HQ.Partners | Principal Investing: Primaries & Secondaries, Growth Equity, Energy & Commodities

Focus sectors

The build-out of intelligence, layer by layer.

The defining industrial shift of our time runs in strata: models, machines, and the power behind them. Through our network, HQ.Partners works with qualified investors on opportunities in and around the companies building each layer, across primaries and secondaries.

Automation & Robotics

Humanoid and general-purpose robotics and defence autonomy: intelligence at work in the physical world.

Intelligence

Frontier model developers: the models the rest of the stack exists to run.

Compute & Datacenters

AI compute and datacenter infrastructure: where intelligence is housed, cooled, and priced.

Energy

Energy production and infrastructure: the base layer. Everything above draws on this one.

Coverage is specific and it moves. We set out current names, structures, and availability for qualified counterparties rather than publishing them. Request counterparty access →

And access of another kind: the rooms, events, and people where real relationships and real influence take shape.

Thomas Tougaard presenting the automation and robotics investment thesis — The Thesis, on stage: GeoPolitics + Demographics = AI + Automation & Robotics

In the room, on the record.

Panel: Closing the Nature Finance Gap, EarthX 2026

Moderating "Closing the Nature Finance Gap: Political Will, Capital Architecture & Cross-Border Execution" at EarthX 2026, with NewOak Capital (ex-BlackRock) and Day One Movement.

Thomas Tougaard moderating "Green Energy Diplomacy: Denmark's Role in Global Resilience" at EarthX 2025

Moderating "Green Energy Diplomacy: Denmark's Role in Global Resilience" at EarthX 2025 in Dallas, on how state-level energy diplomacy moves foreign direct investment at scale.

CEOWORLD Magazine · Author

Five defining questions for Davos 2026

On energy economics as the new measure of competitiveness: dollars per kilowatt-hour, not dollars per hour.

Calden Private Markets · Warsaw

The defining companies of this era are still private

Our European counterpart in growth-stage private technology: secondaries and select late-stage primaries across foundation models, defence autonomy, frontier robotics, and the infrastructure beneath them. Positions sourced directly from founders, early employees, and early investors, then closed quietly.

HQ.Partners · The Firm's Thesis

GeoPolitics + Demographics = AI + Automation & Robotics

Why aging societies and rebuilt supply chains make the automation stack the defining allocation of the decade.

HQ.Partners · Field Notes

Davos 2026, Debriefed: The Year Energy Economics Took the Chair

What changed at the 56th Annual Meeting, and what our Forum at Schatzalp taught us about where capital moves next.

Speaking & panels: World Hydrogen Leaders (S&P Global), EarthX, CERAWeek, Gastech, American Clean Power, Enverus Evolve, and the Global CleanTech Forum in Davos

Where capital meets
governments and industry.

Thomas Tougaard, M.Eng., MBA

Founder & Managing Partner

Thomas directs investment strategy for corporations, governments, venture and growth-equity funds, and multi-billion-dollar family offices, with a focus on cross-border transactions where capital, technology, and policy intersect.

Before founding HQ.Partners, he served as Investment Manager and Energy Advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark in Houston, covering renewables and Power-to-X. He has attracted more than €2 billion in foreign direct investment and raised more than €250 million in equity for scaling companies.

He is the founder of the Global CleanTech Forum in Davos and moderates and speaks at leading capital and energy forums worldwide.

BackgroundM.Eng. Petroleum & Natural Gas Engineering · MBA PriorInvestment Manager & Energy Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark BasedHouston, Texas · operating US & Europe BoardsWorld Chamber of Commerce, Texas · Swedish Chamber of Commerce, Texas LanguagesEnglish · Danish · Norwegian · Swedish · German · Mandarin

Four things our counterparties
count on.

Principal alignment

We invest and trade as principals. Our capital and our reputation sit on the same side of the table as our partners'.

Discretion

Counterparties come to us for quiet, precise execution. Names are protected, mandates are not shopped, and most of our work is never announced. By design.

Velocity

Mandates move at deal speed: engineering-grade diligence, direct access to decision-makers, and execution across borders.

Counterparty discipline

In energy and commodities we deal with verified principals only: no chains, no circulated offers. Counterparties are established under NCNDA before names are exchanged, and terms are agreed in writing before anything moves.

