KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's state-owned oil and gas firm Petronas said Friday that it had set up a 350-million-U.S. dollar venture capital fund to drive technology innovation and support its core oil and gas business for further growth.

The venture capital arm Petronas Corporate Venture Capital (Petronas CVC) was formed to target direct investments in technology startups in industry 4.0, advance materials and specialty chemicals, future of energy as well as access into new markets, Petronas said in a statement.

"The fund's global coverage will focus not only in North America and Europe, managed by its recently launched VC arm, PTV International Ventures America (PIVA) but also in the Asia Pacific and Malaysian startups, to spur local entrepreneurship and venture capital ecosystem," it said.

According to the statement, the fund will act as a minority stakeholder in early to growth-stage companies, leveraging on Petronas' strong global network across the energy value chain for strategic fit with its co-investors and partners, and assist startups in scaling up.