The corporate venture's executive director arrives to expand business opportunities in O&G, electricity and renewables, both from the point of view of companies, customers and angel investors, and in relation to the development of new innovative businesses.

Vilela has held leadership positions in several sectors, such as energy (free and regulated market), renewable energy in self-production and distributed generation, infrastructure, digital transformation and others, in large Brazilian companies and institutions, such as Light, Norte Energia, Codemge, Oi, Furnas, Enel RJ and Neoenergia. In addition, he has also provided consultancy in the segment and has been a visiting professor at Fundação Getulio Vargas since 2015.

According to Vilela, the energy sector has ample potential to grow with innovation, since of the ten companies that invest the most in innovation, only one is in the energy sector. "The segment's GDP represents 15% of the national total, but there are less than 2% of startups in this field".

"We will act strongly in the energy transition, in decarbonization and help transform the energy sector into an industry 4.0", explains the CEO of Energy Hub Ventures. "Some of the fronts that we will develop in the electricity sector are renewable energy, commercialization, electric mobility, smart grid, market intelligence solutions and non-technical loss reduction, cost reduction, operational efficiency, asset management and carbon credits, among others. ."

CVB will also develop solutions in the field of oil and gas, in areas such as reducing production costs, operational safety, digital transformation and increasing the recovery factor. The objective is that all actions are focused on energy transformation.

The corporate venture builder was created in May and the objective is to develop an initial portfolio of at least 30 startups over the next five years. The operation will take place through the application of the culture of open innovation, refinement of management and processes, as well as capital contribution, so that startups are more robust and act strategically in the market. "This is a movement that has become increasingly natural with the increase in the search for innovation by large corporations", says Vilela.

To generate greater scalability for the energy sector, the corporate venture builder will raise BRL 8 million and will offer startups access to the market, global networking, a network of angel investors, in addition to adding value and governance to the business. The Energy Hub Ventures will help the startups in the portfolio to raise BRL 90 million over the next five years, with angel investment funds (pools) to support startups - such as Sai do Papel Capital and FCJ Angels, as well as with venture capital companies and corporate venture capital. In addition, startups in the Energy Hub Ventures portfolio will be connected to the Energy Hub, the largest energy sector innovation hub in Brazil, and will have access to perks for the technological development of their solutions.

"As our inspiration and work model is based on open innovation, we will be attentive to innovations and startups that bring good business on any front of the electricity and oil and gas sector" concludes the CEO.