Despite the impact caused by the coronavirus crisis in all sectors of the economy, investors in certain segments, such as the fintechs, remain confident about the role that these startups will play during and after the pandemic.
One of these optimists is Manuel Silva Martinez, partner and investment director of Santander InnoVentures, a US $ 200 million corporate venture fund that invests in startups focused on financial services and has Brazilian companies such as Fintech Creditas and the North American blockchain platform Ripple among the companies in your portfolio.
According to Martinez, Latin America is a peculiar market, where the pace of changes that have accelerated fintechs in other markets, such as smartphone penetration, has exceeded the ability of the financial services sector to meet these new consumer needs. The result is a scenario where the population, until recently ignored by traditional companies, is better served by startups.
“Investments in Latin America are interesting for us, as it allows us to support the growth of these emerging players and also to acquire a better and deeper understanding of the future competitive scenario and how it will evolve outside or in partnership with the traditional financial sector”, he points out.
Regarding Brazil in particular, the investor notes that institutional factors favor the performance of fintechs, such as interest rates, which favor the creation of credit startups, as well as the advancement in the payments segment, which favors active businesses in the transactional area. Martinez also highlights the increase in the number of foreign entrepreneurs operating in the country - such as Spaniard Sergio Furio, from Creditas - who helped to accelerate the maturity of the ecosystem.
As the pandemic evolves and companies start thinking about scenarios in the short and medium terms, Martinez believes that Brazilian fintechs have a great opportunity to focus on offers aimed at consumers and small and medium-sized companies - according to him, the moment is not so favorable for B2B offers.
“It is difficult to have visibility of the extent of the consequences [of the pandemic] for the global economy and more profound social changes worldwide, but despite this, fintechs have an important role to play”, he stresses, stressing that this will happen in two dimensions: in the short term, the crisis is displacing global supply chains and payments associated with them, as well as risk transfers between productive agents.
“Fintechs can be a good way to fill some of those gaps,” says Martinez. According to the expert, these companies will be able to guarantee faster payments, greater transparency of information, delivery of more financial information in real time, in addition to better and more direct communication with customers, alternative ways to assess their financial score - and therefore determine access to credit - as well as differentiated access to the capital market.
The crisis will present other opportunities for fintechs: according to Martinez, the pandemic is likely to change which segments of the population will be out of balance or poorly served by the rebalancing of economic flows and profits. In addition, the disruption of capital markets and huge interventions by governments in global economies can create new asset classes that can also bring business opportunities.
In addition, the investor notes that the prosperity of other segments, such as telemedicine, education and e-commerce, which accelerate as a result of the social changes caused by the crisis, positions the fintech businesses as facilitators of these adjacent industries.
FLEXIBILITY AND CHALLENGES
The startups' flexibility and quick response capacity will be an “antidote” to the nefarious effect of the crisis, according to Martinez, who anticipates a scenario where these companies will adapt quickly to respond to new market imperatives. This includes an emphasis on remote, flexible and direct services, but involving a greater amount of risk.
"But it is also possible that some fintechs face short-term challenges that will put them under pressure in the coming weeks and months," he predicts. After all, fintechs are also part of a financial system, and they will not remain unscathed by the global impact of the crisis.
“[Fintechs] that depend on access to the capital market can face a variety of challenges: less capital supply, price increases, changes in contractual terms or a changing situation that limits the guarantee of long-term [capital] sources term, ”he warns.
Regarding a possible increase in the mortality of startups as a result of the coronavirus crisis, Martinez believes that failure is a natural component of the innovation cycle, but obviously the current situation will affect some companies more than others.
“Every company must ask itself: how will my demand, direct or indirect, be affected? What is my dependence on other external elements, such as access to the capital market, the strength of a specific regulatory asset, distribution channels, and how will these elements be affected? ”, He advises.
“The ability to understand the answers to these questions, make the right decisions quickly and decisively and adjust your priorities, costs and perspectives will be the key”, points out the investor. "Resilience and adaptability will be more important elements than the business model to face this situation."
****
Not knowing how to do onboarding remotely, companies delay recruitment with pandemic
Recruitment processes are being postponed, and the prospect is that companies will begin to delay their selection processes as a result of the crisis. The trends are part of a survey carried out by HR tech Revelo with 14 thousand companies that use the company's recruitment and selection platform.
A 12% drop in the volume of appointment scheduling was found in the study. In addition, the startup has received feedback that some companies have decided to postpone their selection processes.
According to Lach de Crespgny, co-founder of Revelo, the reason is that with the adoption of the remote work regime, the employee's entry process into the company (the so-called onboarding) can be hampered.
