If capital is fungible in the venture world, time is not. Or, as Bruce Niven, chief investment officer at Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the world’s largest oil producer, put it: “For a big company, time is money. For a startup, time is life or death.”
It is perhaps no surprise that Niven is more aware than many in terms of the impact of time. His biggest challenge is grappling with a corporate venture capital (CVC) investment team on three continents, where “most of our operations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia]are 11 hours ahead of California”.
Previously in a corporate venturing role in Itochu based in Los Angeles for seven years until early 2010, Niven joined Saudi Aramco during the design phase for its CVC initiative and is now responsible for a $500m investment programme.
He is pleased by its development. He said: “We have established a position as one of the leading CVC groups in the oil and gas industry within a very short time.
“We are now in the late stages of an exit process, which should provide us with a substantial return, and have several very exciting companies in the portfolio. We have Siluria, which produces the bulk petrochemical ethylene; Novomer, which uses CO2 and CO to make petrochemicals; 908 Devices, a handheld mass spectrometer device; ConXtech, which enables steel structures to be built in 20% of the regular time; Zilift, which makes downhole pumps that do not require a rig to deploy; and InflowControl, which makes autonomous downhole valves that prevent water entering oil wells.”
He remains excited by the industry’s potential. “It is a powerful model. As an investor, you are differentiated, giving you access to the most exciting opportunities. When the corporation and the venture company connect, it can really drive a lot of value.”
To continue to play a part in bringing game-changing technologies to fruition and helping improve best practices in the industry, Niven said all CVCs should “integrate other corporate processes for technology testing, development funding, deployment, purchasing to accelerate them when dealing with startup companies.”
Niven’s own experience, first as a consultant for Omega Partners Strategy Consultants in the wireless telecoms industry through the late 1990s, before he founded a smartphone app developer, Telepathix, in the early 2000s has given him empathy for both sides.
While Saudi Arabia might be a long way from St John’s College at Oxford University, where Niven studied engineering and management in the early 1990s, Niven is used to it, having lived in nine countries. It has all helped him build his global perspective, even if it has meant not spending much time in any one place.