Gareth Burns, vice president BP Ventures, is one of the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2025 Powerlist.
Gareth Burns leads BP Ventures, energy company BP’s corporate venture capital unit, which has invested in more than 80 companies since its launch in 2007, deploying more than $1bn to date.
He has led the unit since 2023, bringing a sharpened focus on strategic value and disciplined capital deployment. Under his leadership the BP Ventures team has placed greater emphasis on value realisation, while continuing to invest in high-quality opportunities aligned to BP’s strategy. Against a dynamic market backdrop, the team has emphasised disciplined deployment, aiming to create more value than it invests.
The unit’s investment areas are closely aligned to BP’s wider strategy, targeting three core verticals: oil and gas value chains, low-carbon technologies and fuels, and energy usage and storage. This focus enables the team to support both near-term delivery and long-term growth.
BP Ventures has invested in more than 80 companies since its launch in 2007, deploying more than $1bn to date
In January, for example, BP Ventures led a series A funding round for Snowfox Discovery, a spinout from Durham and Oxford Universities, which is developing technology to help extract natural hydrogen from subterranean deposits. BP Ventures also backed Zingbus, an Indian startup that is developing a digital infrastructure platform for electric buses serving inter-city routes across the country.
Burns has expanded the BP Ventures team, while simultaneously knitting it more closely into the operations of the parent company. The team works more directly with BP’s business units and members are incentivised to deliver holistic portfolio performance including commercial partnerships with BP divisions.
BP Ventures operates from offices in both the UK and the US. Burns himself is based in London.
Before joining BP, he spent 25 years at Equinor, the Norwegian energy company. He founded Equinor Ventures in 2015 – a $200m fund focused on energy transition investments – and advised the parent company on aligning its portfolio with emerging sustainability goals.
He is an actuary by training, with a Bachelor’s degree in Actuarial Science from Heriot-Watt University.
The Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist represents the 100 individuals spearheading the future of the corporate venturing industry.
These individuals excel in terms of their venturing approach and structure, number and quality of portfolio companies and in their contributions to the corporate venturing profession.
