Tüpraş will strengthen its new technology investments with the partnership of Emerald
Tüpraş signed a long-term partnership agreement with Emerald Industrial Innovation Fund, an International Venture Capital Fund, in order to invest in new tech start-ups in the USA and Europe. Actively continuing on its open innovation efforts in Turkey, Tüpraş aims to reach new tech start-ups operating abroad thanks to this partnership with Emerald.
Tüpraş, the leading company of the changing energy industry, has undertaken another pioneering role by signing a partnership agreement with Emerald Industrial Innovation Fund, the industrial innovation fund of Emerald Technology Ventures.
Participating in Emerald Industrial Innovation Fund as an investor with this agreement, Tüpraş aims to invest in new tech start-ups abroad in the North America and Europe in order to contribute to energy transformation, increase its competitiveness in its current operations and to monitor the works of future, closely.
Emerald, which operates in its Zurich, Toronto and Singapore offices in the areas of energy, water, advanced materials and industrial information technologies, has invested in more than 60 new technology companies until today and the fund is managing assets worth more than 660 million USD.
Stating that they aim to monitor operational and strategic technologies that will have an effect on the entire energy industry and to be a part of developments, which particularly have a disrupting potential, with this partnership, Levent Zağra, Deputy General Manager of Tüpraş, said, “Our main objective is to reach start-ups operating in the North America and Europe. We are the seventh largest refinery of Europe with our capacity to process 30 million tons of crude oil. Our modern refinery operations do not only include technologically matured crude oil processing processes, but also do require us to leverage new technologies, such as data analytics, nanotechnology, robotic applications, and IoT and so we are able to support energy efficiency, sustainability, our work safety processes and competitiveness. We plan to increase and diversify our investments by reaching to new technology companies operating abroad with our partnership with Emerald.”
Saying that Tüpraş aims to reinforce its strategic projections by knowing newly developed technologies closely with this investment, Zağra continued, “It is also among our objectives to discover the works of future and invest in these areas as well as to find new areas of growth. Our technology, innovation and R&D investments are always at the top of our agenda in order to prepare Tüpraş for future. Our company, which is a part of Koç Group’s Innovation Program, continues with its “Internal Entrepreneurship Program”, through which innovative ideas of our employees are transformed into commercial values, since 2017. We are also establishing partnerships with many start-ups operating within Turkish entrepreneurship ecosystem and taking a part as partner, sponsor and mentor in acceleration programs, competitions and similar events organized in our country for entrepreneurs. We see new technologies and business models as the most important channel that will increase our competitiveness.”
Highlighting that initiatives in innovation have a very significant effect that can be called as a cultural change, Zağra said, “The ideas, inspiration and start-up spirit taken from external sources act like a leverage for the works being performed in all units of Tüpraş and provide various assets to our corporate culture, such as working faster, being innovative and adopting easily to changing conditions”.
Gina Domanig, Managing Partner of Emerald Technology Ventures, said: We are happy to welcome Europe’s seventh largest and one of the most complex refineries in the Mediterranean region, Tüpraş as a limited partner to the Industrial Innovation fund. Emerald has been collaborating with international energy companies for a long time and, with the participation of Tüpraş, it will continue to strengthen this energy ecosystem and the industrial technologies that serve it”.
Domanig stated that since 2000, Emerald Technology Ventures has been bringing together established industrial firms and entrepreneurs to create open ecosystems of collaboration, and then working with them to build long-term strategic value and to maximize their potential. “Change is now a constant in every industry. Disruptive technologies and business models are reshaping established patterns, unlocking new value, and bringing challenges to established industries. To succeed, companies of tomorrow will have to adopt new technologies and operate in new ways, reinventing their models by crossing traditional corporate boundaries. As more firms recognize its transformational potential, external or open innovation is being increasingly accepted as mainstream business thinking. For its participants, open innovation is about much more than connections and deals. It’s about the creation and leveraging of ecosystems of shared interest in transformation. And given the number of players in each industry, together with the fast-moving nature of change, there is a huge amount of entrepreneurially driven creative activity to track and consider. Driving efficiency in such an environment is highly challenging as connections must be forged, long term interests aligned, and these complex relationships supported as they evolve. The task of ensuring successful collaboration and delivery must be closely managed. Working with an external partner can bring efficiency, effectiveness, and boost the chances of success.”
About VC - Venture Capital funds:
Venture Capital Funds invest in companies with high growth potential, which develop new technologies. VC funds, which examine many different companies and business models in the investment areas that they concentrate, are being used as an effective channel also by multinational companies that want to reach out and partner with new technology companies. Companies that invest in VC funds do not only achieve financial revenues, but also have the opportunity to know and implement the technologies that they reached through these funds. Knowing these new technologies and understanding their effects on their areas of operation provides a strategic projection to investing companies.
About Emerald
Emerald is a globally recognized investment firm and strategic innovation partner, with offices in Zurich, Toronto and Singapore. Founded in 2000, it has raised five venture capital funds, completed over 400 venture investments in 67 emerging industrial technology leaders and managed five third-party investment mandates, including for the governments of Switzerland and Singapore. Emerald is a trusted open innovation partner for numerous multi-national corporations, leveraging deep industry expertise and rich global deal flow in the areas of energy, water, industrial IT, advanced materials, mobility, robotics, and agriculture.