MCTI will invest R $ 20 million in startup software and hardware – Computerworld

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) launched on Wednesday (13), new stage of Start-Up Brazil program, called Start-Up Brazil 2.0. Secretary of MCTI the Information Policy, Manuel Fonseca, announced total investments of R $ 40 million – R $ 20 million for acceleration hundred springs technology-based companies, R $ 10 million in support of hardware startups and R $ 10 million to encourage the birth of new ideas. According to Fonseca, the three notices must leave in 60 days.

“We prioritize the continuation of this winning program,” he said. “We had a lot of discussion to format this new model, which incorporates the figure of technical mentoring. That is, we approach our startups the contribution of teachers and doctors. The idea is to make the integration between academia and business,” said the holder of Sepin .

the candidate companies to participate in the main call, responsible for selecting the classes 5:06 Start-Up Brazil, must have no more than four years of existence. After being chosen, startups need to negotiate its accession to one of 12 accelerators assigned the last program of the announcement. The acceleration has a duration of up to 12 months for software companies and 18 months for hardware companies, supporting research, development and innovation (RD & amp; I), the business modeling support, participation in training activities and programs market access.

the general coordinator of services and MCTI Computer Programs, José Henrique Dieguez, stressed the importance of developing physical computing items for the new stage of the program. “We already have hardware companies being benefited and accelerator with ‘footprint’ hardware, but we want to give full support from now,” he noted. “Working with hardware means that you have more complex steps and take longer and require more investment because of that.”

The second initiative provides additional support for hardware startups. The aid complements the needs of PD & amp;. I and engineering, such as prototyping, development of pre-products and tests – admittedly more dense activities and complex, which generally require longer maturity

The third strand stimulates the emergence of entrepreneurs in information and communication technologies (ICTs), by supporting the design of actions, together with business incubators. The line should offer activities such as local competitions and concept testing.

Approach

For the president of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq / MCTI ), Hernan Chaimovich, the Start-up Brazil 2.0 is “a challenge of creation, coordination and catalysis”, to enjoy in a “rational, intelligent and creative” the legal Framework of Science, Technology and Innovation (Law No. 13,243 / 2016) the dialogue between companies and universities.

“the legislation allows, on the one hand, lose the fear of public investment in a private company and, second, the freedom to the researcher of the public system to develop in the private system without lose their nature, “he said.

the president of Association of Brazilian Software Excellence Promotion (Softex), Ruben Delgado, recalled that the first three startups classes of the program received R $ 27 million investment public and R $ 89.7 million from private sources: “There can not be honored when you see that, every real public initiative, the private sector put R $ 3.30. It is a fantastic number. No government program with such effectiveness, so successful and has as much credibility as to the industry add that amount, “he said.

Created by MCTI, the Start-up Brazil is a federal program with operational management of Softex, seeking to add a set of actors and institutions in favor of technology-based entrepreneurship. national and international calls occur by CNPq and the Brazilian Agency for Export and Investment Promotion (Apex-Brazil), respectively. since 2012, it has supported 183 companies, divided into four classes, coming from 17 states and 13 countries. the action is part of the Strategic Program for Software and Information Technology Services (Major iT).

* from notíticias the MCTI agency.