Positive Ventures, a Sao Paulo-based venture firm operating in stealth mode since 2016, has secured $4.8 million of a targeted $12 million fund.
Its self-described mission is to “invest in startups where every dollar of revenue is also delivering environmental or social impact.”
By Mary Ann Azevedo via Crunch Base
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
Brazil’s unicorn FinTech and payments startup EBANX is trialing a digital wallet, called Ebanx Go, with 10,000 consumers on a test basis, the company announced on Wednesday (Jan. 15).
The digital wallet offering is intended to solidify the FinTech’s reach in the Brazilian payments market.
Via PYMNTS
“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
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian miner Vale (VALE3.SA) is in talks to increase its stake in Aliança Energia SA (TAEE11.SA), an energy generation and trading joint venture with Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais (CMIG4.SA) set up in 2015, according to a report in newspaper Valor Econômico on Tuesday.
By Ana Mano via Reuters
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
When David Vélez walked into a Brazilian bank branch to open an account six years ago, he was appalled by the experience.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
(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
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Heineken (HEIN.AS), the world’s second-largest brewer, will invest 985 million reais ($244 million) in Brazil to double its production capacity, CEO Mauricio Giamellaro told the Valor Econômico newspaper in an interview published on Friday.
By Gabriela Mello via Reuters
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday the South American nation will drop its requirement that visiting Chinese and Indian tourists or businesspeople obtain visas.
By Marcelo Rochabrun via Reuters
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp <9984.T> is leading a new financing round for Buser, a Brazilian intercity bus charter marketplace, for an undisclosed amount, according to a statement on Monday.
SoftBank’s latest move underscored the Japanese conglomerate’s move to add mobility-related business to its portfolio.
By Carolina Mandl via WKZO
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
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
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
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
(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
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
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
“We have around 40 companies that fit in Brazil,” the group’s head in Brazil, André Maciel, told the news outlet during an event at Cubo, a technological hub funded by Itaú Unibanco, the largest private bank in Latin America.
Via PYMNTS
– Biogas has the potential to provide 36 percent of the electricity consumed in Brazil or replace 70 percent of diesel if purified as biomethane, according to the Brazilian Association of Biogas and Biomethane (Abiogas).
This new source of energy is only recently gaining a foothold in this country, especially in the agricultural south. Its future is promising in an agro-diverse Brazil, which is the world’s largest producer or exporter of sugar, coffee, meat and soybeans.
By Mario Osava via IPS News
SAO PAULO, Sept 19 (Reuters) – Brazilian telecommunications firm Oi SA is in talks with Spain’s Telefonica SA and Italy’s Telecom Italia SpA to sell its mobile network to avoid insolvency, five people with knowledge of the matter said.
Oi has been struggling to turn around its business since filing for bankruptcy protection in June 2016 to restructure approximately 65 billion reais of debt.
By Carolina Mandl and Gabriela Mello
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> on Thursday announced a 1 billion reais ($243.29 million) expansion at a plant in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, joining Volkswagen and General Motors in new investments in the region.
Toyota said the funding would allow the Sorocaba plant, which builds the Etios and Yaris sedan models, to produce a new vehicle model. It did not provide details on the new model.
By Marcelo Rochabrun via Yahoo Finance
SAO PAULO, Sept 17 (Reuters) – A spike in oil prices following recent attacks on facilities in Saudi Arabia is expected to boost an already positive outlook for ethanol in Brazil, according to analysts and industry representatives, further relegating sugar to the background for mills that largely process ethanol.
If higher oil prices lead to increased gasoline prices in Brazil, ethanol would keep its price advantage over the fossil fuel at the pumps, potentially leading to strong demand and good profit margins for cane mills, market participants said.
By Marcelo Teixeira via Nasdaq
Marco Krapels left Tesla Inc. and started a battery company in a place that’s a hemisphere away from California’s rarefied clean-energy scene: Brazil.
Krapels, Tesla’s former vice president for international expansion of solar and storage, now runs Sao Paulo-based MicroPower-Comerc. The company, backed by Siemens AG, is pushing to use big mobile batteries to wean Latin America’s largest economy off oil-fired generators during blackouts.
