The fintech segment continues to grow in Brazil with most startups focused on B2B offerings, according to a new study.
There are 504 fintechs operating in Brazil across 10 segments currently – this compares to 377 fintechs active in Brazil in 2018, according to the data compiled by Finnovation, a local website that has been monitoring the segment since 2011.
By Angelica Mari via ZD Net
At the end of the 9th Meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of BRICS held in Bonito (MS), on Thursday (26), representatives of the five countries signed the Nice Charter, with 27 items that reaffirm commitment to cooperation in the area agricultural. The ministers said the potential to enhance collaboration in the food production areas, food security and environmental security.
“This can be achieved through good agricultural practices, developing digital agriculture and value chains for better agricultural marketing and improvement of income for farmers,” says the letter, which deals with issues such as innovation, industry communication, startups, trade facilitation, scientific principles, regionalization and sustainability.
Via DATAGRO
SoftBank did not let up the flow of capital to Brazil this month, staying busy despite the WeWork debacle. With two more $100 million-plus rounds in QuintoAndar and MadeiraMadeira, the Japanese investor has funded at least one more unicorn in the Brazilian ecosystem. Their investments in Brazil from the past two months alone far outstrip Latin America’s venture capital funding in all of 2016.
In early September, SoftBank backed QuintoAndar for a $250 million Series D round alongside Dragoneer, General Atlantic and Kaszek Ventures, which recently made headlines for raising $600 million to invest in Latin America. QuintoAndar is a real estate rental startup that simplifies the process of locating and renting an apartment in Brazil. Although the startup only has 2% of the rentals market share in Brazil, QuintoAndar’s tech solution enabled them to scale rapidly, beating out traditional incumbents in the region’s bureaucratic rental structure.
By Sophia Wood via Tech Crunch
In an exclusive interview to the entry portal Uagro / DATAGRO, this Monday (23), at the International Congress of Wheat Industry in Campinas (SP), the president of Embrapa, Celso Moretti said the search body reduce dependence the budget of the National Treasury, looking increasingly tailor agreements with the private sector, resulting in new resources for agricultural research.
In this sense, Moretti said he saw very much welcome the approval of the Economic Affairs Committee (CAE) of the Senate’s bill, which includes between the resources of Embrapa those from the licensing for commercial exploitation of technologies, products, services and brand use rights.
Via DATAGRO
(Bloomberg) — Ari de Sa Cavalcante Neto was spending so much time away from home selling his firm’s shares to U.S. investors that he felt he owed his seven-year-old daughter an explanation.
“I told her I had entered a very long competition and, if I won, I’d bring home a unicorn,” Cavalcante, chief executive officer of Brazil’s Arco Platform Ltd., told a group of entrepreneurs earlier this year.
By Felipe Marques, Cristiane Lucchesi and Vinicius Andrade via Yahoo Finance
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Seven months into the presidency of Roberto Campos Neto, Brazil’s central bank has implemented a quiet revolution in its monetary policy, with the former trader showing a willingness to tolerate a weaker currency.
In selling international reserves for the first time in 10 years to meet demand for dollars, while slashing interest rates to new lows to revive growth, the blue water between monetary and exchange rate policy is becoming ever clearer, analysts say.
By Jamie McGeever via Reuters
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Chinese state-owned commodities trader COFCO INTL [CNCOF.UL] plans to continue to invest in Brazil in the near future after having quickly achieved a significant position in the local commodities market, but will be very selective in choosing next targets.
COFCO sources and trades grains, oilseeds, sugar, coffee and cotton in Brazil, where it hosts most of its 36 Latin American warehouses, eight food processing plants and 10 port terminals.
By Marcelo Teixeira and Roberto Samora via Reuters
The Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association (BSCA) and the Brazilian Agency for Export and Investment Promotion (Apex-Brazil) organized the participation of Brazilian companies in the main fair of specialty coffee Asia, SCAJ World Specialty Coffee Conference and Exhibition 2019 held between 11 and 13 September in Japan.
In the three-day event, 21 members of the Association conducted 395 business contacts with potential buyers from Japan, China, Taiwan, UK, Netherlands, South Korea, Malaysia, England and the United States have closed $ 2.1 million in business. For the next 12 months, they predict also the realization of over US $ 9.47 million.
