The Amazon has great potential for the creation and development of new businesses, especially involving socio-biodiversity and innovation. These are the so-called “impact businesses”, which produce a positive socio-environmental effect, developing solutions to local problems by keeping the forest standing and generating wealth for its inhabitants.
However, starting a new business is not always easy, especially in this region, since the logistical and infrastructural challenges and access to knowledge can be enormous. This scenario justifies the importance of initiatives such as business incubators and accelerators installed in the region as they support small businesses with technical and managerial resources and support, to help their formation and growth.
Today, the Amazon has the support of both incubators and accelerators. Some are linked to government institutions and others to the civil society organizations, receiving public funding or funding from private investors.
UNIVERSITY
The Federal University of Pará (UFPA) has created one of the first incubators in the region via the Technology-Based Business Incubator Program (Piebt) [Programa de Incubadora de Empresas de Base Tecnológica]. The initiative, based at the University Campus of Guamá, in Belém, was launched in 1995 to develop businesses related to Amazonian biodiversity. Over time, it has expanded the range of assisted areas.
In almost 30 years of existence, it has supported businesses in mining, energy, manufacturing, software, bioeconomy, pharmaceuticals, and natural products. "The incubator works with any business that aims at innovative products, processes, or services, regardless of the area of knowledge. Biodiversity remains as one of the preferred areas, but business has been expanded to the areas of technology and innovation”, as Iara Neves, coordinator of the initiative, points out. So far, more than 60 companies have been assisted.
CUMARU
Currently, some bioeconomy companies are incubated at UFPA. One of them is Ju Carepa, which develops products based on cumaru seeds. The founder of the company, Juliana Carepa, decided to invest on this regional seed, after an experience with the production of sweets with Amazonian ingredients.
"When I worked with sweets and cookies, the most successful were those made with cumaru. So I started studying the market. I mapped the productive chain in person, I know each producer who supplies me with the seed. They are family farmers and extractivists from Santarém, Mojuí dos Campos, Óbidos, and Oriximiná, in Western Pará”, explains the entrepreneur.
The result is the production of dehydrated cumaru seed, cumaru powder, and cumaru paste, called caramel. "Cumaru is widely used as a substitute for vanilla, because it is extremely sweet-scented, but it also produces many benefits, such as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties”, Juliana details.
According to the businesswoman, working with cumaru guarantees income generation for farming and extractive communities besides fostering preservation. "The extraction of cumaru occurs like this: the fruit falls from the tree; just after that, it is opened and its seed taken out. That means, there is only cumaru extraction with the forest standing. At the same time, we add value to the fruit and seed and encourage the forest to be preserved, because this will be an advantage for the community”, she ponders.
Infrastructure and training offers are constant at UFPA
Juliana Carepa believes that being assisted by the UFPA incubator is essential. “Here, we count on the support of the physical space, trademark registration, and the dialogue with research and innovation”, she explains.
The coordinator of the UFPA incubator, Iara Neves, clarifies that the incubation includes two types of support: the concession of a physical space, within the incubator's headquarters; and a package of services for the strategic development of the business, with managerial, financial, and marketing guidance.
"In addition, a huge advantage is the ‘UFPA seal of approval’. To say that the largest university in Northern Brazil supports a company is powerful. It grants credibility," says the coordinator.
SELECTION
To compete for a position in the UFPA Incubator, the interested company must submit its proposal according to the criteria posed by the call for application. Since 2018, the entry flow has been continuous, which means there is no specific period for opening applications.
Companies just need to submit the idea. A company can increase its score if it solves social and environmental problems. This is one of the main criteria in the competition.
The AMAZ - Impact Accelerator, coordinated by the Institute for Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Amazon (Idesam) [Instituto de Conservação e Desenvolvimento Sustentável da Amazônia], a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in the state of Amazonas, opens annual calls for registration of new businesses, usually open in the first quarter of the year.
NGO stimulates new economy for the region
According to Gabriela Souza, AMAZ's operations manager, the accelerator emerged in 2021 from Idesam's previous experience in accelerating and incubating sociobiodiversity businesses in the Amazon.
