2nd Annual Venture Capital inBrazil Forum
SPEAKERS
Alexandre Petry
Investment Executive Manager, Apex-Brasil
Alexandre has graduated in Computer Science at Pontifical University of Rio Grande do Sul State in
Brazil (PUC-RS). He holds with honors a post-graduated title in Foreign Trade and International
Business Management at FGV Management.
Alexandre has worked in the past seven years in the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency
(Apex-Brasil), mainly focused in attracting FDI to the Brazilian oil & gas industry. He now holds a
position as investment executive manager responsible to attract foreign direct investment into several
industry sectors. Before working in Apex-Brasil, Alexandre held a position in the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs working in south-south cooperation projects.
Anderson Thees,
MD and co-Founder of Redpoint e Ventures
Anderson Thees is a Managing Director and co-founder of Redpoint e.ventures, the first Brazilian Venture
Capital fund sponsored by Silicon Valley firms. Redpoint e.ventures was created to bring to Brazil the best
practices of venture investing developed over decades in the Valley, to help foster the nascent tech
entrepreneurship ecosystem in the country and region.
Previously, Anderson was the CEO of Apontador, the leading local search and geolocation company in Brazil.
Prior to Apontador, Anderson was an Investment Principal at Naspers/MIH, in charge of starting their Internet
presence in Latin America. At Nasper Anderson invested and acted as executive in leading companies like
BuscaPe and Movile. Before that he was an investment officer at Eccelera, a local venture capital fund. Earlier in
his career, he worked as a tech entrepreneur and software developer both in Brazil and Switzerland. Anderson
is also a volunteer Venture Corp mentor at Endeavor since 2003.
Anderson received a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Unicamp, a MBA from the Yale School of
Management, and a SEP from Stanford University.
Andre Rodrigues
Founder, MobLee
MobLee is a mobile app for events and trade show organizers.
Metrics: serves 18 of the 20 largest Brazilian trade shows
Andy Tsao
Managing Director, SVB Global Gateway, and SVB Global Private Equity
Services, Silicon Valley Bank
Andy Tsao is a Managing Director and leads SVB’s Global Gateway, which assists innovation
companies in the emerging markets with their US and international market expansion. In addition, Tsao
leads SVB Global Private Equity Services, working with SVB’s international private equity and venture
capital clients, particularly those in the emerging markets. He brings more than 20 years of experience
banking dynamic companies in technology industries worldwide.
In his roles, Tsao manages SVB’s relationships with venture capital and private equity firms outside the
U.S., and also helps emerging market companies as they seek U.S. market entry and U.S. companies
as they seek to expand abroad. In both capacities, Tsao provides these firms with strategic advice and
banking services, including debt financing, based on a deep understanding of their needs.
Previously, Tsao led and helped found SVB’s U.K.-based operation, SVB Financial Group UK Ltd, which was established in 2004. Tsao is a TiE
Silicon Valley Charter Member and Asia America MultiTechnology Association (AAMA) Silicon Valley Co-President and Charter Member, and
serves on the West Coast Advisory Board for Colgate University.
Tsao earned a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and an MBA from Boston University.
Ari Levy
Senior Tech Reporter
Ari Levy is CNBC's senior technology reporter in San Francisco. He joined in June 2014.
Prior to CNBC, he spent 11 years at Bloomberg News, starting with financial coverage in New York,
before moving to the Bay Area, where he wrote about venture capital, deals and dealmakers,
technology start-ups and innovation. He also edited stories across the technology landscape and
contributed to Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg Markets.
Bedy Yang
Partner, 500 Startups
Bedy is Venture Partner at 500 Startups. 500Startups is a leading seed and incubator fund in Silicon
Valley with vibrant spaces in Mountain View and San Francisco. It provides early-stage companies with
funding and mentorship from over 200 experienced startup mentors. Bedy has invested in over 50
startups, not only in Brazil and Spanish speaking countries, but also in Kenya and Russia.