This goes against the approach of some companies, particularly startups such as Wildlife Studios, one of the national unicorns, which continues to hire and onboard employees, even from a distance.
Revelo estimates that, for the coming weeks, there will be a growth of up to 15% in hiring, mainly in functions related to operations and technology, and especially in digital native companies, where the home office is a normal model of work.
"This increase in hiring in the operational and technology areas can occur on a national scale, since São Paulo is the city that suffers the most from the impacts of the pandemic so far, something that has not been observed so strongly in other states", claims of Crespgny.
The startup also predicts that businesses that require face-to-face tasks will paralyze hiring, causing a reduction in the levels of new vacancies, but this will only occur during the 'acute' phase of the so-called 'voluntary quarantine'.
****
Getty Images
Solidity in remote work helps innovation at Stone
Stone has reaped the rewards of home office policies introduced well before the pandemic. The payments company, which had its innovation area working remotely since 2017, now accelerates the development of new products and services. According to the company, the innovation team has more than 100 people from different states such as Bahia, Sergipe, Goiás, Pará, São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul.
According to the leader of people in the innovation area, Renata Zenaro, the model needed adjustments after many mistakes and successes, but now the way of working works. "Adopting remote work facilitates recruitment, increases the technical level of the team, encourages organization and documentation and brings flexibility to the day to day", he says.
Among the best practices learned in recent years, Stone lists the centralization of actions, events and documents in a single task, in addition to documentation practices and sharing of relevant information.
Teleconferencing, a fever among companies that are learning to work remotely, is not a rule in Stone's innovation team. Although video calls are used, the preference is for written communication, which allows people to evaluate and structure information calmly. Face-to-face interaction also has value: employees meet every six months in Rio de Janeiro to work and socialize together.
****
disclosure
Airbnb creates host support network
Airbnb announced the creation of a $ 250 million fund to help its hosts cover the costs of Covid-19 pandemic-related cancellations.
According to CEO Brian Chesky, in the case of reservations made until March 14 - with check-in between this date and May 31 and cancellations within the scope of the force majeure policy - the platform for stays and experiences will allocate 25% of the value that you would be entitled to under normal service suspension rules. Payments will start to be made now in April.
In addition, the platform created another fund specifically for the superhosts, hosts with the best ratings, worth $ 10 million. This month, the company will offer a subsidy of up to $ 5,000, without a refund, to superhosts who rent their own homes and need help paying rent or financing. "Our employees started this fund with donations totaling $ 1 million, and me and the other founders, Joe and Nate, are personally contributing the remaining $ 9 million," said Chesky.
The platform is also waiving the charge, from hosts and guests, of all service fees related to pandemic-related cancellations. In such cases, Airbnb refunds fees or provides an equivalent travel credit. Finally, the company has created a feature that allows guests to make financial contributions directly to hosts of accommodation they have already used.
According to the company, the measures are global, that is, they are valid for the 191 countries where the platform operates, including Brazil, which holds the 13th place in a ranking of generating local economic impact, with US $ 2.1 billion.
Vrbo - formerly Rent Season - informed, when contacted by FORBES, that the properties advertised on its platform are owned and / or managed by each owner or administrator, and the rental policies are determined by these partners. "We are strongly advising them to be more flexible in their cancellation policies to reimburse travelers or offer credits so that stays can be rescheduled on new dates at no additional cost."
According to the platform, the vast majority of owners and administrators are showing extremely solidarity with the situation and granting refunds or credits to travelers, given the extreme circumstances. "They will be rewarded by Vrbo in the future, with greater visibility in the listings of their properties and other advantages to be defined soon," said the company.
****
disclosure
Researchers from USP create prototype of a robot that could be used in health units
Six researchers from the Mobile Robotics Laboratory at the Institute of Mathematical and Computer Sciences (ICMC) at USP, in São Carlos, under the command of doctoral student Daniela Ridel, developed the prototype of an autonomous robot whose mission is to support the distribution of medicines and food to sick patients in hospitals. As a result, a decrease in the workload of professionals and a decrease in contact between them and the infected people is expected.
The initiative started two years ago, when Daniela founded the startup 3DSoft. "We have the technical capacity to make this project happen, however, there is a lack of help for the robot to reach the hands of those in need," she explains.
To take the first steps, the startup had the support of the Innovative Research in Small Businesses program (PIPE) and FAPESP, and created a low-cost sensor, appropriate to the national reality. “After the project ended, we decided to develop a service robot for deliveries, which should be ready in the coming months. But, due to the coronavirus scenario, we made a radical change and created the prototype to help healthcare professionals ”, says Patrick Shinzato, one of the startup's co-founders.
