Black-led Brazilian startups choose Google Fund | Small and medium-sized companies

The tech giant Last September, it announced that it would invest 5 million Brazilian reals In companies run by blacks in Brazil from their arm in Google for Startups, to expand the initiative that was born in the United States in June 2020.

In addition to the financial contribution, the project provides guidance to startups that help make decisions such as choosing technologies, building sales channels, and attracting more investments.

With this announcement, the total number of companies selected for the Black Founders Fund since its launch in September 2020 has reached 17. Of the eight new companies selected, four are from the Northeast states. (See the full list below).

Google for Startups Brasil expects to make about 30 contributions by the end of 2021. Registrations and investments began last September and New registrations can be made through Initiative site.

According to Andre Barnes, Google Director for Startups in Latin America, the fund emerged amid discussions about race in Brazil and the United States, especially after the wave of demonstrations that occurred after the death of George Floyd.

The black security guard was killed on May 25 after being immobilized by white policeman B. Your knee is on your neck.

“There is still insufficient data to understand the scale of the difficulties black entrepreneurs face in Brazil, but looking at our data, we realize that this is a tangible problem,” Barnes said.

“White-led companies collected 69 times more resources than startups run by non-whites, such as blacks, aborigines, and yellows.He said, citing a survey conducted with Google Initiative members.

The amounts allocated to each business depend on the needs of each company, the stage of the product offered, and the potential past investments. Google isn’t asking for a startup or a return on its moneyWhether from the Black Founders Fund or other initiatives.

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When asked about the benefits of investing for Google, Barnes said to St 1 The company wants to promote diversity and inclusion in the ecosystems of startups and that Corporate growth can pay off for the tech giant.

The director said, “We believe that if we do a good job, we are partners and these companies grow, and at some point they will become partners and potential customers of Google products.”

“We have many products that can help entrepreneurs. This return can happen, but the focus is on social diversity,” he added.

The eight new startups selected are:

• AfroHealth: It provides technological solutions in the health services of the black community;
• Certdox: A platform to simplify and speed up the credit contracting process;
• The Black Diaspora: Combines tourism offers, accommodations, courses, and experiences that value Afro history and culture;
• GISTAR: Connects maternal and child health professionals with families;
• Innovator: A platform for education and community outreach with careful configurations of innovators, activists and entrepreneurs;
• Prol Educa: A platform for submitting vacancies that have not been filled in private educational institution registrations for a more accessible value;
• Tract: Online tool for editing and producing art for social networks, websites, and other parts of digital marketing;
• Unica An online mediation platform that uses data to provide compensation from service companies, such as telephone and electricity, in order to democratize access to consumer law.

Nine startups are already part of the Black Founders Fund program:

• Afropole: Offers e-commerce bringing together products and brands from black entrepreneurs;
• AOCA Game Lab: The game development studio in charge of Arid game;
• Originator: A platform that connects freelance creative professionals with the companies that need your services;
• Isigor: Legal software to control deadlines and manage law firms and legally managed firms;
• Aut leg: Searching, organizing and analyzing transaction documents for real estate transactions;
• Trazzavilla: Focused delivery application on local trade and service peripheral areas of Salvador;
• Trinus: It introduces a system for describing sports training;
• Will be: Data intelligence-based health management platform, aiming to help companies reduce costs with health plans;
• We use: Daily clothing rental platform with a monthly plan.

Startups need a technology-based solution and at least some users to compete for Google’s investment in startups.

Based on the applications and nominations, the investment arm of the company analyzes some criteria:

• What are really startups that offer technology-based solutions;
• The current stage of the company, if it already has a ready and used product;
• Growth potential;
• Investments are sought in the incorporation stage (the first investment, which can also be made after investing by an angel investor).

“We have created a shortlist of companies whose panel has interviewed people from different regions associated with Google to understand what the startup moment is and what we can help with in addition to the money. We strongly support the black Google employees for this choice,” Barnes commented.

Paolo Tenorio, co-founder of Trakto design platform, told St 1 Who, before choosing the fund, had already participated in Google’s acceleration, which did not include capital.

He said: “The selection process included video calls with the Google team, and there were several conversations to understand the stage of the company and what we want to do from now on.”

Trakto bills R $ 1.5 million annually, has 24 employees and around 50K active clients. Tenório said the user base has increased by 40% since the investment was received.

“Very few women, black executives, and companies from the Northeast raised capital. One of the features of the Black Founders Fund is that they understood my journey and communicated with them, it was a different conversation than I had with other investors,” he commented. Tenório, from Maceió, capital of Alagoas.

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For TrazFavela, a delivery service serving the peripheral areas of Salvador, which was one of the first selected services, the amount invested is mainly used to develop a mobile application. Today, the company operates through WhatsApp.