Nick Kendall, principal, BP Ventures, is one of our rising stars in corporate venturing in 2023.
With undergraduate and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Nottingham, Nick Kendall first joined BP as a summer intern in 2008 before joining the firm as a graduate drilling engineer.
Kendall has since spent his professional career at BP in various roles, including stints as an offshore drilling supervisor in Angola, where he was stationed for three years from 2013.
After returning to the UK, Kendall requested a secondment to gain more exposure to commercial skills, innovation and technology, and he took a commercial analyst role where he worked at BP’s advanced mobility unit for three years, focusing on BP’s early mobility and electrification strategy.
Through engaging with startups during that time, Kendall learned more about innovation and entrepreneurship and interacted with BP Ventures. Eventually, he joined BP Ventures as an investment associate in early 2020.
“We have a lot of strategic ambition in renewables and green hydrogen.”
The BP Ventures team helped Kendall learn the ropes of corporate venturing during the covid lockdown, and his first few deals were conducted entirely remotely.
The investments Kendall helped BP Ventures lead in 2021 included Oxbotica, a UK-based autonomous vehicle software developer spun out of the University of Oxford, and BluSmart, an Indian EV ride-sharing platform – BP Ventures’ first investment in India.
Most recently, Kendall was involved in BP Ventures’ investment in Australia-based solar energy technology company 5B in December 2022, five months after he was promoted to principal.
“We have a lot of strategic ambition in renewables and green hydrogen,” Kendall says. “5B’s technologies have the potential to decrease costs of solar farm deployments and that fits really well with BP’s strategy.”
In addition to new and follow-on investments at BP Ventures, Kendall also leads BP Ventures’ participation in the Net Zero Technology Centre’s TechX Clean Energy Accelerator. BP, along with other energy companies such as Equinor and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, help accelerate the selected startups.
See the full list of Rising Stars 2023 here.