Faced with the new challenge, the search is for partners specialized in health, who can help the team better understand the demand of those who are on the front line to fight the coronavirus. Thus, the researchers will be able to assess the need to make some adjustments to the project. “Ideally, a partner would be able to put us in contact with hospitals as well as invest in assembling more robots. As we are all from the computing area, we need people with other skills to present the project to investors and whoever can help us, ”says Daniela.
The researcher estimates that, with all the resources at her disposal, it would take about two months of work to have a functional prototype ready, at the cost of R $ 17,000 (the first version). "On a large scale, that cost would certainly be reduced significantly."
****
Cuidas, a healthech that connects doctors and family nurses to employees and employees of companies, is offering, for the next 30 days, some of its services free of charge for small and medium-sized businesses.
****
Getty Images
MORE
- Sage Brasil announced its new brand in Brazil. The software company bought from the British headquarters last month by the president of the local operation, Jorge Carneiro, is now called ao³. The new company, focused on cloud management, wants to support micro, small and medium-sized companies and incorporates Sage Brasil's portfolio, including the IOB operation, a benchmark in the accounting, tax, tax and labor areas;
- Grupo Movile announced Patrick Hruby as its new CEO. Fabricio Bloisi, co-founder and CEO until then, becomes chairman of the board and will act closely with Hruby and the management team, while maintaining the position of CEO of iFood. Hruby assumes the main leadership position in the organization after spending five months as executive in residence in the group, a period in which he can deepen the operation of all companies - iFood, Wavy, PlayKids, Sympla, Zoop and MovilePay;
- TempoTem, a startup that offers quick solutions in the residential and automotive services segment, has developed a method of disinfecting environments to help contain the transmission of coronavirus. According to the company, the service is carried out through the nebulization or atomization of specific products recommended by WHO to combat the new virus, quaternary ammonia and hypochlorite solutions. The application is made throughout the environment, with a focus on places more likely to spread, such as, for example, door handles or switches. TempoTem says the dwell time of the active virus drops from three days to 30 seconds, depending on the surface. Prices vary according to the footage of the environment. Up to 70 square meters, for example, the service costs R $ 329.90. From 351 to 500 square meters, R $ 859.90.
Despite the impact caused by the coronavirus crisis in all sectors of the economy, investors in certain segments, such as the fintechs, remain confident about the role that these startups will play during and after the pandemic.
One of these optimists is Manuel Silva Martinez, partner and investment director of Santander InnoVentures, a US $ 200 million corporate venture fund that invests in startups focused on financial services and has Brazilian companies such as Fintech Creditas and the North American blockchain platform Ripple among the companies in your portfolio.
According to Martinez, Latin America is a peculiar market, where the pace of changes that have accelerated fintechs in other markets, such as smartphone penetration, has exceeded the ability of the financial services sector to meet these new consumer needs. The result is a scenario where the population, until recently ignored by traditional companies, is better served by startups.
“Investments in Latin America are interesting for us, as it allows us to support the growth of these emerging players and also to acquire a better and deeper understanding of the future competitive scenario and how it will evolve outside or in partnership with the traditional financial sector”, he points out.
Regarding Brazil in particular, the investor notes that institutional factors favor the performance of fintechs, such as interest rates, which favor the creation of credit startups, as well as the advancement in the payments segment, which favors active businesses in the transactional area. Martinez also highlights the increase in the number of foreign entrepreneurs operating in the country - such as Spaniard Sergio Furio, from Creditas - who helped to accelerate the maturity of the ecosystem.
As the pandemic evolves and companies start thinking about scenarios in the short and medium terms, Martinez believes that Brazilian fintechs have a great opportunity to focus on offers aimed at consumers and small and medium-sized companies - according to him, the moment is not so favorable for B2B offers.
“It is difficult to have visibility of the extent of the consequences [of the pandemic] for the global economy and more profound social changes worldwide, but despite this, fintechs have an important role to play”, he stresses, stressing that this will happen in two dimensions: in the short term, the crisis is displacing global supply chains and payments associated with them, as well as risk transfers between productive agents.
“Fintechs can be a good way to fill some of those gaps,” says Martinez. According to the expert, these companies will be able to guarantee faster payments, greater transparency of information, delivery of more financial information in real time, in addition to better and more direct communication with customers, alternative ways to assess their financial score - and therefore determine access to credit - as well as differentiated access to the capital market.