Via DATAGRO
Canadian storytelling app Wattpad is headed to Brazil, South America’s biggest media market, after signing a development and production deal with indie studio Wise Entertainment.
The agreement hands Wise Entertainment, which has offices in Los Angeles and New York City, the exclusive first-look rights to develop Wattpad stories into Portuguese-language film and TV projects for global distribution.
By Allen Lau via The Hollywood Reporter
(Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co. is expanding its Brazil fixed-income business to include local bonds as issuance hits a record amid record-low interest rates and optimism about President Jair Bolsonaro’s economic reforms.
The bank started working with corporate clients earlier this year to manage their sales of bonds denominated in reais, according to Lucianna Lorenzo, the head of international and local debt capital markets at JPMorgan in Brazil.
By Pablo Gonzalez via Yahoo News
“We have around 40 companies that fit in Brazil,” the group’s head in Brazil, André Maciel, told the news outlet during an event at Cubo, a technological hub funded by Itaú Unibanco, the largest private bank in Latin America.
Via PYMNTS
– Biogas has the potential to provide 36 percent of the electricity consumed in Brazil or replace 70 percent of diesel if purified as biomethane, according to the Brazilian Association of Biogas and Biomethane (Abiogas).
This new source of energy is only recently gaining a foothold in this country, especially in the agricultural south. Its future is promising in an agro-diverse Brazil, which is the world’s largest producer or exporter of sugar, coffee, meat and soybeans.
By Mario Osava via IPS News
SAO PAULO, Sept 19 (Reuters) – Brazilian telecommunications firm Oi SA is in talks with Spain’s Telefonica SA and Italy’s Telecom Italia SpA to sell its mobile network to avoid insolvency, five people with knowledge of the matter said.
Oi has been struggling to turn around its business since filing for bankruptcy protection in June 2016 to restructure approximately 65 billion reais of debt.
By Carolina Mandl and Gabriela Mello
Brazil is known for its complex business environment, and its byzantine tax system is a big reason why. According to the World Bank’s Doing Business rankings, Brazil is the world’s seventh-worst place to have to pay taxes, roughly on par with the Republic of Congo and Bolivia. President Jair Bolsonaro’s government, continuing to tackle some of the most vexing issues facing Latin America’s largest economy, hopes to simplify taxes for both business and ordinary citizens, a goal that eluded prior heads of state.
By Rachel Gamarski via Bloomberg
Over the past few months, there has been some movement in the Brazilian political sphere which seems to be targeting increased transparency and auditability for cryptocurrency transactions.
New regulation has been approved that requires users to disclose more information about their cryptocurrency trades, and businesses are now required to register their holdings as well. Taxes have also been clarified and new measures are being discussed which could add additional taxes to any crypto-to-fiat trading.
By Pedro Febrero via Yahoo Finance
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> on Thursday announced a 1 billion reais ($243.29 million) expansion at a plant in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, joining Volkswagen and General Motors in new investments in the region.
Toyota said the funding would allow the Sorocaba plant, which builds the Etios and Yaris sedan models, to produce a new vehicle model. It did not provide details on the new model.
By Marcelo Rochabrun via Yahoo Finance
SAO PAULO, Sept 17 (Reuters) – A spike in oil prices following recent attacks on facilities in Saudi Arabia is expected to boost an already positive outlook for ethanol in Brazil, according to analysts and industry representatives, further relegating sugar to the background for mills that largely process ethanol.
If higher oil prices lead to increased gasoline prices in Brazil, ethanol would keep its price advantage over the fossil fuel at the pumps, potentially leading to strong demand and good profit margins for cane mills, market participants said.
By Marcelo Teixeira via Nasdaq
The Minister Tereza Cristina (Agriculture, Livestock and Supply) began on Monday (16) the datebook in Saudi Arabia, the second destination of the mission to the Middle East. The first engagement was a meeting with the Deputy Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Mansour bin Hilal Al Mushaiti. The two discussed bilateral technical cooperation in agriculture.