In addition to 500 Startups, Bedy founded Brazil Innovators, an organization that became the epicenter
and resource for Brazilian tech founders. Through her leadership, her work has been featured in leading
media such as Exame, Veja, Folha de São Paulo, Estadão, Techcrunch, TNW, Washington Post
Globo. She was selected as America Quarterly Innovator, featured as women leader on Forbes. Bedy
has been active speaker in conferences including Berkeley, Bloomberg Link, Dell Women Entrepreneur
Network, Endeavor,
Instituto
de
Empresas,
FGV,
Startup
Chile.
Before 500 Startups and Brazil Innovators, Bedy worked as management consultant specializing in
distribution and go-to-market strategies for Fortune 500 companies in Brazil. She has also worked as
social entrepreneur creating opportunities for women and indigenous tribes in Brazil and China.
Bedy holds a BA at Fundação Getúlio Vargas and MLA (East Asian Studies) from University of Pennsylvania. She speaks Chinese, English,
Portuguese and Spanish fluently. She is also a member of the Society of Kauffman Fellows and graduated with recognition for her leadership.
Bruno Cavalcante
Founder, Alvanista
Alvanista is an online community for gamers to review and share their gaming experience.
Metrics: 600k posts, 1.5M comments, 3.6M likes and 12k reviews.
Carlos Eduardo Guillaume
CEO and Co-Founder at Confrapar
Carlos is CEO and Co-Founder at Confrapar, where he successfully raised 3 funds (USD100M) and invested
in 12 tech companies. His career spans technology firms such as Microsoft and HP in Latin America, Asia and
the United States. In the late 90s, worked for The Ericsson Corporate Venture in São Paulo, responsible for
screening tech companies in the Brazilian market.
Carlos has a bachelor's degree in Electronic Engineering from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, an
MBA from the Getulio Vargas Foundation, and an MBA with a focus on Marketing from IBMEC.
Carlos Kokron
Managing Director, Qualcomm Ventures - LATAM
Carlos Kokron (CK) is Managing Director for Qualcomm Ventures in Latin America, where he is
investing in companies that aim to transform the lives of people and enterprises leveraging the mobile
Internet.
Kokron has been investing in start-ups and helping them grow since the Internet bubble. He has
invested in companies such as Patagon.com (Santander), Spring Wireless (Goldman Sachs, NEA),
Yavox (Movile), Navini Networks (Cisco), Alog Datacenters (Equinix), Senior Solution (BovespaMais),
Emprego Ligado e 99Taxis.
Before Qualcomm Ventures he was a partner at Stratus Group responsible for its Growth Capital
platform and was Managing Director for Intel Capital in LatAm and in the US for 7 years. CK is an Independent Board member at @ttitude
Global and he is also an Endeavor mentor.
Kokron holds a B.Sc. and M.SC. in Chemical Engineering and has earned his M.B.A. from U.C. Berkeley.
Chris Rogers
Partner, Lumia Capital
Christopher T. Rogers, J.D. is a General Partner at Lumia Capital where he is responsible for leading
Lumia's investment and value-add activities for companies with significant exposure to mobile
platforms. In this capacity, Chris overseas Lumia's investments in Lenddo, Telly, and Betable. Prior to
Lumia, Chris was the co-founder of Nextel Communications (acquired by Sprint for $35 billion) and its
two predecessor companies. Chris brings 30 years of mobile industry experience as a founder, advisor,
and operator. Most recently, Chris served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and
Spectrum, at Sprint where he oversaw mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, equity investments and joint
ventures. He also was responsible for management and oversight of wireless spectrum licenses and
Sprint's portfolio of emerging technology investments.
Prior to the 2005 Sprint acquisition, Chris was Co-Founder and Senior Vice President of Nextel
Communications, Inc. In this role, Chris helped to spearhead the roll-up of local carriers that
transformed Nextel into a major national operator. He also led the series of transactions in Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil that resulted in the
creation of Nextel International, now an independent public company. Chris was also responsible for negotiations with regulators, investors, and
carriers in China, Saudi Arabia, India, Jordan, and Pakistan, among other geographies.
Throughout his time at Nextel and Sprint, Chris sat on the boards of numerous venture-backed companies across five countries. Additionally,
Chris has served as a director on multiple public company boards and as well as several Washington, D.C.-based philanthropic organizations.
