Taha Syed Hussain, the head of the corporate venturing team at Delek Innovation, is leaving to join the corporate venture arm of Saudi Aramco.
Hussain headed the innovation arm of Delek US, an energy company, for three years. He will now become head of VC investments at Saudi Aramco, reporting to Bruce Niven, head of strategic venturing at Aramco.
The move comes just after Saudi Aramco committed an additional $4bn to its global venture capital arm, Aramco Ventures, taking the total capital available to the venture unit to $7.5bn. Aramco indicated that much of the additional capital will go towards investments in technologies related to energy transition, especially in scaling these up to the next level.
Prior to the new capital allocation, Aramco Ventures managed three funds, including a $500m industrial fund investing in technologies of strategic importance to Saudi Aramco, the $1bn Prosperity7 Fund, which invests in disruptive technology ventures beyond the energy sector, and a $1.5bn sustainability fund.
