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UPDATE 1-Brazil steelmaker CSN plans to raise prices by 25% in Q2

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SAO PAULO, Feb 23 (Reuters) – Brazilian steelmaker CompanhiaSiderúrgica Nacional (CSN) said on Tuesday that itexpects to raise its prices by an average of 25% in the secondquarter as it moves to shrink its debt.

CSN Chief Executive Benjamin Steinbruch said in a call toanalysts that believes the steelmaker’s debt rating could beupgraded in “weeks” as the company plans to reach itsdeleveraging goal in 45 days.
By Alberto Alerigi and Paula Laier via Yahoo Finance

Twitter starts rolling out Voice DM feature in India, Brazil and Japan

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Twitter on Wednesday announced it is testing voice messages in direct messages (DMs) up to 140-seconds long in India.

The experiment will be rolled out in phases to the audiences, making India one of three countries to have access to the feature, alongside Brazil and Japan.

According to the company, voice messages in DMs will make it easier for people to have conversations.

 

Via Business Insider India

 

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Brazil’s Santa Catarina gives prelim licence for 256.5-MW wind project

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February 22 (Renewables Now) – Brazil’s Santa Catarina State Environmental Institute (IMA) granted on Friday the preliminary environmental licence (LAP) for a 256.5-MW wind project.

The Calmon Wind Complex, as it is named, will require around BRL 1 billion (USD 185.7m/EUR 153.3m) in investments for the construction of 11 wind parks in total. Installation works will take 34 months, IMA estimates.

 

By Lucas Morais via Renewables Now

 

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Softbank leads $83 mln investment in Brazil education startup Descomplica

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SAO PAULO, Feb 18 (Reuters) – A group of investors led by Softbank Group has invested 450 million reais ($83 million) in Brazilian test-prep startup Descomplica, which has seen demand for its online learning services surge in the pandemic, the company said on Thursday.

Descomplica said it would use the funds to make acquisitions and develop new products, including 33 new courses by next year.

 

Via Reuters

 

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Four Brazil companies file for IPOs in flotation flurry

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SAO PAULO, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Four Brazilian companies filed for initial public offerings on Thursday, securities filings showed, adding to a flurry of flotations expected in the coming weeks and months.

The companies are online retailer Privalia, hospital Mater Dei, biofuel company FS and financial and automotive group Rodobens.
By Aluisio Pereira via Nasdaq

Nokia backs a 5G Open RAN future for Brazil

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Nokia is furthering its Open RAN ambitions with a new partnership with the CPQD in Brazil, aiming to co-develop new 5G use cases for the new technology. These new use cases include fixed wireless access (FWA), smart cities, IoT for Industry 4.0, and critical networks, all of which will be customised specifically to the needs of the Brazilian market.
“This important partnership will explore the potential for innovative 5G use cases that will have real-world value in Brazil across a range of different areas, such as smart cities and fixed wireless access. Our RAN Intelligent Controller will play a critical role in this research, helping to explore and trial new cutting-edge use cases that will put Brazil at the forefront in the 5G era,” said Ari Kynäslahti, Head of Technology and Strategy at Nokia Mobile Networks.
By Harry Baldock via Total Telecom

Number of new businesses up in Brazil

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Brasília – The number of new businesses in Brazil was up 6% in 2020 from 2019, according to the annual Business Map bulleting from the Brazilian Ministry of Economy. Last year saw 3,359,750 enterprises open in Brazil. The number of companies that went out of business is 1,044,696, resulting in 2.3 million active enterprises in the country. The number of companies that ceased to exist was down 11.3%.

According to the Ministry, the number reflects government measures designed to facilitate startups amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which led many to seek an income through entrepreneurship. The majority of active enterprises in Brazil – nearly 50% – are in the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro.

 

Via Brazil-Arab News Agency

 

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REFILE-Sea group’s Shopee scales up Brazil operations, eyes Latam potential- sources

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SINGAPORE, Jan 25 (Reuters) – Shopee, the e-commerce arm of Southeast Asia’s Sea Ltd, is scaling up its operations in Brazil and evaluating the long-term potential of Latin American markets, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Shopee, the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia according to market researchers, launched a small presence in Brazil in late 2019 as a pilot initiative of its cross-border team.

 

By Fanny Potkin via Yahoo Finance

 

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The pandemic has led many to swap urban living and working for more rural environments. But what happens when you try to do it in a developing nation?

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Leonardo de Azevedo decided to move to the countryside with his wife and two small children in May. The family ended up in a rural area, Lumiar, near the city of Nova Friburgo, about 150km (93mi) from the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, where Azevedo works in the public prosecutor’s office. The idea was to get closer to nature, allow the children more freedom and seek greater security against the pandemic.

But the region had no broadband internet, leaving him dependent on mobile internet that came with speed and data limits. And, when his son had an accident and had to go to A&E, “we found out that in Nova Friburgo no service accepted our health plan”; they were forced to travel back to Rio de Janeiro for treatment.

 

By Raphael Tsavkko Garcia via BBC

 

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Majority of Brazil’s connected population uses digital citizen services

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The Brazilian government estimates that more than 60% of the country’s connected population – about 84 million people – is using digital citizen services.

The latest numbers from the Digital Government Secretariat (DGS) at the Ministry of Economy are based on research from the National Internet Steering Committee, which estimates that currently 134 million Brazilians have access to the Internet.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Brazil’s BTG Pactual to raise $377 mln in share offering

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SAO PAULO, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Brazilian bank Banco BTG Pactual SA plans to raise at least 2 billion reais ($377 million) in a share offering, a securities filing showed on Thursday.

The bank will sell 22,222,222 new shares, comprising one common share and two preferred shares, in the follow-on. It may raise the offering by 25% depending on demand.

 

By Carolina Mandl via Yahoo Finance

 

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Brazilian Food Delivery Market 2020 – COVID-19 Has Accelerated Brazil’s Digital Transformation

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DUBLIN, Jan. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — The “The Brazilian Food Delivery Market, 2020: A Benchmark of the Top 8 Companies” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.

Brazil’s digital transformation has been greatly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in several types of solutions being launched into the food delivery market. The increasing use of smartphones and new technologies across various regions of the country, including small cities with few resources, has made food delivery services a routine element of the Brazilian lifestyle.

 

Via Cision PR Newswire

 

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MadeiraMadeira, the Brazilian answer to Wayfair or Ikea, is now worth $1 billion

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MadeiraMadeira, the Brazilian answer to Wayfair or Ikea, is now worth $1 billion after raising $190 million in late stage financing from investors led by SoftBank’s Latin American investment fund and the Brazilian public and private investment firm, Dynamo.

An online marketplace specializing in home products, MadeiraMadeira offers roughly 300,000 products so customers can build, furnish, renovate and decorate their homes.

 

By Jonathan Schieber via Tech Crunch

 

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Brazil’s services sector expands in Dec for 4th month, but pandemic fears linger – IHS Markit

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BRASILIA, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Brazil’s services sector expanded in December for a fourth straight month and at a slightly faster pace than the month before, a purchasing managers’ survey showed on Wednesday, although underlying data painted a more mixed picture.

Services have lagged manufacturing and industry in the rebound from the COVID-19 crisis but have recently shown signs that the bounceback is underway, a view strengthened by hopes a vaccine will soon be available.

 

By Jamie McGeever via Reuters India

 

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Brazil: Brazil Remains Wedded To LNG Despite Upset

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For quite some time, Brazil has garnered the right ingredients for a robust natural gas market: a large population underpinning rising energy demand, sizable reserves and a market hungry for diversification of energy sources. However, the gas market remains small compared to its vast resource base and demand potential. It is also highly concentrated.

 

By Liliana Diaz via Mondaq

 

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Accenture to work on sale of Brazil’s state-owned tech firms

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The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) has announced the winner of the tender for the modeling the process relating to the privatization of two of the country’s largest state-owned technology companies.

The Social Security Technology and Information Company (Dataprev) and the Federal Data Processing Service (Serpro), – companies accountable for the development, maintenance, and operations of thousands of government systems as well as major data-related government strategy and projects – will be sold in 2021.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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5 FinTech companies transforming the financial space in Brazil

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Brazil is a strategic player in the global market and the most influential country in Latin America. The country is said to have the largest online population in Latin America, with 150mn Brazilians connected and 68% owning a smartphone. It is also the largest FinTech hub in Latin America, which is driven by strong growth in the digital banking segments.

According to Global Index database, there are about 48mn unbanked Brazilians. This part of the population moves nearly 204bn USD of the country’s economy per year. The articles list 5 FinTechs disrupting the financial space in Brazil.

 

By Pavithra R via IBS Intelligence

 

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Brazilian Enterprises Speed Up Digital Transformations as COVID-19 Changes Business Realities Overnight

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SÃO PAULO, Brazil, Dec. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Many enterprises in Brazil responded to the COVID-19 crisis this year by accelerating digital transformation projects, creating new opportunities for service providers that help companies plan and implement these efforts, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Digital Business – Solutions and Service Partners report for Brazil found the pandemic and associated lockdowns left many industry segments struggling to survive in the first months of 2020. Rapidly emerging trends in response to the crisis, such as consumer adoption of online shopping and internet banking, and workplace adoption of video conferencing and collaboration platforms, led companies to carry out in a few months what would have been years-long digitization projects.

 

Via GlobeNewsWire

 

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Farm Rio’s guide to taking a Brazilian brand international

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Farm Rio is on a quest to become among the handful of Brazilian clothing and footwear brands to go global like Havaianas flip flops.

To do it, the 23-year-old label, known for its bold, fun prints with tropical motifs, is manufacturing abroad, using collaborations with popular global brands like Levi’s to build awareness and leaning into its Brazilian heritage of colour and bold, tropical prints. A unit of publicly traded Grupo Soma, Farm Rio is making inroads at top global department stores from Neiman Marcus to Saks Fifth Avenue and its Farm Rio’s flagship New York store beat sales predictions by over 50 per cent. Farm Rio revenues outside Brazil jumped 217 per cent to 63.4 million reais ($12.5 million) in the first nine months of 2020, with domestic revenues of $69.8 million.

By Christiana Sciaudone via Vogue Business

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Hydro signs MoUs for renewable power projects in Brazil

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Hydro has signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the aim to develop two renewable power projects in Brazil.

Renewable energy is an important step towards a more sustainable future, and it is a key element in Hydro’s strategic agenda. These agreements are an important step for Hydro’s newly established Renewable Growth unit, which targets to offer competitive renewable power to Hydro’s industrial assets by taking equity and operator positions in wind, solar and hydropower projects in Brazil and the Nordics.

 

By Nadine Blossom via Aluminum International Today

 

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Chubb and Nubank Launch Fully Digital Life Insurance Offering in Brazil

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NEW YORK and SAO PAULO, Dec. 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Nubank and Chubb today announced the launch of a fully digital life insurance offering in Brazil. With the introduction of Nubank Vida, the largest independent digital bank in the world enters the insurance market with a fast, seamless and personalized capability available to its 30 million customers across Brazil. Nubank Vida is underwritten by Chubb, the world’s largest publicly traded property and casualty insurer with operations in 54 countries and territories. Nubank Vida was developed using the integration capabilities of Chubb Studio, the global digital product distribution platform announced by Chubb in September.

The Nubank life insurance offer is fully customized to allow the customer to enjoy a seamless experience where quotes, bill payment and account management are all transacted digitally. Basic coverage includes natural or accidental death and funeral assistance, as well as living benefits covering hospitalization for accident, disability for accident and funeral assistance for family members.

 

Via Cision PR Newswire

 

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Monashees-backed Pier Raises $14.5M Poised To Lead Insurance In Brazil

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Brazilian digital insurance company Pier is now issuing its own policies following a $14.5 million Series A round of funding.

The company started with insurance for auto and smartphones and that provides coverage without a grace period or deductible costs and that can be contracted entirely online, Igor Mascarenhas, co-founder and CEO, told Crunchbase News.

 

By Christine Hall via CrunchBase

 

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Brazil’s Linx set to be acquired by StoneCo for $1.28 billion

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Shareholders of Brazilian software firm Linx have agreed to back an acquisition offer from NASDAQ-listed payments processor StoneCo.

The transaction is valued at 6.8 billion reais ($1.28 billion), making it one of the largest ever deals involving a Brazilian technology company. The approval of 63% of Linx’s shareholders for the takeover offer ends a bidding war that saw StoneCo competing with Brazilian ERP giant Totvs since August.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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A company in Brazil made a controversial move to fight racism. Other CEOs should try it

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Although she’s not a household name in the United States, billionaire Luiza Trajano, the richest woman in Brazil, might very well become one soon if her radical new model to confront structural racism takes hold.

Trajano made her fortune with her eponymous Magazine Luiza (or Magalu as it is known) — Brazil’s sprawling 1,000-store department store chain with over 40,000 employees. She recently announced, together with her son, Frederico Trajano, the company’s CEO, a bold and highly controversial move: Its coveted trainee program, long considered a major stepping stone into Brazil’s corporate world, will now only admit Black Brazilians into its ranks in an effort to upend a system that oftentimes sidelines Brazilians of African heritage from rising up the corporate ladder.
By Arick Wierson via CNN Business

Facebook’s WhatsApp Gets Another Shot At P2P In Brazil As Google Shows Interest

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WhatsApp is getting another crack at grabbing a slice of Brazil’s fast-growing payments market.

Facebook’s messaging service will soon get a green light to start providing peer-to-peer (P2P) payment services in Brazil, Roberto Campos Neto, head of the country’s central bank, said at a news conference Monday (Nov. 16), Reuters reported.

Campos Neto also noted Brazil’s central bank has talked to other Big Tech firms like Google about their interest in offering instant payments services in the country, Reuters reported.

 

Via Pymnts

 

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Uber to accept fast payments in Brazil in partnership with Ebanx

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Uber Technologies Inc started on Monday to take instant payments in Brazil in partnership with payments startup Ebanx, both companies said.

More than 60 million people had already signed up to the newly launched instant payments platform, so-called Pix, before its full operation started this Monday. It allows consumers and companies to make money transfers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without requiring debit or credit cards.

 

Via Reuters

 

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Mercado Livre announces the opening of five additional distribution centers in Brazil

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This week, we saw Amazon’s announcement of the opening of three more logistics centers in Brazil – in three different states – which are expected to meet demand for Prime deliveries from the US retailer’s subscription service. Now, its Argentinian competitor in Brazil, Mercado Livre, has followed the same path and has announced that it will open five more distribution warehouses in the country.

According to the company, the five new centers will start operating in early 2021 and will be spread across three Brazilian states: Minas Gerais, Santa Catarina and São Paulo.

 

By Re: Jerusalem

 

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Amazon grows delivery network in Brazil

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(Bloomberg)—Amazon.com Inc. is opening three new distribution centers in Brazil, marking its biggest logistics push in Latin America’s largest market as competition intensifies amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The expansion, which comes two months after the U.S. ecommerce giant launched its largest distribution center yet in the country, adds 75,000 square-meters to Amazon’s logistics infrastructure. It also gives it more bandwidth, raising to 500 the number of cities with deliveries in less than 48 hours—just shy of 10% of municipalities in Brazil.

 

Via Digital Commerce 360

 

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Alexa celebrates a year in Brazil with the launch of sales of the fourth generation of the Echo line

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Amazon today celebrated the first anniversary of its personal voice assistant, Alexa. And, to celebrate, the American giant announced the start of sales of the latest generations of its Echo and Echo Dot smart speakers, announced worldwide in September.

The main novelty of this generation, the design of the cases has been changed, abandoning the format of the disc for a round construction. There’s a significant improvement in sound here, powered by a three-inch woofer, two tweeters, and Dolby processing that delivers stereo sound with high highs, dynamic mids, and deep lows, according to Amazon. In the case of the Echo Dot and Echo Dot with clock, there is also the function that activates the repeat mode with a single press.

 

Via Re: Jerusalem

 

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Microsoft announces tech training partnership with Brazilian government

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The Brazilian government has announced a partnership with Microsoft to train millions of citizens in technology subjects over the next three years.

Under the Mais Brasil (More Brazil) program, a remote education platform developed in partnership with the Ministry of Economy offers 20 courses through the Microsoft Community Training tool, with the capacity to train up to 5.5 million job seekers by 2023.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Covid-19 prompts increase in contactless use in Brazil

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The new coronavirus pandemic has prompted an increase in contactless payments in Brazil, though the method has yet to take off, according to a new study released by Visa.

According to the research, contactless payments made through cards, smartwatches and other mobile devices accounted for about 3% of all payments processed by the company between January and June 2020, compared to 1% in the same period last year.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Brazil to play a stronger role in Arab food security

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São Paulo – Brazil will play an even more important role in Arab food security. That was one projection for the Arab-Brazilian relations expressed by Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) president Rubens Hannun during the opening ceremony of the Economic Forum Brazil & Arab Countries on Monday (19). The ceremony featured Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro and Arab League secretary-general Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

The event is themed “The Future is Now.” Hannun said that the Arab countries are becoming a global standard in technology, environmental preservation, and sustainable production. “Brazil, in turn, will play an even more prominent role in the Arab food security. Therefore, there is plenty of potential to create and expand alliances,” Hannun said.

 

By Isaura Daniel via Brazil-Arab News Agency

 

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U.S. steps up cooperation with Brazil for post-pandemic recovery

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – The United States boosted its financial cooperation with Brazil on Monday to help the South American nation’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic with a loan to its largest private bank.

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has extended a $400 million loan to Itau Unibanco Holding SA ITUB4.SA which should be used to finance small companies in Brazil, DFC said in a statement on Monday.

By Leonardo Benassatto and Carolina Mandl via Reuters

BRAZIL TO DISCUSS ELIMINATING TARIFFS ON CORN AND SOY

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 15 (Reuters) – The Brazilian government is set to discuss on Friday a proposal that would temporarily eliminate tariffs on corn and soy imports from countries outside the Mercosur trade block, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The matter will be decided during a meeting of Gecex, a technical body within the Economy Ministry, said the source, who requested anonymity to discuss confidential matters.