"The objective is to encourage impact businesses to create a new economy in the Amazon, from the sustainable use of the forest and focusing on the generation of income for communities. Since the launching of our first fund through the first half of 2024, we have evaluated more than 500 potential businesses, accelerated 17 of them, and invested in 14 impact businesses operating in the region. These businesses support the conservation or restoration of 633,399 hectares of native forest and generate income for more than 750 families,” she details.
Gabriela Souza explains that the accelerator works together with entrepreneurs in the construction, execution, and direction of development strategies. This includes workshops, advice, and mentoring aiming to improve management, commercial, communication, relationship, and investor acquisition strategies.
AMAZ's current portfolio includes 15 businesses in some sectors, such as food products, cosmetics, community-based tourism, forest restoration services, logistics, and crafts.
IMPACT
One of these businesses is the Zeno Nativo, from Acará, in the northeast of Pará, headed by Zeno Gemaque. The company is an expert in commercializing Brazil nuts and native cocoa almonds. It has reached a high development level with the support of AMAZ.
“Upon receiving the financial contribution, we expanded the factory, purchased equipment, and increased the production capacity. We were also assisted in what concerns the strategic track, legal and accounting advice, and contacts. We became more capable of moving forward and increasing our impact on the territory. AMAZ accelerated a process that would take years to achieve,” says Gemaque.
The impact he refers includes not only the purchase of raw materials directly from local communities, but also the stimulation of forest conservation. “We work through partnerships with 250 cocoa and nut producers. Our main contribution was to point out another income alternative within the territory", he says.
According to Gemaque, before the Zeno Nativo, the main source of income in the region was the production of cassava and açaí, with the felling of the forest for monoculture planting.
"Nuts and cocoa were very cheap, I had no one to sell them to. So, we started buying nuts paying a fairer price. With the guaranteed purchase, the producer feels more confident to keep his nut tree standing, because he or she knows the product will be sold for an interesting price. Concerning cocoa, people began to take the seeds of native cocoa trees and replicate them, planting agroforestry. We can only change reality when people realize that keeping the forest standing can be profitable," he says.
FAS supports businesses in conservation units
Another initiative is the Forest Businesses Incubator, based in the state of Amazonas, in the NGO Fundação Amazônia Sustentável (FAS). Created in 2013, it emerged to support community companies in the Rio Negro Sustainable Development Reserve (RDS) [Reserva de Desenvolvimento Sustentável] but currently it serves six different conservation units.
By providing assistance to companies in the managerial, technical, infrastructural, professional qualification, product development, and access to markets and investment areas, the incubator currently supports seven businesses, in segments such as tourism, food, and the production chains of cocoa and pirarucu.
“The support provided has been crucial for small community companies to gain initial stimulus, allowing them to reach maturity, generate income, and improve the quality of life of local residents,” says Wildney Mourão, manager of FAS's Amazon Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Businesses program. About 300 families from traditional communities have already been impacted.
GASTRONOMY
One of these communities is the Três Unidos, belonging to the Kambeba Indigenous people community located in the Rio Negro Environmental Protection Area [Área de Protecão Ambiental do Rio Negro]. Neurilene Cruz, an Indigenous woman from the community, runs the Sumimi restaurant, specialized in regional foods.
“I work with traditional food, pupeca, mojica, which are Indigenous foods, and even specific ones to the Kambeba people, such as fani. I also have regional dishes such as roasted tambaqui and banana or macaxeira peel farofas”, details Neurilene.
According to the businesswoman, the incubator's support was fundamental for the professionalization of services, the improvement of infrastructure, and the expansion of the market vision. “FAS was one of the main NGOs that helped us to have the vision of a restaurant or a hostel, within the community, as something important. We opened our eyes and that created opportunity,” she says. Today, the community is a reference in community-based tourism in the region.
According to Neurilene, the Sumimi restaurant, which receives customers from all over Brazil and other countries, represents the strengthening of its culture and women's empowerment, since all the workers are women. "You are not just showing your talent in cuisine: you are showing your culture, experiences, and customs. You are valuing yourself within the community. It strengthens us every day."
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERSHIP
The production of Liberal Amazon is one of the initiatives of the Technical Cooperation Agreement between the Liberal Group and the Federal University of Pará. The articles involving research from UFPA are revised by professionals from the academy. The translation of the content is also provided by the agreement, through the research project ET-Multi: Translation Studies: multifaces and multisemiotics.
