Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, the strategic investment arm of oil and gas company Saudi Aramco, led a $26m series B round for US-based big data analytics technology developer Maana yesterday.
The round also included Shell Technology Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, GE Ventures and Intel Capital, subsidiaries of petroleum producers Shell and Chevron, industrial product maker General Electric and semiconductor maker respectively, and venture capital firm Frost Data Capital.
Maana’s Emergent Semantic Graph is an advanced analytics platform that helps businesses optimise their assets by collecting information on operations and business processes. It will invest the series B capital in product development and the expansion of its sales and marketing teams.
The company emerged from stealth in May 2015 having raised $14m from Chevron Technology Ventures, GE Ventures, Intel Capital, Frost Data Capital and ConocoPhillips Technology Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of oil and gas company ConocoPhillips.
Dhiraj Malkani, investment director at Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, and Intel Capital director Andy Fligel will join Maana’s board of directors in conjunction with the series B round. Carl Stjernfeldt, Shell’s North America venture manager, take a board observer role.
Malkani said: “We decided to invest in Maana after seeing first-hand the business value that Maana’s platform delivers in optimising assets and processes at some of the world’s largest industrial companies.
“Maana’s patented invention, the Emergent Semantic Graph, is transforming big data analytics with game changing technology that solves some of the most challenging enterprise problems.”