 

By Rodrigo Viga Gaier via Successful Farming

 

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Brazil launches artificial intelligence center

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Brazil’s largest research facility focused on artificial intelligence (AI) has been launched yesterday (14) through a collaboration between the private and public sector.

Announced in February 2019, the Artificial Intelligence Center (C4AI) is the result of investments made by IBM, the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) and the University of São Paulo (USP).

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Brazil advances in digital competitiveness ranking

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Brazil’s capacity and readiness to adopt and explore digital technologies for economic and social transformation has seen some improvements, according to a study published this week by Swiss business school International Institute for Management Development (IMD). The country climbed six positions in this year’s World Digital Competitiveness Ranking (WDCR) in relation to 2019, ranking 51st in a list of 63 countries.

The IMD ranking scrutinizes the digital competitiveness of nations based on the intangible infrastructure necessary for the learning and discovery aspects of technology, as well as the level of preparedness of an economy to carry out its digital transformation. In addition, it quantifies the landscape of developing digital technologies.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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China’s Didi and WhatsApp team up in Brazil to compete with Uber

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Brazilian ride-hailing service 99, controlled by China’s Didi Chuxing Technology Co Ltd, has partnered with WhatsApp to accept orders on the chat platform owned by Facebook in a move that would allow users to summon cars without using another app.

The partnership is the first of its kind in the world for Didi, China’s biggest ride-hailing company, the companies said, and could give 99 an advantage in competing with US-based Uber Technologies Inc, the market leader in Brazil.

 

Via Merco Press

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Brazil: Brazil’s Comprehensive Privacy Law Now In Effect

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Following lots of legislative uncertainty, Brazil has now formally enacted the country’s first general data protection law, Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados, or “LGPD.” While administrative sanctions do not go into effect until August 1, 2021, individuals and public prosecutors can now bring claims for losses and damages. Indeed, at least one public civil action has already been filed. LGPD is the first comprehensive general data protection law in Latin America. It was modeled after the EU’s GDPR. While there are many similarities, LGPD does introduce new concepts. Below are some of the key elements to keep in mind.

 

By Julia K. Kadish and Liisa Thomas via Mondaq

 

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Brazil’s LGPD Takes Effect – With Early Enforcement

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Brazil represents over half of all IT spend in Latin America, has the largest regional market for software outsourcing, employs a sizable IT workforce, manufactures consumer goods (including commercial airplanes and cars) and has an active consumer market of social media operated by global data aggregators. At a time when data privacy is becoming increasingly important to consumers, it seems only fitting that Brazil would adopt comprehensive privacy legislation to protect data privacy rights.

The General Data Protection Law, the first law of its kind in Brazil, is now in effect, and we are already seeing enforcement. Streamlining the legal framework on data protection, the law sets forth a number of requirements addressing legal bases for processing, individual rights, governance and accountability and data transfers. Here’s what you need to know.

 

Laura E. Jehl and Matthew R. Cin via The National Law Review

 

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USTDA Supports Broadband Network Expansion in Brazil

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São Luís, Brazil – The U.S. Trade and Development Agency has awarded a grant to the Brazilian telecommunications company Equatorial Telecomunicações S.A.to facilitate the development of a broadband network backbone in the country’s northeast region. The project is specially designed to enhance connectivity and extend government services for more than three million people in Brazil.

“In today’s connected world – and particularly during the COVID-19 era – reliable internet and reliable access to digital services are more important than ever,” said Todd Abrajano, USTDA Chief Operating Officer and Head of Agency. “USTDA’s support for this project will connect millions more Brazilian citizens and businesses to broadband infrastructure and deepen Equatorial’s understanding and familiarity with innovative ICT solutions from U.S. industry.”

 

Via USTDA

 

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EBANX and PayPal expand digital wallet potential in Brazil

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Payment solutions company EBANX has integrated with PayPal in a bid to maximise the potential of digital wallets in Brazil.

The partnership will mean that EBANX reaches a customer market of over 50 million people, furthering its overall mission of opening up Latin America to global businesses and vice versa.

Founded in 2012, the company is an ardent believer in the power of democratised finance to drive culture, education and entertainment. Already connected with other leading digital payment platforms – Apple Pay and Google Pay – this latest development broadens consumer choice significantly.

 

By William Girling via FinTech

 

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Brazil industrial confidence surges to highest in almost 8 years -survey

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BRASILIA, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Brazilian industrial confidence jumped in September to its highest in almost eight years, a survey showed on Monday, underscoring the sector’s strong rebound from the coronavirus lockdown and divergence from the services side of the economy.

The Fundacao Getulio Vargas’s national industrial confidence index for September rose to a seasonally adjusted 105.9 from 98.7 in August, according to preliminary figures, the index’s highest reading since January 2013.

 

By Jamie McGeever via Nasdaq

 

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Delta and LATAM receive approval in Brazil for joint venture agreement

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PRESS RELEASE: Brasilia, Brazil – September 18, 2020. Delta Air Lines and LATAM Airlines Group S.A. and its affiliates (‘LATAM’) received regulatory approval* yesterday for their trans-American Joint Venture Agreement (‘JVA’) from Brazil’s competition authority, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE).

The proposed JVA between Delta and LATAM, which was presented to the CADE on July 14, 2020, was approved without conditions, following an evaluation of free competition considerations and taking into account the unprecedented economic impact of COVID-19 on the airline industry. This is the first approval for the JVA between Delta and LATAM since it was signed in May 2020.

 

Via The LoadStar

 

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Pompeo continues his South America tour with Brazil

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US State Secretary Mike Pompeo continues his Caribbean and South American tour on Friday with his visit to Brazil after completing final diplomatic meetings in Guyana.

After meeting with Guyana’s President Irfan Ali and his Cabinet on Thursday, Pompeo is scheduled to meet Foreign Minister Hugh Todd and Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Irwin LaRocque.

 

By Beyza Binnur Dönmez via aa.com.tr

 

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Brazilian government aims to attract investments with digital transformation initiatives

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The Brazilian government is accelerating initiatives to catch up with the new demands presented by digital transformation and attract private sector investments to these projects, according to senior officials.

At industry event Painel Telebrasil yesterday (15), interim minister at the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), Julio Semeghini, mentioned a number of projects aimed at “making the digital transformation reach the greatest number of Brazilians” and, at the same time, create commercial opportunities for sector players.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Q&A: using satellite navigation to revolutionise Brazil’s railway network with Inmarsat

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In the next few years, satellite navigation systems are set to become the norm in the world of railways. The EU, for example, is developing projects such as STARS, which aims to bridge the gap between the European Rail Traffic Management System and the European Global Navigation Satellite System through the use of satellite navigation.

In August, the Italian Railway Network installed a satellite-based management system on a regional line, making history in the EU.

 

By Ilaria Grasso Macola via Railway Technology

 

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Egypt-Brazil sales up 74% with Mercosur agreement

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São Paulo – Exports from Egypt to Brazil climbed 73.9% ever since Egypt reached a free trade agreement with the Mercosur in September 2017. Exports from Brazil to Egypt, on the other hand, were up 21.1%, as per a survey from Brazil’s National Confederation of Industry (CNI).

The agreement had its third anniversary on September 1st, 2020. Over 2,000 items have been made tariff-free in Mercosur-Egypt trade. As of this month, tariffs will be lifted on 463 items from Egypt to Mercosur, and 719 items from the Mercosur to Egypt.

 

Via Brazil-Arab News Agency

 

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Interview: Brazil to augment cooperation with China in strategic sectors, says VP

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) — Brazil will continue to expand the benefits of their economic complementarity with China, the country’s Vice President Hamilton Mourao has said, calling for more investment and cooperation in strategic sectors.

“For more than 10 years, China has been our largest trading partner and an important source of investment for Brazil, especially in the energy and infrastructure sectors. Brazil, in turn, is a stable and reliable supplier of safe food for China,” he said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

 

Via Xinhua Net

 

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Experimental deliveries with drones approved in Brazil

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Latin American drone delivery company, Speedbird Aero, announced it has received regulatory approval from Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency, also known as ANAC, to operate two experimental drone delivery routes in Brazil.

Speedbird Aero operates a proprietary delivery drone with an integrated ParaZero parachute recovery system, and is now the first company in Latin America to win regulatory approval for a drone delivery operation.

 

Via Merco Press

 

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First Gene Therapy Products Approved in Brazil

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Brazil has become the first among the Latin American countries to approve the marketing of gene therapy products. Specifically, the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA) recently granted marketing authorization for Novartis’ gene therapy products Luxturna® and Zolgensma®. As published in the Brazilian Federal Register, Luxturna® received its marketing authorization on August 6th and a few days later, on August 17th, Zolgensma® received its marketing authorization. Prior to ANVISA’s final decision, both products had been approved by the Brazilian Technical Commission of Biosafety (CTNBio), which is responsible for evaluating biosafety of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in Brazil.

 

By Lisa L. Mueller via Lexology

 

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Brazil reaches towards cybersecurity maturity

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After years of high-profile cyber-attacks, Brazil has received a glowing report for its cyber security maturity.

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the University of Oxford’s cyber security centre consulted with Brazilian government agencies and national Cybersecurity Incident Response Teams to evaluate the nation’s preparedness.

 

Via Anti Corruption Digest

 

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Hey, developers: Brazil is waiting for you

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Targeting the young, growing Brazilian market may be the smartest decision an app publisher can make this year. App installs have been growing at an impressive 30% year-over-year, easily the largest and fastest growth in the region. With the world’s sixth largest population, Brazil’s smartphone growth has exploded in recent years — up 11% in 2019. But it may have only scratched the surface in terms of where the market could go. In 2019, Brazil had a smartphone penetration of only 45.6%, dwarfed in comparison to top countries like the U.K., Germany, and U.S., which are around 80%.

 

By Matt Tubergen

 

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Number of fintechs in Brazil grew 28% this year in comparison to 2019

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The number of fintechs operating in Brazil went from 604 in June last year to 771 in August this year, a 28% growth, according to the 9th edition of Radar Fintechlab survey.

FintechLab co-founder, Fábio Gonsalez, said that there is a high number of new firms present in this edition. Of the 771 companies present, 270 of them, about 35% ,were not included in the previous version of the report. “It is a strong indication that they are startups that are less than a year old. This proves once again that the ecosystem continues to find opportunities to improve services and create new solutions that are very strongly influenced by regulatory advances such as Open Banking and PIX, for example ”, he says.

 

By Marcelo Bradaschia via LABS

 

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Arabs eligible to pursue graduate studies in Brazil in 2021

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São Paulo – Students from the Arab countries Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon and Syria are eligible to pursue graduate studies in Brazil in 2021. Enrolments will be accepted until September 30 for the selection process of Programa de Estudantes-Convênio de Graduação (PEC-G), the Secretariat for Higher Education at the Brazilian Ministry of Education said.

The PEC-G program is available to students from countries in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Oceania, Asia, and Europe with which Brazil sustains agreements. After completing the program, students are expected to return to their countries of origin. Seats are made available free of charge at Brazilian universities, which are tasked with informing the Ministry of Education how many seats are available, and in what courses.

 

Via Brazil-Arab News Agency

 

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Brazil Notes: Cross-Border Payments Unicorn Ebanx Launches Logistics Startup In The US

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Brazilian fintech Ebanx has launched a logistics startup in the United States as part of a strategy to get more international e-commerce firms to tap into the Latin American consumer market.

With its new logistics arm Leve, Ebanx is positioning itself as a strategic partner for retailers wanting to reach Latin markets and are not doing so due to the currently precarious experience consumers in those countries face when buying products from international e-commerce firms.

 

By Angelica Mari via Forbes

 

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Petrobras orders third FPSO for giant Mero field offshore Brazil

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RIO DE JANEIRO – Petrobras and its partners have committed to the third development phase of the Mero project in the Libra block in Brazil’s presalt Santos basin.

The company has signed a letter of intent with Malaysian contractor MISC Berhad for the charter and services for the FPSO Marechal Duque de Caxias for the Mero field, thought to hold up to 4 Bbbl of recoverable oil.

 

Via Offshore

 

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Brazilian startup to trial drones in food delivery

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Brazilian startup iFood has received authorization from Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) to start experimental flights with drones to support its food delivery service.

iFood’s partner companies Speedbird Aero and AL Drones had been working towards securing the authorization for nearly a year. The companies carried out rehearsals as part of the project with ANAC’s participation and received the Experimental Flight Authorization Certificate from the agency on August 5.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Twitter tests automatic translations in Brazil

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Some Twitter users in Brazil may be seeing a timeline that’s purely in Brazilian Portuguese even if they’re following accounts that usually tweet in other languages. That’s because Twitter has started testing automatic translations in the region “to make it easier to understand the conversations [they] follow.” In a blog post by Twitter Brazil, the company said the feature will be on by default for a limited number of users on both iOS and Android. While Twitter already has a translation feature, users still have to click or tap a tweet to activate it.

 

By Mariella Moon via Engadget

 

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Western Union Expands International Payment Services in Brazil

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SÃO PAULO, Brasil–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Western Union Company, a leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, today announced an expansion of services between its Western Union Business Solutions division and Banco SEMEAR in Brazil to offer the WU® GlobalPay for FI platform, the Company’s solution for financial institutions that enables customers to make international payments simply and efficiently.

GlobalPay for FI provides the benefits of international payment services without the need to invest in new banking systems infrastructure. Western Union Business Solutions’ online platform allows for processing transactions using a network that spans more than 200 countries and territories, and is available in more than 130 currencies. GlobalPay for FI is a simple and intuitive system that facilitates the creation of international payments.

 

Via Business Wire

 

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E-Commerce Gains hold in Brazil with 5.7 Million Consumers

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Stores have started to reopen after the social distance measures, but customers are returning to shopping slowly. The perception among executives in the commerce sector is that new consumers of different age and income groups have joined the ease of buying over the internet – and digital sales are expected to reach higher levels than pre-Covid.

Retailers recorded a loss of 36% in revenue during the pandemic, and the drop was not only more profound due to the performance of e-commerce, evaluate experts in the segment. Data released this Wednesday (22) by Neotrust / Compre & Confie, a market intelligence company, reflects this consumer movement.

 

By Paula Soprana via Folha de S. Paulo

 

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Brazil doubled oil exports during July

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Brazilian oil exports more than doubled in July to 8.19 million tons, compared to 3.76 million tons shipped in July 2019, according to data released by the Foreign Trade Secretariat, Secex.

The volume was the second-highest in 2020, behind the 8.4 million tons shipped in May, and it also approaches the monthly record registered in December 2019, when the country exported 8.5 million tons of oil.

 

Via Merco Press

 

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JP Morgan invests in Brazil’s FitBank

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JP Morgan has acquired a minority stake in Brazilian fintech startup FitBank, according to local reports. Details of the investment were not disclosed.

Founed in 2015, FitBank describes itself as the largest open banking outfit in Brazil, providing a white label platform that lets banks and fintechs offer bill payment, online treasury, banking, financial management, transfers and escrow services.

Via Finextra

 

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How Social Impact Start-ups Are Solving Brazil’s Covid-19 Challenges

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The persistent problem of inequality in Latin America leaves citizens more vulnerable to the coronavirus. Innovative platforms move towards balancing the scales.

In the current crisis, Brazil is unfortunately the country with the second highest number of cases, surpassing one million Covid-19 positive tests by mid-June. A month later, more than 70,000 lives have been lost.

 

By Fabian Salum and Felipe Monteiro

 

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Brazil Retailer Raises at Least $1 Billion in Share Sale

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(Bloomberg) — Lojas Americanas SA, the Brazilian retailer controlled by billionaire trio Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira, raised at least $1.1 billion in a share sale, four people familiar with the transaction said.

The firm sold preferred shares at 34.50 reais ($6.43) each, the people said, asking not to be named because the information isn’t public yet. It also sold voting stock at 29.78 reais apiece, the people said. That would mean it raised at least 5.83 billion reais. The deal also includes a possible over-allotment that could increase the amount to as much as 7.9 billion reais, according to calculations based on the prospectus.

By Vinicius Andrade, Felipe Marques and Rachel Gamarski via Yahoo Finance Canada

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Raising $22.5 million, Liftit looks to expand its logistics services in Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Ecuador

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The Colombian trucking and logistics services startup Liftit has raised $22.5 million in a new round of funding to capitalize on its newfound traction in markets across Latin America as responses to the COVID-19 epidemic bring changes to the industry across the region.

“We’re focusing on the five countries that we’re already in,” says Liftit chief executive Brian York.

 

By Jonathan Shieber via Tech Crunch

 

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Cisco Partners With Brazilian Government To Digitize Brazil

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Cisco Systems is a company that’s developed a reputation for having one of the most wide-reaching and successful CSR programs. The networking giant invests heavily in the global communities it operates in, through job creation, skills training, disaster response, non-profit partnerships, and much more. A few years ago I caught wind of another program that, while not officially under the company’s CSR umbrella, is still representative of Cisco’s commitment to leveraging its technology to make a positive difference in the world. That program is Cisco’s Country Digital Acceleration program, or CDA for short, in which Cisco partners with various countries’ leadership, industry and academia in the interest of accelerating their national digitization efforts. I recently wrote in detail about the program here, if you’re interested in more background. That brings us to the recent announcement, made in late May, that Cisco has partnered with the government of Brazil as part of its CDA program. Let’s take a closer look at what we can expect from the partnership.

 

By Patrick Moorhead via Forbes

 

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Brazil’s Oil Giant Has A Creative Solution For Its Gas Flaring Problem

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Brazil’s state-owned oil firm Petrobras aims to make better use of the associated natural gas in its prolific oil-rich pre-salt area by having offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) units to process the gas, whose production has been rising with growing oil output in the area.

Offshore LNG liquefaction could be a solution to the associated gas from oil fields 100 miles off the coast and could reduce flaring, Viviana Coelho, Corporate Emissions and Climate Change Manager at Petrobras, said at a webinar, as carried by Reuters.

 

By Tsvetana Paraskova via Oilprice.com

 

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Brazil Eases WhatsApp Ban — But It’s Still Suspended

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The payments feature of the popular messaging platform WhatsApp remains suspended in Brazil, despite local regulators easing restrictions placed on its owner, Facebook.