He currently sits on the board of Mandalay Digital (NASDAQ:MNDL) and was elected to the board ofLightSquared as the lead independent
director to help oversee the company through its bankruptcy.
Christian Barbosa
Founder of Triad Productivity Solutions
Christian is an entrepreneur, the greatest specialist in the management of time and personal productivity in the
country. Considered “Mr. Time” by the magazines Você S/A and Zero Hora. He is the founder of Triad Productivity
Solutions, a multi-national consultancy specialized in productivity and collaboration, developing courses, software and
consulting for 54% of the 1.000 largest companies in the Brazil. His list of clients include companies like Abril, Air
Products, Santander, Bradesco, Gafisa, Mercer, Sanofi Aventis, Tupperware, Ingenico, Toyota, Coca Cola, Rede
Globo, and Nestlé, among others.
Christian writes for various newspapers and national and foreign magazines and is the author of You (Woman) are
the Owner of your Time (Gente publishers), I’m in a Meeting (Agir) and More Time, More Money (Thomas Nelson
Brasil), written in partnership with the financial consultant Gustavo Cerbasi, The Triad of Time ( Sextante Publishers ),
Balance and Results ( Sextante Publishers ) and the most recent 60 practical Strategies to gain more time ( Sextante
Publishers ) with more than 1,000,000 copies sold.
Goboxi is startup that helps users deal with e-mails and social network messages, tasks teams. Our productivity algorithm helps you to reduce
up to 50% the time spent with email and task management.
Claudia Fan Munce
Managing Director, IBM Venture Capital Group
Vice President, IBM Corporate Strategy
Board Member, NVCA
Claudia Fan Munce is the Managing Director of the IBM Venture Capital Group and Vice President of IBM
Corporate Strategy. The Venture Capital Group’s mission is to promote an innovation ecosystem engaging the
full range of IBM resources and capabilities with that of its venture capital partners and other key innovation
drivers. It serves as the strategic unit of IBM that drives business partnership and acquisition pipeline with
venture capital firms and their portfolio companies globally, focusing on growth markets and emerging
technologies to maximize growth opportunities.
Ms. Munce joined IBM’s Research Division in 1985 and she has held many technical and business leadership positions. She is on the Board of
the National Venture Capital Association, chairwoman of board of the Global Corporate Venturing, and advisor to many other organizations aim
to advance science and technology for women and minorities in the venture and academic community. She also served as a board member for
the Latin American Venture Capital Association, Women in Leadership in China, and many other venture capital organizations outside U.S..
Ms. Munce was born in Taiwan and grew up in Brazil. She holds a Master degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Santa
Clara University and a Master degree in Business Management from Stanford University.
Eduardo Rodrigues
Co-Founder of Bem Direto
Eduardo Rodrigues, co-founder and CTO, Chemical Engineering, system architect and Senior software
engineer and database manager. Eduardo worked for Unisys, Praxair and WTH as IT Director and Brazilian
operation general manager.
BemDireto is the leading Brazilian marketplace for real estate allowing users to search and close better deals.
Our platform provides management tools as CRM, Professional Website and Lead Aquisition of homebuyers
that empower real estate agents to find and close more deals. We are the most complete marketplace in the
Real Estate market.
Eric Save
Partner, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
Mr. Save’s practice has a strong focus on Latin American transactions. He has represented clients with respect
to a broad range of matters in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, including cross-border acquisitions and
divestitures, venture capital investments, secured lending, joint ventures, investments in energy and mining
projects, and the establishment or sourcing of operations in the region. He regularly drafts and negotiates
agreements and other legal documents in Spanish, and has collaborated with lawyers and business people
throughout the region. He also represents Latin American founders and investors with respect to their business
ventures in the U.S.
In addition to this Latin America experience, Mr. Save has advised clients with respect to corporate and
transactional matters in the U.S. and other areas outside of Latin America, with a particular focus on the industries of renewable energy, wine &
spirits transactions, sports management and technology.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Save worked in Mexico City for four years as an executive and in-house lawyer at a Mexican software company that
he co-founded.
