Brazil Outsourcing: Curitiba Comes On Strong as ‘Silicon Valley South’ By Tarun George Brazil has a well established global services industry, with Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro hosting shared service centers for US firms since the 1980s. But recently a smaller city in the south has been gaining important momentum as the IT and BPO destination of choice in Brazil. Curitiba, capital of the state of Paraná, looks like an outsourcer’s dream.
But as larger and more high profile firms locate to the area, can the city continue to produce the required IT-specialized talent to meet their needs, or will it suffer in the oft-cited area of scalability? Some telling figures on Curitiba: GDP for the city is more than US$ 17 billion, of which the commerce and service sectors together make up 65%.Very educated workforce, with a 96% literacy rate.This year Curitiba was awarded the Globe Sustainable City Award for urban planning and development. “Curitiba fits our global strategy perfectly. IT-Friendly In terms of infrastructure, Curitiba has it all. High Quality/Low Cost. 5 Brazilian startups that will get a boost in 2011 - TNW Latin America. Ever heard of AcessoZero, Anuncie.La, Crowdtest, EuDecido or Vozis?
Probably not yet, but this could change soon: Aceleradora just announced that these are the five Brazilian early-stage startups it will mentor during its 2011 cycle. What is Aceleradora We recently listed Aceleradora as one of the nine Latin American accelerators you need to know (see previous story). Founded by angel investor Yuri Gitahy, it has been around since 2008, well before the recent boom of accelerators in the country. 2011 selection process This is why it comes as no surprise that Aceleradora received 135 applications for its 2011 acceleration program. Aceleradora decided to start a few acceleration activities with some of the teams to test them;Based on the shortlist published in March, funds and angels started approaching some of these 20 projects; for confidentiality reasons, Aceleradora decided to wait to make its final list public.
The selected companies What’s next. Brazil: A Hot Incubator For Tech Startups. In a darkened room in Recife, Brazil, a half-dozen youths peer at glowing computer screens, battling it out in a multi-user game. This is no cybercafé, but rather the offices of Jynx Playware, a budding Brazilian designer of computer games aiming for sales of $400,000 this year. "The first requirement if you want to work here is you have to be a gamer," says André Araujo, 32, one of Jynx's five founding partners.
Think of the global information-technology industry, and your first thought isn't of Brazil. Yet Brazil's IT industry has been growing at a 10% annual clip since 2000, according to São Paulo researcher E-Consulting Corp., and now boasts sales of $10 billion a year. Exports of high-tech goods and services should rise from around $500 million last year to $2 billion by 2007, predicts Trade Minister Luiz Fernando Furlan. Recife's Porto Digital, a business park in the northeastern state of Pernambuco, shows how it can be done.
One of C.E.S.A.R'S star progeny is Jynx. Inside Brazil's Advertising Startup Boom. I just got back from a few weeks in Brazil. It was one of my last research trips for my upcoming book on entrepreneurship in emerging markets. During my last trip to the country, I wrote about the preponderance of finance multinationals and innovation percolating in Sao Paulo and suggested it could be a hub for future financial innovation. Another big category that jumped out at me on this trip: Advertising. Most big advertising companies have a creative bureau in Brazil for a reason: Brazilians are just good at advertising. They are creative: I went on a graffiti tour of Sao Paulo and saw some of the most amazing, detailed, expressive, wacky stuff I’ve ever seen, building-sized and most of it will be painted over and replaced by my next trip. (Photo above one of hundreds snapped on that tour.)
They are emotional: One entrepreneur told me when he went to soccer games, he didn’t care if his team won or lost, he just wanted the emotional release either way. Biruta: Sheer Creative Crazy.