On June 24, Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense, known locally by its Portuguese acronym ‘CADE’ suspended an agreement between Facebook and Brazilian payment firm Cielo to process payments for WhatsApp.

 

By Samuel Haig via Cointelegraph

 

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With Green Light From Regulators, TransferWise Accelerates In Brazil

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Money transfer unicorn TransferWise is accelerating its business in Brazil after receiving the authorization from the Central Bank to operate a foreign exchange broker. Present in the country since 2016, the fintech had been waiting for the green light from the local regulators for two years.

According to the fintech, which had been operating as a foreign exchange correspondent in partnership with local banks, it has handled over BRL 26 billion in money transfers since it started operating in Brazil.

 

By Angelica Mari via Forbes

 

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Nubank growth hits another level as pandemic drives digital in Brazil

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The shift to digital platforms has been a pronounced feature of the global pandemic – with tech stocks hugely outperforming stock market benchmarks throughout the world – but in emerging markets there have been specific drivers turbo-charging this phenomenon.

Digital bank Nubank, founded seven years ago in Brazil with the launch of a no-fee credit card managed by an app, has grown its total client base to more than 25 million. The bank launched its digital current account in 2017, which now has more than 20 million account holders.

By Rob Dwyer via Euromoney

 

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Startups Focused On Human Resources Take Off In Brazil

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A new report on HRtechs, technology companies focused on Human Resources (HR), has revealed the segment is the third most active in Brazil, after fintechs and mobility, as well as the main companies in activity as well as startups to watch.

According to the study produced by innovation center network Distrito, there are 373 startups active in the HR space, which concentrated 11.6% of the capital invested in startups in 2019 – fintechs claimed 35.6% of the total investment last year, while mobility startups attracted 14.4%.

 

By Angelica Mari via Forbes

 

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Brazil recreates Ministry of Communications

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Brazil’s Ministry of Communications has been recreated and a new minister has taken over to lead agendas such as the country’s upcoming 5G auction.

The son-in-law of a well-known Brazilian TV presenter, Fábio Faria was named the new communications minister yesterday (17). Faria will be accountable for the national telecommunications policy, as well as the national broadcasting policy and the communications activity relating to the federal government, which relies heavily on channels such as social media.

 

By Angelica Maria via ZD Net

 

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AZUL, LATAM BRAZIL ANNOUNCE CODESHARE, FLYER PROGRAM

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MIAMI- Azul Brazilian Airlines (AD) and LATAM Airlines Brazil (LA) have announced a codeshare partnership with a shared frequent flyer program to increase their presence in Brazil’s domestic market.

Both carriers were competitors in the region alongside GOL (G3), but the latest agreement consolidates various recent individual moves from each to now strengthen their presence and network offer.

 

By Sofia Marrero via Airways Mag

 

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Brazil’s BizCapital raises $12 million for its online lending service

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BizCapital, an online lender based in Brazil, has raised $12 million from a clutch of investors including the German development finance institution, the corporate venture capital fund of MercadoLibre and existing investors Quona Capital, Monashees, Chromo INvest and 42K Investments.

“This latest round reinforces investors’ confidence in BizCapital’s ability to innovate in the Latin American credit market amid challenging circumstances caused by Covid-19,” said Francisco Ferreira, the company’s chief executive, in a statement. “We have seen four times as many business credit inquiries on our site year over year, and we are ready to serve them.”

 

By Jonathan Shieber via Tech Crunch

 

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WhatsApp finally launches payments, starting in Brazil

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After months of talks and trials, WhatsApp has finally pulled the trigger on payments in its app. Today the Facebook-owned messaging service announced that users in Brazil would be the first to be able to send and receive money by way of its messaging app, using Facebook Pay, the payments service WhatsApp owner Facebook launched last year.

WhatsApp says in its blog post that the payments service — which currently is free for consumers to use (that is, no commission fee taken) but businesses pay a 3.99% processing fee to receive payments — will work by way of a six-digit PIN or fingerprint to complete transactions.

 

By Manish Singh and Indrid Lunden via Tech Crunch

 

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Ecommerce company sells products from Brazil to Arabs

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São Paulo – A company called Metro Brazil sells Brazilian products to Arab consumers online. Owned by Syrian entrepreneur Alaa Kara Ali (pictured above), the business was started in 2017, two years after he had relocated to Brazil. Ali lives in São Paulo and has two Brazilian children. “I wanted to make a bridge between Brazil and the Middle East,” he told ANBA in interview by email.

Ali, who is also the company’s CEO, wanted to resell Brazilian products such as garments, underwear and accessories. He started on his own and now has a staff of 32 employees and exports to other regions beyond the Middle East. The company used to sell just to Arab countries but saw a demand from other regions, then started delivering orders all over the world. “Now we have clients on Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia and others,” he said.

 

By Bruna Garcia Fonseca via Brazil-Arab News Agency

 

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Totvs and SAP lead enterprise software market in Brazil

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The enterprise software market in Brazil is led by local firm Totvs and SAP, according to new research by Brazilian business school Fundação Getúlio Vargas about the local information technology market.

The report, which polled more than 2,600 businesses nationwide, shows Totvs as the leader with 33% of the overall ERP market. The Brazilian company is closely followed by SAP: the German software giant has a 32% slice of the market, according to the FGV study, now in its 31st edition. Oracle ranks third, with a market share of 12%.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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New debentures decree in Brazil to help add 36 GW of renewables by 2030

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June 9 (Renewables Now) – Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) expects that in the next 10 years, roughly 36,000 MW of renewable energy capacity will be implemented thanks to a new protocol for the issuance of green debentures.

The 10,387 decree, published last week, creates new mechanisms for the issuance of debentures in order to finance infrastructure projects that provide relevant environmental or social benefits for the country, the ministry stated.

 

By Lucas Morais via Renewables Now

 

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E-commerce gains one virtual store per minute in Brazil

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Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Brazil has been opening more than one virtual store per minute. In just over two months, 107,000 new establishments were created on e-commerce for different products, such as food, beverages, clothes, shoes and cleaning products, according to a survey carried out by the Brazilian Association of Electronic Commerce (Abcomm), reported by O Estado de S. Paulo.

 

Via LABS

 

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Brazil retailer Centauro raises $176 million in follow-on offering: sources

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian sporting goods retailer Centauro priced its shares at 30 reais each in a follow-on offering aimed at raising 900 million reais ($175.84 million) to finance acquisitions, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Shares in Grupo SBF SA (CNTO3.SA), as Centauro is formally known, closed the trading day on Thursday trading at 31.50 reais, which implies investors in the share offering had a roughly 5% discount.

 

By Carolina Mandl via Reuters

 

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Nordex Group posts Brazil wind power order for 90 MW

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Nordex has received an order from its new customer, COPEL – Companhia Paranaense de Energia, for the supply and construction of 26 AW132/3465 wind turbines in Brazil. The order also includes the Servicing of the machines, with a contract term of 20 years.

The 90 MW wind farm “Jandaíra Copel” will be built in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, near the city of Jandaíra in eastern Brazil. The Nordex Group will manufacture the 26 turbines at its production facility in Simões Filho. The turbines will be built on 120 metre concrete towers, which the Group will manufacture at its local plant in Areia Branca, not far from the site. The company will also source the rotor blades locally. Completion of the wind farm is planned for 2022.

 

Via Reve

 

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E-commerce sales reach all-time high in Brazil

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E-commerce sales in Brazil have achieved an all-time high as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak, according to a new study referring to activity during April 2020.

Sales for the month practically doubled, with an increase of 98.74% in April in relation to the same month in 2019. Additionally, there was an 81.64% revenue boost for companies operating in digital sales that same month, according to an index produced by the Brazilian Chamber of Electronic Commerce (BCEC).

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Government of Brazil signs agreement with Cisco to boost digitization

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The Brazil Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Cisco via a virtual event on May 27th—the agreement works to boost digitization and accelerate technology skills development in the country. Hosted over Cisco TV, the event included Brazil’s Executive Secretary Julio Semeghini, Secretary of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Paulo Alvim,  and Secretary of Telecommunications Vitor Menezes Minister Marcos Pontes, Secretary Vitor Menezes, Cisco’s Global Innovation Officer Guy Diedrich, SVP and Brazil Country Sponsor John Kern, Cisco President Latin America & SVP in the Americas Jordi Botifoll , and Brazil Country Manager Laercio Albuquerque.

As a part of this agreement, Cisco announced the launch of “Brasil Digital e Inclusivo”, the company’s Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) program that will spur the creation of initiatives and projects in education, healthcare, agribusiness, public safety, cybersecurity, smart cities, energy and manufacturing. Among the initiatives, the program will support Brazilian public healthcare system with telemedicine and remote patient monitoring digital platform, develop new talents in cybersecurity operations through the Cisco Cyber Education Program, help transform education with innovative smart and connected schools, and build an Industry 4.0 Experience Center to be used on professionals training on industrial networking and cybersecurity technologies for Industry 4.0.

 

By Stephanie Chan via Newsroom.cisco.com

 

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These Girls From Brazil Built A Suicide Prevention App For Gen Z

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A team of Brazilian girls have turned a school project into an mobile app aimed at confronting the world’s second leading cause of death among 15-29 year-olds: suicide.

Generation Z, the generation who began to be born in the mid-nineties, has the highest recorded suicide rate in history, as well as a higher risk for mental illness than the previous generation. Teen girls, in particular, are three times as likely as boys to experience depression.

 

By Andrew Wight via Forbes

 

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HOUSE APPROVES NEW RULES FOR BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION DURING PANDEMIC

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The full House approved late on Thursday (21) a bill that creates transitional rules for companies in bankruptcy and also to try to prevent other companies were experiencing difficulties to reach this point, which prior to bankruptcy, informs the “Agency Brazil.” The bill goes to the Senate. The measures cover situations that have occurred since March 20 this year and some are expected to last until the end of the state of public calamity due to pandemic COVID-19, scheduled to end on December 31, 2020. However, the terms do not apply to contracts and obligations of cooperative actions taken by the cooperatives to their members.

By substitute approved by the deputies, for 30 days from the effective date of the future law, are suspended judicial or extrajudicial executions of guarantees, lawsuits involving arrears after March 20, 2020, the declaration of bankruptcy, the unilateral termination or contract review activities. Also, it is suspended for the period, the penalty fee for late payment provided for in contracts in general and those arising from non-payment of taxes.

 

Via Datagro

 

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At Fiat Chrysler’s Brazil plant, production resumes with safety checks

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BETIM, Brazil (Reuters) – Before going to work these days, employees at the Brazilian unit of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCHA.MI) have to get a health check using a mobile app every morning.

It is one of several measures the automaker has implemented to fight the novel coronavirus in South America’s top auto producing country. Carmakers in Brazil cautiously restarted production this month, concerned not just about the virus spreading, but also about whether there will be any demand for the cars amid the health crisis.

 

By Washington Alves and Marcelo Rochabrun via Reuters

 

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UPDATE 1-BUNGE’S BRAZIL UNIT SIGNS CONTRACT TO ACQUIRE TWO SOY PLANTS FROM IMCOPA

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SAO PAULO, May 20 (Reuters) – Bunge’s Brazil unit has signed a contract to acquire two soy crushing plants from Imcopa, according to a statement sent to Reuters on Wednesday, marking another step to consolidate its position as Brazil’s largest soybean crusher.

Imcopa, which is operating under bankruptcy court protection, confirmed the signing of the contract and said the aim of the sale is to keep the plants running and protect jobs, according to a separate statement.

 

By Ana Mano via Successful Farming

 

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VTEX has top tips on how to reshape e-commerce during Covid-19

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Contxto – Yes, yes, you’ve heard it at least a dozen times already. Coronavirus (Covid-19) is accelerating the uprise of e-commerce. But that’s not all.

Self-isolation means users have grasped the utility of ordering something from the comfort of their couch. In addition, they’ve also sought out more meaningful experiences that give them a sense of connection despite being stuck at home. And because of this, Brazilian VTEX, says there’s no going back for businesses, digital or not.

 

Via Contxto

 

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Data privacy awareness grows in Brazil

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The level of awareness and concerns over data privacy online is growing in Brazil, with more users looking to increase control over how their data is handled, according to new research.

According to a global study on data privacy by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, 74% of Brazilian Internet users polled have reported trying to remove their personal data from websites and social media platforms.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Brazil Rescue Aid for Airlines to Reach $680 Million

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(Bloomberg) — The rescue package to airlines in Brazil will total about 4 billion reais ($680 million), according to people familiar to the matter.

The package, which was presented to airlines on Wednesday, includes credit from development lender BNDES, which will provide 60%, or no more than 2.4 billion reais, the people said, asking not to be named because the discussions are private. Other banks will provide another 10%, or no more than 400 million reais, they said, adding that the companies will have to seek at least the remaining 30%, or 1.2 billion reais, from investment funds via capital markets.

By Cristiane Lucchesi, Felipe Marques and Vinícius Andrade via Yahoo Finance

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Brazil seeks opportunities in space technology

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The Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) is seeking to evolve its space technology capability and identify new opportunities for new projects that can potentially bring socioeconomic benefits, in areas such as analysis of satellite data.

With a view of identifying opportunities around technology solutions based on space systems and building proximity to the industry to develop projects in the field, the AEB, an autarchy linked to the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications (MCTIC) signed a protocol of intentions with Visiona, , a joint venture between Brazilian aerospace firm Embraer and state-owned telecoms company Telebras.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Brazil’s tech moonshots target social problems

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For Marcos Toledo, the notion of a “moonshot” should be interpreted differently in Brazil.

While tech giants and scrappy start-ups in the US and China can afford to reach for the stars with ambitious projects like spaceships and autonomous vehicles, Brazilian groups should focus on helping those closer to home, says the managing partner of Canary, a venture capital group in São Paulo.

 

By Bryan Harris via Financial Times

 

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The best lifeboat for concessionaries to be sailing on now

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Our members Lefosse Advogados wrote this very interesting piece on transport infrastructure in times of COVID-19. Please see below:

 

As we all know, transport infrastructure utilities are facing a storm. The drastic drop in demand due to the effects of COVID-19 is causing dramatic unprecedented losses. The future looks bleak while the government’s inertia leaves the concessionaires adrift.

 

Read the full article here

Brazil Expects To Finalize Airline Support Package Next Week

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The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) and Bradesco (one of Brazil’s largest banks) are putting together a financing package for the country’s airlines. It is expected that a final agreement will be reached by the end of next week with the disbursement expected to take place in the second half of June. With airlines around the world suffering from decreased demand, they are left to explore various options to raise funds and keep operations going.

 

By Chris Loh via Simple Flying

 

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MercadoLibre to invest over $700 million in Brazil as coronavirus boosts e-commerce

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Latin American e-commerce company MercadoLibre is one of the few firms not scaling back spending amid the coronavirus pandemic and plans to move forward with a planned 4 billion reais ($717 million) investment in Brazil this year, an executive told Reuters on Tuesday.

After seeing a sharp drop in demand in the second half of March, the Argentina-based company reported strong sales in April with an increasing number of consumers shopping online while social distancing measures were in place.

 

By Aluisio Alves via WKZO

 

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Enterprises in Brazil Embrace the Salesforce Cloud Model

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SÃO PAULO, Brazil, April 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Businesses in Brazil are increasingly turning to Salesforce products to save money while they look for service providers to help consolidate their disparate installations, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Salesforce Ecosystem Report for Brazil finds enterprises in Brazil increasingly interested in cloud-based solutions from Salesforce, with the country becoming a fast-growing market for Salesforce products, especially among mid-market customers who are increasingly investing in cloud applications.

Via Yahoo Finance

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Brazil’s ANP issues new end-of-life rules for oil, gas fields

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Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency, or ANP, issued Monday new rules and procedures for deactivating mature oil and natural gas fields that should result in about $5 billion in investments over the next five years as Latin America’s biggest producer shutters legacy assets amid the dramatic economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The measures represent “a benchmark for the industry, with the modernization and simplification of procedures will create new business opportunities and more investment in the country,” the ANP said in a statement.
By Jeff Fick via S&P Global Platts

Brazil Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband 2020: Brazil Gains Further Increases in Bandwidth – ResearchAndMarkets.com

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The “Brazil – Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband – Statistics and Analyses” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.

The Brazilian fixed-line market continues to suffer from consumers substituting services for mobile and VoIP solutions, the latter offerings being treated as value-add and thus not being regulated. As a result, VoIP services are offered by many providers.

Via Yahoo Finance

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Interview: Chinese truck maker Foton eyes online sales in Brazil

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SAO PAULO, April 20 (Xinhua) — Chinese truck maker Foton is moving to online sales in Brazil, due to an expected rise in demand for light commercial vehicles driven by the boom in online sales and home delivery services.

“Due to the lockdown, online sales have become more important, and that is a trend that is here to stay,” said Luiz Carlos Mendonca de Barros, president of Foton’s board of directors in Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, in an interview with Xinhua.

 

Via Xinhua Net

 

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Volkswagen in Brazil to keep factories closed through April

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) said on Monday it will keep its factories in Brazil, South America’s top auto producer, shut through the end of the month, but that a decision has not been made on whether it will reopen them in May or later.

The automaker has just reached a tentative deal with its unions that will keep workers net salaries intact, Volkswagen said. Gross salaries will be reduced but Brazil’s government will help make up the difference with subsidies.

 

By Marcelo Rochabrun via Reuters

 

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MercadoLibre’s financial arm to extend loans to small businesses in Brazil

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SAO PAULO, April 15 (Reuters) – MercadoLibre’s financial services arm, Mercado Pago, is extending a 600 million-real ($114 million) credit line to help Brazilian medium and small businesses face the sharp drop in economic activity caused by the new coronavirus crisis.

“We aim to help sellers in our platform, mainly small businesses,” said Pedro de Paula, head of Brazil credit at MercadoLibre, an operator of online marketplaces.

