This article is written by Igor Nazareth, Undersecretary for Innovation at the Ministry of the Economy of Brazil. For more like this, see our special entrepreneurship policy series for Global Entrepreneurship Week (#GEW2020). Curated in partnership with the Startup Nations policy community, this series seeks to highlight how public servants can help remove barriers to entrepreneurs.

It has been a rough year for all economies, and Brazil’s is no exception.

Yet our government unit continues to work hard to mitigate threats and increase productivity, competitiveness and employment through free enterprise, competitive market and human capital, and the modernisation of Brazilian companies.

As part of this mission, our team of public officials seeks to support those who create and grow new businesses, knowing that, as in the past, many solutions to today’s problems will come from entrepreneurs and innovators.

The following are the 5 pillars of our entrepreneur support scheme:

In 2019, our government launched a public consultation on a proposed new legal framework. The aim here was to identify bottlenecks that prevent the creation,expansion and internationalisation of start-ups and innovative companies and propose regulatory improvements to foster their growth.

We received over 7,000 contributions from citizens, associations, businesses, universities and bar associations from all around the country. We also received early feedback from experienced peers from around the world via the Startup Nations Policy Hack, a program that my fellow Startup Nations member from Estonia explains in this post.

Taking all this input into consideration, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation developed a bill tackling a number of issues.

These include the legal definition of “start-up”, improving the business environment, legal security to investors and entrepreneurs, investment facilitation to increase resources to start-ups, regulatory sandboxes and public procurement of innovative solutions. This bill is now under discussion in the Brazilian Parliament.

InovAtiva Brasil

InovAtiva Brasil is a public program jointly carried out by the Ministry of Economy and SEBRAE (Brazilian Support Service to Micro and Small Enterprises). The program supports — free of charge — startups from all sectors and regions of Brazil, connecting them to market and investment opportunities. It is considered the largest acceleration program in Latin America.

Via two accelerator cohorts per year, up to 160 start-ups receive online training, mentoring, pitch training and, at the end, participate in the InovAtiva Experience — final event with additional capacity building and a Demoday with investors, large companies and mentors.

In the last 2 years (2019 and 2020), InovAtiva Brasil ranked first in the Ecosystem category of the 100 Open Startups publication, which is used as a reference by large corporations and investors.

Our goal for the next 4 years is bold: to mentor a total of 15,000 start-ups by working with a network of local leaders to disseminate InovAtiva’s tools throughout the country

In 2017, the OECD selected the program as an international benchmark for innovation in the public sector, and in 2016, the Brazilian Association of Startups (ABSTARTUPS) awarded it as the Best Accelerator Award.

The program has now more than 1000 volunteer mentors who have helped us to accelerate over 2,200 start-ups. InovAtiva Brasil has also provided guidance to more than 30,000 entrepreneurs on the program website.

Our goal for the next 4 years is bold: to mentor a total of 15,000 start-ups by working with a network of local leaders to disseminate InovAtiva’s tools throughout the country. This will be key in strengthening the national entrepreneurial ecosystem as these leaders can catalyse local start-up communities by gathering investors, mentors and other stakeholders.

StartOut Brasil

This non-profit program, sponsored by public and private Brazilian organisations, supports the immersion of Brazilian startups in some of the world’s most promising innovation ecosystems.

The initiative provides the entrepreneur a complete experience with training in internationalisation; market intelligence; networking with potential customers, investors and partners; and support for soft-landing.

In the last 3 years, the program supported immersions in Buenos Aires (Argentina), Santiago (Chile), Miami (USA), Boston (USA), Toronto (Canada), Paris (France), Berlin (Germany), Lisbon (Portugal) and Xangai (China).

In 2021, there will be missions to New York (USA), Bogota (Colombia) and Barcelona (Spain).

National Committee for Startup Support Initiatives

The Brazilian Federal Government runs over 20 key initiatives aimed at developing the startup ecosystem.

To increase effectiveness, impact and coordination between the different public agencies running these initiatives, a Presidential Decree created a National Committee for Startup Support Initiatives in November 2019.

The coordination group is composed not only of government members, but also private actors engaged with the start-up ecosystem. A web platform is planned to create a single window for information on different government programs and instruments, with a focus on the end user – the entrepreneur.

My colleague Leonardo Freitas from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation provides more details about this approach on the GEN Atlas.

Designing, socialising, fine-tuning and implementing these policy levers and support mechanisms has required hard team work, but the rise of Brazil’s startup economy at the regional and global levels has proven that these efforts have been well worth it.

In recognition for these sustained efforts, Mr. Carlos Alexandre Da Costa, our Deputy Minister for Productivity, Labor and Competitiveness, has been invited to join the Steering Committee of government representatives advising the world’s most important entrepreneurship policy gathering — the Startup Nations Ministerial in 2021.

We hope our pairs from around the world will join us to discuss a global, entrepreneurship-fueled response to address the economic aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. — Igor Manhães Nazareth

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