He graduated from J.D., Columbia University School of Law, 1999, Haft Foundation Prize, Columbia Human Rights Law Review, Moot Court
Editor and A.B., Social Studies, Harvard College, 1996, magna cum laude
Fabio Bruggioni
CEO, E.Bricks Digital
CEO of e.Bricks Digital since April 2011. He holds a bachelor degree is Business Administration
with specialization in Marketing and studied management programs at Harvard Business School, Insead
and IESE Business School. He was Vice President of Grupo Telefônica, responsible for the Telecom,
Internet, Broadband and Pay TV business. He also worked in the business department of Credicard.
Among his challenges ahead of e.Bricks Digital are the consolidation and expansion of the existing internet
and mobile businesses, in addition to the identification and development of new opportunities.
Fernando Campos
Co-founder at Lab22
With an entrepreneurial background that spans over 15 years, Fernando has hands-on experience in
creating and managing startups, having been a founding partner at 3 companies. Currently, as a co-founder
at Lab22, an active hands-on Brazilian seed fund, he has successfully lead and raised over a dozen
investment rounds for his tech based companies.
He is also a board member and advisor at several startups as well as a mentor at Brazilian accelerators
Papaya and Polo Marte. Eventually taking part as a judge in local startup competitions, including some of
the largest in Brazil: Intel Berkeley Challenge and Fiesp's Acelera Startup, he has evaluated hundreds of
different opportunities.
He is a complete tech addict who will hack and fiddle with every gadget he has and is a hardcore gamer who
welcomes a challenge from his adversaries.
During his professional life, he has also held a number of positions in the banking and corporate markets, having gone through companies such
as the Coca-Cola Company, where he helped manage and structure over $300M in projects investments and acquisitions, BBM Bank, a large
local corporate credit institution and IP Fund, one of the most traditional equity managers in the country. Fernando has a business major from
PUC-Rio and an MBA from IBMEC Business School. He has also attended UC Berkley's Venture Capital Executive Program.
Fernando Okumura
Co-Founder and CEO, Kekanto
Fernando is from São Paulo, but spent 10 years in the United States and Australia, where he worked at
JPMorgan IB and McKinsey & Co. He's co-founder and CEO of Kekanto, a StartUp based in São Paulo backed
by Accel Partners, Kaszek Ventures and W7. He's passionate about entrepreneurship and investing, being an
angel investor in Eccosys (Cloud ERP for E-Commerce) and Brilia (LED lighting). Fernando holds a B.S. from
the Wharton School and a MBA from the Stanford GSB. In Brazil, he earned a LLB from USP Law School and
was admitted to the Bar.
Kekanto is a Collaborative City Guide for Latin America that shares similarities with Yelp. It was founded in 2010
and is backed by Accel Partners, Kaszek Ventures and W7. It has vibrant local communities spread along 5
countries and 20 cities with more than half a million reviews growing 88% YoY (July14). Kekanto's App can resemble a Spotify for local
businesses with collections for different occasions and personal bookmarks. It was elected by both Apple and Google as one of the best
Brazilian Apps of 2013 and has well over 1 million organic downloads.
Francisco Jardim,
Co-Founder, SP Ventures
Francisco Jardim, Co-Founder of SP Ventures, is the Managing Director of the Sao Paulo Innovation Fund.
Previously, he managed the Criatec Fund´s operations in São Paulo. During this period, Francisco led
thirteen investments in early stage transactions. He represented Criatec in the Board of Directors of seven
firms in a range of sectors including Biotechnology, New materials, IT and Agribusiness. Before joining
Criatec, he worked in wholesale banking and hedge funds, besides founding his own trading company.
Francisco has a degree in Business Administration with focus on Finance from Saint Louis University (USA)
and has attended a course on Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital ("Diploma IVCE") at FGV
SP.
Gabe Turner
Director, DFJ Global Network
GabeTurner is the new director of the DFJ Global Network, a collective of 14 independent VC firms across 4
continents that collaborate on opportunity sourcing, diligence and value creation for their investments. Prior
to DFJ-GN, Gabe spent six years as a management consultant, first with Deloitte's Strategy & Operations
practice and then as an independent advisor where he worked with governments on policy related
to science, technology and innovation, and with startups in the Silicon Valley on user acquisition and
growth. Earlier in his career, Gabe helped grow a sustainable food company that imported delicious grassfed beef from his native Uruguay.
He graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA and BS, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Gilberto Ribeiro
Partner at Vox Capital
Gilberto has worked with corporate finance, consulting and organizational development in several
different organizations. He started his career in 2006 at Caixa Econômica Federal (a Brazilian public
bank) in the Public Social Programs department and acted later as a consultant at PwC. In 2010, he
joined Vale (biggest Brazilian mining company) to coordinated one of the departments of planning
and control of the first greenfield coal operation of the company, in Mozambique.
Gilberto has a bachelor degree in Business Administration at FEA-USP.
Guilherme Mantovan
Manager of the Investment Department at Finep
Guilherme is the manager of the Investment Department at Finep, the Brazilian Agency for
Innovation, which invests in the VC industry since 2001 when the Inovar Program was launched. The
department is responsible for select and follows Seed, Venture Capital and Private Equity Funds. The
current portfolio has 30 funds, 110+ invested companies and an R$ 600 millions commitment.
Guilherme is Telecommunications Engineer from CEFET-RJ with a MBA degree at IBMEC-RJ.
Gustavo Lemos
Co-Founder and CEO, IDXP Analytics
Gustavo Lemos is the co-founder and CEO of IDXP Analytics, a silicon valley venture backed company
that pioneered real-time in-store shopper behavior analytics application platform to the brick-and-mortar
retail.
IDXP won the IBM Smartcamp competition and the IBM Global Entrepreneur of the Year popular vote
award in 2012. He has been a passionate entrepreneur since he was 15 years old when he created a
Top
100
World
Website
according
to
PC
Magazine.
IDXP is based on his experience as an entrepreneur when he founded and leaded to market share
leadership a successful enterprise software cloud SaaS company for the telecom industry and in retail
companies
when
he
established
and
managed
a
retail
store
chain.
He is originally trained as a telecom engineer, Post Graduated in Finance in one of the world top
business schools (FDC) and executive educated in Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Haroldo Korte
Partner at Atomico
Haroldo is Partner for the Investments Team in Latin America. From Atomico’s base in Brazil Haroldo uses
his experience and knowledge of the region to identify outstanding entrepreneurs and businesses that
have the potential to scale and become category leaders.
Before joining Atomico, Haroldo spent 14 years running Outras Imagens, an online image bank he founded
with operations in six Latin American countries. Outras Imagens grew from a small regional base to
become one of the leaders in its field; licensing images to major international corporations such as National
Geographic, New York Times and AFP.
He also held business development positions at Grupo Itamarati, Banco Garantia and Andrade Gutierrez.
Haroldo holds a business administration degree from Getúlio Vargas Foundation (EAESP-FGV).
Humberto Matsuda
Managing Partner at Performa Investimentos
Humberto Matsuda is the managing partner for Early Stage investments at Performa Investimentos. Humberto
holds a MBA degree in Finance, Marketing and Investor Relations from Fundação Instituto de Pesquisas
Contábeis, Atuariais e Financeiras (FIPECAFI) and a bachelor degree in Law from the Sao Paulo Estate
University (Faculdade de Direito do Largo Sao Francisco – USP).
Currently, he is a Board Member at the ABVCAP (Brazilian Venture Capital Association) as well at other
companies, and is a mentor at several acceleration programs in Brazil, other Latin American countries and also in
the US. Since 2007 he focuses on managing Venture Capital investments, in special, in innovation driven
businesses.
Ian Sobieski
Founder and Managing Director of the Band of Angels Fund, L.P.
Since August of 1997, Ian Sobieski has helped direct the Band of Angels, an exclusive group of highnet worth individuals who were also former officers or founders of many of the high technology
companies that made the Silicon Valley famous. Since its inception, the Band has invested
approximately $225M into 254 startup companies helping to create more than 4,000 jobs. Of these
companies, more than 45 have exited for a profit to Band of Angels investors and 9 have had IPOs.