 

By Aluisio Alves via Reuters

 

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Provisional measure (MP) adapts labor legislation to meet business demands arising from the Covid-19 pandemic

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Published in an extra edition of the 22nd March 2020, Provisional Measure (MP) No. 927/20 regulates the adjustments in the labor laws announced by the government to minimize the impact of the declared public emergency until December 31, 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The rule establishes that, during this period, the agreement between employer and employee will prevail over any other legal act, provided that the agreement is signed in writing, aimed at maintaining employment and obey the limits provided for in the Federal Constitution.

 

Read the full document here

The Brazil Tech And Innovation Round-Up: Education Sector Under Pressure To Operate Remotely, IFood Courier Numbers Skyrocket, Ribon Enables Donations To Vulnerable Communities, Layoffs

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Quero supports private education providers through crisis

Private higher education firms are expected to see a 20% revenue drop in the period between June and September this year, according to Quero Educação, a Brazilian startup that provides technology to the sector. The edtech, owner of a marketplace that connects students to private education providers, predicts a greater number of students won’t manage to keep up their financial commitments in education over the period, compared to the same period in 2019.

 

By Angelica Mari via Forbes

 

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Remote operations yield mixed results in Brazil

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As Brazilian companies adapt to new ways of working due to the COVID-19 pandemic, staff are managing to do their jobs remotely, but other areas of people management are being impacted as companies don’t know how to handle certain processes away from the office.

A significant number of Brazilian medium and large-sized organizations had to improvise as employers shut offices down to slow the spread of coronavirus. Some 41% of 240 respondents polled by recruitment consultancy Robert Half said employers rushed to put policies together in the last minute to respond to quarantine measures introduced in states across the country between March 18 and 19.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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New process will reduce bureaucracy import ports, airports and borders

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The audit of imports of plant products and by-products is already being processed in a single system the federal government: the Single Foreign Trade Portal. The system enables a safer and more responsive control of imports.

It is a concerted effort between the Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Supply and the Ministry of Economy, with the aim of reducing bureaucracy in Brazilian ports, promoting the facilitation of international trade insurance.

 

Via DATAGRO

 

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UPDATE 3-Brazil government considers emergency coronavirus loans for power sector

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SAO PAULO, March 30 (Reuters) – Brazil’s government is considering an emergency loan package for energy distributors struggling with lower energy use and facing lost revenues because of the coronavirus outbreak, an industry group told Reuters on Monday.

Marcos Madureira, president of Brazilian energy distributors association Abradee, said the package being negotiated by companies and the government could involve loans from state development bank BNDES or a pool of banks, but that the value of the loans and other details was not yet settled

 

By Luciano Costa via Reuters

 

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Brazil’s TIM ties-up with Rio de Janeiro to track people’s mobility amid coronavirus crisis

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SAO PAULO, March 23 (Reuters) – Brazilian wireless carrier TIM Participacoes SA said on Monday it has partnered with Rio de Janeiro’s city hall for data analysis that will allow authorities to track displacement and concentration of people in areas affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

In a statement, the local subsidiary of Telecom Italia SpA added it will use its antennas spread across Rio de Janeiro to provide real-time data on people’s displacement throughout the city.

 

By Gabriela Mello via Reuters via Reuters

 

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Ambev will donate 500,000 bottles of alcohol gel to public hospitals

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With the increase of cases of contamination by the new coronavirus in Brazil, Companhia de Bebidas das Americas (AmBev) announced on Tuesday (17) that is producing alcohol gel to distribute 500,000 bottles to municipal hospitals in the cities of São Paulo , Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, where cities are concentrated the majority of cases of the disease so far, informs the “Agency Brazil.”

 

By DATAGRO

 

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Alibaba Files for a Blockchain Transaction System in Brazil

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Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has registered a blockchain-based system patent in Brazil under the category of “insurance,” “financial business” and “monetary business,” according to the March 10th edition of the Industrial Property Magazine (NPI).

As reported by the NPI, the name of the mechanism is “Ant Unicorn.”

By Felipe Erazo via Cointelegraph

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Ethanol is in line with the global agenda for decarbonisation, says Unica

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The opportunity to expand the ethanol consumption in the world is primarily linked to its use as an additive in the mix of fossil fuels, for example, in gasoline. This was underlined by the president of Unica, Evandro Gussi in “Opening Safra Cana, Sugar and Ethanol 2020/21 Santander DATAGRO” on Wednesday (11) in Ribeirão Preto (SP).

According to him, who recently made a tour of Asian countries [India, Thailand and Afghanistan] in order to delve into the reality of these markets biofuels, ethanol is in absolute harmony with the global agenda for decarbonisation. “The world wants to decarbonisation, but does not yet know the ethanol potential for it. In this regard, the electric car, which does not deliver what it promises in environmental terms, has been gaining in the field of communication. ”

 

Via DATAGRO

 

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Heineken to pour $183 million into expansion in Brazil

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Heineken NV (HEIN.AS) will invest 865 million reais ($183.14 million) to expand its Ponta Grossa brewing plant in Brazil, the company said on Monday, as competition between the world’s two largest beer makers bubbles up.

The Dutch brewer will make the investment this year and next and focus on it Heineken and Amstel brands at the third-largest brewing facility in Parana state in Brazil, its most important market worldwide.

 

By Alberto Alerigi via Reuters

 

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Twitter testing disappearing ‘fleets’ in Brazil

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(Reuters) – Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) said on Wednesday it was testing in Brazil a new type of tweet that disappears after 24 hours, similar to the stories feature popular on Snapchat (SNAP.N) and Facebook’s (FB.O) photo-sharing app Instagram.

Called ‘fleets’, the vanishing messages can be viewed by tapping on a user’s profile picture. They do not appear on the user’s timeline or receive retweets, likes or public replies, Kayvon Beykpour, the company’s product lead, said on Twitter.

 

By Ankit Ajmera and Katie Paul via Reuters

 

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Thyssenkrupp, Embraer to build four frigates for Brazil Navy

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FRANKFURT/DUESSELDORF/BRASILIA, March 5 (Reuters) – A consortium formed by Germany’s Thyssenkrupp AG TKAG.DE and Brazilian planemaker Embraer SA EMBR3.SA signed a deal on Thursday to deliver four frigates to Brazil’s navy between 2025 and 2028, the companies said in a statement.

The contract signed in Rio de Janeiro is part of Brazil’s drive to modernize its navy so it can patrol off-shore resources in the Atlantic, such as Brazil’s vast pre-salt oil reserves.

 

By Christoph Steitz and Tom Kaeckenhoff via Nasdaq

 

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Brazil meatpacker JBS plans U.S. listing as BNDES sells stake: sources

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA and state development bank BNDES are planning a simultaneous listing of JBS international operations in the United States and the sale of the bank’s stake in the company, five sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Sources close to the company say JBS is working on a transaction that is different from the one proposed in 2016.

 

By Tatiana Bautzer, Aluisio Alves and Carolina Mandl via WHBL

 

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Online ad firm OLX Brazil in $642 million deal to buy competitor

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OSLO (Reuters) – Online marketplace OLX Brazil has agreed to buy competitor Grupo ZAP for 2.9 billion reais ($642 million), forming a leading Brazilian player in digital real estate advertising, OLX and its European owners said.

By combining their operations, rapidly growing OLX and ZAP can slash costs and boost earnings margins while providing a broader range of services to the online real estate market, they added late on Tuesday.

 

By Terje Solsvik via Reuters

 

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Brazil banking: Benchimol lifts XP’s star

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It’s a hot summer’s day in São Paulo – sadly a relatively rare one this year – and Euromoney is with XP Inc’s head of media relations and the assistant to chief executive Guilherme Benchimol in an air-conditioned meeting room on the 28th floor of the newly IPO’d company. The air con and the chilled water are refreshing; while we wait, the assistant checks her phone.

“He’s nearly here,” she says. “He’s on his way in from his farm.”

By Rob Dwyer via Euromoney

 

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Brazil’s Ambar Wants To Automate Construction For End Consumers

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Brazilian construtech Ambar wants to take the hassle out of the millions of consumers across the country who are either building or renovating their homes with an all-in-one automation platform.

The startup founded in 2012 and backed by the likes of Texas Pacific Group, Endeavor Catalyst and e.bricks Ventures is known for its modular systems – dubbed “Lego for construction”, these are packages of items needed for building or renovation work, in areas such as hydraulics – aimed to facilitate and speed up the overall job.

 

By Angelica Mari via Forbes

 

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Santander Brazil Boss Rial Given More Say With Board Role

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MADRID — Santander Brazil head Sergio Rial will join Santander’s board as a group executive director, the Spanish bank said on Thursday, giving the 59-year-old more influence over its overall strategy.

The Brazilian is viewed as one of the leading candidates to become Santander CEO in the medium term, several senior bankers have told Reuters, after the bank failed to hire Italian banker Andrea Orcel for the role in January last year.

 

By Jesús Aguado, Carolina Mandl and Pamela Barbaglia via The New York Times

 

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BlackRocks Startups Helps Black Entrepreneurs Blossom In Brazil

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São Paulo-based organization BlackRocks Startups (BRS) is currently readying a new and larger acceleration cycle to cater for the increase in tech-based products and services created by black entrepreneurs.

According to data from Brazilian research firm Instituto Locomotiva, consumption driven the black population currently injects about 1.7 trillion reais ($380 million) into the local economy. BRS wants to cater for that demand: the accelerator supported the development of five startups in 2019 and this year, 16 early-stage startups will take part in the program.

 

By Angelica Mari via Forbes

 

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Aena wins Brazil concession

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Through its subsidiary Aena Desarrollo Internacional, Aena has been awarded the concession for the Northeast Brazil airport group of six airports.

The concession is for 30 years, with the possibility of a further five. The airports included are: Juazeiro do Norte – Orlando Bezerra de Menezes; Recife/Guararapes – Gilberto Freyre; Joao Pessoa – Presidente Castro Pinto; Campina Grande – Presidente Joao Suassuna; Aracaju – Santa Maria; and Maceió – Zumbi dos Palmares.

 

By Tara Craig via Passenger Terminal Today

 

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WhatsApp chooses Brazil to launch its first major ad campaign

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WhatsApp has chosen Brazil to launch its first major brand advertising campaign.

The Facebook-owned messaging service has published a seven-minute film showing people communicating via WhatsApp as a fire breaks out ahead of Carnival celebrations. Users are seen sending messages to organize costume donations for a rival’s dance school whose warehouse burns down, and the ad ends with “Rivals in public. Friends in private,” with WhatsApp’s logo, and “From Facebook,” underneath.

 

By Lucy Handley via CNBC

 

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UPDATE 1-Brazil oil production rises 20% in January to all-time high

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SAO PAULO, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Oil companies produced 3.17 million barrels per day (bpd) on average in Brazil in January, a volume 20.4% larger than seen in the same month a year earlier and an output record for the country, oil regulator ANP said on Wednesday.

Natural gas production increased 22% over January 2019 to 138.7 million cubic meters per day on average last month, also a record. The deepwater, pre-salt field known as Lula accounted for a third of all oil production in Brazil, reaching 1.05 million bpd of crude on average in January, ANP said.

 

By Marcelo Teixeira via Reuters

 

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Airline Startup Of The Week: Brazil’s Ita

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There will be a new airline in Brazil by 2021. The bus company Itapemirim Group received $500 million USD to set up, among other initiatives, a new airline in the country, said local newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.

Sidnei Piva, Itapemirim president said that one of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds provided with the $500 million USD to start up a new airline. The current name for this carrier is Ita, according to AirlineGeeks.

 

By Daniel Martínez Garbuno via Simple Flying

 

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Brazilian telecoms regulator discusses 5G auction rules

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Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel has launched a public consultation to discuss the rules of what could be the world’s largest single auction for fifth-generation (5G) spectrum later this year.

The consultation will last for 45 days and will set the specific details of the auction. A draft version of the rules had been approved by Anatel’s board earlier this month.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Sales of smart home devices accelerate in Brazil

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The smart home devices segment will be one of the highlights of the consumer technology market in Brazil this year, according to analyst firm IDC.

With new devices on offer as well as new features such as the ability to understand commands in Brazilian Portuguese, the analyst firm estimates an increase of 50% in units sold and a boost of over 40% in revenue.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Brazil Education Giant Back in M&A Game With $590 Million Raise

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Brazil’s largest for-profit education company raised about 2.56 billion reais ($590 million) in a sale of the firm’s shares, a move to cut debt and pave the way for new acquisitions.

Cogna, formerly known as Kroton, offered a total of 232.4 million shares, including an additional allotment, with stock priced at 11 reais each, the company said in a regulatory filing Wednesday, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg.

 

By Vinicius Andrade and Rachel Gamarski via Bloomberg

 

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Brazil defines timescales for sale of state-owned tech firms

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The Brazilian government has defined timescales for the sale of its technology companies to private sector buyers.

According to the goals announced by the team in charge of the government’s privatization initiatives, Dataprev and Serpro, companies accountable for the development, maintenance, and operations of thousands of government systems, will be sold by June 2021.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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American Airlines announces partnership with Brazil’s GOL Airlines, beefs up Miami flights

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American Airlines is teaming up with Brazil’s largest airline, GOL Airlines, in a new agreement allowing American to market GOL flights to its passengers and vice versa.

The codeshare partnership will allow American to connect its passengers on GOL flights to places outside the reach of its direct flights from Miami to Brasilia, Sao Paulo, Manaus and Rio de Janeiro. To prepare for the deal, American is adding 12 more daily flights from Miami International Airport to six cities across the U.S. this summer and a second daily flight from MIA to Rio de Janeiro next winter.

 

By Taylor Dolven via Miami Herald

 

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U.S. travel to Brazil jumps 39% with visa waiver

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BRASILIA (Reuters) – The number of Americans booking flights to Brazil has jumped 39% since the government of President Jair Bolsonaro waived a visa requirement for U.S. citizens in June, according to its official tourism agency, which is devising plans to draw more.

BRASILIA (Reuters) – The number of Americans booking flights to Brazil has jumped 39% since the government of President Jair Bolsonaro waived a visa requirement for U.S. citizens in June, according to its official tourism agency, which is devising plans to draw more.

 

By Anthony Boadle via Reuters

 

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Brazil names Guedes to run privatization drive after shakeup

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BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil put Economy Minister Paulo Guedes in charge of its drive to find investors to buy state assets, a presidential decree said on Friday, a day after the program’s deputy head was fired due to a controversy over improper use of an Air Force jet.

The move extends the broad authority Guedes already has over economic policy and he has said the government needs to speed up privatization of all state companies to help reduce its budget deficit and spur growth.

 

By Marcela Ayres via Reuters

 

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UPDATE 1-Equinor and partners award first Brazil oilfield contracts

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OSLO, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Norway’s Equinor and partners ExxonMobil and Petrogal Brasil have awarded engineering contracts for a planned Brazilian oilfield development, the Norwegian operator of the project said on Thursday.

A design contract for a floating oil production and storage vessel (FPSO) was awarded to Japan’s Modec Inc, while seabed systems (SURF) will be planned by the Subsea Integration Alliance, formed by Subsea 7 and OneSubsea.

 

By Terje Solsvik via Reuters

 

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UPDATE 1-Canada’s Brookfield gets OK to build Brazil solar power plants

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SAO PAULO, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management Inc has received the go-ahead from Brazilian antitrust regulator Cade for certain solar energy projects in the country’s northeast, according to a decision published in the government’s official gazette on Tuesday.

The solar power plants, to be built in the state of Ceará, will have total capacity to produce 278 MW of electricity, according to a description of the projects in Cade’s decision.

 

By Ana Mano via Reuters

 

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Brazil levels playing field for foreign companies in government contract market

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BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s government is changing the rules to give foreign companies an equal shot at winning government contracts, the Economy Ministry said on Monday.

Economy Minister Paulo Guedes has pledged to fight corruption and open up one of the world’s most protected countries to foreign business and the overseas investment necessary to modernize Brazil’s crumbling infrastructure.

 

By Marcela Ayres via Reuters

 

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Voice and video 4G provision improves in Brazil

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The mobile network experience has seen “notable improvements” in Brazil, particularly in 4G metrics such as video and voice consumption, according to a new report.

The Mobile Network Experience Report by mobile analytics firm Opensignal has found that the introduction of 4G on the 700 MHz spectrum band in Brazil is having a big impact in the last six months, with users on networks that have implemented it spending more time on 4G and enjoying faster average download speeds.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Brazilian CVM to launch cryptocurrency regulatory sandbox

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The Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) has announced the launch of a new regulatory sandbox containing specific guidelines for cryptocurrency and digital token issuance.

The news comes after the country’s regulator stated at the end of last year that the implementation of blockchain technology is a top priority for 2020.

By Pedro Febrero via Yahoo Finance

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Enterprises in Brazil Move to Automate Workplaces and Empower Employees

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SÃO PAULO, Brazil, Jan. 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Enterprises in Brazil are moving toward fully automating their digital workplaces, and are looking for vendors to help them empower workers through self-support, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The 2019-2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Digital Workplace of the Future Report for Brazil finds enterprises in Brazil focusing on improving worker experience with workplace tools. Enterprises are embracing automation, but they also want to improve user productivity by enabling better collaboration and discovering new ways of working.

Via Yahoo Finance

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Brazil’s new US$100 million Antarctic base, built by China

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Brazil has inaugurated a new US$100 million Antarctic base, built by Chinese company CEIEC to replace a research station destroyed by fire almost seven years ago.

“Brazil is back in the Antarctic with great force,” Science and Technology Minister Marcos Pontes, Brazil’s only astronaut, wrote in a Twitter message from the Comandante Ferraz base on King George Island off the Antarctic peninsula.

Via South China Morning Post

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Brazil is emerging as a world-class AI innovation hub

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Brazil’s government has big plans for AI, despite having come late to the party. In Oxford Insights’ AI Readiness Index 2019, Brazil was ranked 40 out of 192 countries, a sign that the South American powerhouse is moving up in the AI world. The report looks at how ready countries are to take advantage of the AI technologies PwC forecasts will add $15 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

The 2019 report also cautions that the “Global South could be left behind by the so-called fourth industrial revolution.” But even as some of the planet’s richest nations, including Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Singapore, and the U.S, have become recognized AI innovation hubs, according to studies by Deloitte and others, South America — led by Brazil — is rapidly emerging as a leader in AI-enabled businesses.

