Hurricane Harvey left Kemal and his family “shaken but dry and all right” and CTV’s venturing strategy mostly unchanged. “What has enabled Chevron Technology Ventures to be a successful venturing group and the longest-lasting, continuously operating oil and gas venturing arm is our focus on resilient infrastructure,” he says. “This unfortunate event confirms the validity of our long-term strategy.”
But CTV has a new, additional, short term focus; “to energise local entrepreneurs and accelerate their business activities into growth.” To this end, CTV will use the conference to announce more details of its new Catalyst program, “which is meant to make early-stage companies more investable for corporate and traditional venturers,” says Kemal.
One of CTV’s first Catalyst companies is Rheidiant, “a Houston-based company that applies industrial internet of things (IIoT) and machine-learning technologies to help identify small leaks on pipelines,” he explains.
Rheidiant’s CEO Murat Ocalan is among the Houston-based and Houston-bound start-ups and venture-backed businesses speaking at the conference, that, according to Kemal, all “reflect the convergence of digital technology, data science and other impactful innovation.”
One of the best examples of such ‘convergence-tech’ businesses is Maana, a Californian big data play whose €26m 2016 series B drew capital from Intel Capital, CTV, Shell Technology Ventures, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, GE Ventures and others. The line-up of ‘convergence tech’ CEOs speaking at the Houston conference includes:
- AJ Abdallat, CEO, Beyond Limits (a portfolio company of BP Ventures)
- Babur Ozen, CEO, Maana (a portfolio company of CTV, STV, Intel Capital and others)
- Jim Dechman, CEO, Veros Systems (a portfolio company of CTV, STV and others)
- Barry Zhang, CEO, Quantico Energy Solutions (an STV portfolio business)
- Peter Harding, Founder and CEO, Kelvin Inc
- Murat Ocalan, CEO, Rheidiant (supported by Chevron Catalyst)
- Lawrence Whittle, CEO, Parsable (a portfolio business of Schlumberger Technology Invest, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures and others)
