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Good practice Imported

CELTA Incubator (Fundação CERTI) — Brazil's First Technology Business Incubator

Brazil · Florianópolis · See the Brazil profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 42% 71/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Created in 1986 by Fundação CERTI as Brazil's first tech-business incubator, CELTA has graduated 118 companies generating ~800 direct jobs and R$67m/year in revenue, including RD Station, which sold for R$1.86bn in 2021 as Brazil's first unicorn exit.

118 companies
Companies graduated (1986-2021 (35th anniversary))
33 companies
Resident companies
800 jobs (approx.)
Direct jobs generated
67 R$ million/year
Combined annual revenue of resident companies
1.86 R$ billion
RD Station acquisition price (2021)
4 awards
"Incubator of the Year" awards (1997, 2006, 2011, 2016)
CELTA Incubator (Fundação CERTI) — Brazil's First Technology Business Incubator

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Fundação CERTI
Period
1986–present
Keywords
Technology-business incubation, applied research, knowledge transfer

Context

Fundação CERTI, a non-profit applied-research institute founded in 1984 in Florianópolis and linked to the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), created the CELTA business incubator in 1986, making it Brazil's first technology-business incubator according to the national incubator association Anprotec.

Activities

CELTA selects early-stage, technology-based startups and supports them with infrastructure, mentoring and networking until they are mature enough to operate independently, at which point they graduate from the incubator.

Results

By its 35th-anniversary review, CELTA had graduated 118 companies and was housing 33 resident companies generating around 800 direct jobs and roughly R$67 million a year in combined revenue, with graduate RD Station selling to Totvs for R$1.86 billion in 2021 in what is widely reported as Brazil's first unicorn-scale incubator exit; Anprotec has named CELTA "Incubator of the Year" four times (1997, 2006, 2011 and 2016).

Conclusions

Anprotec credits CELTA with inspiring similar incubators in Mexico, Venezuela and Peru, illustrating how a single regional non-profit research institute can sustain a technology incubator for close to four decades with an independently recognised track record.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Fundação CERTI, a non-profit applied-research institute linked to the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), operates CELTA as its incubation programme.

Conditions for success

  • Continuous operation under the same parent institute since 1986.
  • Formal affiliation with Brazil's national incubator association (Anprotec), which has repeatedly recognised the programme.
  • Link to a public university (UFSC) providing a pipeline of applied research and talent.

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

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