 

By Bruno Henriques via Venture Beat

 

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Movile: Brazil Will Start Producing Its Own Big Techs

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The emergence of big techs is likely in Brazil this year as investment floods into the Southern Hemisphere’s largest economy, prompting a major shake-up for leading businesses scrambling to reinvent themselves.

This is the prediction of Fabricio Bloisi, founder of São Paulo-based Movile, a conglomerate that includes delivery app iFood, which has UK food delivery firm JustEat as one of its investors. Movile is part of the select club of Brazilian unicorns, which has 11 companies to date – a number that, according to Bloisi, will substantially increase in the months to come.

 

By Angelica Mari via Forbes

 

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Americans Don’t Need A Visa To Visit Brazil Anymore. Here’s Where To Eat And Sleep When You Go.

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As of June 17, 2019, Americans no longer need a tourist visa to enter Brazil (nor do Canadians, Australians or Japanese), eliminating a longstanding hurdle that kept many casual travelers from visiting South America’s largest nation. It’s now easier than ever to visit Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil’s two largest cities, where you’ll find lush parks and gardens, mammoth murals, enviable beaches, futuristic museums and near-endless shopping, but whatever may be on your agenda for your Brazilian break, the best food and drinks are sure to be high on your list. You’ll certainly want to try Globos, the puffed cassava starch snack found in both salty and sweet varieties all over Rio, and pão de queijo, the cheesy bread puffs served as a snack or with meals everywhere, but you’ll stumble across these favorites without even trying. To guide you toward more refined culinary experiences with locally immersive hotel stays in this freshly accessibly country, check out what Marriott has to offer in both Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

 

By Brandon Schultz via Forbes

 

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Government wants to auction off 44 infrastructure assets in 2020, says minister

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The Minister of Infrastructure, Tarcisio Gomes de Freitas, said on Friday (13) that the government plans to hold auctions 40 to 44 infrastructure assets next year, reports the “Agency Brazil.” The expectation is that the granting of port projects, airports, roads and railways reach R $ 101 billion in investments during the period of the contracts.

Among the projects is the concession to the private initiative of 22 airports (divided into three blocks), seven roads, nine port terminals, two railways and the early renewal of four railway contracts loads. During conference on the afternoon of Friday, the Minister took stock of the folder shares in 2019. In total, they sold 27 assets, which should result in R $ 9.4 billion in investments and R $ 5.9 billion in grants .

 

Via DATAGRO

 

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Country risk dropped to the lowest level in nine years

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Indicator that measures the distrust of investors in a particular economy, country risk fell on Monday (16) to the lowest level in nine years, reports the “Agency Brazil.” The Credit Default Swap (CDS) of five years in Brazil was 100.2 points at around 17h, but came to hit 98.2 points around 14h, the lowest score since November 2010 (96.9 points ), when the country was still investment grade – good paying stamp.

The CDS functions as an informal barometer of the probability of a country defaulting on global financial markets next five years. The lower the index, the greater the confidence of international investors.

 

Via DATAGRO

 

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Amazon launches new distribution center in Brazilian state of Pernambuco to expedite delivery

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Contxto – As far as reach goes, Amazon is certainly spreading its wings throughout Latin America. Proving this, the e-commerce goliath recently launched a new distribution center in the northeastern state of Pernambuco.

To expedite delivery in northeastern Brazil, this new location in Cabo de Santo Agostinho will permit deliveries in under two days to nearby state capitals. These include Recife in Pernambuco, João Pessoa in Paraíba, Natal in Rio Grande do Norte, Maceió in Alagoas, and Fortaleza in Ceará.

 

By Jacob Atkins via Contxto

 

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Nokia signs contract with TIM Brazil to launch IoT offer

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Espoo, Finland – Nokia has signed a contract with telecommunications giant TIM to provide Internet of Things (IoT) services to its enterprise customers in Brazil. Using the fully virtualized Nokia Worldwide IoT Network Grid (WING) managed service offer, TIM and its enterprise customers across industries,such as automotive and agriculture, will be able to capture IoT opportunities faster and more securely.

The Brazilian market is the largest IoT market in Latin America, with widespread adoption of IoT technologies estimated to add USD 200 billion to the country’s economy by 2025. Nokia’s first WING deal in Latin America enables TIM to leverage new business models to tap this opportunity and generate additional revenue streams. Additionally, incremental services, such as device management and analytics, will help TIM extend SIM management capabilities to create value added opportunities.

Via Yahoo Finance

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Brazil XP’s Valued at $14.9 Billion as IPO Tops Target Range

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XP Inc., Brazil’s largest brokerage by equity-trading volume, raised $1.96 billion in its U.S. initial public offering, pricing its shares above the marketed range.

The company and its existing shareholders sold 72.5 million shares Tuesday for $27 each after offering them for $22 to $25, according to a statement. That gives XP a market value of about $14.9 billion based on the outstanding shares listed in its filings with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

 

By Cristiane Lucchesi , Vinicius Andrade , Felipe Marques, and Crystal Tse via Bloomberg

 

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Exclusive: Brazil’s Rock Content Acquires ScribbleLive

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Brazilian content marketing startup Rock Content has announced the purchase of US sector player ScribbleLive, creating one of the largest companies in the segment in the Americas.

The buyout, announced exclusively to Forbes, is the continuation of the company’s international expansion, which began in 2017 with the launch of operations in Mexico. With the addition of ScribbleLive (SL), which has offices in Boca Ratón and Toronto, the enlarged Rock organization will boost its 400-strong workforce with about 100 employees. The two companies combined have a freelancer base of about 80,000 professionals.

 

By Angelica Maria via Forbes

 

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One of Latin America’s most valuable startups is changing the way Brazilians bank

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When David Vélez walked into a Brazilian bank branch to open an account six years ago, he was appalled by the experience.

First, he had to check his bag in a locker outside. Next, he waited to pass through a security line manned by three armed guards. He sat there for 45 minutes and finally spoke to someone, who acted like they were doing him a favor by deigning to talk about opening an account. Then, he was sent off to make a phone call to bank employees elsewhere and was later forced to return to the bank a half-dozen times over the next four months.
By Julianne Pepitone via CNN Business

Brazil’s Newest Unicorn: Wildlife Studios Raises $60M Series A Led By Benchmark

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Notably, the nine-year-old company said in a statement that the investment gives it a valuation of $1.3 billion. According to Brazil Journal, the round makes Wildlife Studio “Brazil’s most valuable tech company with the widest global reach.”

In addition to San Francisco-based Benchmark, participants in the round include Bessemer Venture Partners; Javier Olivan, VP of growth at Facebook; Ric Elias, co-founder and CEO of Red Ventures; Micky Malka, partner at Ribbit Capital; Divesh Makan, partner at ICONIQ Capital; and Hugo Barra, former VP of VR at Facebook.

 

By Mary Ann Azevedo via Crunch Base

 

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Brazil’s new fintech startup Cora raised $10 million on the strength of its founding team

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It didn’t take much for the founders of Cora, Brazil’s newest startup to tackle some aspect of the broken financial services industry in the country, to raise their first $10 million.

Igor Senra and Leo Mendes had worked together before — founding their first online payments company, MOIP, in 2005. That company sold to WireCard in 2016 and after three years the founders were able to strike out again.

 

By Jonathan Shieber via Tech Crunch

 

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Brazilian FinTech Rebel Lands $10M For Affordable Loan Products

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Rebel, a Brazilian FinTech that offers unsecured credit to middle-class citizens in the country, has raised $10 million in new equity funding, according to a press release.

Last year, the company also raised $4 million from XP and other companies. Participants in this round include Monashees, 99, Loggi and FinTech Collective. The company said it has gotten more than $1 billion in loan requests since it started.

 

Via PYMNTS

 

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BP and Bunge conclude formation of joint venture

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BP and Bunge announced on Monday (02) who completed the formation of BP Bunge Bioenergia, a joint venture combining their business bioenergy and ethanol sugarcane in Brazil.

The continued growth of biofuels will be a key enabler for the decarbonisation of the transport sector, say the companies. The Brazilian market is one of the largest and fastest growing low carbon biofuels to the world and, through this transaction, Bunge BP Bioenergy becomes the second largest operator in terms of effective grinding in the Brazilian ethanol market.

 

Via DATAGRO

 

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Brazil Executives Testing The USA’s Global Entry System

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November 26th, 2019 – About 20 Brazilian executives will soon test the U.S. Global Entry system according to a statement from Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro chief of staff.

This announcement on November 25, 2019, enables visitors from Brazil to stop at kiosks in certain airports in the USA to have their fingerprints scanned, fill out a customs declaration form, and easily enter the country, reported Reuters.

 

By Dani Reiter via Vax Before Travel

 

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Equinor to drill 30-40 exploration wells and target Brazil in 2020

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OSLO (Reuters) – Norway’s Equinor plans to drill 30-40 oil and gas exploration wells globally in 2020, similar this year, with Brazil being a “hotspot” of its international efforts, the company’s exploration head said on Tuesday.

The company will drill about 20-30 exploration wells on the Norwegian continental shelf, focusing on the North Sea, plus wells at the Johan Castberg and Wisting discoveries in the Barents Sea, Equinor’s Tim Dodson told Reuters.

 

By  Nerijus Adomaitis via Reuters

 

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Why SoftBank Is Investing in Brazil, and Why Nobody There Seems to Care About WeWork

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SoftBank has made plenty of headlines lately, but for all the wrong reasons (like the downfall of WeWork, its once-darling investment in the United States). In other regions, though, the Japanese investment firm is managing to quietly dole out its mega-bucks—minus the intense level of scrutiny that follows its fund or other investments.

The growing middle class and fast adoption of new technologies has made Latin America—and in particular countries like Brazil and Mexico—a prime target for SoftBank. The firm has already made bets on 10 different startups in the region, according to André Maciel, managing partner of the SoftBank Innovation Fund. The exec spoke at this week’s Fortune Global Forum in Paris, where he talked about the various reasons why this region is so attractive to SoftBank. (In total, SoftBank is committing $5 billion in investments in Latin America.)

 

By Michal Lev-Ram via Fortune

 

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Brazil continues efforts to attract launch business

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HOUSTON — The government of Brazil is ready to move into the next phase of efforts to attract commercial launch business to the country with the ratification of an agreement with the United States.

Brazil’s Senate formally approved Nov. 12 a technology safeguards agreement that the country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, signed in March during a visit to the United States that included a meeting with President Donald Trump. That agreement allows American spacecraft and launch vehicles to be exported to Brazil for launches there, ensuring compliance with export control and nonproliferation policies.

 

By Jeff Foust via Space News

 

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Demand for connected devices grows in Brazil

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Brazilian consumers are increasingly looking to buy connected devices for personal use and for the home, according to research carried out by software firm Avast.

According to the study, 31% of consumers in Brazil are looking to get a smartwatch. More women want a smartwatch (33% versus 31% of the males surveyed). The wishlist of Brazilian consumers also includes Alexa or Google Home smart speakers (30%), smart lamps (29%) and smart thermostats (10%). The survey polled 609 people from March to May 2019.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Brazilian Digital Onboarding Startup idwall Lands $10M Series B With Qualcomm As Lead

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Online fraud and identity theft is a global problem. In Brazil, in particular, it’s estimated that those types of crimes cost the country about $15 billion a year. In fact, Brazil is ranked second in the world in terms of the number of online fraud and identity theft infractions. And, the country is home to one fraud attempt every 16 seconds.

Besides being a problem for its citizens, the issue also can negatively impact the country’s economic relationships with other countries, that may hesitate to do business there.

 

Via Mary Ann Azevedo via Crunchbase

 

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Silicon Valley’s changing role as Brazil’s iFood shows how to innovate anywhere

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Brazil’s iFood is a great example of a highly innovative company that is very much a product of Silicon Valley — even though it is founded and funded largely by Brazilians (and South Africans). It has raised nearly $600 million and has swiftly built a giant business. It is one of Brazil’s nine unicorns today.

I came across iFood earlier this year at the well-attended BayBrazil conference in Silicon Valley, where Fabricio Bloisi, founder and CEO of Movile, a Brazilian mobile apps and investment firm, was the keynote speaker. Bloisi is a colorful personality, and he’s funny and humble considering all the success he’s had in business.

 

By Tom Foremski via ZDNet

 

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Exclusive: Brazilian Mobility Startup Kovi Raises $30M Series A From Global Investors

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Kovi, a fast-growing 17-month-old Brazilian mobility startup, has raised a $30 million Series A led by Global Founders Capital.

New investor Quona Capital and existing investors Monashees, Maya Capital, Accel partner Kevin Efrusy, Y Combinator, Broadhaven Ventures, Tinder founder Justin Mateen and ONEVC also participated in the financing, which brings Kovi’s total raised since its inception to $40.6 million.

 

By Mary Ann Azevedo via Crunchbase News

 

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How Brazil’s SoftBank-backed Banco Inter aims to supercharge loan growth

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s Banco Inter SA , a SoftBank-backed online lender that has seen rapid growth thanks to its free checking accounts, is preparing to launch a smartphone app offering food delivery and ride hailing, its chief executive told Reuters.

The bank has seen deposits skyrocket in recent years but remains a relative bit player in Latin America’s largest economy.

 

By Carolina Mandl via KFGO

 

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Podcast market booms in Brazil

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Now the second largest market for podcasts in the world, Brazil is attracting increased investment from players active in the segment.

Brazil is only behind the United States when it comes to consumption of the audio format, according to Podcast Stats Soundbites. Large companies placing their bets in the format, like Google, expect non-English markets like Brazil and India to grow exponentially.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Enterprise Rent-A-Car Launches Operations in Brazil

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The world’s largest car rental provider, Enterprise Holdings, Inc. – which owns and operates the Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car brands through its integrated global network of independent regional subsidiaries – today announced its further expansion in South America with the launch of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car brand in Brazil, joining the National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car brands in the country.

 

Via Travel Pulse

 

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Sorry, Bezos, Brazil already has an Amazon. It’s MercadoLibre

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(Bloomberg)—When Amazon.com Inc., No. 1 in the Internet Retailer 2019 Top 500, announced it was rolling out its popular Prime delivery subscription service in Brazil last month, shares of  local e-commerce competitors tanked. Investors also got jittery in 2017, when the world’s largest online retailer launched a marketplace to sell electronics. In both cases, the shares recovered quickly once investors reminded themselves of a durable truth about Brazilian ecommerce: Local firms have a firm igrip on the market and are in little danger of succumbing to the American interloper.

So it goes for Amazon in Latin America’s largest economy. Seven years after entering Brazil, the Seattle-based company is battling to gain traction against a handful of local competitors with extensive delivery networks, strong brands and a deep understanding of Brazilian shoppers.

 

Via Digital Commerce 360

 

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Brazil’s BR Distribuidora to create energy, natural gas and ethanol trading cos

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian fuel distributor Petrobras Distribuidora SA is considering creating energy trading units as it seeks to reposition itself after its privatization last July, Brazilian newspaper Valor Economico reported on Thursday.

The company is considering creating ethanol, electricity and natural gas trading businesses, Rafael Grisolia, BR Distribuidora’s chief executive, told the Thursday edition of Valor Econômico.

 

By Ana Mano via Reuters

 

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CATL To Supply Batteries For Volkswagen e-Delivery In Brazil

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Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. (CATL) just scored another important order – this time from Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus (part of Volkswagen Group) for commercial vehicles in Latin America.

The newly signed long-term strategic cooperation agreement between CATL and VWCO will initially focus on all-electric Volkswagen e-Delivery trucks (11 and 14-ton version), that from 2020 will be produced in Brazil.

 

By Mark Kane via InsideEVs

 

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China’s State Grid mulls participating in Eletrobras’ privatization in Brazil: CEO

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RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Chinese power company State Grid is considering participating in the privatization of Brazilian state-run energy firm Eletrobras SA (ELET6.SA), Brazil Chief Executive Chang Zhongjiao said on Thursday.

“About Eletrobras there is no detailed information, if it is in accordance to our expansion plan, why not?” he told journalists in Rio de Janeiro.

 

By Rodrigo Via Gaier via Reuters

 

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Brazilian unicorn Ebanx will hit $2 billion in payments processed by the end of the year

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Ebanx, the newly minted Brazilian financial services unicorn, expects to process $2 billion in payments by the end of the year and is looking to expand its offerings into domestic payments as it grows.

Since its launch in 2012, Ebanx has primarily focused on helping international merchants sell locally in Brazil. The Brazilian business accounts for nearly 90% of the company’s revenue, but as it expands into other markets the company is also broadening its suite of services.

 

By Jonathan Shieber via Tech Crunch

 

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Uber To Team With Brazil’s Banco Inter For Financial Services

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A source has revealed that Brazilian lender Banco Inter SA is currently in discussions with Uber about partnering in financial services.

The move is another move by Japan’s SoftBank Group — which is a shareholder in Uber — to integrate its business in Latin America. While the source wouldn’t comment on the terms of a possible deal, it would target the rideshare giant’s drivers and Banco’s more than 3 million clients. Brazil is now Uber’s largest market outside the United States, with São Paulo boasting more Uber rides than any other city in the world.

 

By Pymnts

 

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Brazil’s truckmakers are optimistic again even as country struggles to grow

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s largest truckmakers are expressing optimism again about the growth prospects for Latin America’s largest economy, even as the country continues to struggle to rebound from a deep recession that began in 2015.

“We are breathing optimism,” said Martin Lundstedt, Volvo Group’s President and CEO (VOLVb.ST), who traveled to Sao Paulo to take part in the biennial Fenatran expo, the largest truck and machinery trade show in the country.

 

By Marcelo Rochabrun via Reuters

 

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Brazil audit court gives green light for pre-salt oil mega auction

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BRASILIA, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Brazil’s Federal Audit Court known as the TCU unanimously approved on Wednesday the ground rules for a major auction of pre-salt oil concessions in a “transfer of rights” (TOR) area off the country’s southeastern coast.