The minister also spoke of exports to the Arab country. Major importers of chicken and beef, Saudi Arabia expressed interest in the marketing of fodder for animal feed produced in Brazil.
Via DATAGRO
Twenty-one-year-old Brazilian Anna Luisa Baserra always wanted to be a scientist. From washing liquid to shampoo, no household item escaped the potential for becoming the next scientific experiment.
“I used to play with my cousins, trying to make chemical compounds from any liquids we could find, mixing them up and pretending to be professional scientists,” she recalls.
By Lis Mullin Bernhardt via UN Environment
Marco Krapels left Tesla Inc. and started a battery company in a place that’s a hemisphere away from California’s rarefied clean-energy scene: Brazil.
Krapels, Tesla’s former vice president for international expansion of solar and storage, now runs Sao Paulo-based MicroPower-Comerc. The company, backed by Siemens AG, is pushing to use big mobile batteries to wean Latin America’s largest economy off oil-fired generators during blackouts.
By Laura Millan Lombrana via Bloomberg
Virgin Atlantic and GOL are opening up Brazil with a codeshare agreement that will allow passengers on the UK airline’s forthcoming London-Sao Paolo service to connect to 37 destinations.
GOL is Brazil’s biggest domestic carrier and connections will include leisure favorites such as surf hotspot Florianopolis, Amazon jungle launchpad Manaus and the pristine coastline of Recife.
By Steve Creedy via AirlineRatings
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept 12 (Reuters) – Brazil’s development bank BNDES is mulling strategies to sell its stakes in listed companies such as state-controlled oil company Petrobras SA , two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.
As discussions are still ongoing, BNDES may start divestments only next year, the sources added.
By Rodrigo Viga Gaier via Yahoo Finance
(AMZN) — Amazon today announces the launch of Amazon Music for Brazil, bringing customers millions of songs and thousands of playlists and stations ad-free, with two music streaming tiers. Beginning today, customers can access Amazon Music Unlimited, the premium music streaming tier with unlimited access to more than 50 million songs, including chart-topping releases from Brazilian and International artists including Pabllo Vittar, Post Malone, Ivete Sangalo, Billie Eilish, Gustavo Mioto and many more, along with locally curated playlists and stations, developed specifically for today’s music fan in Brazil. This follows Tuesday’s launch of Amazon Prime in Brazil, offering members a selection of more than two million songs at no additional cost to their Prime membership. Customers can learn more about Amazon Music, and begin a three-month free trial for the Unlimited tier today at amazon.com.br/music.
Via Yahoo Finance
BRASILIA, Sept 12 (Reuters) – Brazil’s services sector grew in July at its fastest pace this year, official figures showed on Thursday, another indication that Latin American’s largest economy started the third quarter on a solid footing.
A day after figures showed retail sales posting their biggest rise of the year in July, government statistics agency IBGE said service sector activity climbed 0.8% in the month and 1.8% on the year, both smashing forecasts.
By Jamie McGeever via Reuters
BRASILIA, Sept 12 (Reuters) – The Brazilian Senate late on Wednesday approved a bill that will modernize Brazil’s telecommunications law and boost companies in the sector by lifting restrictions on asset sales, according to the upper house’s news service, Agencia Senado.
The bill, known as PLC 79, had already passed the lower house of Congress and will now go to President Jair Bolsonaro to be signed into law.
By Anthony Boadle via Yahoo Finance
Sao Paulo-based real estate startup QuintoAndar has raised a $250 million Series D in a round that is considered massive by U.S. standards but is positively gargantuan in Brazil. The round takes the company “to unicorn status,” according to CEO Gabriel Braga, although he would not disclose its exact valuation.
SoftBank Group International led the round, which also included participation from another new investor Dragoneer as well as existing backers General Atlantic and Kaszek Ventures. The financing brings the six-year-old company’s total raised to over $335 million, according to its Crunchbase profile, and comes just nine months after its $70 million Series C.
By Mary Ann Azevedo via CrunchBase News
Use a sensor to predict whether it will rain on a property and thus identify the best time to apply a crop protection product. Have equipment on a tractor that monitors whether it stops or breaks to allow for quick maintenance. Insert small appliances into the soil to have indicators for planting, such as moisture level. These are some of the applications of the so-called Internet of Things (IoT) that are beginning to be implemented in projects in the field, according to “Agência Brasil”.
