The two-part discussion spanned yesterday and today, and featured speakers from BP, Schlumberger and Emerald Technology Ventures among others.

A two-part session on low-carbon investing at the 2017 GCV Symposium was moderated by Tom Whitehouse, a contributing editor at Global Corporate Venturing who is also a founder of advisory firm LEIF (London Environmental Investment Forum). Whitehouse started by quoting poet William Blake, who had written “Energy is eternal delight,” and the session included speakers from both energy startups and corporate venturers.  Jonathan Tudor, managing director of energy producer BP’s corporate venturing unit, BP Ventures, highlighted the transition to a low-carbon economy and how emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence will make the shift smoother. Paul Carragher, founder of BiSN Oil Tools, a downhole sealing technology provider backed by BP Ventures as well as Schlumberger, GE and ConocoPhillips, gave a presentation on the company´s business. Founded in 2010, BiSN specialises in sealing solutions made of bismuth, a non-toxic corrosion-resistant dense metal, with viscosity similar to water and that also expands like ice. Shaun Gray, executive chairman of another BP Ventures portfolio company, seaborne fuel monitoring technology developer GreenSteam, also spoke. Founded in 2008 on the Faroe Islands, GreenSteam subsequently moved its head office to Denmark and is now based in the UK. The company’s technology monitors vessel operating conditions and collects live data from sensors, streaming it to a console on the bridge and onshore, allowing fleet managers to optimise their vessels, and Gray emphasised how much its business is data-driven. The audience then heard from Amanda King, chief financial officer of Origami Energy, a provider of grid-scale energy management services. Origami’s smart technology dynamically matches energy demand against the available supply across an electricity network, saving money and increasing reliability. Edward Pratt, director of business development for acelylated wood producer Accsys Group, which partnered with BP Ventures to get its business off the ground, came next. Accsys’ acelylated wood is a material that, unlike regular wood, is a high-performance, high-margin and high-growth product with a wider range of applications in the construction of commercial and residential buildings and a “$50 to $70bn market proposition,” Pratt claimed.  On the second day of the Symposium this morning, Akira Kirton, BP Ventures’ managing director of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and the MOW region of the Asia Pacific region, took to the main stage. BP Ventures investments revolve around both core operations and the company´s vision of a low-carbon future, Kirton said, adding that BP targets both because: “There are going to be more and more people who are going to…

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Kaloyan Andonov

Kaloyan Andonov is head of analytics at Global Corporate Venturing.