Convening

The Global CleanTech Forum
in Davos

1893

Palace Schatzalp, est.

56th

WEF Annual Meeting week

Founded by HQ.Partners, the Global CleanTech Forum convened its inaugural edition at the historic Palace Schatzalp, above Davos, in January 2026, during the week of the World Economic Forum's 56^th Annual Meeting.

This was not a single evening but a fully curated Davos week: HQ.Partners assembled the delegation, built the program, arranged private apartments in the village, and scheduled each company into the briefings, side events, and closed-door sessions that mattered, culminating in the Global CleanTech Investor Gala & Awards Ceremony and the Global Climate Leaders Awards at Schatzalp.

The delegation of fifteen world-leading technology companies spanned propulsion, AI, energy, biotech, and real assets: SiriNor, BrainBox AI, Bioqore, MCATALYSIS, One Energetics, Fortis Fortuna, Adept Investments, Property Grid, and Carbucks, joined by family offices, institutional investors, and policymakers.

On stage, across three sessions (sustainable aviation fuels, electrification as a driver of competitive economies, and the case for nuclear): Morten Dyrholm, SVP Global Public Affairs, Vestas Wind Systems; Kennedy Ricci, President, 4AIR & Alder Renewables; Seth Grae, President, Lightbridge (NASDAQ: LTBR); Paul Gioupis, Founder & CEO, Zeem Solutions; Mikkel S. Kiil, CEO, Green2X; Steve Bender, Chairman, U.S. Green Chamber of Commerce; and Helle Bank Jørgensen of Board Intelligence on corporate governance.

Why Davos? For one week a year, a single alpine village concentrates the people who allocate capital and set policy: sovereign and family-office capital, Fortune 100 leadership, ministers, and central bankers, all within a few hundred metres of each other. The decisions are rarely made on the main stage; they take shape in the rooms around it. Our role is putting the right people in those rooms, with the right agenda.

Convening is how we source, diligence, and build conviction, in the same rooms where capital, technology, and policy meet.

Apply for the Davos 2027 delegation→ Gala programme & agenda, Davos 2026 (PDF)→ Delegation & partnership prospectus, Davos 2026 (PDF)→

Palace Schatzalp, Davos — Palace Schatzalp

Keynote conversation at the Global CleanTech Forum — Panel Sessions with CEO’s, Investors & WEF Experts

Thomas Tougaard hosting the Global CleanTech Forum at Palace Schatzalp, Davos — Hosting the inaugural Forum, Davos 2026

Award winners at the Global CleanTech Investor Gala & Awards Ceremony — The Award Winners, Davos 2026

Thomas Tougaard in a fireside conversation on stage — Fireside, on stage

Speakers and guests at the Global CleanTech Investor Gala — With speakers of the evening

Gala dinner at Palace Schatzalp — The Gala dinner

Guests at Palace Schatzalp during the WEF Annual Meeting week — Guests, Davos 2026

Guests in the lounge at Palace Schatzalp — The lounge, Palace Schatzalp

Audience during the Forum sessions — Forum sessions

Guests at the Global CleanTech Investor Gala — An evening of recognition

Guests in conversation at the Global CleanTech Forum — Keynote Sessions

Thomas Tougaard with Chris Voss in Davos — With Chris Voss in Davos

The Gala dinner in full swing at Palace Schatzalp — The Gala dinner, Palace Schatzalp

After-hours networking at the Global CleanTech Forum — After hours

Guests networking after the Forum sessions — After hours

Guests of the Forum in conversation — Conversations

Guests at the Global CleanTech Forum — Guests of the Forum

Guests gathered at Palace Schatzalp — Palace Schatzalp, evening

After-hours networking at Palace Schatzalp — After hours

Why
Davos

“The decisions are rarely made on the main stage. They take shape in the rooms around it — we build those rooms.”

Thomas Tougaard, Founder & Managing Partner

Contact

Start a conversation.

For family offices, institutional investors, and corporates: enquiries reach the Managing Partner directly and are answered the same day. It helps to tell us who you are acting for, the mandate, and the jurisdiction. We engage principal to principal.

Request a meeting→

TT@HQ.Partners

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