Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest miner of palladium and high-grade nickel, has established a corporate venturing unit, Perspective Ventures, under Ivan Kuzmenkov.
A former expert in innovation and energy saving at the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, Kuzmenkov joined Norilsk Nickel in late 2017, just after the company said it would invest $17bn over seven years to reduce its pollution and modernise.
Kuzmenkov became head of the company’s innovation development office 18 months ago before launching Perspective Ventures to support startups, disruptive ideas and the technology sector.
In a company article, Norilsk CEO Vladimir Potanin referenced also being a limited partner of Winter Capital, an advisory firm investing in Russian pharmaceutical, real estate, retail and industrial assets.
Potanin said: “To have a finger on the pulse, they also invest in technology companies that operate in Russia and a little in the United States. The firm continues to make large and diversified investments, but with my full-time responsibility for Nornickel, I am not engaged in these operations personally.”
Russian peer Severstal has been running its corporate venturing unit under George Gogolev for the past two and a half years, while Anglo-Australian mining company BHP set up its venture capital team under Mark Frayman in October 2019.
Pressures on ore yields and energy efficiency have affected the largest mining companies, as identified in a special GCV report last year.
