Corporate venturing unit Energy Technology Ventures helped Glori Energy raise $20m in January.
The GE, NRG Energy and ConocoPhillips joint venture was joined in the series C by Gentry Venture Partners, part of financial firm Gentry Financial Corporation,which led the round. Other investors were venture firms Advantage Capital Partners, GTI Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), Oxford Bioscience Partners, Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund, and The Omzest Group.
Piper Jaffray acted as placement agent.
Glori helps recover trapped oil at existing oil wells in reservoirs.
US-based oil drilling services company Glori Energy, backed by Energy Technology Ventures, a venturing unit backed by multiple corporates, filed to raise $115m in an initial public offering in September.
Energy Technology Ventures, which is backed by General Electric, NRG Energy and ConocoPhillips, holds a 7.2% stake in the company, Glori’s Securities and Exchange Commission filing said. An Energy Technology Ventures investment in the company was announced in July. The IPO filing said it had invested $1.5m in the company’s series B round.
Glori’s institutional shareholders include GTI Glori Oil Fund (21.5%, at the time of the IPO filing), an investment fund of investment firm GTI Capital Group and venture firms Oxford BioScience Partners (18.4%), Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (17.7%). It is also backed by Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund (13%), run by the development organisation Malaysia Technology Development Corporation and US-based bank Burril & Co, as well as Rawoz Technology Company (18.4%), which is owned by the shareholders of Omar Zawawi Establishment, the business founded by the eponymous Omani businessman.
GTI founded Glori in 2005, when the company acquired intellectual property from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), an India-based research organisation.
Glori had previously raised at least $26.5m. Between November 2006 and September 2008 it raised $10.5m through the sale of Series A preferred stock, while between October and May 2011 it sold $16m in Series B preferred stock, according to the filing.