The crisis will present other opportunities for fintechs: according to Martinez, the pandemic is likely to change which segments of the population will be out of balance or poorly served by the rebalancing of economic flows and profits. In addition, the disruption of capital markets and huge interventions by governments in global economies can create new asset classes that can also bring business opportunities.
In addition, the investor notes that the prosperity of other segments, such as telemedicine, education and e-commerce, which accelerate as a result of the social changes caused by the crisis, positions the fintech businesses as facilitators of these adjacent industries.
FLEXIBILITY AND CHALLENGES
The startups' flexibility and quick response capacity will be an “antidote” to the nefarious effect of the crisis, according to Martinez, who anticipates a scenario where these companies will adapt quickly to respond to new market imperatives. This includes an emphasis on remote, flexible and direct services, but involving a greater amount of risk.
"But it is also possible that some fintechs face short-term challenges that will put them under pressure in the coming weeks and months," he predicts. After all, fintechs are also part of a financial system, and they will not remain unscathed by the global impact of the crisis.
“[Fintechs] that depend on access to the capital market can face a variety of challenges: less capital supply, price increases, changes in contractual terms or a changing situation that limits the guarantee of long-term [capital] sources term, ”he warns.
Regarding a possible increase in the mortality of startups as a result of the coronavirus crisis, Martinez believes that failure is a natural component of the innovation cycle, but obviously the current situation will affect some companies more than others.
“Every company must ask itself: how will my demand, direct or indirect, be affected? What is my dependence on other external elements, such as access to the capital market, the strength of a specific regulatory asset, distribution channels, and how will these elements be affected? ”, He advises.
“The ability to understand the answers to these questions, make the right decisions quickly and decisively and adjust your priorities, costs and perspectives will be the key”, points out the investor. "Resilience and adaptability will be more important elements than the business model to face this situation."
****
Not knowing how to do onboarding remotely, companies delay recruitment with pandemic
Recruitment processes are being postponed, and the prospect is that companies will begin to delay their selection processes as a result of the crisis. The trends are part of a survey carried out by HR tech Revelo with 14 thousand companies that use the company's recruitment and selection platform.
A 12% drop in the volume of appointment scheduling was found in the study. In addition, the startup has received feedback that some companies have decided to postpone their selection processes.
According to Lach de Crespgny, co-founder of Revelo, the reason is that with the adoption of the remote work regime, the employee's entry process into the company (the so-called onboarding) can be hampered.
This goes against the approach of some companies, particularly startups such as Wildlife Studios, one of the national unicorns, which continues to hire and onboard employees, even from a distance.
Revelo estimates that, for the coming weeks, there will be a growth of up to 15% in hiring, mainly in functions related to operations and technology, and especially in digital native companies, where the home office is a normal model of work.
"This increase in hiring in the operational and technology areas can occur on a national scale, since São Paulo is the city that suffers the most from the impacts of the pandemic so far, something that has not been observed so strongly in other states", claims of Crespgny.
The startup also predicts that businesses that require face-to-face tasks will paralyze hiring, causing a reduction in the levels of new vacancies, but this will only occur during the 'acute' phase of the so-called 'voluntary quarantine'.
****
Getty Images
Solidity in remote work helps innovation at Stone
Stone has reaped the rewards of home office policies introduced well before the pandemic. The payments company, which had its innovation area working remotely since 2017, now accelerates the development of new products and services. According to the company, the innovation team has more than 100 people from different states such as Bahia, Sergipe, Goiás, Pará, São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul.
According to the leader of people in the innovation area, Renata Zenaro, the model needed adjustments after many mistakes and successes, but now the way of working works. "Adopting remote work facilitates recruitment, increases the technical level of the team, encourages organization and documentation and brings flexibility to the day to day", he says.
Among the best practices learned in recent years, Stone lists the centralization of actions, events and documents in a single task, in addition to documentation practices and sharing of relevant information.
Teleconferencing, a fever among companies that are learning to work remotely, is not a rule in Stone's innovation team. Although video calls are used, the preference is for written communication, which allows people to evaluate and structure information calmly. Face-to-face interaction also has value: employees meet every six months in Rio de Janeiro to work and socialize together.
****
disclosure
Airbnb creates host support network
Airbnb announced the creation of a $ 250 million fund to help its hosts cover the costs of Covid-19 pandemic-related cancellations.
According to CEO Brian Chesky, in the case of reservations made until March 14 - with check-in between this date and May 31 and cancellations within the scope of the force majeure policy - the platform for stays and experiences will allocate 25% of the value that you would be entitled to under normal service suspension rules. Payments will start to be made now in April.
