Promote access to culture, health and sport, in addition to contributing to the generation of jobs by increasing the Brazilian GDP through the so-called “creative industry” and activities in the third sector. These are some of the goals that drive the startup Social Symbiosis, which operates in the segment of tax incentive laws in order to create a bridge between companies that have financial resources for projects and social organizations. It was one of the new companies with a social impact that showed its trajectory, performance and experience in ABES SOFTWARE CONFERENCE 2019, held on October 14, at the São Paulo Corporate Towers Convention Center.
Social Symbiosis was born out of feelings of restlessness and frustration, from its founding partners, Raphael Mayer and Mathieu Anduze, who saw relevant social proposals being shelved by the lack of resources. They then analyzed in detail, through the Access to Information Law, investment data via incentive laws, in particular the Rouanet Law, from 1991 to the present day. The conclusion: in practice, 71% of the 182 thousand projects that requested incentive funds in Brazil did not leave paper and 50% of the resources that could be made available by companies were not directed.
“We found that there were many companies that wanted and could invest in solid, reputable and socially relevant initiatives. Then, with the help of programmer Tadeu Silva, we developed a digital platform that combines technology and information to connect companies able to donate part of the taxes due to projects approved by the incentive laws. We use data analysis to help companies make better decisions and to identify projects with social impact throughout Brazil, which gain visibility and investments, and our tool facilitates this macth”Explains Mathieu Anduze, founding partner of Simbiose Social.
Mathieu Anduze and Raphael Mayer, founders of Social Symbiosis
Image credit: Renato Stockler
Social impact analytics
In a pioneering way in Brazil, the Simbiose Social platform collects and analyzes data through robots allocated in the different public bases involved with the incentive laws, at the federal, state and municipal levels. Today, the work of the startup helps to optimize and democratize the distribution of financial resources among projects and social organizations that generate high social impact, in different locations in the country. The innovation it brought to the segment made Simbiose Social win the 2018 Social Entrepreneur of the Future Award, promoted by Folha de S. Paulo and Fundação Shwab. In addition, the startup was certified as Company B and was invited by the Skoll Foundation to participate in the largest social impact event in the world - the Skoll World Forum.
“In addition to dismantling a“ black box ”of the country's laws - with more than R$ 80 billion mapped over the past 27 years - the Simbiose platform changes a market logic, guided by a format in which projects came into contact with companies, whether or not they use intermediaries, to be seen and evaluated for investments, where the marketing logic in the selection often prevailed, or they participated in public notices. In addition to the match between companies and social projects, we effectively collaborate with the socio-environmental responsibility strategies of the private sector, offer investment auditing and add more reliability to the entire process ”, explains Mathieu.
The startup has among its clients companies such as Bayer, Kroton, Facebook, Heineken, Via Varejo, among others. Entrepreneurs generate a potential to target R$ 250 million for projects. With a team of 17 employees, Simbiose currently has 33 corporate clients and more than 80 social organizations that have received resources via the platform, including the Choir of Small Singers of Camaçari, Virada Sustentável and UNAS - Union of Nuclei, Associations Heliópolis and Region Residents.
Children benefited by the actions of Social Symbiosis
Image credit: Renato Stockler
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