The Brazilian petrochemical company has a new CEO and is restructuring amid a slowdown in oil and gas.

Brazilian petrochemical company Braskem plans to shut its corporate venturing unit, Oxygea Ventures, according to a Bloomberg article.
Oxygea Ventures was set up as a $150m independent venture fund in 2022 to make minority equity investments and fund internally built ventures. It is headed by Artur Faria, who leads a 15-person team.
Despite being set up from the get-go as a fund independent of its parent with a GP/LP structure, it appears Braskem had the final say on its future.
Faria told Global Corporate Venturing in 2022 that the team carried out benchmarks and hired several consulting companies to learn how to do corporate venturing well. Oxygea was considered one of the most active in Latin America. Its biggest investments included taking a stake in US plastics recycler Circular.co and AssetWatch, a startup that uses AI to offer predictive maintenance.
It is unclear how Oxygea’s portfolio companies would be managed following the discontinuation of the unit.
A Braskem spokesperson said: “Braskem informs that, as reported on different occasions recently, the company is currently doing a process of reevaluation of its assets and investments, both operational and strategic, seeking to improve its efficiency with a focus on optimising its capital allocation, not having, however, to date, any final decision about it.
“Investments in the Oxygea project are part of this context and must be evaluated within the innovation ecosystem.”
Braskem hired a new CEO, Roberto Ramos, at the end of November 2024 to replace Roberto Bischoff. The change in leadership came after the company posted a $106m net loss in the third quarter of 2024 amid a downturn in the oil and gas sector.
This story has been updated to include comment from a Braskem spokesperson.