Three Startups Selected to Help Brazil’s Government in Covid-19 Crisis

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – BrazilLAB announced on Friday, September 25th, the winning companies of its first stage of the Covid-19 task force. In July, the organization launched the program to attract startups and small and medium-size companies with solutions that could help the government mitigate the impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic in the country.

In the first cycle, the accelerator was looking for solutions to help the government address remote public education, management digitalization and productive inclusion (credit access tools, youth training, job generation platforms and sales).

Over 150 companies signed up for the program. The organization selected 15 and did an online mentoring session with them over the course of a month. Now the program has closed and three startups have been confirmed as winners.

On the education front, Book Tree was selected. The startup provides a platform for public and private network students to access and read books. The company provides reading and learning challenges with classes, with educational support at all times. Currently, there are over one million registered students. With the addition of public schools, the company expects to reach ten million users by 2025.

The Shopping do Cidadão was elected the best solution for the digitalization of public authorities. The company has been working with the management of public bodies for a long time, such as Poupa Tempo in São Paulo. It offers citizens a unique system through which they can connect and use the services offered by the government.

In terms of productive inclusion, the startup Lys Academy was the winner. It provides professional training through videos and texts sent by WhatsApp. With the company’s service, people can train for a new skill in a straightforward way. Currently, the company provides service for companies such as Natura and Itaú.

New stage

After the success of the first stage, BrazilLAB is opening registrations for the task force’s second wave. Discussing with several municipalities, the organization perceived common demands, which helped steer the challenges proposed for the program’s second stage.

Now, the accelerator is looking for startups and companies with solutions for public data management and security, particularly in the health area. In education, the demand is to engage youths with school. The task force seeks playful solutions, which use the gamification concept, and work on the teacher-student relationship to encourage students to return to school.

In terms of productive inclusion, the mission is to find tools that help include women in the labor market. BrazilLAB has noted that female workers and entrepreneurs have been overwhelmed by the pandemic, often giving up their jobs. Another front that interests the organization is the training of rural entrepreneurs.

Registrations are open until October 13th through its website. As with the first stage, 15 companies will be selected to take part in the one-month mentoring project on how to sell to the government. On December 14th, the three finalists will be announced.

“Startups and SMEs are often afraid to sell to the government, they don’t know how to operate. BrazilLAB can help, it provides a network that guarantees security for companies to start this process of working together with the government,” says Letícia Piccolotto, president and founder of the accelerator.

Over its four years of operation, the accelerator has assisted 80 startups and has a network of 30 partner municipalities willing to work with innovation companies.

Source: Exame