Internet of Things (IoT) is a name given to a set of technologies that enable more efficient real-time, multi-area monitoring through multi-purpose machine-to-machine communication dynamics. , such as increasing the ability to monitor and control a given activity, as in the examples above.
Via DATAGRO
SAO PAULO, Sept 9 (Reuters) – Brazil and Mexico have begun talks on a free trade deal, a Brazilian official said on Monday, seeking to deepen commercial ties between the two largest economies in Latin America as trade tensions threaten to undermine global growth.
Marcos Troyjo, Brazil’s deputy economy minister for foreign trade, said Brazil had formally started free trade talks with Mexico, which recently ratified a new trade pact with the United States and Canada to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
By Ana Mano via Successful Farming
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc said on Tuesday it will launch its Prime subscription service in Brazil, where it has struggled against tough local competition in Latin America’s largest economy.
Shares in Brazilian retailers tumbled after Amazon announced it is offering Prime subscribers unlimited nationwide free shipping and a maximum 48-hour delivery time in over 90 municipalities for goods ranging from clothes to electronics.
By Aluisio Alves via Yahoo Finance
BRASILIA, Sept 6 (Reuters) – Consumer price inflation in Brazil was well contained in August, as forecast, reinforcing expectations of deeper interest rate cuts by the central bank as it tries to fire up economic growth.
Prices measured by the benchmark IPCA index , rose 0.11% in August, government statistics agency IBGE said on Friday, in line with forecasts in a Reuters poll.
Via Nasdaq
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Norway’s power generator Statkraft AS [STATKF.UL] plans to sharply increase its capacity to produce renewable energy in Brazil in the next four to five years, the head of the Brazilian unit, Fernando de Lapuerta, told Reuters.
The company is looking to acquire some Brazilian projects and also plans to take part in coming rounds where the government awards licenses for construction of new power plants, the executive said in an interview on Tuesday.
By Luciano Costa via Reuters
Mobile devices were the main channel used by Brazilians to transact with their banking institutions in 2018, according to data from the Brazilian Central Bank (BC).
Some 29 billion transactions were completed through smartphones and tablets last year, up 18.4 percent on 2017. This builds on a trend that emerged in Brazil last year, when mobile devices surpassed other remote channels such as Internet banking.
By Angelica Mari via ZD Net
“Brazil is the country of the future” was a familiar phrase for many years – or as we say in Portuguese – “Brasil, país do futuro”. For tech startups, that future is now. The country is showing signs that the sleeping giant is finally waking up and moving towards its tipping point.
In 2010, I founded an organization called Brazil Innovators, a network that gave innovators and ecosystem builders direct access to Silicon Valley. When I launched, the venture capital community was very small, but it was clear that Brazil was producing great minds and future talent.
By Bedy Yang via Forbes
Data from 2018 from the International Responsible Soy Association (RTRS) show that 4.5 million tons of oilseed were certified and made available to the market last year on over 1.2 million hectares. Compared to 2017, there was an increase of 500 thousand tons.
Increasing demand for responsible soy is one of the main incentives for producers to further extend certification of their properties.
Via DATAGRO
IBM plans to spread its cloud computing load across multiple data centers in Brazil, by building a “multizone” region there.
With just one data center in São Paulo, Brazil, it has promised it will extend that next year to a multizone region, where customers who put servers in one of its data centers have them replicated automatically across numerous other data centers in the same region.
By Peter Judge and Mark Ballard via Data Center Dynamics
The Brazilian trade balance registered a surplus of US $ 3.284 billion in August, up 23.7% from the same month last year, which was US $ 2.775 billion. The data were released by the Special Secretariat of Foreign Trade and International Affairs of the Ministry of Economy (Secint / ME) on Monday (02).
“It is the largest surplus for August since 2017,” said Undersecretary of Intelligence and Foreign Trade Statistics, Herlon Brandão, at a press conference held at the Ministry of Economy, in Brasilia (DF), to comment on the numbers. From January to August, the surplus reaches US $ 31.759 billion.
Via DATAGRO
