Investments in startups that combine technology and market in Brazil approach US$1 billion

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – With the US$23 million investment from Goldman Sachs and Redpoint eventures fund to the Olist e-commerce platform announced last week, the national market of “martechs” (companies that combine technology and marketing strategies) is about to reach US$1 billion in investments, with 324 signed agreements.

The figure was calculated in the latest report of the innovation hub Distrito, which contains data from March. According to the study, the Brazilian startup ecosystem comprises 668 martechs, 14% of which employ over 100 staff.

The ones that currently employ the most are Neoway (485 employees), Semantix (301) and RankMyApp (208 employees).

This year, in just over a quarter, total investments in these startups have now reached 95% of the amount registered in the whole of last year (R$202 million). And, according to David Laloum, former CEO of Y&R agency, a partner and head of strategy at Distrito since November, there is much more to come.

“Companies are undergoing a profound change in mindset. Before, metrics were numbers like revenue and profit. Now, effectiveness is also measured by the success in the relationship with customers, the object of work of several startups,” he says.

Six martechs categories

According to the Distrito’s analysis, the martechs category includes startups that perform advertising campaign distribution, content creation, social network monitoring, sales automation, data analysis, and customer relationship.

The customer relationship category leads Distrito’s ranking in absolute number of companies, with 211 Brazilian startups.

“Companies have become ‘destinations’ for consumers. Soon, 3 or 4 companies will be able to address all of consumers’ desires and problems . This is the great race. And the winning destinations will be those that provide a better customer experience, with a more complete offer,” states Laloum.

‘There is no entrepreneurship without technology’

According to him, martechs have a fundamental role in these aspects.

“They are very important in building relationship channels, in sales automation, in payment tools, and in the organization of all this data, for example. Today there is no entrepreneurship that does not go through technology,” he says.

Source: UOL

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