In addition, the platform created another fund specifically for the superhosts, hosts with the best ratings, worth $ 10 million. This month, the company will offer a subsidy of up to $ 5,000, without a refund, to superhosts who rent their own homes and need help paying rent or financing. "Our employees started this fund with donations totaling $ 1 million, and me and the other founders, Joe and Nate, are personally contributing the remaining $ 9 million," said Chesky.
The platform is also waiving the charge, from hosts and guests, of all service fees related to pandemic-related cancellations. In such cases, Airbnb refunds fees or provides an equivalent travel credit. Finally, the company has created a feature that allows guests to make financial contributions directly to hosts of accommodation they have already used.
According to the company, the measures are global, that is, they are valid for the 191 countries where the platform operates, including Brazil, which holds the 13th place in a ranking of generating local economic impact, with US $ 2.1 billion.
Vrbo - formerly Rent Season - informed, when contacted by FORBES, that the properties advertised on its platform are owned and / or managed by each owner or administrator, and the rental policies are determined by these partners. "We are strongly advising them to be more flexible in their cancellation policies to reimburse travelers or offer credits so that stays can be rescheduled on new dates at no additional cost."
According to the platform, the vast majority of owners and administrators are showing extremely solidarity with the situation and granting refunds or credits to travelers, given the extreme circumstances. "They will be rewarded by Vrbo in the future, with greater visibility in the listings of their properties and other advantages to be defined soon," said the company.
****
disclosure
Researchers from USP create prototype of a robot that could be used in health units
Six researchers from the Mobile Robotics Laboratory at the Institute of Mathematical and Computer Sciences (ICMC) at USP, in São Carlos, under the command of doctoral student Daniela Ridel, developed the prototype of an autonomous robot whose mission is to support the distribution of medicines and food to sick patients in hospitals. As a result, a decrease in the workload of professionals and a decrease in contact between them and the infected people is expected.
The initiative started two years ago, when Daniela founded the startup 3DSoft. "We have the technical capacity to make this project happen, however, there is a lack of help for the robot to reach the hands of those in need," she explains.
To take the first steps, the startup had the support of the Innovative Research in Small Businesses program (PIPE) and FAPESP, and created a low-cost sensor, appropriate to the national reality. “After the project ended, we decided to develop a service robot for deliveries, which should be ready in the coming months. But, due to the coronavirus scenario, we made a radical change and created the prototype to help healthcare professionals ”, says Patrick Shinzato, one of the startup's co-founders.
Faced with the new challenge, the search is for partners specialized in health, who can help the team better understand the demand of those who are on the front line to fight the coronavirus. Thus, the researchers will be able to assess the need to make some adjustments to the project. “Ideally, a partner would be able to put us in contact with hospitals as well as invest in assembling more robots. As we are all from the computing area, we need people with other skills to present the project to investors and whoever can help us, ”says Daniela.
The researcher estimates that, with all the resources at her disposal, it would take about two months of work to have a functional prototype ready, at the cost of R $ 17,000 (the first version). "On a large scale, that cost would certainly be reduced significantly."
****
Cuidas, a healthech that connects doctors and family nurses to employees and employees of companies, is offering, for the next 30 days, some of its services free of charge for small and medium-sized businesses.
****
Getty Images
MORE
- Sage Brasil announced its new brand in Brazil. The software company bought from the British headquarters last month by the president of the local operation, Jorge Carneiro, is now called ao³. The new company, focused on cloud management, wants to support micro, small and medium-sized companies and incorporates Sage Brasil's portfolio, including the IOB operation, a benchmark in the accounting, tax, tax and labor areas;
- Grupo Movile announced Patrick Hruby as its new CEO. Fabricio Bloisi, co-founder and CEO until then, becomes chairman of the board and will act closely with Hruby and the management team, while maintaining the position of CEO of iFood. Hruby assumes the main leadership position in the organization after spending five months as executive in residence in the group, a period in which he can deepen the operation of all companies - iFood, Wavy, PlayKids, Sympla, Zoop and MovilePay;
- TempoTem, a startup that offers quick solutions in the residential and automotive services segment, has developed a method of disinfecting environments to help contain the transmission of coronavirus. According to the company, the service is carried out through the nebulization or atomization of specific products recommended by WHO to combat the new virus, quaternary ammonia and hypochlorite solutions. The application is made throughout the environment, with a focus on places more likely to spread, such as, for example, door handles or switches. TempoTem says the dwell time of the active virus drops from three days to 30 seconds, depending on the surface. Prices vary according to the footage of the environment. Up to 70 square meters, for example, the service costs R $ 329.90. From 351 to 500 square meters, R $ 859.90.