Academic Entrepreneurship: Meet Companies That Emerged from Research Institutions

According to the Sebrae Startups Observatory, Brazil has become the third-largest startup market in Latin America. A significant part of this growth comes from startups that emerge in an academic environment, where many Brazilian universities are investing in creating their own incubators and accelerators. These initiatives offer support to startups founded by students and researchers, providing resources such as mentoring, physical space, and access to investor networks. Institutions like Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) and the University of Campinas (Unicamp) are examples of academic environments that have this type of structure to transform research into innovation.

The accelerator at Fundação Getulio Vargas is called FGV Ventures, and it has existed since 2016 with the purpose of fostering ethical entrepreneurship with high growth potential. Meanwhile, Unicamp, through its Innovation Agency Inova Unicamp, has an incubator called Incamp – Unicamp's Technology-Based Business Incubator. Inova manages Incamp and since 2003 has been seeking to establish a network of relationships between the University and society, in order to enhance research, teaching, and knowledge advancement activities.

Challenges and Opportunities Faced by Startups Emerging in an Academic Environment

Despite these startups having the structure provided by research institutions, the coordinator of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Environments at Inova Unicamp, Mariana Zanatta Inglez, is categorical in stating that academic entrepreneurship brings with it some difficulties.

"Entrepreneurship is not easy, and starting from university technologies is even more difficult. We see some challenges in the day-to-day of the incubator, such as the need to transform a person, or a team, with a very academic bias into entrepreneurs. Generally, these are people who understand a lot about the technology they are developing, but little about the market," introduced Zanatta.

The coordinator added that being able to count on financial resources and knowing how to manage them to develop, manage technological resources to evolve the initial prototype, and convince the market to acquire the product, are other challenges faced by startups that emerge in an academic environment.

For the director of FGV Ventures, Luciana Cualheta, startups that emerge in research institutions can not only create innovative initiatives but also help society face global challenges such as food security, social inequality, and climate change.

"Considering that academia can raise science-based information, it is possible to use this information to take practical actions aligned with the public and private sectors," highlighted Cualheta. The director also stated that nowadays it is not enough for startups to think only about profit management, but also about the externalities caused by the company.

"That is why one of the criteria to go through the FGV Ventures acceleration program is that participants describe the externalities caused by the specific business they are seeking to accelerate, and at the same time, a plan to minimize these externalities," she added.

Success Stories

Inova Unicamp was present at the Innovation for Competitiveness event, organized by FGV Ventures in partnership with the FGV Research and Innovation Network. The event took place on March 27, at the São Paulo School of Business Administration (FGV EAESP), where both institutions presented success stories about startups that were incubated and accelerated in university environments.

On the occasion, Mariana Zanatta Inglez presented the startup Rubian, which applies supercritical extraction technologies developed at Unicamp to obtain natural extracts from the extensive Brazilian biodiversity, such as annatto, passion fruit, and jabuticaba. The startup that emerged from the Unicamp Business Modeling Challenge uses these inputs to produce lipid, vitamin, antioxidant, and carotenoid extracts, which have benefits for combating diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular problems, fatty liver, prostate inflammation, and skin aging, in addition to producing dyes and aromas.

Another startup presented was S Cosméticos do Bem, which, like Rubian, went through the Incamp incubation program. It applies technologies also developed and licensed by Unicamp to produce dermocosmetics. Zanatta also presented three other companies currently incubated at Unicamp's Technology-Based Business Incubator: BGEnergy, which operates in the area of green and low-carbon hydrogen; Rizobioma, which develops bionematicides capable of replacing pesticides and chemical agents in crop control; and Defense Fertilizer, which operates in the area of biopesticides for coffee rust.

Another innovation that emerged in an academic environment and was present at the event is the startup IWASTE. Conceived by entrepreneur Frederico Vieira and accelerated by FGV Ventures, the startup offers innovative and sustainable solutions for industrial waste management throughout Brazil, transforming waste into valuable resources, optimizing the entire company's logistics chain, and promoting environmental sustainability and financial efficiency for its clients.

"We work with waste that no one knows what to do with, such as biomass boiler ash. But in addition to delivering environmental efficiency, we also deliver financial efficiency, so we work very hard to reduce costs and increase revenues for all types of waste. An example of how we apply this waste as raw material in an innovative way is the use of biomass ash as raw material for car batteries, as it has fantastic electrical conductivity," explained Xavier during the Innovation for Sustainability panel.

Other sectors that can benefit from solutions developed in academic environments are the health sector and the automotive industry. The startup Carristas, which was also accelerated by FGV Ventures, seeks to transform the management of mechanical workshops by connecting customers with different vehicle services. Conceived by entrepreneur Rafael Ferreira, the business characterizes a space on the internet or app, where car owners can connect with service providers and follow the service in real-time.

"Mechanical workshops lose time due to lack of organization and very manual management, and vehicle owners feel a lack of transparency in this process. Therefore, the Carristas platform offers transparency in tracking a service in real-time, where the workshop uses a system that allows the customer to follow all the details, including parts, process stages, and delivery forecast," presented entrepreneur Rafael Ferreira during the Innovation in the Automotive Sector panel.

In the health area, the company Healz offers marketing technology for this sector. The startup is led by entrepreneur Gabriela Rosolen, one of the founders of another startup that was accelerated by FGV Ventures: WILU. The company connects users to different health specialties ranging from mental, physical health to professional development.

You can check out the presentation of these startups in the event broadcast that took place on FGV's YouTube channel: morning event broadcast and afternoon event broadcast.

To learn more about FGV Ventures, visit the website.

To learn more about Inova Unicamp, visit the website.