BP shuts down Ventures after nearly 20 years, sells portfolio stakes

BP shut down BP Ventures and agreed to sell minority interests in more than 10 portfolio companies to Verdane, a deal that still required regulatory and contractual approvals. The move closed a corporate venturing arm that had spent nearly two decades backing energy-related technologies, and it marked another step in BP’s retreat from long-horizon startup bets.

BP Ventures was launched in 2007 and said it had been backing innovative technologies and visionary founders ever since. Before the announcement, the portfolio held 27 companies, and its Crunchbase profile said it had invested more than $400 million in technology companies across more than 40 entities. That scale made the shutdown more than a housekeeping exercise: it pulled one of the oil major’s better-known venture vehicles out of the market for climate-tech and adjacent energy innovation.

BP said the sale included most of BP Ventures’ minority interests across a range of energy-related technologies. It also said the transaction supported its push toward portfolio simplification and disciplined capital allocation, while giving the portfolio companies an investor focused on their next stage of development. Verdane describes itself as a European growth equity investor focused on tech-enabled and sustainable businesses.

The divestment fit a broader strategy reset at BP. In 2024 and 2025, the company slowed renewables spending, halted hiring and shifted back toward oil and gas as investor pressure mounted over its share price and profits. In April 2025, BP’s net profit fell 48% to $1.4 billion, a sharp decline that intensified scrutiny of how the company was deploying capital.

For startups that had looked to oil majors for patient funding, BP’s exit is another sign that the industry’s priorities have moved. Corporate venture arms once helped finance energy-transition technologies that were too early or too specialized for traditional venture capital, but BP’s decision suggests those programs now face a harder test when returns do not match the cost of keeping them alive.