Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Brazil’s Start-Ups Attracting Investments from U.S. Investors

500 Startups, Qualcomm Ventures, Redpoint eVentures and Techstars Invest in Startups from the Brazilian Accelerator Program, Start-Up Brasil
By Business Wire


The Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) today announced nine start-up finalists that will present at its second annual International Demo Day in San Francisco. InternationalStart-Up Brasil, an initiative from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), managed by the Brazilian Association for the Promotion of Brazilian Software Excellence (Softex). Two startups from InovAtiva, a program from the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade were also invited to present.
Demo Day is a program from
Check out Brazil's hottest new start-ups showcasing in San Francisco: http://bit.ly/Start-UpBrasilDemoDay

Graduates of Start-Up Brasil Program have gone on to successfully raise money from U.S. investors including 500 Startups, Qualcomm Ventures, Redpoint eVentures, and Techstars.
The nine Brazilian startups will be presenting their businesses to a panel of U.S. investors on December 10th at the second annual International Demo Day.

“We can estimate U.S. investors committed around USD $12 Billion to the Brazilian Private Equity / Venture Capital Industry in 2014 alone,” said David Barioni Neto, President of Apex-Brasil. “It’s safe to say that Silicon Valley VCs have discovered Brazil’s vibrant start-up scene. We capture 53% of all the Latin America venture capital deals. That´s why our agency has an office in Silicon Valley and many initiatives to present great investment opportunities to U.S. businessmen. The Demo Day is one of them.”


 “These companies represent the leading technology and innovation that Brazil can produce, and we are proud to have them competing on an international stage and earning recognition and dollars from top-tier institutional investors from Silicon Valley," said José Dieguez, Deputy Director for Software and IT Services for the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.
The nine finalists in Batch 2 that will be presenting in San Francisco include:

1. Econodata (big data analysis tool to identify leads for B2B companies)
2. MaxMilhas (a marketplace for buying and selling airline miles)
3. Nazar.IO (performance-monitoring tool for IT developers to tune applications)
4. Pinmypet (wearable for pets; GPS and health-monitoring collar)
5. Solides (behavioral mapping software for human resources hiring)
6. Superela (online support forum for women)
7. Tippz (real-time customer feedback tool for beverage manufacturers)
8. Urbotip (B2B/B2G collaboration software for running ‘smart cities’)
9. Virtual Avionics (professional flight simulation software and hardware)

“Our International Demo Day is an opportunity to show what is being created by entrepreneurs in other parts of the world. Different perspectives lead to new solutions that can benefit the entire world and the startups presenting in San Francisco are just a small part of what we can offer to solve global problems,” said Vitor Andrade, Softex Manager for Start-Up-Brasil. “Brazilian entrepreneurial ecosystem is really vibrant and Start-Up Brasil is an example of it. Startups from our previous batches already raised externally the double amount of capital invested by the government, which means for each R$ 1 invested on them, they have raised with private investors, angels and other initiatives more than R$ 2.”

About Apex-Brasil
The Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) works to promote Brazilian products and services abroad, and to attract foreign investment to strategic sectors of the Brazilian
economy. The Agency supports more than 11,000 companies from 80 different industries, which in turn export to 200 markets.
Apex-Brasil also plays a key role in attracting foreign direct investment to Brazil, working to detect business opportunities, promoting strategic events and providing support to foreign investors interested in allocating resources in Brazil.

About MCTI
The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) is the branch of the Brazilian government in charge of the national policy for innovation, scientific and technological research; planning, coordination, supervision and control of activities related to science and technology; IT and automation development policy; national biosafety policy; space policy; nuclear policy; and port control of sensitive goods and services.
MCTI carries out its activities through a set of institutions composed of research funding agencies, scientific, innovation and technological research organizations, and state-owned enterprises, conducting research and studies that translate into knowledge and new technologies, as well as the development of products, processes, and patents.

About Softex
Softex - Brazilian Association for the Promotion of Brazilian Software Excellence is a not-for-profit entity that promotes the improvement of competitiveness of the Brazilian software and IT services industry, which is a priority of the Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation.
Since its creation in 1996, SOFTEX has been expanding its range of activities and contributing in a significant way to the competitive insertion of Brazilian IT in the global economy. It has programs and activities in the following fields: innovation, competitiveness and business alliances, finance, the generation of business in Brazil and abroad, quality, training and education, business articulation and intelligence. The Softex System is composed of a network of regional agents who are distributed through 21 Brazilian cities and 13 states with more than 2 thousand associated companies.

About Start-Up Brasil Program
Start-Up Brasil Program, National Startup Acceleration Program, is an initiative of the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) managed by Softex, in partnership with
accelerators, which aim to support new companies in technology-based areas. The program has, also, Apex-Brasil as its partner that manages the selection of international startups and support internationalization activities, in California, and with CNPq, National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development, for the selection of national startups and grants management.
During the year, the selected startups attend events, receive monitoring and are able to participate in national and International Demo Days.
Start-Up Brasil integrates the so called TI Maior Program, a strategic program for software and IT services, which is one of the ENCTI (National Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy) initiatives to select IT companies among priority programs to empower the Brazilian economy, and that has important players in the sector as partners of the program.