in order to grow and attract clients, its current branding did not reflect its capabilities. 

Part of this resulted from the absence of a brand narrative that would clearly articulate their proposition, expertise, and services in ways that reflect the market needs, and the urgency of the situation they cater to.

The other part was caused by the fact that it had developed its identity from a sister company, Horizon Energy Infrastructure, but with a different service offering and expertise – leaving prospects unaware and unclear of the differences between the two.

Borne was assigned to develop an overarching strategy for Horizon Energy Ventures’ brand that would solve these two problems and be reflected through the creation of a new visual identity.

Through a qualitative research process, in which we extensively spoke with internal team members and category stakeholders, it reinforced our hypothesis that sustainable change needs to be perceived both with a sense of optimism as well as urgency.

When embarking on a path of change, sustainable investments are often reviewed as a hard, expensive cost, instead of an investment – leading to a latency in acting on such an important matter, which greatly affects our planet. In reality, when such an investment is structured the right way, and aligned with a business’ potential, the rewards it unlocks are far-reaching, in ways the future of our planet benefits too.

 The people at Horizon Energy Ventures have a vast pedigree and expertise in both finance and sustainable infrastructure. It puts them in a unique position to help businesses to act on this matter now through their financial capability, but also partner with them in advising on the opportunities that come with sustainable solutions that benefit our planet.

Our role in the first instance was to define a brand narrative that resonated with businesses who are looking into sustainable assets but require financial resources and expertise along the way. In return, this clarity, focus, and articulation needed to provide the team at Horizon Energy Ventures with a feeling of excitement and pride, when stepping into any room.

Often in B2B branding, people talk purely about rational decisions, providing great detail that revolves around products and services. The truth is that whilst credibility and detail are incredibly important, nobody does business with people they don’t feel good about – you need to resonate on an intuitive level too.

In this category, it’s quite easy to fall into one of two camps: a hyper-professional financier who speaks like a faceless investment bank and forgets the importance of the why or an overtly ‘green’ financier that lacks the sense of expertise and focus on immediate achievability.

By strategically positioning Horizon Energy Ventures at the intersection of the two, we create a clear point of differentiation centered around a brand that exists to enable a thriving green economy, with a clear vision to live in a new era of business – where planet and profit align.

Brand Identity

The logo represents Horizon Energy Ventures’ expertise, professionalism, and sense of connection and partnership, captured in a modern, confident way that’s optimised for the digital world. The shapes and structures are included as graphic assets to create further coherency across all touch points. 

The colour palette is by the brand’s commitment to a sustainable future led by expertise, using earthy dark tones with futuristic neon. With a primary palette considered as an always-on dark mode, it further heightens the little things a brand can do to make positive changes. 

The art direction provides the people at Horizon Energy Ventures with further flexibility to get across the key messages, leveraging people, expertise, and nature. When all elements come together, you really get the sense that this is a brand that helps to empower your business – at a time where it’s super important to implement change.

The rebrand was completed through the delivery of a coherent set of brand guidelines and templates to make the transition process as easy as possible for the team at Horizon Energy Ventures.

Now more than ever, we need more businesses like Horizon Energy Ventures to make the process of sustainable change easier and accessible for businesses. Although it’s difficult to find a creative execution that achieves this sense across multiple audiences, we believe the result most certainly does that. We will continue to support them to roll it out in the most optimal way.

“Working with Borne on developing our new brand has been an exceptional experience,” says George May, Managing Director of Horizon Energy Ventures. “Their ability to dive into our business to gain an in-depth understanding of our unique sector, target audiences, and competitors has been invaluable. This thorough approach enabled them to deliver a strategy that gives us brand integrity and standout. Their expertise in positioning, tone of voice, visual identity, and creating associated assets has truly transformed Horizon Energy Ventures. We are now positioned to connect with our audience more effectively and convey our mission with greater clarity and impact.”