The government expects to raise 106 billion reais ($25.8 billion) from the auction scheduled for Nov. 6, which is expected to attract a range of major global oil companies to tap one of the world’s most promising conventional oil plays.

 

By Gabriel Ponte via Reuters

 

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Brazil’s Bolsonaro signs telecoms law to boost sector

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BRASILIA, Oct 4 (Reuters) – President Jair Bolsonaro signed a law modernizing Brazil’s telecommunications regulations on Friday in a move long expected by the industry to allow new investment opportunities and help salvage bankrupt carrier Oi SA .

The law, which took five years to clear Congress, will boost telecom companies by lifting restrictions on sales of their formerly state-owned assets. It will also allow for a secondary market for trading cellphone frequencies.

 

Via Reuters

 

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Brazil services PMI hits six-month high, employment strongest since 2015: IHS Markit

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BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s services sector activity expanded in September at the fastest pace in six months, a closely watched purchasing managers index survey showed on Thursday, with employment growth in the sector hitting its highest in over five years.

The latest IHS Markit PMI figures suggest Brazil is bucking a global trend consistent with sharply slowing activity and even recession across the United States, Europe and Asia.

 

By Jamie McGeever via KFGO

 

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Amazon.com brings Alexa to Brazil, kicks off pre-orders for devices

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc will launch its virtual assistant Alexa in Brazil starting this month, with plans for three different devices with the software installed, as it rapidly expands operations in Latin America’s largest economy.

The move comes only three weeks after the U.S. e-commerce giant introduced its Prime subscription service to Brazilian consumers, toughening the competition with local retailers by offering unlimited nationwide free shipping and a maximum 48-hour delivery time in over 90 municipalities.

 

By Gabriella Mello via Reuters

 

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Brazil’s fintech segment sees growth

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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

 

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Latin America roundup: SoftBank bets on Brazilian unicorns and Konfio raises $250M for lending plans

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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

 

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Tech-Education Unicorn Turns Brazil Family Into Billionaires

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(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

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COFCO to invest more in Brazil, but will be selective, says exec

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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

 

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The Latin American expansion for the Canadian storytelling startup, led by CEO Allen Lau, follows partnerships in Europe and Asia.

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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

 

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Japan’s SoftBank Contemplates Investment In Brazil

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“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

 

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Biogas Makes Pig Farming More Sustainable in Southern Brazil

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ENTRE RIOS DO OESTE, Brasil, Sep 20 2019 (IPS) – 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

 

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Brazil’s Oi in talks to sell mobile unit to Telecom Italia, Telefonica -sources

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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

 

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Toyota to expand plant in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state, joining Volkswagen, GM

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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

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Oil price spike set to improve ethanol outlook in Brazil

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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

 

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Ex-Tesla Executive Decamps to Brazil and Bets Big on Batteries

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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

 

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Virgin Atlantic opens up Brazil with GOL codeshare

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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

 

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Amazon Announces the Launch of Amazon Music for Brazil, Bringing Customers Access to Millions of Songs, On-Demand and Ad-Free

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(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

 

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UPDATE 3-Brazil Senate passes telecoms modernization bill

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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

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Brazil’s Newest Unicorn: QuintoAndar Raises $250M Series D Led By SoftBank

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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

 

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Amazon.com brings Prime service to Brazil; local retail shares drop

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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

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Norway’s Statkraft looks to expand in Brazil’s renewables: executive

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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

 

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Mobile devices prevail in banking transactions in Brazil

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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

 

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Awakening The Sleeping Giant: Why Brazil’s Tech Scene Is One To Watch

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“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

 

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IBM plans Brazil cloud expansion

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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

 

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Volkswagen to invest $577 million in Brazil plant

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SAO PAULO — Volkswagen will invest 2.4 billion reais ($577 million) in one of its Brazil factories, Sao Paulo state governor Joao Doria said on Thursday during a visit to the automaker’s headquarters in Germany.

Sao Paulo state is the heart of Brazil’s auto industry, although its relevance has been in decline in recent years as other states have offered more generous tax incentives.

 

Via Automotive News Europe

 

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“Silent Revolution” to Fuel Brazil M&A Business for Years

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A “silent revolution” in Brazil will drive the mergers-and-acquisitions business for the next three years as the government privatizes state-owned assets at a pace far exceeding early estimates, according to one of the nation’s top M&A advisers.

“What we’ve seen so far is nothing compared to what’s yet to come,” Ricardo Lacerda, chief executive officer of investment-banking boutique BR Partners, said in an interview in Sao Paulo. “Even assets that are considered crown jewels will end up being sold.”

By Cristiane Luccchesi and Pablo Rosendo Gonzalez via Bloomberg

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Brazil gets moving on gas competition

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Brazil is finally getting serious about loosening the hegemonic grip of Petrobras, the state-owned oil and gas company, on the country’s gas industry, almost ten years since regulatory reforms failed to kickstart greater market competition.

Allowing Petrobras to sell off assets and get out of non-core sectors is central to the government’s natural gas strategy. In July, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro inaugurated the New Gas Market programme, aimed at cutting the domestic price of gas 40pc within two years, guaranteeing participation of new entrants and attracting greater investment to the natural gas sector.

 

By Charles Waine via Petroleum Economist

 

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Brazil’s Resultados Digitais Reaffirms Investor Confidence With New Round

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Brazil-based software-as-a-service firm Resultados Digitais (RD) has raised a new investment round led by Riverwood Capital following a “significant shift” in international interest in the country’s tech ecosystem.

The investment of 200 million reais ($50 million) is the company’s fifth funding round and brings it closer to the coveted valuation of $1 billion. The transaction includes the firm’s existing backers TPG Growth, DGF Investimentos, Redpoint eventures, Astella Investimentos and Endeavor Catalyst.

 

By Angelica Mari via Forbes

 

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Venture capital fuels Latam ‘unicorns’ expansion beyond borders

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Surging venture capital investment in Latin American startups has financed international expansion across the region and beyond, as business models that do not require large amounts of capital have helped many firms avoid silos common in the region.

New venture capital funding in the region quadrupled over two years to a record $2 billion in 2018, according to the Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America. And that total has already been matched in the first seven months of 2019.

Analysts say fundraising rounds this year could double 2018’s total, thanks to Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T), which launched its $5 billion Latin America fund in March, the region’s biggest-ever venture capital deployment.

SoftBank’s investments this year have helped to mint a new wave of Latin “unicorns,” or tech startups valued at more than $1 billion, with high expectations hinging on their potential beyond their headquarter countries.

Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Additional reporting by Carolina Mandl; Editing by Nate Raymond and Grant McCool via Reuters

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Brazil auto production jumps 14.2% in July from June

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Automobile production in Brazil jumped 14.2% and sales grew 9.1% in July from June, the best performance for the month since 2014, the national automakers’ association Anfavea said on Tuesday.

Brazil’s auto industry is recovering from a crushing depression that cost the country its place as one of the world’s five biggest auto markets, even as automakers are still struggling with low margins.

Auto exports to depressed Argentina, Brazil’s largest foreign destination for its cars, are down 38.4% so far in 2019 compared to a year ago, Anfavea said.

Trade rules in Brazil are changing under a right-wing government that has promised to open up one of the world’s largest but most closed economies. Automakers are figuring out what to do following an initial trade deal with the European Union, as well as changes in trade rules with Mexico, both of which could usher a flood of foreign vehicles into the country.

Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski via Reuters

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UPDATE 2-Brazil brewer Ambev beats Q2 profit forecasts; shares up 9%

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SAO PAULO, July 25 (Reuters) – Brazilian beverages firm Ambev SA on Thursday posted a better-than-expected 8.5% rise in second-quarter net profit, triggering strong gains in its shares.

The Latin American unit of Anheuser Busch InBev said net income reached 2.616 billion reais ($693.42 million), beating a consensus estimate of 2.286 billion reais ($606.58 million) compiled by Refinitiv.

By Gabriela Mello via Yahoo Finance

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Amigos da Poli finalista do Prêmio de Responsabilidade Social oferecido durante o Person of the Year Awards Gala Dinner 2019

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O Amigos da Poli ficou entre os finalistas do Prêmio de Responsabilidade Social oferecido durante o Person of the Year Awards Gala Dinner, premiação que ocorreu no dia 14 de Maio, na cidade de New York.

O evento organizado pela Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce, elegeu o fundo como finalista na categoria Responsabilidade Social, juntamente com a Renovatio/VerBem, Instituto Brasil Solidário e Aliança Empreendedora.

Gostaríamos de parabenizar o Instituto Brasil Solidário e dizer que termos sido nomeados é um orgulho e nos motiva a continuar trabalhando em prol da melhoria do ensino no Brasil.


Clique aqui para acessar o site do Amigos da Poli

Brazil Privatizes Fuel Distributor in $2.3 Billion Offering

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Brazilian oil giant Petroleo Brasileiro SA sold down a majority stake in its fuel distribution unit, effectively ending government control over the biggest player in the industry as part of a drive to privatize state-run assets and stoke competition.

The Rio de Janeiro-based energy producer raised 8.6 billion reais ($2.27 billion) selling shares in Petrobras Distribuidora SA, reducing its position to 41% from 71%, according to a regulatory filing. It’s Latin America’s biggest equity offering this year, topping the $1.98 billion sale of shares in reinsurer IRB Brasil Resseguros SA earlier this month.

 

By Sabrina Valle, Vinicius Andrade and Felipe Marques via Bloomberg

 

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Entrepreneurs deliver mail in Brazil`s biggest favela

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Delivering mail in Rio de Janeiro’s slums – or ‘favelas’ as they are known in Brazil – is harder than one can imagine. They are informal neighborhoods that the government has never mapped. But a group of entrepreneurs found an ingenious solution to provide this key basic service.

Located in Rio de Janeiro’s south zone, Rocinha is considered Brazil’s biggest favela, with a population of around 70,000 people, but it could be much higher, depending on who did the counting.

 

By Lucrecia Franco via CGTN America

 

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Ministry of Mines and Energy of Brazil authorizes the transfer of 10% stake in Saturno block to Ecopetrol

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BOGOTÁ, Colombia , July 18, 2019 /CNW/ — Ecopetrol S.A. (BVC: ECOPETROL; NYSE: EC) reports that the Ministry of Mines and Energy of Brazil has authorized the transfer of a 10% stake in the Saturno block, located in the Santos basin, to its subsidiary, Ecopetrol Óleo e Gas Brasil. Previously, this percentage was equally held by Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda and Chevron Brasil Óleo e Gas Ltda.

Canadian Solar Won a 51 MWp Solar Power Project in Brazil

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GUELPH, Ontario, July 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Canadian Solar Inc. (the “Company”, or “Canadian Solar”) (CSIQ), one of the world’s largest solar power companies, today announced it has been awarded a 51.1 MWp solar photovoltaic (PV) project in the Sixth Brazilian Federal Energy Auction (A-4) held on June 28, 2019.

Canadian Solar will develop and build the project located in the State of Minas Gerais. Construction of the solar project will start in early 2021 and it is expected to reach commercial operation before January 2023.

Via Yahoo Finance

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Brazil plan to open gas sector seen luring Naturgy, Engie, others

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SAO PAULO, July 15 (Reuters) – Recently announced plans to foster competition in the Brazilian natural gas market may trigger a wave of privatizations among state-controlled distribution companies, luring international and domestic bidders, experts on the sector say.

Brazil’s Cosan SA and Spain’s Naturgy Energy Group SA, are among the companies potentially interested in the segment, which also include Portugal’s Galp , France’s Engie and Spain’s Repsol , consultants, lawyers and other experts said.

By Luciano Costa via Yahoo Finance

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Brazilian State Launches Blockchain Platform for Government Contract Bids

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In Brazil, the state of Bahia has launched a blockchain application to track the process of public bidding on government contracts, according to a report by Cointelegraph Brazil on July 12.

The blockchain-based solution, called Online Bid Solution (SOL), was reportedly developed by Cayenne Technology and Design. Bids will reportedly be completely transparent and secure due with the application of blockchain tech.

 

By Max Boddy via Cointelegraph

 

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UPDATE 2-Brazil power firm Light confirms price offering at 18.75 reais per share

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SAO PAULO, July 11 (Reuters) – Brazilian power company Light SA priced its shares at 18.75 reais ($4.99) per share in a primary and secondary offering that raised 2.5 billion reais ($665.57 million), the company said in a securities filing on Friday.

The offering will increase Light’s capital stock to 4.1 billion reais ($1.1 billion), and the company will use proceeds from the sale to reduce debt, it said.

By Carolina Mandl via Yahoo Finance

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MercadoLibre Optimistic on Brazil Economy After 2018 Hurdles

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Latin America’s largest e-commerce retailer is optimistic that economic growth is set to pick up in Brazil, its biggest market.

MercadoLibre Inc. expects a turnaround in the country, Chief Executive Officer Marcos Galperin said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, rejecting the views of economists who have slashed their forecasts for the region’s biggest economy. The retailer’s profitability was hurt last year after postal service Correios hiked freight fees, adding to woes caused by a trucker strike that paralyzed the country for 10 days.

 

By Carolina Millan and Paul T. Sweeney

 

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Brazil to add digital data protection to fundamental rights

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The Brazilian Senate has approved a proposal to add protection of data in digital platforms to the list of fundamental rights and individual citizen guarantees set out in the country’s constitution.

According to senator Simone Tebet, rapporteur of the proposal – which will now be voted by the lower house of the National Congress – the federal government should be responsible for legislation. She noted that adding the topic to the constitution demonstrates central government recognizes the importance of the topic.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZDNet

 

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Newsmaker: Caixa CFO brings dealmaking buzz to once-sleepy Brazil state bank

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Andre Laloni, a veteran of investment banks from Goldman Sachs & Co to UBS Group AG, seemed like an unlikely pick to become chief financial officer of Brazilian state bank Caixa Economica Federal, long a sleepy mortgage underwriter.

Yet in just a few months the 46-year-old banker has made Caixa the talk of Faria Lima Avenue, the epicenter of Sao Paulo’s dealmaking scene.

By Tatiana Bautzer and Carolina Mandl via Yahoo Finance

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Brazil Bets Storing Oil Near Teapots Will Boost China Sales

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(Bloomberg) — Brazil is making it easier for China’s teapots to buy Lula crude as it seeks to win more market share in the world’s biggest oil importer.

State-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA has rented offshore tanks in Qingdao in the eastern province of Shandong and delivered the first oil to them on Wednesday, Qingdao Port International said in a statement. Having local storage allows Petrobras to sell smaller volumes to the independent refineries, known as teapots, many of which are clustered in Shandong.

Via Yahoo News

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Brazil med school network Afya aims to raise $250 mln in U.S. IPO

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SAO PAULO, June 25 (Reuters) – Brazilian medical education group Afya SA hopes to raise at least $250 million in an initial public offering, three sources with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday, the latest in a series of South American companies to seek U.S. listings.

The company’s shares will trade on the Nasdaq in July, the sources added, requesting anonymity because discussions of the offering’s size are still private.

 

By Carolina Mandl via Nasdaq

 

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Brazil’s antitrust regulator wants competition in Sao Paulo airport

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s antitrust regulator wants new rules for allocating airplane landing and departure rights, known as slots, in Sao Paulo’s crowded domestic airport, saying they are too concentrated among two main airlines.

The recommendation comes as the country’s civil aviation regulator ANAC has announced it will take back the slots held by grounded airline Avianca Brasil in the airport, known as Congonhas, as part of a plan to redistribute them later.

 

By Marcelo Rochabrun and Alberto Alerigi Jr. via Reuters

 

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Brazil leader signs law allowing foreign carriers to operate domestic flights

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BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday signed a bill into law allowing foreign airlines to operate domestic flights in Latin America’s largest air market, a move that could usher in new competition or lead foreign carriers to buy up the local players.

The bill had started as an executive order issued by former President Michel Temer in the last days of his tenure in late 2018. Brazil’s Congress made the measure permanent last month, but included some changes that required a presidential signature.

By Ricardo Brito via Yahoo News

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Brazil: R3 Develops Blockchain Platform With Major Banks and Stock Exchange

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Blockchain software consortium R3 revealed that it is developing a blockchain platform in Brazilwith banks Bradesco, Itau and B3, Cointelegraph Brazil reported on June 12.

The R3 Consortium — which is composed of large banks and technology companies — announced during the CIAB Febraban event in São Paulo that it is currently collaborating with Brazilian banks.

 

By Adrian Zmudzinski via Cointelegraph

Second phase of Brazil’s Mero deep offshore project launched: Total

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PARIS (Reuters) – French energy group Total said it had launched the second phase of development for the Mero project off the coast of Brazil, along with its partners, as the deep offshore oil project moves closer to getting off the ground.

“The decision to launch Mero 2 comes as a new milestone in this large-scale project that will develop the giant oil resources of the Mero field, estimated at 3 to 4 billion barrels,” said Arnaud Breuillac, Total’s head of exploration and production.

 

By Sudip Kar-Gupta and Bate Felix via Reuters

 

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Three more foreign airlines could operate domestic flights in Brazil: minister

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BRASILIA (Reuters) – Three more foreign airlines are in talks with the Brazilian government to start domestic flight operations in the country, Brazil’s infrastructure minister Tarcisio Gomes de Freitas told reporters on Monday.

He declined to name the companies involved. “These companies are publicly traded, there are competition issues, we cannot announce them yet”, he said.

 

By Lisandra Paraguassu via Reuters

 

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Ripple Kicks Off South America Expansion With Brazil Launch

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Blockchain payments company Ripple has launched in Brazil as the first stage of its planned expansion across South America.

For the effort, Ripple has hired veteran fintech entrepreneur and executive Luiz Antonio Sacco as managing director to drive strategy and help develop Ripple’s business in the region, according to a press release issued Tuesday. Sacco’s LinkedIn profile indicates he has been at Ripple since March 2019.

 

By Daniel Palmer via Coindesk

 

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Brazil retailer Via Varejo launches digital bank targeting low-income clients

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian electronics and appliance retailer Via Varejo launched a digital bank targeting low-income clients in partnership with Boston-based startup Airfox, according to a filing on Wednesday.

