In a keynote speech at the Global Corporate Venturing Symposium, Issam Dairanieh, managing director of BP Ventures, explained how the unit was created out of the decision its parent company made to focus more heavily on alternative energy.

Subsequently founded in 2007, BP Ventures operated as part of plans for BP to spend $8bn over the course of the next decade. However, in less than eight years the money has already been invested in alternative energy ventures.