Brazil’s burgeoning corporate venturing community has expanded with three fundraisings and a move by Daniel de Macedo, former head of CVC at local tech company Grupo Algar.
De Macedo, a GCV Emerging Leaders award winner last year, has joined retailer RD to lead innovation and new ventures.
Clau Sganzerla, vice-president of strategy at Algar, said: “Daniel joined RD, where he will be able to develop his CVC skills even more, in a much larger and [well-]capitalized group.
“I am sure it was a great move for him and am very proud. I am currently reviewing Algar’s CVC strategy with the shareholders. Only then will I be able to redefine the team and its leadership. As of now, I will take responsibility over the ongoing projects.”
Porto Seguro, a Brazil-based insurance company, has commited R$5m ($950,000) to software provider Microsoft’s Women Entrepreneurship (We) Ventures, which runs a R$50m fund and made its inaugural R$1m investment in local food logistics services platform PackID.
Separately, the Association for the Promotion of Excellence in Brazilian Software (Softex), asset manager M8 Partners and impact investor Bertha Capital have launched Capital Semente as a venture capital firm.
Semente plans to raise a R$50m fund investing in early-stage local companies developing artificial intelligence, internet of things and cloud computing technology.
Finally, hedge fund Prana Capital and UK-based, corporate-focused accelerator Bakery have set up a R$25m fund to target seed-stage software-as-a-service startups in Brazil.
The three follow last month’s close by Brazil-based VC firm SP Ventures, which made a $25m second close for the AgVentures II fund with commitments from France-based animal nutrition provider Adisseo and US phosphate mining company Mosaic.
Local venture capital trade body ABVCAP recently set up a CVC committee under Rosario Cannata, head of EDP Ventures, and Sandro Valeri, peer at ELO Group, to research the local community and prepare for a new law on startups to be approved.
The committee is designed to tap the increased number of corporate venturers, such as Thiago Gramari, who has joined A&M Ventures.
Updated: for Clau’s statement and Thiago’s move
