Startup SC starts approach strategy with corporate venturing

 

Program partners with the corporate accelerator Inove Senior

 

Created two years ago and after promoting 1,440 hours of consultancy to start-up companies, the Startup SC (www.startupsc.com.br) establishes another operating arm: venture capital. The first step was taken from the partnership with the Inove Senior corporate acceleration program, conceived by Senior, a reference company in the development of management software in Brazil, which is selecting up to 10 ideas to be accelerated.
 
“In venture capital, large companies take the place of the startup investor, it's a worldwide trend. Inove Senior is similar to initiatives with this profile, which were very successful. Our goals are the same, that's why we established this partnership”, says the coordinator of Startup SC, Alexandre Souza. The program, which has already trained 80 startups and has open enrollment for the 5th class, aims to go beyond the qualification of entrepreneurs and their businesses, and bring them closer to the large companies in the technology sector in Santa Catarina. The partnership provides for the synchronization of activities developed by the two programs. According to Senior Marketing and Product Director, Alencar Berwanger, this initiative will optimize the training time of the acceleration program, taking advantage of the expertise and credibility of the program coordinated by Sebrae-SC.
 
For Souza, the main differential of Inove Senior is access to new distribution channels. “Access to a network of more than 5,000 customers and partners greatly enhances the chances of success for a nascent company”, he says. In addition, the corporate acceleration program, considered a pioneer in Santa Catarina, still brings advantages to consolidated companies. According to the coordinator of Startup SC, the initiative is similar to that of other large technology companies that invest in startups or spin-offs, in search of innovative solutions for their businesses.
 
The great advantage of investing in a nascent business outside the company's structure, according to him, is keeping it free from the bureaucratic controls and processes that are necessary for large organizations, but which take away the flexibility and dynamism of nascent businesses. “In startups, there is less hierarchy, less structured processes and a lot of flexibility to allow the configuration of the business model, as it is being constituted. The greater the degree of product or business model innovation, the greater the need to stay away from existing corporate structures”, he explains.
 
advantageous synchrony

In practice, the partnership starts with the participation of the coordinator of Startup SC in the evaluation panel of pre-selected ideas for acceleration – the first stage of the selection ended on February 10th. All startups selected by Senior will have access to the Startup SC Training Program, in which they will be able to participate in a series of workshops, lectures and mentoring sessions, given by Sebrae/SC consultants, over a two-month period.
 
The ideas selected by Senior will also have access to the benefits offered by Startup SC partners, such as: credits to use the AWS platform, free subscription to the ContaAzul business management tool, free subscription to the SendGrid email sending tool, free subscription to the Zendesk customer service, RD Station digital marketing management software discount, and more.