By Laura Millan Lombrana via Bloomberg
Virgin Atlantic and GOL are opening up Brazil with a codeshare agreement that will allow passengers on the UK airline’s forthcoming London-Sao Paolo service to connect to 37 destinations.
GOL is Brazil’s biggest domestic carrier and connections will include leisure favorites such as surf hotspot Florianopolis, Amazon jungle launchpad Manaus and the pristine coastline of Recife.
By Steve Creedy via AirlineRatings
(AMZN) — Amazon today announces the launch of Amazon Music for Brazil, bringing customers millions of songs and thousands of playlists and stations ad-free, with two music streaming tiers. Beginning today, customers can access Amazon Music Unlimited, the premium music streaming tier with unlimited access to more than 50 million songs, including chart-topping releases from Brazilian and International artists including Pabllo Vittar, Post Malone, Ivete Sangalo, Billie Eilish, Gustavo Mioto and many more, along with locally curated playlists and stations, developed specifically for today’s music fan in Brazil. This follows Tuesday’s launch of Amazon Prime in Brazil, offering members a selection of more than two million songs at no additional cost to their Prime membership. Customers can learn more about Amazon Music, and begin a three-month free trial for the Unlimited tier today at amazon.com.br/music.
Via Yahoo Finance
BRASILIA, Sept 12 (Reuters) – The Brazilian Senate late on Wednesday approved a bill that will modernize Brazil’s telecommunications law and boost companies in the sector by lifting restrictions on asset sales, according to the upper house’s news service, Agencia Senado.
The bill, known as PLC 79, had already passed the lower house of Congress and will now go to President Jair Bolsonaro to be signed into law.
By Anthony Boadle via Yahoo Finance
Sao Paulo-based real estate startup QuintoAndar has raised a $250 million Series D in a round that is considered massive by U.S. standards but is positively gargantuan in Brazil. The round takes the company “to unicorn status,” according to CEO Gabriel Braga, although he would not disclose its exact valuation.
SoftBank Group International led the round, which also included participation from another new investor Dragoneer as well as existing backers General Atlantic and Kaszek Ventures. The financing brings the six-year-old company’s total raised to over $335 million, according to its Crunchbase profile, and comes just nine months after its $70 million Series C.
By Mary Ann Azevedo via CrunchBase News
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
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Norway’s power generator Statkraft AS [STATKF.UL] plans to sharply increase its capacity to produce renewable energy in Brazil in the next four to five years, the head of the Brazilian unit, Fernando de Lapuerta, told Reuters.
The company is looking to acquire some Brazilian projects and also plans to take part in coming rounds where the government awards licenses for construction of new power plants, the executive said in an interview on Tuesday.
By Luciano Costa via Reuters
Mobile devices were the main channel used by Brazilians to transact with their banking institutions in 2018, according to data from the Brazilian Central Bank (BC).
Some 29 billion transactions were completed through smartphones and tablets last year, up 18.4 percent on 2017. This builds on a trend that emerged in Brazil last year, when mobile devices surpassed other remote channels such as Internet banking.
By Angelica Mari via ZD Net
“Brazil is the country of the future” was a familiar phrase for many years – or as we say in Portuguese – “Brasil, país do futuro”. For tech startups, that future is now. The country is showing signs that the sleeping giant is finally waking up and moving towards its tipping point.
In 2010, I founded an organization called Brazil Innovators, a network that gave innovators and ecosystem builders direct access to Silicon Valley. When I launched, the venture capital community was very small, but it was clear that Brazil was producing great minds and future talent.
By Bedy Yang via Forbes
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
“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
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
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
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
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
A couple of years ago Jose Fernando da Silva lost his job and wanted to become a driver for a ride-sharing company but he didn’t have a bank account to receive his earnings. He’s not alone in that: tens of millions in Brazil who don’t use formal banking.
CGTN’s Paulo Cabral reports.
By Paulo Cabral via CGTN
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
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.
