BP expects to invest $200 million in up to a dozen disruptive green technology start-ups this year through its BP Ventures arm.
BP Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of the energy giant, expects to plough more than 90 per cent of its spending between 2023 and 2026 into the company’s five “transition growth engines” of bioenergy, electric vehicle charging, convenience, hydrogen and renewables and power.
Historically, BP Ventures has been spending 60 per cent of its capacity on disruptive green technology.
Gareth Burns, head of BP Ventures, told The Times that this should result in his division spending at least 60 per cent more on green energy businesses than it has to date.
“We’ve refreshed our investment strategy this year and we’re looking to significantly step up our activity in support of delivering upon BP’s strategy,” he told the newspaper. “Investing in start-ups is a great way of giving us insight into what some of the future disruptive opportunities may be.”
Burns, 50, who joined BP from Norwegian energy company Equinor at the start of 2023, said he was looking to back start-ups developing new technologies which have the potential to scale reasonably quickly and are looking for an energy company partner.
BP Ventures is looking to take minority equity positions in ten to twelve startups this year, as well as investing in further fundraising rounds with existing companies in its portfolio.
So far this year, BP Ventures has invested in two companies aiming to reinvent electrolyser technology to cut the cost of producing zero-carbon green hydrogen: BP led a $12.5 million fundraising round in Advanced Ionics and participated in a $380 million financing round for Electric Hydrogen.
BP, which reported record profits of $28 billion last year, is committed to cutting its production emissions to net zero by 2050.
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