In an attempt to lower Russia’s reliance on foreign technology in the oil industry, four state-controlled institutions have teamed up to launch a new venture fund called ‘New Industry Ventures.’ These institutions are Gazprom Neft, one of Russia’s leading oil companies, Gazprombank, a financial arm of the state-controlled energy giant, RVC, the state fund of funds dedicated to innovation, and the VEB Innovation center of competence, which is part of VEB.RF (previously known as Vnesheconombank).
The new institution will provide financial support to tech companies, including startups, specializing in new materials, technologies, products and services for the oil and gas, petrochemicals and energy industries. Its investment focus will also include resource-management and energy-saving technologies, as well as digital products including Industry 4.0 solutions.
New Industry Ventures is being created for a period of seven years with a possibility of prolongation. The fund “has an initial funding target of 4 billion rubles [nearly $62 million at the current exchange rate – editor] which may be increased in the future, at the agreement of the parties.”
The products developed with the support from New Industry Ventures will be made available to all oil market players.
The New Industry Ventures fund comes as one of the Russian state’s initiatives to boost Russia’s tiny venture market. In January 2019, RVC and Da Vinci Capital, a major EBRD-backed Russian private equity firm, announcedthe launch of a 6 billion ruble ($900 million) tech fund. Shortly before that, RVC announced plans to launch a $100 million fund to support education technologies in Russia. In total, the fund-of-funds intends to create 10 new funds until 2020, in addition to its existing 26 affiliated funds.
