Petronas, Malaysia’s state-owned oil company, is planning to expand its corporate venture capital arm by up to $200 million with the extra funding set to be in place as early as April, according to a report by Reuters.
Two unnamed Reuters sources have revealed that the new funding will be focused on innovation and technology investments across Asia-Pacific, although the plan has yet to be finalised and details may change.
Petronas responded to a request from Reuters for confirmation by saying that it “plans to allocate additional funds to Petronas Ventures, increasing the size of its venture capital arm from the $350 million previously announced in 2019”, but did not say by how much.
The state oil company first set up a venture capital arm called Petronas Corporate Venture Capital in 2019, which was subsequently renamed Petronas Ventures and, according to its website, has since invested in companies including Malaysian agriculture technology startup Brantree Technologies and USbased waste-to-energy company Ekamor.
