Rio de Janeiro / Brazil Start Up Scene

I am certainly not an expert on start-ups, Brazil or the two topics combined, but I came to learn a few things, that I am happy to share:

Brazil Startup Deal Book

Anything you need to know about recent deals made

Accelerators in Rio (there are others, but these are the ones I hear most about):

• Pipa – focused on social impact
• 21212 – anything digital
• Papaya – mobile
• Microsoft/Acelera Rio – a recently launched MS initiative

Venture Capitals Firms:

• I don’t know too much about them beyond what Google tells me, as I meet some people, I will update the list.

Government Programs:

Start-up Brasil – Selected companies will get up to R$200k, plus various other benefits and acceleration services.

Government Agencies:

• Rio Negocios – Agency that promotes investments in Rio de Janeiro, launched recently Rio-Digital, a map of the scene in Rio, with accelerators, start-ups, investors, incubators and coffee shops with Wi-Fi (only 2 of those on the list so far 😦 )
• FINEP -Funding Authority for Studies and Projects is under the Ministry of Science of Technology. There are various programs it administers. A specific one I saw was:  Prime, to support new businesses in their first year, giving R$120k for salaries and other administrative services plus favorable financing options. I mapped several other programs from the Ministry’s website, that may be relevant. Full spreadsheet is here. Amounts are in BRL.

Industry Associations

• The Brazilian Association of Start-Ups
• The Brazilian Association of Private Equity and Venture Capital

Sources of information:

• StartupBase – Database of all the start ups in Brazil (“all” is kind of exaggerated, though)
• The Next Web – Has a lot of current information on the scene
• Rio – The Silicon Beach – an article from Reuters which was my initial catalyst