The top 50: David Hayes, managing partner, BP Ventures
David Hayes has been managing partner of BP Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of the UK-based energy company, since the start of 2021, having previously headed up the unit’s Americas operations.
BP Ventures has invested more than $950m over the past 16 years and its current target is to invest $150m a year. The unit has supported more than 70 companies since it was set up in 2006.
Its target areas are technologies relevant to BP’s core business, as well as those which can help accelerate energy transition such as bio and low-carbon products, low-carbon power, carbon management, digital transformation and advanced mobility.
In recent months, BP Ventures has invested in the $45m series A round for BTR Energy, a data-analytics platform for the energy sector, as well as in the $2.6m venture round for Grid Edge, an energy consultant aimed at delivering improved performance for commercial property owners.
Other investments have included a role in the series A for Indian zero-emission ride-hailing firm BluSmart Mobility and participation in the $39m series D round for Calysta, developer of technology that can transform natural gas into liquids and chemicals.
Hayes has been with BP for the whole of his working life, having joined the company in 2002 shortly after receiving a bachelor’s degree in accounting and management control from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK.
His finance-oriented career at the company includes a decade in venture capital with a transaction structuring concentration. Hayes has director seats on boards of three BP Ventures portfolio companies: XCHG, Calysta and Fulcrum.