Dr. Sobieski has been a founding partner in three venture funds totaling $65M in capital. He is currently
helping invest the Band Acorn Fund, which backs entrepreneurs who have the strategy of building
profitable companies or exiting on the Fund's sole investment. His previous two funds were focused on
seed round financings as stepping stones to larger VC rounds. Ian has managed more than eighty
direct investments and has served on twenty boards of directors. Seven of his seed investments have
exited for a gain via M&A including SeaDragon Software, Quorum Systems, and Ordinate Corp. Two of
his investments have gone public; Genitope Corp. and PortalPlayer.
Ian has a Ph.D. and MS in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University, and a philosophy BA as well as a BS in aerospace
engineering from Virginia Tech. He is a founding board member of the Angel Capital Association and is a member of the Young Venture
Capitalists Association, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the National Ski Patrol Alumni Association. He is the author
of a dozen technical publications and is a former lecturer in the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at the University of California at
Berkeley.
Jim Connor
Sand Hill Angels, Board Member, Treasurer
Jim Connor has been involved in software applications addressing the capital markets for the past 20
years in multiple roles. He has been a founder/CEO, CFO, Treasurer and angel investor. Jim serves as
a Board Director and Treasurer of the Sand Hill Angels, is a Board Director of Liftopia, First Focus
Learning Systems and the Angel Capital Association (ACA). He serves on the Advisory Board of the
New Schools Venture Fund, Tabtor and Noca.
Jim was the founder and CEO of SymPro, Inc., managed the acquisition with JP Morgan Chase and
served as the Division President until 2007.
Jim has a personal investment interest in the Educational Technology sector, perceiving that the time right for affordable technology to broaden
access and the quality of educational content delivery available to all types of students.
Leonardo Pereira
Head of Department at Private Equity Division, BNDES
Leonardo Pereira works as the Head of Venture Capital and Private Equity Funds at BNDES´ Private Equity Division. Currently, he is
responsible for the design and implementation of BNDES’s new funds aimed to foster investments in seed capital, corporate venturing and
Brazilian access market. Besides that, he also manages a portfolio of 35 BNDES´ Private Equity funds . Leonardo is also a board member of
Brazilian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association. Previously, he was the Head of Trade Financing Department at BNDES´ Export Credit
Division, where he structured deals to 10 countries in Latin America and Africa. Prior to joining BNDES he worked in a telecommunication
carrier Embratel as a Strategic Planning Manager.
Leonardo Pereira is an Industrial Engineer from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) with a Master in Business Administration from
PUC-RJ.
Mateus Xavier
Founder, Winker
Winker leverages Condo apartment managers as distribution channel to create private social network for
neighbours.
Metrics: 35k users through 400 apartment condo managers, since opening its beta in 2 months.
Ralph Vasco
Founder, Stant
Stant is a web and mobile platform to help construction companies manage their construction sites, increasing their
efficiency and productivity.
Metrics: Private beta with customer and converted into paying customer.
Robert S. Linton
International Investor Relations for ABVCAP
Robert S. Linton is the founder of LCE Capital Advisory, a São Paulo-based boutique that provides
international sales / marketing and investor relations services to Brazilian private equity and hedge fund
managers. Robert is currently the coordinator of International Investor Relations for ABVCAP – the Brazilian
Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. He has worked in São Paulo since 1993 for a number of
investment banks, private equity funds and alternative asset managers such as Banco Sul América, Rio
Bravo, Vision Brazil, Crefisul and Deutsche Bank.
Robert has an International MBA from the University of Pittsburgh Katz School of Business and two BAs from
the University of Michigan.
Rodrigo Menezes
Co-Founder of Derraik & Menezes Advogados
Rodrigo is founding partner at Derraik & Menezes Advogados, coordinator of the entrepreneurship and
venture capital Committee of ABVCAP (Brazilian Venture Capital and Private equity association), angel
investor and represents foreign and local investment funds (like Microsoft Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures,
Atomico, Wayra, LGTV, DGF, Vox Capital, Performa and many others) and companies and entrepreneurs in
several venture capital and impact investment deals in a wide variety of industries, including internet,
cosmetic, e-commerce, consumer, healthcare, technology, telecom, energy and general industries.