The move will take Via Varejo beyond its current role in Brazil as a brick-and-mortar and online seller of goods, challenging its competitors in Latin America’s largest economy, where App-based wallets are an increasing trend among fintechs and traditional banks.

 

By Gabriela Mello via WSAU

 

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Brazil telecom Oi adds mobile customers as it expands 4.5G coverage

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SAO PAULO: Brazilian telecom Oi SA added more post-paid mobile clients in May than in April, commercial director Bernardo Winik said on Tuesday, as the company expanded its 4.5G coverage in Latin America’s largest economy.

“April was better than the first quarter and May was better than April,” he said at a press conference in Sao Paulo, adding that investments in 4.5G coverage prepare the network for the future generation 5G.

By Gabriela Mello via CNA

 

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Brazil to let mills sell ethanol directly to gas stations

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BRASILIA/SAO PAULO (Reuters) – The Brazilian government on Tuesday paved the way for ethanol makers to sell the fuel directly to gas stations, by passing a resolution to boost fuel industry competition, although additional legislation is required to bypass fuel distributors.

The resolution by CNPE, the energy policy council, includes the option for direct sales by mills. Brazil’s Economy Ministry would have to issue tax-related regulation within 180 days for the change to take effect.

 

By Marcela Ayres and Marcelo Teixeira

 

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Here’s Alibaba’s Mission as it Enters Brazil Cloud Market

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Alibaba (BABA) is launching its cloud computing service in Brazil, according to a report from Xinhua news agency. In Brazil, Alibaba is targeting Chinese companies operating in the country. Alibaba has identified a local partner known as UOL Diveo that will resell its cloud services in Brazil.

According to a report released by IDC in February this year, Brazil is the fastest-growing cloud market in South America. With that in mind, Alibaba is entering a market with huge growth potential for its cloud business.

 

By Naomi Gray via Market Realist

 

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Santander to hire 400 technology staff in Brazil

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Financial services giant Santander has announced plans to hire 400 technology staff into its Brazilian business.

The plan is part of a $2 billion investment plan to drive digital transformation across the Spanish bank’s operations globally. Brazil represents 30 percent of that budget, according to the company.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Brazil Minerals, Inc. Announces Its First Iron Project and Technology Partnership Development

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PASADENA, Calif., May 31, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — via OTC PR WIRE — Brazil Minerals, Inc. (BMIX) (the “Company” or “Brazil Minerals”) announced today that it has obtained the rights to an iron project area with 4,120 acres in the “Quadrilátero Ferrífero” (Iron Quadrangle), one of the premier iron regions in the world with multiple operating mines. Iron ore is in high demand with strong sales of Brazilian iron ore for export (mainly to China) or for use by local steelmakers. Recently, the price of iron delivered at a foreign port spiked to US$109 per ton, the highest since 2013.

 

By GlobeNewswire via Yahoo Finance

 

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Brazil State Signs MOU For Smart Tailings Dam Monitoring

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The Brazilian state of Minas Gerais – the site of two recent disastrous tailings dams disasters – has inked a Memorandum of Understanding with technology firm Inmarsat providing to provide smart monitoring for the dams.

Inmarsat and the Brazilian state will explore several options to “achieve improved awareness and transparency of the tailings dams in the region,” which may lead to Inmarsat providing Internet of Things technology to the local government for dam monitoring.

 

By Jax Jacobsen via Forbes

 

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Ripple-Powered Cross-Border Remittance Platform Launches in Brazil

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Brazil-based exchange broker Frente Corretora de Câmbio (The Front Exchange) has launched its fintech collaboration with San Francisco-based startup Ripple. The new blockchain platform, Simple, is designed to allow people in Brazil to send money abroad without the high fees and the slow transaction times that are common among traditional payment rails.

The team behind Simple aims to deliver a robust cross-border remittance solution for everyday Brazilians, such as families  with students abroad who are studying and need to receive money to cover basic living expenses.

 

By The Daily Hodl

 

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Norway’s BW Offshore to float Energy to fund Brazil growth

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OSLO (Reuters) – Oslo-listed BW Offshore said it will float BW Energy this year to help expand the oil and gas business, particularly in Brazil, as its first quarter earnings rose 72%.

Shares in BW Offshore, originally an owner of floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels operated on behalf of oil companies, were 17.6% higher at 60.6 Norwegian crowns by 0901 GMT on Thursday.

 

By Terje Solsvik and Victoria Klesty via Reuters

 

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Fiat Chrysler to invest $4B to regain lost share in Brazil

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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is bringing new models to Brazil and expanding production at two local factories as part of a 16 billion reais ($4 billion) plan to regain lost market share in Latin America’s biggest economy, CEO Mike Manley said.

FCA increased its investment plan for Latin America by 2 billion reais through 2024, though it extended the time frame of outlays first announced in June by a year.

 

By Gabrielle Coppola, Vinicius Andrade and Leonardo Lara via Automotive News Europe

 

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Brazil lower house votes to allow foreign airlines in domestic market

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BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s lower house of Congress voted on Tuesday to allow foreign-controlled airlines to operate domestic flights in Latin America’s largest economy, opening the door to more competition in an increasingly concentrated market.

The chamber approved the original text of a decree issued by former President Michel Temer in December that removed the 20% limit on foreign ownership of Brazilian airlines.

 

By Maria Carolina Marcello and Anthony Boadle

 

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Venture Funding In Brazil Soars To $1.3B In 2018

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As South America’s largest country, Brazil has the potential to be an economic powerhouse. But over time, political turmoil, largely as a result of corruption, has marred the economic landscape.

Still, despite the political upheaval in recent years, the country’s startup scene has seen some serious acceleration, reflecting a general trend we’re seeing in Latin America as a whole.

 

By Mary Ann Azevedo via CrunchBase News

 

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Can Backseat Snacks Help Uber Take Brazil?

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If it’s going to conquer the world one foreign market at a time, Uber has considerable work to do in Latin America. Populous cities with iffy public transit portend big business, but the competition there is fierce and well-funded, with local taxi operators plus Chinese giant DiDi and its subsidiary 99, and the Daimler-backed scrappy Greek upstart Beat. Now the newly public company could get a boost in its driver rosters in Brazil, thanks to a partnership between backseat mini-convenience store Cargo and the local ampm operator Ipiranga.

 

By Julia Walmsley via Forbes

 

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Spain’s Globalia to launch new air carrier in Brazil: cabinet minister

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Spanish tourism and transportation company Grupo Globalia will launch a new air carrier in Brazil, Brazilian Infrastructure Minister Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas said in a message posted on Twitter on Saturday.

Globalia owns the Air Europa carrier and companies in the tourism sector, including hotel operators and travel services such as Travelplan and Groundforce.

 

By Marcelo Teixeira and Roberto Samora via Reuters

 

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Mobile accounts for nearly half of all banking transactions in Brazil

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Brazilians have embraced mobile banking as their preferred means to handle their banking affairs as the channel accounted for nearly half of all transactions carried out last year, according to a new report.

The latest research on banking technology trends carried out by Deloitte on behalf of the Brazilian Banking Federation (FEBRABAN) also shows that the number of transactions overall, so any interaction involving a financial element or not, has seen an increase of 24 percent in 2018 in relation to the prior year.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Brazil healthcare firm Hapvida looking for more acquisitions: CEO

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian healthcare provider Hapvida Participacoes e Investimentos SA will look for more acquisitions in the near future after agreeing to acquire rival group Sao Francisco Saude for 5 billion reais ($1.26 billion), Chief Executive Officer Jorge Pinheiro told reporters on Tuesday.

The deal will enable Hapvida to expand to Brazil’s southeastern, southern and center-west regions, from its current focus only on the north and northeastern regions.

 

By Carolina Mandl via Reuters

 

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Grupo Zap Introduces I-Buyer Model To Reignite Brazil’s Real Estate Market

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Online firm Grupo Zap is chasing a billion-dollar opportunity by introducing the instant home buyer (i-buyer) model in Brazil, with plans to nearly double its workforce and enhance data analytics capabilities to support the new business.

With Grupo Globo, one of Latin America’s largest media conglomerates as a majority shareholder and the likes of Monashees and Kaszek Ventures as backers, Zap owns the two largest real estate marketplaces in Brazil and provides a range of data-driven services to the industry.

 

By Angelica Mari via Forbes

 

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LATAM seeks to bolster U.S.-Brazil business

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Flying to South America from the U.S. often means an overnight flight and multiple stops.  In other words — no sleep.

LATAM Airlines Group, Latin America’s biggest airline, is aiming to change that and, in the process, attract more U.S. visitors to Latin America.  Along with more flights, the airline also is adding more comfortable seats.

 

By Barbara Redding via Travel Weekly

 

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Huawei partners with local retailers to sell flagship smartphones in Brazil

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd on Tuesday launched two high-end smartphone handsets in Brazil, making its second attempt to penetrate the world’s fourth-largest smartphone market, broadening its footprint in Latin America.

 

“We are in a very different market share position than we were five years ago and we’re seeing tremendous brand momentum,” Ketrina Dunagan, Huawei’s vice president of marketing for the Americas, said in an interview on the sidelines of the launch event in Sao Paulo.

 

By Gabriela Mello via Reuters

 

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Brazil ushers in open banking model

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Brazil has taken another step towards further developing its financial services ecosystem by approving the implementation of open banking.

The country’s central bank has also approved and issued guidelines to be considered while the model is implemented.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Private Investors Raise Bets in Brazil Power Sector

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RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – International private companies have increased their investment in Brazil’s power sector over the last three years even as the country’s cash-strapped state-controlled companies have cut back, a Reuters survey of power companies shows.

 

Eight out of 11 large foreign private firms operating in Brazil boosted investments in the power sector from 2016 to 2018, some of them by more than 200 percent, the poll showed.

 

Via The Rio Times

 

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Malaysia’s Petronas buys 50% equity in Brazil deepwater assets from Petrobras

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Singapore — Malaysia’s Petronas said Friday it bought a 50% equity stake in deepwater concessions in the Campos Basin in offshore Brazil from Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. or Petrobras.

 

The deal represents Petronas’ efforts to boost its upstream reserves and production, growing cash flows and shrinking domestic output. A price was not disclosed.

 

By Eric Yep via S&P Global Platts

 

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Brazil’s GPA sales rise, closes in on supermarket leader Carrefour Brasil

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian supermarket chain Grupo Pão de Açúcar SA on Wednesday posted first-quarter sales up 12 percent from a year ago, closing the gap on Carrefour Brasil, the market leader in Latin America’s largest economy.

GPA, which is owned by France’s Casino Guichard Perrachon SA, reported gross revenues of 13.8 billion reais ($3.46 billion), driven by gains in its wholesale division, Assaí.

 

By Gabriela Mello via Reuters

 

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Is Brazil to Become the Next Eldorado of Digital Revolution?

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RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Top consultants McKinsey and “Brazil at Silicon Valley” have produced a report that aims to shed light on Brazil’s digital development. And the result seems clear to the authors: Brazil has the potential to become the next big thing in the digital revolution.

 

Mauro Mantica from the famous Bocconi University in Milan is also convinced of the digital potential of Brazil.

 

Via The Rio Times

 

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Brazil’s Magazine Luiza sells books online in new challenge to Amazon.com

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian retailer Magazine Luiza on Tuesday announced it would start selling physical books online for pickup in its chain comprised of almost 1,000 stores, using its national footprint to compete with traditional booksellers and Amazon.com Inc.

Brazil’s more established booksellers are facing financial headwinds, leading Saraiva Livreiros SA and Livraria Cultura to file for bankruptcy protection last year.

 

By Gabriela Mello and Alberto Alerigi Jr.

 

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Embraer Wants Brazil to Lead the Flying Car Market

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RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Common parts in science fiction films and cartoons, flying cars are becoming closer to reality. Brazil wants to lead the development of this segment in the world, according to executives from Embraer’s Atech subsidiary, present at the 12th LAAD Defense & Security.

“We are already anticipating, preparing a vision and a concept of how we will be able to see the future of the future. It will be air traffic. This is what our project will be”, stated Marcos Resende, director of technology at Atech.

 

By Xiu Ying via The Rio Times

 

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Brazil stimulates academia and business link in emerging tech initiative

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The Brazilian government has launched a tender to find projects based on emerging technologies as the latest stage of a project aimed at bridging the business and academic worlds.

The program, dubbed TechD, is a public-private partnership with funding of 18 million reais ($4.6 million). The latest stage of the program is looking for startups, incubated projects, IT companies or consortiums and research groups focused on emerging technologies to participate.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Angola Cables Data Centre In Brazil Is Now Live

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Telecommunications company Angola Cables has announced the opening of its carrier-neutral data centre, Angonap Fortaleza in Fortaleza, Brazil.

The completed facility is now open for business and offers scalability, continuous connectivity, host and cloud services for local and external entities.

The facility is a primary interconnection point for the region, which will host Angola Cables’ two newest intercontinental submarine cables, SACS (South Atlantic Cable System) and Monet.

 

By Abigail Opiah via Data Economy

 

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Brazil Creates a Latin American Record in Bitcoin Trade

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RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The craze for cryptocurrencies has reached an all-time high in South American countries, particularly Brazil. The recorded trading volume in the country surpassed 100 thousand Bitcoins last week – a new Latin American record, according to data from the CoinTrader Monitor, a tool that analyzes and monitors Bitcoin prices in Brazil.

According to the site’s index, cryptocurrency exchanges mediated by NegocieCoins and TemBTC contributed the most to this record. Exchanges made through Bitcoin Market, Bitcoin Trade, BitBlue, bTCBolsa, 3xBit, and BitCambio also played a part, facilitating trades of over 100 BTCs in a period of 24 hours.

 

By Richard Mann via The Rio Times

 

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Brazilian Startup JaUbra Goes Where Uber Drivers Panic

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SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – When Alvimar da Silva realized Uber did not reach some of the more dangerous, far-flung areas of São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, he saw an opportunity: If the popular ride-sharing service did not go there, he would.

 

After six months of driving for the US application in the gridlocked city, da Silva launched in 2017 his own rival service JaUbra in the sprawling northern district of Brasilândia.

 

By Richard Mann via The Rio Times

 

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Brazil’s iFood Makes Multimillion-Dollar Investment In AI

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One of Brazil’s best-funded startups, iFood is making a multimillion-dollar investment in artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance its offerings.

The Sao Paulo-based food delivery company will plough $20m into a new AI “academy”, which will be focusing on research in machine learning, deep learning, behavioral science and logistics efficiency.

 

By Angelica Mari via Forbes

 

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IT investments in Brazil surpass world average

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Brazil has seen a return to growth in IT investments in 2018 with numbers surpassing global average spend, according to data released by the Brazilian Association of Software Companies (ABES) and IDC.

IT spending for 2018 in Brazil went up 9.8 percent, reaching $47 billion, according to the research. This compares to the initial predictions of 4.1 percent growth for that market and average global spending of 6.7 percent.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Lemann-Backed Startup Looks to Tackle Brazil’s Health-Care Woes

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A potential solution to the ailments of modern-day health care may be burgeoning from inside one of Brazil’s biggest slums.

Startup firm Dr. Consulta is betting it can capitalize on demand for affordable, a la carte services for the increasing number of Brazilians who don’t have private health insurance. It’s proven to be an attractive proposition, luring investors including the billionaire co-founder of 3G Capital Inc., Jorge Paulo Lemann, and venture capital firms like Kaszek Ventures and Madrone Capital Partners.

 

By Vinicius Andrade via Bloomberg

 

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Ebanx enters Brazil

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This is a soft launch of EBANX new business and the product is available to selected customers. Over the next few months, the option will be available to all Brazilian companies that sell on the Internet and wish to use EBANX solutions to process online payments within Brazil. In addition, for the next year, local processing of EBANX is expected to begin in four other countries in Latin America.

 

Via Finextra

 

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Recovering a river in Brazil: Startup aims to breathe life into polluted area

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SAO PAULO — Traffic lines, honking cars  and a polluted Pinheiros River that lacks any sign of life are routine sights for the more than 1 million people who drive daily through the Pinheiros Expressway.

But this scenario is about to change. At least partially.

Legado das Águas (Legacy of the Waters), a startup owned by the Votorantim Group, was appointed last December by the Secretariat of the Environment of the State of Sao Paulo to join Projeto Pomar Urbano (Urban Orchard Project) to help recover the Pinheiros River’s riparian vegetation using only native species of the Atlantic Forest.

 

By Eugenia Álvares Affonso via Boston University News Service

 

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4th BLS Annual Conference

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Join Brazilian and U.S. law firms’ partners, representatives from the public sector,
law professors, economists, and business leaders to discuss economic, political and
legal issues about the country’s priorities on reforms, privatization, foreign
investments, cross-border transactions, and technology.

Brazil attempts to revive space technology program

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The Brazilian government signed a space technology safeguard agreement (TSA) with the US with hopes to revive its own activities in the sector and cash in on commercial opportunities.

The idea is that Brazil would be able to claim a share of the space launch business, estimated to generate nearly $300 billion a year, by allowing US companies to launch out of the Brazilian Air Force’s Alcantara Launch Center.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Brazil energy firm Eneva announces secondary share offering

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RIO DE JANEIRO, March 27 (Reuters) – Brazilian energy firm Eneva SA announced a secondary offering of 49.97 million shares in a securities filing on Wednesday, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

The firm, which owns gas-fired power plants and natural gas exploration and production assets in northeastern Brazil, said shareholders Itau Unibanco Holding SA, Uniper Holding GmbH, Banco BTG Pactual SA, Banco Pine SA , and Dommo Austria GmbH, a unit of Brazil’s Dommo Energia SA, plan to sell shares in the offering.

 

By Gram Slattery via Reuters

 

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Brazil and Chile want to bring Mercosur and Pacific Alliance closer together

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Brazil and Chile promise to intensify the rapprochement between Mercosur (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, as Venezuela is temporarily suspended) and the Pacific Alliance (Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru) to a free trade area , informs the “Agência Brasil”. From July, Brazil will hold the presidency-pro tempore of Mercosur and Chile will be at the forefront of the Pacific Alliance.

