CISB’s strategic partnership with the Ignite Sweden platform is reaping many rewards in 2020. The Sweden Brazil Startup Week will take place in Brazil as part of the Sweden Brazil Innovation Initiative (SBII) , . The event that would have happened in March was preliminarily postponed to the month of September due to the guidelines of the world health bodies to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Over the months leading up to the event, Swedish startups and a select group of Brazilian corporations will go through an online matchmaking. This virtual approach tends to improve the personal meeting that will take place in the second semester. During the Sweden Brazil Startup Week, CISB and Team Sweden will promote a series of activities for Swedish startups to make the most of their stay in Brazil. Participants will have the opportunity to perform quality networking with countless companies and entities from different industries. It will also be be an opportunity to get to know the Brazilian innovation system, the country’s business culture, and the legal environment. “We are making countless strategic contacts so that the stay of Swedish startups in Brazil is as profitable as possible,” highlights Alessandra Holmo, director of CISB.

Ignite’s leader, Stina Lantz is optimistic about the initiative. “Brazil is an important market for Sweden, and we hope that this initiative will open doors for the large Swedish startups, since the best way for them to internationalize is to always have a first case,” he explains.

The director of CISB predicts that the inclusion of the online matchmaking phase will further expand the business opportunity, and makes her believe that the strategy will be maintained, and why not, expanded, in the next few years. “In including one more step in the (online) match process, this environment will allow corporations to know a larger number of startups than was initially planned in the project,” concludes Alessandra.