Since November 2017, Paulo Braga has been head of corporate venturing for Brazil-based pharmaceutical firm Eurofarma. Before joining Eurofarma, he was head of Wayra Brasil, an accelerator subsidiary of Spain-headquartered telecoms company Telefónica.
At Wayra, Braga led investments in companies that have become successful today and have received funding from other sources, such as 500 Startup and Stanford’s Alchemist Accelerator, as well as from Brazil-based VC firms such as Monashees, Canary and Indicator Capital. Startups of which he says he is especially proud include online mediation platform provider Mediação Online, parse server platform provider Back4App, smart voice products developer Teravoz and customer experience management platform developer Cinnecta.
At Eurofarma, Braga and his team implemented a program to generate business and create relationships with startups. He said: “We had outstanding results – 80% of the companies implemented a paid-outside-of-closing within the company, and half of those closed contracts with the company reached contracts as large as R$1m ($260,000) a year. Right now, we are finishing the investment vehicle structure to become the first Brazilian pharma company to have a corporate VC fund in Brazil.”
He added: “For the past year, I have been talking to a lot of people within big companies who wish to create a CVC arm to give them my take on corporate venture. With that, I hope to accelerate the industry in Brazil and help create a healthy ecosystem.”
Before his corporate venturing career, Braga co-founded machines and equipment monitoring sensor technology developer Blumatech, and he is passionate about helping other entrepreneurs. He said: “I dedicate a lot of time to mentoring, advising and giving back to startups and the local community in private and governmental initiatives.”