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian antitrust watchdog Cade has approved Mexican lender Inbursa’s [GFINBI.UL] acquisition of a roughly 33% stake in the Brazilian unit of payment technology company Global Payments Inc (GPN.N), according to a report from the regulator.
By Roberto Alerigi Jr. via Reuters
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
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
BTG Pactual, Brazil’s fifth largest bank, plans to utilize the Tezos blockchain for security token offerings potentially worth $1 billion.
For the effort, BTG – also Brazil’s largest standalone investment bank – will team with Dubai-based asset manager Dalma Capital.
By Daniel Palmer via Coindesk
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
(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
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
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
Brazil’s Ministry of the Environment announced this month that it is launching a National Network of Air Quality Monitoring. The project will initially measure airborne particulate matter in 17 states that currently lack such monitoring.
Brazil has 27 states, 10 of which currently monitor air quality in some form.
By Meghie Rodrigues via C&EN
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
By Gabrielle Coppola, Vinicius Andrade and Leonardo Lara via Automotive News Europe
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
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
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
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
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
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
Brazilian fintech Nubank commenced its international expansion by announcing the start of its operations in Mexico today (7).
With a portfolio of 8,5 million customers, the unicorn claims to be the largest online bank outside Asia. The company is launching its Mexico office with 20 staff, with plans to nearly quadruple that by year end.
By Angelica Mari via Forbes
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Brazilian consumer is ready for digital disruption. In many ways, it has already begun.
By Richard Mann via The Rio Times
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
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – China’s Beiqi Foton Motor Co Ltd is eyeing the acquisition of Ford Motor Co’s Brazilian plant in the industrial city of Sao Bernardo do Campo, newspaper Valor Economico reported on Friday.
By Carolina Mandl Via Reuters
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s oil regulator ANP on Monday announced details of the 16th-round auction of oil areas under the concession regime, stipulating a higher bonus amount for the CM-541 block in the Campos Basin, which surpasses 1 billion reais ($259 million).
By Gabriel Araujo via Reuters
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
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
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
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
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
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
Brazilian retailer Grupo Pão de Açúcar (GPA) has announced plans to invest up to R$1.8 billion (€421.7 million) in 2019 for expansion and optimisation purposes.
The retailer aims to focus on higher-return projects and strengthen its regional performance.
By European Supermarket Magazine
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
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
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
Singapore — Surpassing Russia, Brazilian crude oil shipments for China’s independent refineries topped the list in February at 2.17 million mt, S&P Global Platts monthly survey showed Tuesday.
Total imports from Brazil were just 54,000 mt more than those from Russia, though they were still 5.4% lower from January.
S&P Global Platts Staff
SAO PAULO, March 2 (Xinhua) — Silvia Basilio Proenca felt safer after she installed a security camera in her car while driving passengers in Brazil’s populous city of Sao Paulo.
The 51-year-old woman joined the country’s ride-hailing service 99 in February 2017.
By Pablo Giuliano via XinhuaNet
Fintech startup N26 plans to launch its retail banking service in Brazil soon. The company announced the news onstage at MWC in Barcelona.
N26 has already announced that its next market would be the U.S. at some point during the first half of 2019. Brazil should launch after that.
By Romain Dillet via Tech Crunch
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
The United States has asked Brazil to consider lifting tariffs imposed on its ethanol exports and is hopeful of a positive outcome, a senior official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday.
Brazil currently charges a 20 percent tariff on ethanol imports surpassing 150 million liters a quarter, in a bid to shield local farmers from foreign competition.
By CNBC
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
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
Petrobras, Royal Dutch Shell and Galp have commenced production from the Lula North deep-water project in Brazil’s Santos Basin.
Production of oil and gas from the Lula North field, which is contained in the BM-S-11 concession, is being carried out by the P-67 floating production and storage offloading vessel (FPSO).
By Compelo Staff Writer
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
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
(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
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
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
Brazilian and South African leaders held a bilteral meeting on Thursday (January 24) to discuss ways to expand trade partnerships between the two countries. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro and his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, met in Davos (Switzerland) on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.
By BrazilGovNews
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
