The ScaleUp in Brazil program, from the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil), receives applications until June this year from companies in Japan and Singapore that want to open business in the country. The idea is to attract high-tech companies interested in scaling the sale of their products or solutions. According to the agency, the dimensions and potential of the consumer market in Brazil are an attraction for foreign businessmen.
“The objective is not for them to export their products and services here for the Brazilian market to acquire. The goal is for them to actually settle here”, points out Helena Bonna Brandão, Investment Coordinator at ApexBrasil. She explains that the search is for small countries that are known as Startup Nations and that are ranked in the Global Innovation Index.
This is the third edition of the program. According to ApexBrasil, the initiative has already brought in US$ 9.9 million in investments from Israeli companies. Among them is AgroScout, which provides drone monitoring services for producers and companies dedicated to crop protection. ScaleUp in Brazil is carried out in partnership with the Brazilian Association of Private Equity and Venture Capital (ABVCAP) and Israel Trade & Investment Brazil (IT&I).
In the first phase, those selected will have a broad view of the Brazilian market, for example, regulation to open a business, banking system, among other information. The next step is a cycle of face-to-face immersion in Brazil, followed by a period of adjustments and restructuring. The entire process lasts 18 months and also includes meetings and negotiation rounds with potential clients and investors. Participants also receive consultations on product, service or solution adaptations.
“It is an acceleration program. Once it is installed here in the country, it will bring innovation, it will supply a gap needs of the Brazilian technology chain. It will generate new jobs, it will bring new business opportunities, it will also bring income generation, tax collection for the government, since it is a new company. So it becomes a Brazilian company. This is the objective of the program”, points out the coordinator of ApexBrasil.
Helena highlights that this setting and support for foreign entrepreneurs is fundamental. “Brazil is a very large market, a country, with specificities that do not exist in other countries. For example, the Brazilian tax system itself, which is quite complex. There are municipal, federal, state taxes, taxes applied to services, to products, and that for a foreigner who wants to open a company here in Brazil is very complicated”, she exemplifies.
The first year of the program ran as a pilot with five Israeli companies. The second edition was fully online due to the covid-19 pandemic and ten companies participated in it. In the third edition, the idea is to serve 20 companies. “We make a very rigorous selection. The company really has to be interested in internationalization here for the country”, highlights Helena.
