The United States and Israel have one of the most developed startup ecosystems in the world. For this reason, these countries are attractive markets for investors around the world. In Brazil, an investment fund was created to help investors that look for technology companies with high growth potential from these countries to finance and support them in their expansion plans.
Daniel Ibri and Camila Folkman have supported startups from the US and Israel since 2016 through Mindset Ventures. Before the fund, Ibri ran an investment fund that focused on Brazilian companies. However, on many occasions, investors told him that “the offer was good,” but “they had already invested in something similar years ago.” Ibri and Folkman later found an area of opportunity.
Brazilians seek innovative ideas to invest
Brazilian investors often have difficulty investing outside the South American country. The challenges range from finding a good startup to convincing entrepreneurs to allow them to be part of an investment round. The founders of Mindset Venture decided to take the task of solving these problems.
Currently, Mindset Ventures is looking for companies in innovative areas and with a lot of potential in the future, no matter which sector they are. The startups of their portfolio include health, education, finance, agtech, and cybersecurity companies. The fund offers startups advice for business development, as well as financing.
Although entrepreneurs who receive support from the fund are not required to invest in Brazil, many of them are already considering the country for expansion since they approach the fund. Of the 37 companies that received support from Mindset Ventures, eight began operating in the country.
Ibri explained that Brazil is an attractive market for technology companies, who consider the country a place where they can do business at low cost. Also, the Brazilian population is a regular consumer of technological products.
Business ideas for Brazil
American PayJoy is one of the companies that arrived in Brazil with Mindset Ventures. The company proposed to make smartphones more accessible to low-income people. With this objective, they developed software that blocks the phone if it’s not paid on time. The startup offers retailers a guarantee to be able to do without rigorous credit analysis in this way.
So far, most of the investors that make up the Mindset Ventures fund are Brazilians who live inside and outside the country, although there is also European capital. Ibri and Folkman pointed out that they plan to extend the fund to European countries.
Mindset Ventures’ investors, like every investor, are looking for a return on investment. However, Ibri mentioned that this is not always his primary motivation. Sometimes, these investors want to learn and become familiar with technological advances.
Mindset Ventures raised funds in 2016 and 2017. In August 2019, they will do so again to bring six new American or Israeli companies to Brazil.