He is a frequent speaker and guest lecturer in several universities in Brazil, such as FGV – Fundação Getúlio
Vargas and INSPER, teaching legal aspects of venture capital and private equity investments for graduation
and post-graduation programs. He is also a panelist in several conferences and seminars regarding legal
aspects of venture capital and private equity investments from distinct schools and associations in Brazil and
Internationally, such as FIU - Florida International University (Americas Venture Capital Conference), USP –
University of São Paulo, ABVCAP, Anjos do Brasil, FIESP, FIRJAN, Finep and Endeavor.
He is author and contributor of several articles on venture capital and private equity, including the Multijurisdictional Guide 2013 - Venture
Capital Chapter for Brazil, published by Practical Law Company (the “PLC Handbook”).
Rodrigo holds a master in law from IE – Madrid and attended the Venture Capital Executive Program at Haas School of Business, UCBerkeley.
Roi Carthy
Managing Partner, Initial Capital
Roi Carthy is Managing Partner of Initial Capital, an early stage investment firm with a focus on Israel and
Brazil.
Ronaldo Cruz
CEO and Co-Founder, Oktagon Games
Ronaldo began working with computers at an early age of 16 driven his by passion for technology and
software development. The evolution of word-wide gaming market prompted him to focus on studying the
games creation and development process. He pursued Systems development at the Federal Technology
University of Paraná and his first project as a leader was to convince his class-mates to incubate a game
company called Oktagon Games where Ronaldo took over as CEO. Oktagon Games was focused on making
Intellectual property for games and in 2012 raised $1.3 million dollars from Confrapar - a Brazilian VC
company. The Investment allowed Oktagon to create cutting-edge games like Armies & Ants and Mighty
Thrones for the growing mobile platforms.
Ronaldo with Oktagon games created one of the most talented Dev teams in Brazil and because of that, he
occupied a place among the directors of Brazilian Game Developer association which aims to improves the local game industry.
Oktagon was founded by a group of professionals with over 10 years of experience in the video game industry. Initially, Oktagon’s games were
commercialized in countries like the United States, Germany, France and United Kingdom. Currently, the company's focus is to build mobile
mid-core games for US, Europe and Latin American markets on Android, iOS and Windows OS platforms. They have been successful in
attracting more than 1 million downloads in their games from gamers all over the world.
Oktagon is now building the next generation of mid-core and core games for Mobile devices and has very good experience in running gamesas-a-service model with strong live operations capabilities and internally build software infrastructure.
Ruben Sanchez Souza
Angel Investor & Mentor at 21212
Ruben is a driven business developer with international experiences in Asia and LatAm, working for
multinationals, building up and growing new ventures and realizing M&As. He's a mentor to 21212 Digital
Accelerator and Endeavor and angel investor in startups.
He was Managing Director of Konigsberger Vannucci and worked in Venture Capital as Principal at Ideasnet
in Brazil.
Lived over 5 years in China were he co-founded WSP, was COO of ThePOPCompany and Country Manager
for Grupo Modelo.
Currently he lives in San Francisco and is focusing on ventures tackling Omnichannel challenges and
innovations in Payments.
He holds an MBA from INSEAD, BSc in Actuarial Science from Universidad Anahuac and executive courses from HBS and Stanford University
Tiago Brandes
Founder, Meus Pedidos
Meus Pedidos is a saas service to help field sales representatives close deals. Clients can create digital catalogs,
sales order and integrate via API with brands and manufactures.
Metrics: 2300 paying sales rep, CAC $75k, LTV $600
Yuri Gitahy
Founder, Aceleradora
Yuri Gitahy (BSc, MSc, MBA) is the angel investor who founded Aceleradora, the first startup accelerator
in Brazil. He launched his first startup at 19 after working for IBM, laid the early internet backbones in
Brazil with RNP, helped launch BOL, reaching a million freemail users in less than one year, and managed
the systems engineering team for UOL, the #1 internet portal in the country.
As a guest author, his articles about startups and venture capital on major publications are a reference for
most Brazilian founders. He's recently joined the Board for ABStartups (Brazilian National Startup
Association) and SEED (global entrepreneurship program backed by the Minas Gerais state government),
and has been working closely with organizations such as SEBRAE and APEX to improve the startup
ecosystem in Brazil.