Why Brazil’s tech talent is set to take the world by storm
According to a recent study carried out by IDC, who worked with the Brazilian Association of Software Companies, the IT market in Brazil rose 9.8% last year making it a $47 billion industry.
Bay Brazil also reported that demand for Brazilian tech talent in the US has significantly grown over the last 5 years with big companies such as Apple, Google, and LinkedIn leading this trend.
Forbes reported earlier this month that the “Sleeping [tech] Giant” is finally awaking, according to a contributor, Bedy Yang.
So what has caused this highly anticipated boom in the tech market?
The rise of venture capital
Creative tech startups need to raise money to achieve their business goals, and with the likes of venture capital now being commonplace. Startups have better access to funds and are set up for success.
Take company Kaszek, for example, who recently raised $600m in capital which will be distributed across the LatAm network. Not only are companies like Kaszek more experienced in raising and investing capital these days, but the amount of capital is also dramatically increasing,
“The $600m they raised in this round of funding was triple what they got last time, truly reflecting the interest in talents from South America” says Gabriela Silva, finance expert and spokesperson at Reviewbox, a Brazilian media and tech startup.
Top quality stakeholders
Stakeholders have been an integral part of Brazil’s tech success. Those who have done well in the past, typically want to reinvest in tech again and with that, not only bring wealth to the table but experience and an insight into what does and doesn’t work.
Another example is Julio Vasconcellos who, after successfully launching Facebook in Brazil, went on to work with successful businesses such as Peixe Urbano and Benchmark.
Women in the Brazil tech scene are still small but mighty
There’s also an increasing number of women in tech in Brazil too. However, there is still some gender imbalance. Take for example Sao Paulo, a bustling Brazilian city, where only 13% of start-up entrepreneurs are actually women. And, though 60% of women there are enrolled in college, less than 15% of them are studying tech-related subjects such as computer science.
Some women, however, are seeing this niche and high barrier to entry as an opportunity, like businesswoman and entrepreneur Camilla Achutti, who was interviewed by America’s Quarterly recently about women’s role in tech in Brazil.
She now has a blog with over 30,000 unique visitors a month, called Mulheres na Computação where she connects with like-minded women in her field through blog posts and compiles lists regularly for opportunities that her fellow women in tech may benefit from.
Watch this space
As you can see, Brazil’s tech talent is bursting at the seams and, we cant wait to see how this industry grows, not only as a whole but for the entrepreneurial women in the county.
Photo by Raphael Nogueira
