Statoil, the Norwegian oil and gas company, has announced it will invest NOK 150m ($25.8m) of venture capital in early-stage tech firms through its venture unit Statoil Technology Invest.
The company says that it has invested NOK 800m ($138m) in tech companies that could assist in Statoil’s operations in the last five years. It also stated that in 14 companies it has taken an ownership stake in, Statoil has either already incorporated technology from its investees, or has plans to.
STI’s most recently deals include a NOK 21m ($3.6m) investment in server infrastructure firm Numascale in July this year, participation in a $15m series B round for power generation company Danotek Motion Technologies last year, and teaming up with Chevron this past August to invest $8m in UK-based fibre optic firm Silixa.
“We make investments and help develop companies at an early stage in order to mature technology which we in Statoil and other players need to solve our future challenges,” said Siri Espedal Kindem, senior vice president of technology at Statoil.
“The companies are assisted in building and commercialising their technology and they gain from developing and piloting their technology in cooperation with us.”