The domination of Silicon Walley firms has been stirred by many successful start-ups around the world. The trend of the last few years is the high performance of Brazilian startups. The trend is quite new for commodity-exporting Brazil, still dependent on consumption. E-commerce and other ‘hot’ areas are meanwhile, being given little if any attention. The first step of bringing some innovations to Brazilian business was made by Brazil’s national development bank (BNDES) in 2007. A 100-million ($48 million) raise 10-year venture capital fund was founded, called Criatec I. Aimed specifically at start-ups, it welcomed follow-on investments, which no one actually made. Funds show no interest to early-stage companies.
Continue reading