Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Aramco, has allocated an additional $4 billion to its global venture capital arm, Aramco Ventures.
Aramco explained, according to a statement received today, Wednesday, by Mubasher, that this will lead to doubling the capital allocated to Aramco Ventures. This raises its total investment allocations from $3 billion to $7 billion.
The company added that this will raise the total allocation of venture capital to Saudi Aramco to $7.5 billion, which also includes the $500 million Wa’ed Ventures venture capital fund, which focuses on the startup ecosystem in the Kingdom.
The allocation decision reflects the increasing importance of Saudi Aramco's venture capital program in enabling the development of new and innovative technologies, creating diversification opportunities for the company, and paving the way for cooperation with emerging innovative companies. In doing so, the program aims to help advance the company's long-term strategy, which includes focusing on new energy sources, chemicals and materials transformation, diversified industrial businesses, and digital technologies.
Executive Vice President of Technology and Innovation at Saudi Aramco, Ahmed Al-Khowaiter, said: Innovation represents an essential element in addressing some of the major challenges facing the world today. Including energy transformation. Through Aramco Ventures, we aim to support entrepreneurs with big ambitions and help bring their ideas to reality.
With an additional $4 billion in funding over the next four years, we intend to provide the financial support needed to take solutions that make a difference to the next level. This will provide important momentum for companies at different stages of development around the world, and will also contribute to achieving Saudi Aramco’s long-term goals.
Prior to the expansion, Aramco Ventures managed three funds: a digital/industrial fund, currently valued at $500 million, which invests in technologies of strategic importance to Saudi Aramco; The Prosperity7 Fund, which has a capital of one billion US dollars, invests in advanced technology projects outside the energy sector; and the Sustainability Fund, which reached US$1.5 billion.
Aramco explained that it invests in emerging companies that have the ability to support Saudi Aramco’s ambition to achieve zero neutrality in greenhouse gas emissions in Scopes 1 and 2 across its assets that it fully owns and manages by 2050.