In Santiago, on the last day of the visit to Chile, President Jair Bolsonaro and Chilean President Sebastián Piñera ratified on Saturday (23) the terms of the free trade agreement between the two trade blocs.

 

By DATAGRO

 

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Amazon kicks off Alexa trial in Brazil

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Amazon is taking its first steps towards evolving its artificial intelligence-enabled voice assistant Alexa in Brazil.

The company said it was “excited to bring Alexa to Brazil” and that it will be asking some of its customers “to help refine her capabilities over the coming months.”

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Brazil Expects Petrobras Reserves Payout Above $18 Billion

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Petrobras is expected to receive more than $18 billion from a mixture of government and private sources as payment for oil reserves, people familiar with the matter said, potentially resolving a dispute that has dragged on since 2013.

Brazil’s government anticipates that companies seeking to join in deep-water oil projects would need to pay Petrobras more than $9 billion, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information hasn’t been made public. That will add to about $9 billion the state would be willing to pay Petrobras from its own coffers, according to the people.

 

By Sabrina Valle via Bloomberg

 

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Qualcomm moves forward with growth strategy in Brazil

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Qualcomm is pressing ahead with its plans to develop the semiconductor industry in Brazil and exploit opportunities in the mobility and Internet of Things segments.

Along with Universal Scientific Industrial (USI) and Asus, the company has announced new Asus smartphones that utilize its system-in-package (SiP) technology developed in Brazil.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Brazil’s Sao Paulo state to offer tax incentives to automakers

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s Sao Paulo state said on Friday it would offer fresh tax incentives to automakers, weeks after Ford Motor Co said it would shut down a plant there with 3,000 employees and General Motors Co hinted it might do the same before backtracking.

Sao Paulo is the historical center of Brazil’s auto industry, which was one of the world’s five biggest until a recent downturn from which it is still recovering. It has been losing ground in recent years to other Brazilian states which have showered automakers with incentives.

 

By Aluisio Alves via Reuters

 

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With these numbers, it’s no surprise SoftBank is investing in Latin America

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After SoftBank announced its plans to launch a $5 billion innovation fund in Latin America, we reached out to the good folks at the Latin American Venture Capital Association (LAVCA) for some context, and what they told me only validates the reasoning behind SoftBank’s interest in the region. (In 2017, we reported on the growing interest in Latin America.)

Let’s start with some numbers. Venture funding in Latin American startups is up — way up — from previous years. Specifically, LAVCA’s data shows that VC funding more than doubled in 2017 to $1.14 billion compared to $500 million in 2016. While 2018 numbers haven’t been finalized, LAVCA is projecting another record year with venture investments topping $1.5 billion.

 

By Mary Ann Azevedo via Techcrunch

 

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McDonald’s Brazil: Engaging With A Generation Z Workforce

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Having shifted from technology to human resources two decades ago, Marcelo Nóbrega is right at the point of convergence between the two areas as he enhances the management of a 50,000-strong Generation Z workforce in McDonald’s restaurants throughout Brazil.

Keeping up with innovation that enhances staff management and productivity is core to the HR director’s work, who joined Arcos Dorados, McDonald’s largest franchisee in the world, in 2014. In his role, Nóbrega is actively looking for innovative approaches to better interact with the workforce with technologies such as artificial intelligence high up on the agenda.

 

By Angelica Mari via Forbes

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Brazil Bounces Back With A Slew Of New Billionaires

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Brazil has been through the ringer. The country went from being one of the world’s best-performing emerging economies to one riddled with political instability and beset by one of the worst recessions. In 2014, Brazil reached a record high 65 members on Forbes’Billionaires List. Then the troubles began, and the ranks of Brazil’s superrich fell steadily to just 42 in 2018.

But Brazil has come roaring back—at least when it comes to the very wealthy. A whopping 18 new billionaires hail from the South American country this year, a number of whom have taken their companies public on the São Paulo stock exchange in the recent past. Altogether Forbes found 58 billionaires in Brazil this year worth a combined $175 billion.

 

By Anderson Antunes via Forbes

 

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Demand for digital driving licenses soars in Brazil

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Demand for digital driving licenses is soaring in Brazil since the introduction of the smartphone-based document last year, available to the country’s 60 million drivers.

According to Brazil’s federal government’s data processing agency (Serpro), the digital license is available countrywide since April, but uptake has increased by 85 percent due to a new remote validation functionality added to the app last month.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

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Brazil’s BTG Pactual Is Latest Bank to Embrace Crypto Assets

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Banco BTG Pactual SA, Latin America’s biggest standalone investment bank, is joining the world of crypto assets with its own security token.

BTG plans to raise as much as $15 million through an initial offering for a token called ReitBZ that will be backed by distressed real estate assets in Brazil, Gustavo Roxo, the bank’s chief technology officer, said in an interview. The token will based on blockchain technology, the decentralized public ledger of transactions.

By Felipe Marques via Bloomberg

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VW’s Traton gets 2018 profit boost from Brazil, higher sales

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FRANKFURT: Volkswagen’s truck and bus division increased its adjusted full-year operating profit last year by 13 percent thanks to a Brazilian market recovery, efficiency measures at MAN and a rise in vehicle deliveries.

Traton said on Monday it expects a return on sales of between 6.5 percent and 7.5 percent in 2019 as well as a slight increase in revenue and vehicle deliveries adding that an efficiency and cost cutting drive at MAN will continue.

By Edward Taylor via Channel NewsAsia

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On Campus: Fundação Getúlio Vargas Is Training Brazil’s Next-Gen Workforce on Blockchain

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Brazil is a major economic power in Latin America and an important player on the world stage. This edition of On Campus shines a light on Sao Paulo’s Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), one of the country’s leading universities, as it leverages Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) to train a global workforce in Brazil. FGV Professor Riccardo Rochman took us inside the university’s Crypto Master’s Program and its commitment to preparing Brazil’s rising blockchain entrepreneurs and leaders.

By Team Ripple from Newsletter on Brazil via Laura Randall

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GREEN TITLES EMERGE AS ALTERNATIVE FINANCING FOR AGRICULTURE

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The Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil (CNA) seeks alternatives to develop the green securities market to finance low carbon projects. In this context, the entity held a meeting last Friday (15) in Brasilia with the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI), an international organization that works to promote long-term capital markets through “green” financial instruments, such as Green Bonds.

Green bonds are debt financing or refinancing instruments issued by companies, financial entities, non-financial or public institutions, where the funds raised are 100% used to finance sustainable assets and projects. CBI Executive Director Justine Leigh-Bell and CNA technical advisors from the areas of agricultural policy, international cooperation, beef cattle, poultry and pigs, coffee, planted forests, the environment and irrigation participated in the meeting.

By DATAGRO

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Microsoft launches AI skills initiative in Brazil

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Microsoft has announced a new initiative that will see more than 3 million Brazilian students getting trained in themes around artificial intelligence (AI).

During the Microsoft AI+Tour event in São Paulo, the firm’s chief executive Satya Nadella announced the pro-bono partnership with school networks SESI and SENAI to offer AI training in high school courses. During the announcement, Nadella pointed out that governments should accelerate the adoption of automation but create new capabilities at the same time.

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

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Onovolab Drives Multimillion-Dollar Plan To Expand Innovation Network In Brazil

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Independent innovation network Onovolab is driving a multimillion-dollar expansion of its co-creation centers across Brazil while attracting a flurry of corporate clients interested in tapping into external hubs for new technology projects.

The initiative launched in the city of São Carlos (144 miles from São Paulo) just over a year ago to act as a broker between traditional businesses and ventures with high-growth potential as well as a thriving academic community: the city’s universities produce one PhD for every 180 people, while the national average is one doctor per 5,423 inhabitants. The idea is that organizations can benefit from that mix for their own co-innovation initiatives.

By Angelica Mari via Forbes

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Brazil’s BTG Pactual taps BlackRock veteran for equity funds

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SAO PAULO, Feb 11 (Reuters) – Brazilian investment bank Banco BTG Pactual SA tapped a veteran BlackRock Inc portfolio manager as its new head of equity funds and said it plans to launch a new Latin America-focused fund.

Will Landers, who left BlackRock in January, will join BTG Pactual as a partner, starting March 18, replacing José Zitelmann, who it said is leaving “to pursue other professional projects.”

By Yahoo! Finance

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This Upstart Brokerage Inspired by Charles Schwab Is Changing the Way Brazil Invests

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For almost three decades, Wilson Feldberg kept his money in low-risk investments at Brazil’s biggest bank. Then, three years ago, he started moving almost all of it—the equivalent of about $1.5 million now—to an upstart brokerage, XP Investimentos SA.

Why? Feldberg, who owns a construction company in São Paulo with his brothers, wanted a chance at fatter returns and more personalized advice. “They explained things to me better, and I felt safer following their suggestions,” says Feldberg, a 47-year-old native of Recife. “Since I don’t have much time, I embrace their suggestions.”

By Felipe Marques, Cristiane Lucchesi and Vinicius Andrade via Bloomberg

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Carpooling Firm BlaBlaCar Readies Evolution In Brazil

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The whole of France fits into Bahia, one of the 27 Brazilian states. That’s how Ricardo Leite, Brazil country manager at BlaBlaCar, tends to illustrate the scale of opportunities for the long-distance carpooling firm in one of its top three markets globally.

A population of 210 million people coupled with 50 million cars that are expensive to acquire and maintain and an inefficient public transport network makes Brazil a great market for the firm to thrive. Following its success in the country since launching in 2015, BlaBlaCar now wants to introduce subscriptions, insurance and pursue opportunities in the transport sector to monetize the local operation.

By Angelica Mari via Forbes

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Disruptive technologies change the face of the Brazilian financial market

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Over the past few years the Brazilian financial market has blossomed, with an unprecedentedly open attitude towards technology and modernisation. For a country that has been historically conservative when it comes to monetary policy and burdensome bureaucracy, Brazil is now embracing innovation, and allowing new ideas to form and shake up the traditional standards and practices of its banking industry.

According to CB Insights, Brazil is Latin America’s leading tech hub. It accounts for most of the US$1 billion in venture capital invested in the region last year, and registered over 450 technology-oriented start-ups in 2018. Since 2014, there has been a sharp growth in new projects favouring business models built on technology, striving for sectors typically overlooked by larger players.

By Bruno Balduccini, Marília de Cara and Thomaz Braga de Arruda via Who’s Who Legal

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Insurtech Pitzi Reinvents Brazil’s Mobile Insurance Market

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Brazilians are not big on mobile phone insurance and that’s something insurtech Pitzi wants to change, by providing better experiences for consumers who need devices fixed or replaced while creating conditions for large insurers to develop that market.

After building a career at financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley and Warburg Pincus, Daniel Hatkoff moved to Brazil from his native United States in 2012. He then noticed that local smartphone adoption was taking off but it was hard to get devices repaired when needed.

By Angelica Mari via Forbes

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Electric scooter startup Grin merges with Brazil-based Yellow

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Consolidation in the micromobility space has arrived — in Brazil, at least. A few months after Y Combinator-backed Grin merged its electric scooter business with Brazil-based Ride, it’s now merging with Yellow, the bike-share startup based in Brazil that has also expressed its ambitions to get into electric scooters.

If Yellow  sounds familiar to you, it may be because, in September, the company raised $63 million in a funding round led by GGV Capital. That was the largest Series A round for a Latin American startup. A month later, Grin raised a $45.7 million Series A round.

By Megan Rose Dickey via Tech Crunch

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Glencore nears $500 mln deal to buy iron ore from Brazil’s CSN – sources

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LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Global trader Glencore is close to finalising a deal to make a $500 million payment to the mining arm of Brazil’s Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN) for iron ore cargoes to be delivered over five years, sources familiar with the matter said.

One source said Glencore would sign the deal no later than the first quarter.

By Julia Payne and Maytaal Angel via Reuters

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Rubio: US should go big on Brazil

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(CNN) – On New Year’s Day, President Jair Bolsonaro was inaugurated in Brazil, ushering in a new era in Brazilian politics that marks a dramatic departure from the leftist, anti-American governments of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff. Our bilateral relationship improved under the administration of former President Michel Temer, and the new Bolsonaro government has already indicated it seeks an even closer security and economic relationship with the United States.

For the peace and stability of the region, it is crucial that the United States capitalize on this historic opportunity to bring closer together the two most populous nations in the Western Hemisphere.

By Marco Rubio via CNN

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Miami – Brazilian Post Office launch expedited shipping service

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Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez, Miami International Airport Director Lester Sola and officials from Miami-Dade County and the Brazilian Post Office (Correios) gathered in Brasilia to announce the launch of Compra Fora (“Buy Outside”) – a first-of-its-kind, expedited shipping service that allows e-commerce packages of all sizes from anywhere in the world to be shipped to Miami International Airport (MIA), be pre-cleared by Correios, and arrive in Brazil as domestic cargo within days instead of what used to take weeks or months.

Correiros chose MIA as its first Compra Fora partner in large part because the airport ranks first in the U.S. for cargo flights to Brazil and commands 38 percent of the entire MIA-Brazil air trade market. Brazil is MIA’s largest international market for passengers and trade value, generating more than 1.5 million travelers and $12 billion in cargo shipments annually.

“This landmark agreement with Correios once again reinforces Miami-Dade County’s role as the logistics leader in our hemisphere,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez. “I applaud the efforts of MIA and our trade community, for keeping Miami-Dade County on the forefront of innovation within the global air cargo industry.”

Source: Miami International Airport via CISION PR Newswire

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Bolsonaro: reforms will put Brazil among the top 50 countries to do business with

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Speaking during the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, President Jair Bolsonaro said that his administration’s reform will put Brazil among the 50 best countries to do business in the world. He also defended more integration and economic openness and explained that he wants the country to simplify the lives of those who produce and create jobs.

By BrazilGovNews

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Bolsonaro make proposals and strengthens ties with other countries

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Symbolic for marking the first international trip of newly-elected president Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s participation in this year’s edition of the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) brought concrete results. In addition to being the first Latin American leader to speak at the event’s opening ceremony, the Brazilian delegation led by Bolsonaro was able to build closer ties with other countries, strengthen trade relations and showcase opportunities Brazil offers investors and entrepreneurs.

In the opening address, the president explained to leaders from around the world that his reform agenda aims to put Brazil among the world’s 50 best countries to do business. He advocated for reforms that will improve public budget, make life easier for consumers and entrepreneurs in Brazil, and help the country grow sustainably.

By BrazilGovNews

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Brazilian TV news market to be shaken by launch of CNN Brazil

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RIO DE JANEIRO: With the launch of CNN Brazil, Latin America’s biggest TV market is set to be roiled by the entry of a powerful new player looking to challenge the dominance of current leader Globo News.

Its arrival, announced this month, comes at a high-voltage time for Brazil as it undergoes an abrupt swerve to the right under President Jair Bolsonaro, a pro-business ultraconservative who took office at the beginning of January.

By Channel News Asia

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In Trump’s Absence, Brazil’s New President Steals Spotlight at Davos

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Brazil’s newly-elected president Jair Bolsonaro ascended the world stage for the first time to present his vision for a “new Brazil” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday.

Absences by British and French heads of state, along with the abrupt cancellation of the U.S. delegation’s visit to the elite business conference just days earlier, thrust Brazil’s new leader into the forum’s spotlight. In his speech, Bolsonaro promised to root out corruption, privatize industry, and repair his country’s standing in the eyes of the international community.

By Robert Hackett via Fortune

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Brazil Wants To Diversify Sales To China

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In a meeting on Thursday, Jan. 17th with Chinese Ambassador Yang Wanming and Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, they discussed possibilities for trade diversification between the two countries. According to negotiators, Guedes said he intends to close more bilateral partnerships, mainly in the area of technology, with the main destination of Brazilian goods. According to the Ministry of Economy, Guedes reaffirmed Brazil’s willingness to do business with as many countries as possible, without ideological bias. According to the ministry’s source, the orientation is in line with the speeches inaugurated by President Jair Bolsonaro in the National Congress and in the parliament of the Planalto Palace, on Jan. 1st.

By Brazil Monitor

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Brazil’s Banking Giant Bradesco Plans Artificial Intelligence Leap

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Brazil’s second-largest private bank Bradesco will ramp up its efforts around artificial intelligence (AI) to boost sales, improve customer experience and reduce operating costs in 2019.

The bank, which has a portfolio of over 71 million customers, has been working on a platform dubbed Bradesco Artificial Intelligence (BIA) over the last four years. BIA’s capabilities translate into an improved customer experience across the bank’s digital channels – especially the app, which today accounts for 60% of customer interactions with the bank.

By Angelica Mari via Forbes

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Brazilian Sugar-Cane Mogul Is Creating the Alipay of Brazil

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The Brazilian tycoon behind the world’s biggest sugar-cane operation is taking a page from billionaire Jack Ma’s playbook for his next project.

Cosan SA, the powerhouse controlled by 68-year-old Rubens Ometto, is launching a version of Alipay to process payments and money transfers through smartphones. It’s a bet that could save the conglomerate millions in fees and give it a foothold in Brazil’s booming fintech scene.

By Gerson Freitas Jr. and Felipe Marques via Bloomberg

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President Bolsonaro should boost Brazil’s entrepreneurial ecosystem

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In late October following a significant victory for Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil’s presidential elections, the stock market for Latin America’s largest country shot up. Financial markets reacted favorably to the news because Bolsonaro, a free-market proponent, promises to deliver broad economic reforms, fight corruption and work to reshape Brazil through a pro-business agenda. While some have dubbed him as a far-right “Trump of the Tropics” against a backdrop of many Brazilians feeling that government has failed them, the business outlook is extremely positive.

By Romero Rodrigues via TechCrunch

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Brazil approves Boeing-Embraer partnership, committing to keep local jobs

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The Brazilian government on Thursday said it would allow a proposed tie-up between planemakers Embraer and Boeing to go forward, capping weeks of uncertainty in which President Jair Bolsonaro expressed hesitation.

The approval maintains the terms of the deal as previously proposed, with Embraer selling 80 percent of its commercial plane division, its most profitable, for $4.2 billion to Boeing, which will have total control of the new venture.

By CNBC Markets

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