Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2016: Jonathan Tudor

There is a saying that rugby is a ruffians’ game played by gentlemen.

Jonathan Tudor, venture director at Castrol InnoVentures, a division of BP, has been managing its external and internal portfolio since 2012. He probably appreciates the contrast between hardheadness and civility in the game of rugby and the parallels it draws with venture investing.

A self-proclaimed “avid” Glaws’ – Gloucester Rugby Club – supporter, Tudor is very much at home in the world of venture investing, where the desire to close a hot deal has to fit in with superlative interpersonal skills.

Paul Rutherford, a former colleague of Tudor at Qinetiq’s corporate venturing unit, described him in a LinkedIn testimonial as having “very strong personal values”.

Rutherford went on: “He is also very supportive in his approach and often helped me solve parent company problems in an open, unflustered manner. He is a thorough professional and a very good person.”

Following three years at Germany-based Schott Gas, Tudor was an investment director at Qinetiq Ventures from 2002 to 2007 before its secondary buyout backed by Coller Capital led to the formation of CG Innovation Partners. His move into investing was sparked by working in a shed on the roof a chemical company developing pyrophoric and toxic chemicals. Tudor drily noted his decision as “a move to investment was for sanity and safety”.

At Castrol, Tudor has found ample support as a “self-confessed geek, who likes technology with the allure of making money in addition to shifting the corporate dial”.

Internally, he has helped launch Nexcel and CastrolCarama.es, an online service for the maintenance and care of cars. The Nexcel oil cell is a unit containing engine oil and a filter. It reduces tailpipe CO2 emissions and makes it easier for garages to change. Aston Martin’s Vulcan track-only supercar will be the first vehicle to use Nexcel.

Externally, his deals include Zubie, a US-based car monitoring application that raised $10m in 2013, CarVue, a UK-based cloud-based workshop management tool that raised an undisclosed amount in 2015, and Carama “to begin to transition Castrol to an online business, too,” Tudor added.

He is a director at Zubie and CarVue, as well as GreenSteam, a technology company specialising in helping commercial ships save energy, which raised $2m in early 2014.

Tudor is also a board observer and investor at Lightning Hybrids, Peloton Technology and RepairPal.

With more than a decade’s experience, he still recognises the challenge of “aligning internal clock-speed with that of a young company – communicating the turbulence of a startup’s growth does not mean it’s out of control”.

“Figuring out how to quantify the strategic value of insight gained from investments” remains a challenge, too.”

Tudor, though, remains dedicated to continuing “to help build some great businesses”.

For the industry, which he also helps as head of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association’s CVC committee, he wants to “share best practice on how to manage strategic measures, as well as work on training and the professionalisation” of the work corporate venturers do.

And spread the word on rugby, of course.