Kristin Aamodt has been a managing director at Equinor Technology Ventures (ETV), a corporate venture capital subsidiary of Norway-headquartered energy company Equinor formerly known as Statoil Technology Invest, since February 2017.
Stein Olav Drange, Equinor’s chief technology officer, said in his nomination of Aamodt: “Equinor Technology Ventures is an important tool to find and accelerate new innovations from startups, helping Equinor in our ambitions to shape the future of energy.”
ETV has an active portfolio of 24 companies, where Equinor owns a minority share and aims to add material value as active corporate investors. Every year, the unit handpicks investees from around 300 to 400 candidates, and Equinor eventually acquires a 10% to 40% stake in the few companies that make the cut and acts as an agent in their product development.
“Through over 25 years of experience with this model we have proven that we can achieve an attractive internal rate of return on capital invested while contributing considerable business value to Equinor,” Aamodt told Petroleum Review in February. “Our role as an external technology radar to the startup communities will become increasingly relevant in the future, to stay at the forefront of technology in a rapidly developing landscape.”
Aamodt was especially proud of last year’s breakthrough for lowering carbon dioxide emissions in Equinor’s contracted marine fleet and setting a new standard for the world’s marine sector through ETV’s investment in Canada-based energy storage technology provider Corvus Energy, which has developed a lithium-ion battery for electric propulsion systems in marine vessels, echoing Equinor’s push for marine electrification.
Another outstanding portfolio company is Eelume, a Norway-based autonomous underwater vehicle developer, which has developed a snake-shaped robot called Eelume that could remain undersea to inspect and repair subsea offshore drilling infrastructure.
ETV’s portfolio companies Intelligent Mud Solutions and Sekal, both of which are Norway-based oil and gas drilling software and services company, have also contributed to driving automation within the drilling industry. Aamodt said: “ETV’s active investment in Sekal is making a material impact in our industry and contributing to cutting costs – part of the ambition to reduce drilling costs by 15% – and increasing health, safety and environment performance.”
In addition, ETV has driven digitisation in US shale onshore in a record pace – less than two years from problem identification in Equinor to broad scale implementation of a solution – from its portfolio company Ambyint, a Canada-based developer of internet-of-things and artificial intelligence technology for the oil and gas industry.
Aamodt added: “While our focus is within the energy sector, we have examples where our activity can impact beyond this sector, for example, our recent investment in Sweden-based healthtech company Medfield Diagnostics that addresses a huge problem related to stroke treatment.”
Together with Equinor Energy Ventures, its sister unit at Equinor set up two years ago and that is focused on renewable energy companies, ETV’s strategy is to continue to strengthen its contribution to Equinor’s ambition of shaping the future of energy.
Before joining the CVC unit, Aamodt had been with Equinor’s predecessor Statoil for a decade. She first joined as in investment manager in 2008 overseeing asset management in the corporate’s portfolio companies, then she was promoted to project manager of the $120m 12MW floating wind turbine project called Hywind Maine, for which she was responsible from 2010 to 2013.
In 2013, Aamodt took on another initiative called Statoil Technical Efficiency Program which analysed potential efficiency gains to respond to industry challenges and this scheme was ultimately approved and implemented by the corporate executive committee in 2014. After that, Aamodt held offshore operations and maintenance manager roles for three years, before being appointed to her current role in early 2017.
Aamodt holds a master of science degree in chemistry from Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
