This is part of our weekly series of posts summarizing startup news from Brazil in English.
–SEBRAE is hosting a Brazil-wide startup day on June 3rd as part of the Feira do Empreendedor, one of two major entrepreneur’s events SEBRAE holds regularly. The startup day will include a pitch competition as well as workshops and talks. Winners of the pitch sessions will earn various prizes including free workshops and consulting. Full story.
–Buscapé held a celebration of it’s acquisition of HotMart, AnuncieLá, MeuCarrinho and Urbanizo. The four were former winners of the Your Idea is Worth A Million contest. Buscapé also announced the launch of another round of the competition.
–SocialBase is a new social network aimed at supplementing corporate intranet communications. SocialBase provides profile features such as timelines, chats, thematic groups and content sharing that support corporate collaboration, productivity and client relations. Full story.
–StartupFarm is a type of incubator program that launched last year. In its first crop of startups two went on to good success: Entregador was purchased by Peixe Urbano and Wabbers received investment from Inova Ventures. StartupFarm is launching round two, accepting applications from entrepreneurs through mid May. Full story.
–Startup Cat-us won BR$20,000 in the Proxxima Prize startup competition for their social network advertising toolbar. The toolbar is already in use on thousands of blogs and provides creative ad banner controls and analytics. Full story.
–TrabalhoJá has launched a mobile phone service for finding jobs. As part of the launch incentive, businesses can list their openings for free. Job seekers can register their area of interest and receive alerts about new job listings. TrabalhoJá is part of Assured Labor, Inc., a recruitment firm founded at MIT that specializes in mobile devices as tools for job seekers, especially targeted at low and mid wage workers who may not have desktop internet access. Full story.
-Harpia Ventures has invested in Currículo Autêntico, a human resources tool for verifying the degrees and certifications of prospective employees. Full story.
–HelpSaúde, a health care professionals directory, has received another round of investment, this time from Kaszek Ventures. Kaszek Ventures is run by Nicolas Szekasy and Hernán Kazah, both associated with Mercado Livre. The HelpSaúde site has received 2 million unique monthly visits and has over 24,000 health care professionals listed. Full story.
–Porto Digital has partnered with Greenpeace to offer a competition for innovations relating to sustainable cities. Themes of interest include digital and financial accessibility, electronic payments, preservation of urban history and heritage, management of waste from electronic equipment, efficient use of water, urban services management, and renewable energy. Full story.
–The contemporary art institute Inhotim is hosting the third edition of Pitch Digital, an event for entrepreneurs and investors. It will be held June 23rd. It will include panels of investors evaluating startup ideas, networking opportunities and workshops. The event is organized by Grupo Login with support from the Brazilian Association of Startups, Google, the government of Minas Gerais, SEBRAE and Aceleradora. Full story.
–A new report offers a look at how Brazilians are using coupon and group buying services. In brief the report suggests that 70% of consumers polled have used a coupon on a group buying site at least once; of those, 28% were women, 72% men; of those 43% were 18-25 years old, 35% were 25-35 years old; 38% had used a coupon 2-5 times; 42% had used a coupon more than five times; 88% follow at least 3 sites to watch for deals; 38% follow an offer aggregation site; 37% receive their offers by email, 21% from the sites directly, 27% from friends and only 6% through social networks; 64% have lost a coupon at least once; 82% would like a place to organize their coupons; 87% would like a place to resell unused coupons. Data was collected in February 2012 based on 812 respondents from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Full story.
