Karime Hajar Alves was named a Rising Star in 2016 when she was an M&A and new business development manager at Brazil-based software company TOTVS. Two years later, she joined Brazil-based credit and debit card operator Cielo’s corporate development and M&A department to create its corporate venturing arm.
Alves has been involved in venture capital and CVC since 2010. She described herself as an “enthusiast of the venture capital and private equity industry” because, she said, they catalysed a country’s development by innovative businesses, allowing more people to access and consume new products and services and promoting a strong entrepreneurial culture. She is especially attracted to corporate venturing for its “role in startups’ value creation that goes beyond money and high-level board participation”.
A firm believer in corporate venturing, Alves’s ambition is to run a corporate venturing operation taht makes a difference to corporate strategy, or to lead a business unit created by a CVC investment. She said: “When established companies have a venture capital approach, it definitively increases the success of all the investments.”
Alves has a bachelor’s degree in marine engineering from University of São Paulo in Brazil, a master’s in sustainable development at ParisTech in France. She also completed a postgraduate program, created by Brazilian research centre FGV Capital and University of California Berkeley, in innovation, entrepreneurship and venture capital. In her spare time, Alves mentors startups.
