February 1, 2019
PAO Severstal, one of the world’s leading vertically integrated steel and mining companies, announces that its venture capital division, Severstal Ventures, has been awarded Entrant of the Year at the Global Corporate Venturing Awards.
The awards ceremony was held on January 30, 2019 at the Glibak Corporate Venturing and Innovation Summit in Monterey, California. Those shortlisted for the award included Alliance Ventures, Schneider Electric Ventures, Sinopec Capital and Binance. Severstal Ventures, which was set up by Severstal to support venture projects developing new production technologies and materials, is the first Russian company to achieve such a high level of recognition for its efforts to support innovation.
George Gogolev, Head of Severstal Ventures, was also ranked among the Top 100 Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars for 2019 .
George Gogolev commented: “In its first year Severstal Ventures has focused on developing a coherent strategy, creating new internal procedures and building a pipeline of deals. We made two LP investments into well-established multicorporate funds in the materials and industrials space – Pangaea and Chrysalix – and have already considered a number of deals. We are honoured that the global venture community has recognised our efforts, but we still have a long way to go. We aim to close up to five deals this year, with a particular focus on breakthrough innovations and ensuring that as a business we don’t miss out on any new opportunities or solutions to future industry challenges that might affect Severstal”.
Andrey Laptev, Head of Severstal Ventures, commented: “Severstal is already an industry leader in terms of global cost and profitability. However, we aim to build on this, by and strengthen our leadership by increasing the cost gap between us and other producers and providing our clients with even more innovative and unique solutions. To achieve this, we are building mutually beneficial partnerships with venture funds and tech companies. We are honoured to have been named Entrant of the Year. It is real recognition that we are moving in the right direction.”
Targeting opportunities in Russia and abroad, Severstal Ventures’ primary area of investment is materials, including bulk materials as well as materials for the construction, energy and automotive industries. The division is also looking at coatings and production technologies with a special focus on large-scale 3D steel printing for construction, while closely monitoring developments in mining and steel-making technologies.
The Global Corporate Venturing & Innovation (GCVI) Summit brings together more than 850 business leaders from the corporate venturing and innovation professional sphere and is a must-attend event for networking and exchanging knowledge within the venture community.
Severstal Ventures is a separate unit formed by PAO Severstal in 2018 to develop venture projects focused on new production technologies and materials. Severstal Ventures aims to support high potential technologies and projects, through investments in profile venture funds and through working directly with projects.
Global Corporate Venturing is the publication and data provider for the corporate venture capital industry. It has a unique database, GCV Analytics, to which numerous Fortune 1000 companies subscribe, and it runs multiple global events, with flagship conferences in Silicon Valley and London.
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