Kirk Coburn
Shell Technology Ventures, Co-founder The Frontier Conference
Kirk is a member of the team at Shell Technology Ventures (STV), Shell’s corporate Venture Capital fund. STV invests and partners with entrepreneurs to bring new technologies and business models to market in order to lower costs, make our existing operations more sustainable, and accelerate the energy transition. STV acts as a strategic partner and makes minority investments in select technology companies, including Shell technology spin-outs, and also acts as an LP in some externally managed venture capital funds.
Kirk has over 15 years of experience as a successful serial entrepreneur and over 7 years as a venture capitalist and early-stage angel investor. Prior to Shell, Kirk was the founder and managing director of SURGE Ventures, a mentor-driven accelerator and seed stage venture fund. During this period, he led the investments into over 45 technology companies solving problems across the energy value chain including oil & gas, cleantech, power, energy efficiency, and horizontal applications that reach across. Under his leadership and direction, SURGE recruited more than 200 industry-leading scientists, investors, policymakers, customers, and entrepreneurs to serve as mentors. SURGE was repeatedly recognized globally as one of the top startup programs and early-stage investment funds.
