Start-Up Brasil — Brazil's National Startup Accelerator (2013–2019)

Start-Up Brasil (Programa Nacional de Aceleração de Startups) was launched in November 2012 by Brazil's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), operated by Softex, with first acceleration cycles running from 2013. MCTI/Softex qualified private accelerators via public tender; those accelerators then selected startups twice a year for non-dilutive R&D grants of up to R$200,000, up to 12 months of acceleration, mentorship and investor connections. Up to 25% of slots per cycle were reserved for international founding teams, an explicit talent-attraction mechanism, though no visa or immigration fast-track was tied to the program.

The first cohort ("Turma 01," reported November 2014) supported 45 startups (38 Brazilian, 7 foreign); its R$7.7 million in public investment helped attract R$9.63 million in private capital, with participating startups reporting 139% revenue growth and 63% headcount growth (Jan-Aug 2014). Across 2013-2015, MCTI's own reporting states 183 startups were supported from 17 Brazilian states and 13 countries, with R$34.7 million invested by MCTI leveraging roughly R$103 million in private investment and over 1,200 direct jobs — figures sourced from MCTI's investment portal and not independently re-verified. A further R$9.7 million funding round (edital) was launched in August 2017.

No independent academic or government-audit evaluation of Start-Up Brasil specifically was found. Multiple searches for active 2024-2026 Brazilian federal startup-acceleration calls turned up only other, newer programs (InovAtiva Brasil, Finep Startup, Startup Indústria) rather than Start-Up Brasil; the last concrete news located about the program itself dates to 2019. No formal termination decree was found, so the program appears to be dormant rather than formally closed — a cautionary case of an internationally-oriented talent program that lost momentum after roughly 2019.

Overall: a genuine, government-run talent-attraction accelerator with real early-cohort investment and job figures, but no independent audit exists and the program shows no confirmed activity in over five years, undercutting any claim of ongoing sustainability.

Read the full analysis: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Start-up_Brasil